And to your right you'll see a big cock.

Gret shots. Loved the one of Burroughs looking a bit out of place.

Rap's relationship to Disco is similar to Jungle's relationship to House.

kraftwerk are the link between disco and house i suppose
a lot of early hiphop records are just rappers rhyming over disco beats, see sugar hill gang, kurtis blow etc, pretty much anything pre Run DMC bears a heavy resemblence to disco

anyway, hold tight the Donna Summer crew!

"More insightful?" Hmmm....don't know about that choice of wording, but Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band's "A Fifth of Beethoven" is nifty. Wallter Murphy went to the Manhattan School of Music. So did Regina Spektor, Donald Byrd, Max Roach, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter. Donna Summer has the ultra-sexual "Love to Love You Baby" (the rumor has always been that she was really getting fucked) and of course there were the Brothers Gibb, The Trampps, and so on.

Sometimes the older gang and I will put on the "classic disco" station (and other digital music channels) in another room and then see who can name song and artist first.

I heard a 12" called "I'm a Man" by Macho when I was working at the record store that was pretty fucking great. I also heard a fairly ruling disco version of "In A Gadda Da Vida" at that time, but I can't remember who did it.

I agree, not insightful as such. I only really thought that was the case with the Donna Summer album I mentioned. And even then...

It was by Disco Circus.

I'm getting older and disco seems less insightful than ever before.

My disco faves are probably the Rolling Stones/Grateful Dead/Kraftwerk versions of disco stylization, and the funky disco dance numbers by The Gap Band and Kool & The Gang.

Of course, Blondie's "Heart of Glass" from '78 and "Pop Muzik" by M (formerly a punk band) from '79 are two biggies that were equal parts new wave and disco that each really helped to usher in new wave; in '80 there was the soundtrack hit, "Call Me" by Blondie also.
By '81, Soft Cell's smash hit cover (#1 in seventeen countries) of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" had sealed the deal and defined new wave as more of a synthpop affair...which, no doubt, made Ben Orr of The Cars happy hehe, the rest of the band and their fans, not so much.

Anything disco always feels to me like there's a pane of glass between me and the song/performer. I can see and hear it, and much I even like, but I can't really connect.

An exception: James Chance. But I'm not sure that's disco strictly.