Second panel in the sublime triptych "Now I Need You / Working the Midnight Shift / Queen for A Day", the continuously mixed song-suite that takes up side 2 of the double album Once Upon A Time. The absolute zenith of the Donna Summer / Giorgio Moroder / Pete Bellote synergy, this shimmering electrodisco captures the lonely beauty of the city - Kraftwerk's "Neon Lights" shot through with the desolation of Burial's "Night Bus".
I'm just a working girl, just earning a living
When the city's waking up, I'm going home
While my friends are all out
They've all gone out dancing
They're out having fun
Working that midnight shift
For that extra little something
The things that are out of my reach
I need so bad
Seems like I'm always leaving
When all the others arrive
My body still carries on
But I'm dying inside
Six years later, Dislocation Dance, Manchester postpunk discofunkish outfit, did this reinterpretation of "Working the Midnight Shift" as "Midnight Shift", the title track of their third and final album. They have brought out a buried implication, or at least possibility latent in the original song: street prostitution.
Thematically this remake could be a fusion of Summer's 1977 "Working the Midnight Shift" and her 1979 smash "Bad Girls"
Or a bridge between Summer's original "Midnight Shift" and her last big hit "She Works Hard for the Money"
