The remedy emerged from Geffen as he arranged for Quincy Jones, one of the most successful African American musical artists and producers at the time, and Donna to conceive an album of the stature of Jackson’s Thriller, also the issue of the legendary Jones. While the album has received its ample share of criticism, both for the production choices Jones made as well as its musical material being “Donna Summer sings Michael Jackson,” it meanders through a variety of musical styles and features an African-American duet with James Ingram, “Mystery of Love,” and was recorded while Donna was pregnant with a second child by Bruce, Amanda Grace. Its more notably industry-recognized tracks, however, include “Protection,” written by Bruce Springsteen when he stayed at Donna’s house in Los Angeles, and “Love is in Control,” both nominated for Best Female Rock Performance and Best Female Pop Performance, respectively, solidly in traditionally white Grammy territory. 

Ironically, “State of Independence,” one of the album’s popular singles, although spiritual in nature, didn’t shine in its celebration of African-American spirituality until it was re-released in 1995 with remixes by Rollo and Sister Bliss including backup from an All Star Choir including Michael Jackson, Dionne Warwick and others, and samples of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech from the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s. The video for the song shows a very pregnant Donna heavily clothed on a winter beach in LA. Only “Unconditional Love” flirted with the issue with its reggae style and backing of youth group “Musical Youth.” Nonetheless, the video for the song is shot in England of all places, and has a racially mixed cast of children who celebrate Donna’s transition from school marm to reggae diva. Perhaps the video was a call for Donna to let her own hair down and celebrate her heritage in the style of the islands. 

Of the same era, Boy George’s “I’ll Tumble for You” was more convincing in its reggae delivery. The Donna Summer album cover featured Donna as definitely African-American, and marked the start of a long partnership with photographer Harry Langdon, who seemed to be able to capture more of Donna’s true natural beauty. (Author’s note: my only question about Donna’s work during this time period is why did she wear that same cheap-looking blue dress in three videos: Love is in Control, The Woman in Me, and She Works Hard for the Money? The final entry in that trio was not even on the same album!). VH-1’s I Love the ‘80s: 1982, includes a particularly humorous segment on “Super Freak” by the late legendary Rick James. As the celebrity commentators talk about the song, one comments about Rick’s coiffure, “..and he had that Donna Summer hair.” The comment is accompanied by a side-by-side montage of the artists…and it is the same hairstyle. Apparently Donna was a style setter still to be imitated. That same year saw the first solo release of another gifted young singer, Caucasian, but whose work was often mistaken as Donna’s.

By this time, the alienation of the gay community had been realized through unconfirmed rumors about Donna’s Christianity leading her to make accusations about AIDS and God’s intention with those who had the disease during post-concert prayer sessions that she led. With two large demographic groups now shunning her dance floor reign, and the lost confidence of her new label’s gay boss, Donna’s career was adrift and in need of a booster shot. In fulfilling the terms of her settlement with Casablanca Records, Donna recorded a phenomenal hit single and comeback album of the same name “She Works Hard for the Money.” The title track celebrated the lives of working women everywhere, being penned in the ladies room at the famed Chasen’s in West Hollywood on toilet paper about an African American restroom attendant. 

For a brief period, it looked like Donna was back on track to regaining her lost momentum; even the bitterest queens I’ve ever known loved the new dance hit and it received a lot of club airplay in the summer of 1983. The back cover art featured images of working African American women in waitress garb. The image appealed to a large number of gay listeners who also worked seemingly thankless service industry jobs. There was also a double entendre about the song. Without seeing the accompanying cover art or knowing the song’s origins, the words can evoke images of prostitution, surely not Donna’s intention. 

I recall that most of us originally thought our good girl had gone bad girl once again. The video, however, highlights a Caucasian woman working multiple jobs to make ends meet for her children as the original Neil-Bogart-vision Donna watches on from outside the real world, coiffed, made up, and sporting designer sunglasses as she effortlessly extols the Caucasian woman’s right to be treated with dignity and respect by those who patronize her services. The song was so popular that it garnered a Grammy nomination and Donna performed it live at the ceremony in 1984 to thunderous applause. During her tour in the summer of 1983, captured on videotape, “A Hot Summer Night,” Donna tells the audience from the stage “I might be chocolate, but I don’t like the heat!” Donna’s sisters Mary Ellen and Dara give a campy stage performance in an argument laced with urban references and language and fashion ignorance until Donna breaks it up and leaves no doubt in the minds of her audience who is the real Diva. 

Another track on the album again took the daring route and featured admiration for life in Asia. Unlike “Grand Illusion” which could have been dismissed as being part of the punk rock themes of the earliest ‘80s which included such hits as “Turning Japanese” by Devo, “Tokyo” was far too late into the decade to be included as part of the fad. Perhaps Donna was seeking to build her fan base in Japan to offset the decline in her fan base in the US resulting from the never-ending African American community rejection, the loss (through death and through alienation) of her gay audience, and the continuing decline of dance music. 

		The dance music genre had nearly disappeared with the exception of a prodigious gay underground music scene, which included such mega hits as “Gloria” by Laura Branigan and “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls. The latter was written by Donna’s close friend Paul Jabara and had been offered to Donna, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, who had all turned it down. The Weather Girls delivered it in true gospel diva fashion complete with mm-hmms and testifying galore. While the Girls enjoyed enormous success after emerging from the shadows of Sylvester’s disco caftans, it would still be interesting to hear Donna deliver the same arrangement.
Al Roker had nothin’ on these girls

The religious offering from the “She Works” album, “He’s a Rebel,” unexpectedly garnered Donna’s third Grammy and her first in the Christian Recording category, but leaned more towards her Springsteen collaboration than towards her gospel roots. The album was a hit, and so was Donna’s new collaboration with Michael Omartian. Donna performed “Livin’ in America” live at President Reagan’s second inaugural gala in 1984—to a crowd of mostly white Republicans and for a President not particularly known for his advances in the area of civil rights and equality. The pre-hip hop beat and the crowd played for were at least in juxtaposition to each other.

A follow-up for Geffen fell far short of “She Works” levels of success. “Cats Without Claws,” while critically acclaimed at the time, is now so forgotten that it is out of print. Many blame its lack of commercial success on a perceived spiritual tone. While some of the songs could be creatively interpreted as being about faith, there are enough parts of them to let the enlightened listener know that the love Donna sings about in most of the tracks is worldly, and not other-worldly. 

Every track on the album has Donna reaching for new ground, and only its final cut, “Forgive Me” earned notice from the musical community in the form of Donna’s fourth Grammy, again for Christian Recording. The song, written by Rita Rambo, is one of her most beautiful, and would have set the stage for a wider audience amongst Contemporary Christian music lovers. Not wanting to follow in Candi Staton’s footsteps, Donna did not shun her secular music endeavors nor her audience, although there was not much left of it by this point due to the absence of dance-floor-oriented tracks of either gay or R&B appeal. 

I often wonder if at this point that Donna ever regretted her discontinuation of her work with Moroder, as his career was careening off the charts with “Metropolis,” “Electric Dreams,” and other soundtracks making him a very wealthy man in 1984 while Donna struggled to get airplay. The album’s first single, “Supernatural Love” continued the interracial theme as Donna is pursued through a jungle and into a ballroom by a loincloth-clad Bruce. The second single, “There Goes My Baby” performed better on the charts, but the chart was the Adult Contemporary chart. A highly unbelievable theme for the video featured a WWII era Donna in an interracial marriage (again with Bruce) and the problems and loneliness associated with economic tough times and the enlistment of so many men of the time. The theme was not as convincing as earlier 40s scenarios where Donna came off looking more like Lena Horne, such as her “My Man Medley” from her TV Special of 1980 or the “I Remember Yesterday” concept album. 

Interestingly, a 1990s made-for-TV movie about the early years of singer Madonna’s career features a scene where “Madonna” imitates Donna in the My Man 40s medley, strolling from table to table in a Parisian nightclub. Not content with following in the Diva’s footsteps, Madonna interrupts the performance and tells her manager backstage “I don’t want to be the next Donna Summer.” That, in fact, was prophetic. In many ways Madonna is more than Donna Summer—her success, her ability to continually and profitably reinvent herself, and her rise to power and creative control within the music industry, garnering her own label “Maverick” from parent Warner Brothers as part of the deal. And conversely, Madonna is not the next Donna Summer in that she is not as accomplished a songwriter, or as much of a class act as she continues to shock audiences by pushing the envelope (there’s quite a difference between LTLYB and Madonna’s coffee table book). She also lacks the vocal chops to be considered in Donna’s league. I love them both.

		The next album showed a happy Donna appearing African American in her videos “All Systems Go” and “Dinner With Gershwin.” The cover however, features what Joe calls Dynasty Donna, an allusion to the popular TV show of the time “Dynasty.” Publicity stills related to the album theme feature long flowing hair and make up that would make Michael Jackson jealous. Beautiful, yes, adding to the fuel? Surely.  Much as I would do the same, in 1989, Donna released the superb “Another Place and Time” concept album with Stock, Aitken, Waterman in England. Perhaps as a reference to the London recording venue, the cover of the album features Donna in Elizabethan collar and pancake makeup.
Ready to run ColbyCo as Dynasty Donna

Despite the Whitney-esque back cover and terrific music contained in the album, Arsenio Hall even asked Donna what she was doing on his show in 1990 by appearing as “white” on the album cover. Certainly a spokesperson for African American audiences everywhere in his popularity and unabashed originality, Arsenio said, “You know, a lot of people sayin’: Donna Summer white! Why’d you do that?” To which Donna replied confidently, “Because I can.” Oh. 

One of the lost videos for the single never released “When Love Takes Over You,” shows Donna flirting with and being chased by an African-American paramour in a garden. Bootleg copies of the video have circulated in recent years and the credits indicate that it was produced by Donna Summer and Bruce Sudano. I think by this time Donna had just about had enough of everyone criticizing her every move, creative choices, and had just decided to live her life the way she wanted to, but not without one more grand statement.

Fulfilling the second album of her contract with Atlantic Records, Donna released an even more controversial cover on her album “Mistaken Identity.” While there is a title track about a woman wrongly accused of murder due to mistaken identity, there is more of a message in the title and the photography than was initially realized. Donna was saying “you have and have had me wrong all along.” The album is chock full of some of the best R&B pop music of the early nineties, and was ahead of its time in some respects and musical workings. While “Fred Astaire” starts out like another “I Remember Yesterday” or “There Goes…” piece of memorabilia, it quickly transforms into a house- and funk-oriented dance floor groover, as worthy of Crystal Waters as of Chaka Khan. “What is It You Want” follows suit with Donna mocking political claims of the Good Ole Boy network and getting pretty soulful.
		Do Blondes have more fun?

“Get Ethnic” is about as far as she takes it and essentially tells everyone to enjoy his/her ‘blackness.’ Even the closing track “Let There Be Peace,” in all its spiritual overtones, comes across as a Deep South gospel barnstormer. The album thanks Donna’s “Friends Unknown” and the track is almost a swan song as it was the last full-length album of new material that Donna produced and we have not seen another in 13 years since. It seems that the statement was “Take this.” 

The album was a sales flop and is relegated to the dark recesses of out of print now. Donna gave us what we asked for and we didn’t even buy it then. Should we be sorry that so many listeners treated Donna so poorly over the years? It would seem so. While we still get to see and hear Donna from time to time over the next ten years, it’s just never enough. As Judy Collins once wrote (and Janet Jackson magically covered 30 years later) “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?” Amen, Judy and Janet.

Thankfully, Donna has not deserted us, throwing us tidbits of new material throughout the past decade. However, as the racial divide in America has started to finally subside, as well as the stigmatization of sexual minorities, the issues have faded out of view nearly as well. Nobody seems to mind when she performs “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” Patti Lupone’s theme song, atop a hastily assembled replica of La Casa Rosada (which actually looks more like a Beverly Hills neo-McMansion set with its white columns). Her collaborations have still largely been with white artists, namely Liza Minelli, Nancy Griffith, Bruce Roberts (her long time gay friend and collaborator since the ‘70s) and West Life, but Donna does throw us a rap interlude on “That’s the Way It Is.” That little gem is also a nod to her former First Lady of Love days: “I wanna love ya baby like you know I wanna wanna. I wanna love you baby like you know I’m Donna Summer.” 

From her own statements, Donna is once again teaming up with Giorgio Moroder, proving that the combination was right from the start and cannot be beaten since. Her children grown, Donna is beautifully happy with herself, her family, and her talents. Brooklyn Sudano is a successful actress and possesses the gifts of Bruce’s eyes and Donna’s early 20s slender figure and grace. She is a stunningly exquisite young woman with the charm, style, and goodhearted nature to match, the consummation and incarnation of polar opposites of days gone by, black and white.

How sad it is that American society and civilization allowed its dysfunction to shape its opinions of such a brilliant talent. As I’ve always said, when you are at the top, the crows pick at you first. Donna was definitely at the top and was presented with extraordinary obstacles to her success by those who should have supported her most.

As the sea voyage that I am on has revealed, the shades of gray that surrounded us throughout most of our time afloat yields, upon closer inspection, and upon taking the time to investigate what is really at each port, that there is a world of full spectrum color to be enjoyed. In doing so, life is more worth living. Another victim of the same public scrutiny, Michael Jackson, said it well, “it don’t matter if you’re black or white.”

		The singer referenced in 1982 who burst onto the scene was the superb Laura Branigan. Her song Gloria also became an instant classic and in file sharing services it can often be found attributed to Donna Summer. Sadly, Laura passed away unexpectedly in August 2004. In Laura’s obituary in the August 30, 2004, Los Angeles Times, the writer assigns Laura’s fate as successful but not megastar to the fact that “she sounded too much like Donna Summer.” Although Laura was a grand talent and success in her own right, a greater compliment one could not give.
My memory of Laura in concert

This article is dedicated to the memory of:

Rick James 1948-2004
Laura Branigan, 1957-2004
Izora Rhodes Armstead, 1942?-2004

…all who were class acts and affected this article,

And…

David H. Johnson, 1961-1995
My friend, who loved all of the above and danced with me until we dropped. “Ti Amo.”

You can’t, but you did.

David Thornton

back to FOREVER DONNA'S CHEST