Midnight Girls

 

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"