Sylvester – Step II, Disco Ball Clear Glitter Vinyl LP

Sylvester – Step II, Disco Ball Clear Glitter Vinyl LP

Step One: be comfortable with who you are. Step Two: show the world how to follow suit. That’s exactly what Sylvester did with Step II, released at the height of the disco craze in 1978. Catch him on TV and you’d see a towering figure with an angelic voice and androgynous flamboyance, singing songs that channeled the hedonism of New York City’s Studio 54, but which carried a deeper significance for an LGBTQ+ audience which was finally – though not unreservedly – finding acceptance in the mainstream.

Amazingly, Sylvester originally envisioned himself as a singer in the blues/R&B tradition, but by the time he put his gospel-inflected vocals to “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” there was no turning back: from here on out, he would be the “Queen Of Disco,” and the epochal track – whose influence arguably outweighs even Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” by sheer force of Sylvester’s personality and what he represented – crowned him the figurehead for a social and sexual enlightenment right at the time when the world needed one. 

Though Sylvester had released three albums before Step II, to the fans who sent that record into the Top 10 of the Billboard Soul LPs chart, the singer appeared as if out of nowhere. “Mighty Real” was the calling card: not only conjuring the white-hot thrill of intimacy on record, it acknowledged what some listeners had long been told was taboo – it doesn’t matter who you’re with, the right connection can be a vitalizing life force. If “Dance (Disco Heat)” keeps the four-to-the-floor euphoria burning, the remainder of Step II also makes room for introspection, letting fans know that, whether they suffered heartbreak, self-doubt or disapproval from the outside world, here was an artist who could speak not only to them, but for them. In doing so, Sylvester ultimately helped them find their own voices.

Step Three? Nothing short of a cultural revolution.

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