“Welcome to Our World (Of Merry Music)” (1976) – Mass Production * Written by Tyrone Williams * 45: “Welcome to Our World (Of Merry Music)” / “Just a Song” * LP: Welcome to Our World * Produced by Ed A. Ellerbe * Label: Cotillion * Billboard: #68 (Hot 100); #32 (Soul)
This high-grade disco track presents even more semiotic genre-consciousness than anything by Chic, whose first album it barely predates. The group’s dance floor world functions as a utopia where everybody “lends a helping hand” and “lives in harmony,” but their choices of “merry” for the song title’s adjective and “Mass Production” for their own name acknowledge blissed-out excess. The single edit is an explosive four minutes showcasing Kevin “D’No” Douglass’s fluid bass and songwriter Tyrone Williams’s clavinet.