Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out" trombone solo!

[AndrewMeronek]

Surprised today in the store noting idly some solid funk in the background music, and then lo and behold, a trombone solo!!! I'm guessing due to the lyrics that this might have been a gay pride song at some point? Regardless, this has a fun funk groove. Solid.

[JLivi]

This song is one of my favorites to play. Awesome horn line too!

Growing up, "mo money mo problems" was an anthem. So I was exposed to this song before I even knew it.

[kenkugler]

Meco Monardo - Trombone Solo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Coming_Out

[robcat2075]

Meco Monardo - Trombone Solo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Coming_Out

So... Diana Ross hated it.

[AndrewMeronek]

So... Diana Ross hated it.

Not sure how much of that is actually true. The soap opera about her not being happy about the gay referencing only points to another Wikipedia page, not any kind of source, i.e., not the actual BBC 4 episode. Probably, a lot is fabricated due to idiots wanting attention and narcissising (i.e., trolling) over a hot-button topic at the time.

[Doug Elliott]

What it ACTUALLY says is that she hated the album (not the song or the trombone solo), because Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers, who produced it, made it sound like their own band Chic.

Weeks went by when I heard through the grapevine that Diana Ross was incredibly unhappy with the album. She thought Nile and Bernard made her sound like Chic. She took the master tapes from Power Station and went to Motown in Detroit to remix the record. When it came out, her early interviews were very unenthusiastic about it and Nile and Bernard, her producers. Well, as we all know, this turned out to be her biggest-selling solo album ever.

[Bach5G]

I am listening to Chic right now. I’m no expert but it sounds like Bernard Edwards was seriously under appreciated.

[robcat2075]

Yup, she ACTUALLY loved that trombone solo so much she cut the guy's credit from the album.

With love like that...

[robcat2075]

ok, HERE is where I have heard that song before.

Sheltered me, I had no awareness of it before this commercial...

[AndrewMeronek]

I have two criticisms which have nothing to do with the trombone or the arrangement:

It sounds over-engineered. Maybe that's some of what the "sounds like Chic" thing is? It's an unfortunate trend in tons of pop music that continues today.

As far as I know, none of the songwriters or Diana are actually gay, making the lyrics a pretty shameless cash grab.

[robcat2075]

I was around in 1980.

Aside from The Village People I'm not sure anyone was thinking "gay" was a big cash-rich niche to mine yet.

[hyperbolica]

As far as I know, none of the songwriters or Diana are actually gay, making the lyrics a pretty shameless cash grab.

"Coming Out" in the 80s still had that victorian connotation of young women being introduced to society. The gay connotation came later and was shortened from "coming out of the closet". Queen was a pretty big thing in the 80s, Elton John, David Bowie...

[AndrewMeronek]

"Coming Out" in the 80s still had that victorian connotation of young women being introduced to society.

Ooooh, is that what that weird commercial with the singing navels was supposed to be about?

[robcat2075]

"Coming Out" in the 80s still had that victorian connotation of young women being introduced to society.

Ooooh, is that what that weird commercial with the singing navels was supposed to be about?

It better be. I don't think America is ready for gay navels.

[greenbean]

I was around in 1980.

Aside from The Village People I'm not sure anyone was thinking "gay" was a big cash-rich niche to mine yet.

Are you at all familiar with the 1970's?...

[robcat2075]

Are you at all familiar with the 1970's?...

Not all of them, just the ten from 1970-1979!

[elmsandr]

On very much a tangent... I happened to meet her sister this weekend. Dr Ross-Lee was the Grand Marshall for Michigan State's homecoming. I guess some families just have potential.

https://alumni.msu.edu/stay-informed/al ... y-together

Cheers,
Andy

[bellend]

Here's another bit of Meco which is the on the 'B' side of his biggest hit LP .
Funky snare drums with a horn section?? but it works
Short tbn solo at 9.35 ish with a nod to Urbie on the last against the grain lick?


BellEnd

[PaulTdot]

Interesting! I hear the Urbie in that.

Seems like he ends both solos with an upward rip. Perhaps a trademark of his?

[Joebone]

Lot's of data on the Internet. As the Chic crew were wrapping the record up, Ms. Ross wasn't happy about the Chic-ness of the album. Moreover, Nile Rodgers is on record stating that the inspiration for the song came from seeing a lot of Diana impersonators in a transvestite bar, but that he soft-pedaled the gay angle in talking the song through with her. Anyhow, two monster hits - "Coming Out" and "Upside Down," and Rodgers was positioned for a hot run producing records for Madonna, David Bowie, Duran Duran, etc. etc. Full disclosure - I'm a huge fan of Rodgers' writing and rhythm guitar approach, and of Bernard Edwards's exceptional bass concept. Finally - the Meco angle. If I have this right, he was an Eastman grad who had edged toward the business side of the music industry, but Rodgers knew him, had him gather the horn section for the album sessions, and spontaneously offered Meco the solo. Irony - while erranding today in my local supermarket, this came over the muzak system...so I figure it's karma to represent and join this thread...

[ithinknot]

from http://www.disco-disco.com/tributes/meco.shtml :

Yes, let's take the Diana Ross situation right now.
"So, I lived in New York on 62nd and Columbus, right next to the Lincoln Center. And so did many other famous people in that building, it was a brand new building and it was a very great location. Among the famous people in my building was a guy named Nile Rodgers, as you know who he is! And the first thing to connect me and him was that he did all his work at Power Station. So I would see him all the time there and I thought we became sort of friends. And then one day I'm walking through the park, a beautiful day in Central Park and I see this incredible looking woman and she's roller-skating up front. So I run up there, I tried to be cool and tried to be hip and stuff. We started talking and it turns out that I told her where I lived and she said 'OH, I know somebody in that building.' And I said 'Who?' and she said 'Nile Rodgers. He is my ex-boyfriend.' So it was Nile's ex-girlfriend and she then became my live-in girlfriend through many many years. So that's how in the first place I'm connected with Nile. So, that was way back in I guess - '79-'78 something.
So, flash forward to 1980 and Nile had Chic, he have had all these hits. He had more big records than me and I had Star Wars of course and the Empire Strikes Back was coming out. And I wanted to do something different, I didn't want to repeat the same style of music I was doing so I wanted to bring somebody else on board and who better than Nile Rodgers?! With his great group and his great rhythm section I could imagine the Harold Wheeler's arrangements, my view on how I look at things, Nile's band playing - Oh my God, it would have been wonderful wonderful stuff. So I approached him and he said he couldn't do it because he was working with this no name singer named Diana Ross." Hahaha! [Both laughing] "So I said; 'Alright, alright - you got to do Diana Ross - it's Diana Ross.' So he said 'Why don't you play for me?' I said 'You know I've retired, I don't play trombone any more and I haven't played trombone except to fix up some parts on my own records. Or play solo in my own records, for three years or so.' And he says 'The horn section I've been using, I'm just not happy with them. They don't play like your horn section does.' And I said 'Well, hire my horn section, without me.' He said 'No, no. I got to have you.' So anyway, he talked me into it and I got him the horn section and we, the horn section and I, did all the playing for the Diana Ross album. Of course you know the story 'bout the solo, how we did four takes. Do you know the story how we did four takes?"
No, I can't say I do.
"Oh, I'm sorry. So, we did all the songs actually - the horn section - and it was really good. Nile did the arrangements, I did not do the arrangements, we just played - but they were wonderful to play. When it was all done and I was packing my horn ready to go, Nile says 'Wait! One more thing. I want you to play solo on one thing.' I said to myself 'OK. Nile probably wants to do one of the ballads, play something pretty.' And he puts "I'm coming out" on. I said 'You want me to play a solo on this? What kind of solo?' He says 'A Jazz solo.' I said 'Get out of here, Nile. If you put Jazz on here, people will turn your record off. Nobody cares about Jazz, Jazz is a thing of the past.' But Nile said 'Trust me, try it!' So we get to the section where he wants the solo and I start playing and the first take is pretty terrible. And then we do a couple of more terrible takes and he says 'Let me start taping them.' So, we took take one and it was pretty good and then we did four takes in total. Four different versions of Meco playing four different times since we had multi-tracks that we could do that on. And among those four takes is one wonderful take if we took pieces of this and pieces of that. So that what's he was gonna do later in what they call - 'the mix'. So in those days it was 24 tracks and so he had four tracks of Meco that he could pick one track of. And we were very happy with the result.
Then the story goes as you know that Diana Ross hated the album - she absolutely hated it - and took the album and took everything and went back to Detroit to mix it there. And she was so angry she'd left all the names off of all the musicians in the studio and everything. The only names she left on there was the production names of Nile and his partner. So, the story comes back to me after I hear the record and I go back to Nile, I say 'That's not the solo we would have done.' He says 'No.' What happened was - the engineer when he looked at the four tracks and Diana Ross heard, it says you know 'Meco 1', 'Meco 2', 'Meco 3' & 'Meco 4'. He took 'Meco 1' thinking that that was the best one. So instead of combine the four and making it a great great solo he just took the first version that I did. Which is a good solo, but it has a few little mistakes and things in it. So I never got to hear, ever, the really good one that I did and it turns out it was a Top Ten record and again it's probably the only real Jazz solo in a Pop Top Ten record in the last 50 years. And unfortunately it's not the one Nile and I most wanted. But as you know, I believe, they've made up since then."
Yes, he has worked with her afterwards.
"Yes, he's a conductor on her tour. And that's good to know that. Yeah."

[robcat2075]

What was the result of the Diana Ross remix? Do we know what changed?

If she didn't like it sounding like Chic and yet it still sounds like Chic...

[Bach5G]

Pretty hard not to sound like Chic with Rogers and Edwards producing. I wonder what she expected?

[robcat2075]

I'm surprised there wasn't a union rule that would have kept everyone's name on somewhere, if only on the sleeve.

[Joebone]

Hmm..if you check out the credits crawl on a theatrical motion picture, why are you seeing the best boys, grips, electricians, caterers, and production accountants, but not the musicians?

[robcat2075]

Hmm..if you check out the credits crawl on a theatrical motion picture, why are you seeing the best boys, grips, electricians, caterers, and production accountants, but not the musicians?

Weak unions...

Why Aren’t Orchestra Musicians Listed In Movie Credits?


I asked one of my animation teachers why, on an animation-heavy picture like "Incredible Hulk", the animators were listed after the caterers in the credits.

He said, "well, there's this union thing..."