Can You feel it
By Mr. Fingers (Larry Heard)
“For such a foundational house staple whose creator dismissively viewed DJing as “just something in [his] skill set,” the irony could not be any greater.”
“Can You Feel It” (1986) - seminal, satirically simple, timelessly vogue - was the acclaimed brainchild of one Larry Heard, a.k.a. Mr. Fingers, and the track lives on today just as it did in the depths of nightclubs responsible for the blooming and blossoming of house music decades ago.
By the waning of the 70s, the status of disco music had cliff-dived from its sensational, drug-fueled high to that of knee-jerk repulsion and disgust.
Rewind to the summer evening of July 12, 1979, in the middle of Chicago, IL. An estimated 60,000 people answered a local DJ’s call to bring vinyl record upon record of disco groove galore to Comiskey Park - where an MLB game was ongoing - and watched as boxes and piles of their donations were literally detonated in what was an unmatched historical spectacle. This was Disco Demolition Night, or more affectionately/unaffectionately, “the night Disco died.”
Disco didn’t die, however; it merely submerged underground and resurfaced in new forms. House was one of them, and it was incarnated in the same city where its predecessor had met its notorious end. Elements of disco were readapted, recycled, and reimagined into Chicago house: funky melodic lines, syncopated basslines, soulful vocals, and an undeniably irresistible groove.
“Can You Feel It” features many of these things, like a headache-inducing four on the floor drum pattern and warm chordal pad textures: elements that would not be out of place on a Patrice Rushen track. The track intros with around 20 seconds of an unadulterated pairing of bass melody and kick drum before the unforgettable synth chords hit like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the air out of the rest of the track - and the listener’s ears. A simple countermelody is interspersed throughout for contrasting effects. Around the exact midpoint of the song, or just under 3 minutes, the beat stops for four defiant measures as if to ready the listener for the second act.
At the same time, also featured are machine gun-style hi-hat garnishes, TR 909 drum machine beats, a variety of Roland Juno synth patches - hallmarks of music in the new period. “Can You Feel It” emphatically checks all the boxes as a hybrid type of song, one that embraces the future without eschewing the musical timeline before it. It also served to advance house music and club culture into the next wavelength, which is an unsurprising coincidence.
“Can You Feel It” was not Larry Heard’s first or last song he ever made. But it is arguably his finest - and most culturally significant. The song’s journey did not stop after release, spawning a couple of bootleg remixes - the one sampling Chuck Roberts vocals from “My House” is infamously popular. In addition, it is one of many house tracks at the center of an unfortunate, ongoing legal battle between Heard and colleague Robert Owens versus their former label Trax Records regarding contract disputes. However, the legacy of Heard’s song remains untarnished. There have been many songs with infinitely more complex arrangements but less than a fraction of the same impact.
