1 December 2016, No. 218, Rose Royce, ‘It Makes You Feel Like Dancin’’

Mixtape 8 in the series is chop-chop paste-pasting right along, and as I predicted, the mixtape production has outpaced the writing, which means I’ll need to write more often and adhere rigidly to the order I establish with the tapes. Ideally I’ll get into the daily routines of both writing about a song and adding it to the going mixtape, but in truth I think that would be more encumbrance than recreation, a fate that befalls anything enjoyable when practiced too religiously.

Or when played too often. I’ve got No. 218, Rose Royce’s “It Makes You Feel Like Dancin’,” running on a loop, and it’s less appealing each time. It doesn’t help that I’m looping the two-minute edit from the mixtape. Don’t let this detract from your willingness to give a listen. You don’t have to listen to the same snippet over and over unless you want to. If you do, I suggest choosing the synth solo. Listen to the effect of that LFO.

Another reason this song makes the list is that it announces the name of the group. “The group you’re hearing in the background is Rose Royce, Rose Royce.” This is especially useful in the sea of funk that is a WGRS mixtape. But then the guy announces that Rose Royce is “the people’s choice,” confusing because there’s another funk/disco group called People’s Choice. I thought I had a People’s Choice record, but I was thinking of First Choice, whom I always confuse with First Circle, which brings to mind both Third World and Inner Circle. That’s usually where the train of associations stops, except sometimes Inner Life and Inner City compose a little disco/house mashup caboose.

Rose Royce is certainly best known for “Car Wash” from the soundtrack of the film of the same name, but that song doesn’t make it onto the list. Pure oversight on my part, plus which I didn’t own a copy of that soundtrack until recently. I’ll add the title cut, with its infectious clap-clap clap clap, to the next list.

No. 218 makes you feel like dancing. Don’t it feel good to feel the funk? Come on, come on, shake your rump.