David Berthy Posts

One way to terrify yourself in time for Halloween is to listen to the song "Disco Stress," by German pop star Udo Jurgens (for the sake of your sanity, you probably don't want to listen more than once). One can presume from the title of the album the track comes from--Udo 80--that this was an effort by the aging Jurgens to reserve one of the last seats on the disco bandwagon. I found "Disco Stress" (or maybe "Disco Stress" found me) at the ever-mysterious Salvation Army on Grand, and I've been unable to rid it from my life ever since. Maybe it's Udo's piercing disco scream around the 2:06 mark of the track. It could be the breakdown where, like some sort of bizarro German James Brown, Jurgens calls out each instrument for an ill-advised solo turn. Or maybe it's the Buck Rogers laser zaps that accompany the chorus. Actually, the sad truth is that I'd hold onto Udo 80 for all my days just to hear Jurgens sigh, "Schtresss...." at the conclusion of "Disco Stress." Download at your own peril.

Disco Stress