Why Stephen King got into arguments over disco music
When novelist Stephen King sat down with the BBC 6 radio programme ‘Paperback Writers’ in 2015, he brought an eclectic list of favourite songs with him. Everyone from doo-wop group Danny and the Juniors to early rock and roll icons like The Searchers got shoutouts. Even though the programme itself was named after The Beatles song of the same name, King planted his flag with the Fab Four’s main rivals, The Rolling Stones.
“One of the questions that defines a person is … ‘is it Beatles or Stones?’” King claimed in the interview. His answer was The Rolling Stones, given that he included the band’s 1974 It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll track ‘Dance Little Sister’ on his list. King stuck with the Stones all the way through their disco era in the late 1970s with albums like Some Girls and Emotional Rescue, causing him to get exposed to the genre and take a liking to it.
To show his appreciation, King also included ‘That’s the Way I Like It’ by disco pioneers KC & the Sunshine Band as one of his favourites. On a list that remained largely rock-based, the disco flavours of ‘That’s the Way I Like It’ were an entirely different feeling altogether. The image of seeing Stephen King bust a move at a discotheque might sound a little far-fetched, but based on his musical choices, there’s at least a small chance that it might have actually happened. According to King himself, his fandom of disco caused some friction with his friends that were disco haters.
“I got into a lot of arguments in the 70s with rock purists who absolutely hated disco,” Kind said. “I thought to myself, ‘If people hate me and if they want to downgrade my musical taste, I’ll just have to live with that and cry hot tears of shame on my pillow.’ If I had more time here, I’d have put on one of the Bee Gees disco songs, but that’s another story.”
Elsewhere on the list, King also included AC/DC’s ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ from the 200 albums of the same name. “AC/DC are the best rock and blues band of all time,” Kind said of the Australian rockers. King also shared his “crazy idea” for writing a musical with John Cougar Mellencamp. The production never happened, but King did include Mellencamp’s heartland anthem ‘Pink Houses’ on his list to fondly remembered what could have been.
