You started this fire down in my soul

Last week, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra achieved a key performing goal — putting bums in seats — with three consecutive Winter Pops concerts at the Arts & Culture Centre in St. John’s.

It was 70s night. Cynically, I’m tempted to say it described the audience … but I’m going to park the cynicism, even though, well, I’m not wrong. (I felt like I was in the younger part of the demographic, honest.)

Powerhouse singer Dana Parsons was at the mic for many of these tunes, including the Thelma Houston barnburner that opened the show.

Personally, I thought Don’t Leave Me This Way could easily have closed the show; I’ve been at enough weddings and karaoke nights to know what that groove can do once people relax and loosen up a bit.

Originally released by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (that was a young Teddy Pendergrass singing), it got the definitive treatment a couple of years later with Houston. She won a Grammy for it.

Above is the album version, with a corker of a bass line. My friend Frank Fusari, the principal bassist at the NSO, was on electric bass for these shows, and let’s say he found his groove.

In the Eighties, Jimmy Somerville reinvented Don’t Leave Me This Way with The Communards, the duo the former Bronski Beat frontman formed with future reverend and quiz panel mainstay Richard Coles. They brought in Sarah Jane Morris to duet with Somerville, with her bluesy, deep voice making for a fantastic counterpoint to Somerville’s falsetto.

Their hit was so massive for so long in the U.K., the two of them once lip-synched each other’s parts on Top of the Pops, I guess to keep things interesting singing along to a track, as was the show’s preference.

Here’s one of their more conventional appearances:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh … baby.

Thanks to Dana Parsons and the others for a really fun night at the NSO, celebrating that decade of beige and purple, 8-track tapes and floor-to-ceiling speakers, stucco ceilings and disco balls. I remembered all of those tunes.