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Patrick Cowley
Real Name:
Patrick Joseph Cowley
Profile:
Patrick Joseph Cowley (October 19, 1950 - November 12, 1982) was a San Francisco-based musician and record producer credited as an early pioneer of electronic dance music, most notably in HI-NRG and experimental genres.
Cowley grew up in upstate New York where he worked in local rock bands and eventually studied English at the University of Buffalo. After moving to the Bay Area he began an intense study of the synthesizer at San Francisco City College.
Cowley's recording career began when he was asked to join San Francisco-based artist, Sylvester, in the studio after Sylvester heard what Cowley was doing with the synthesizer and was excited by his innovative techniques. The result was the album "Step II" which skyrocketed Sylvester to international notoriety. The album landed Cowley a job as a back-up musician on Sylvester's subsequent world-wide tour.
Cowley remained close to the San Francisco club scene and eventually joined forces with producer Marty Blecman to form Megatone Records in the summer of 1981. Under auspices of their partnership Cowley created a successful dance-oriented 12" single that opened the doors for his award-winning "Megatron Man" LP.
While writing the music for his latest album, he also wrote and produced the successful dance single "Right on Target" for San Francisco artist Paul Parker which reached #1 on Billboard's Disco Charts. He reunited with Sylvester during the same period and produced the chart-busting "Do You Wanna Funk", also on the Megatone label.
Patrick Cowley died of complications due to AIDS in 1982.
Cowley grew up in upstate New York where he worked in local rock bands and eventually studied English at the University of Buffalo. After moving to the Bay Area he began an intense study of the synthesizer at San Francisco City College.
Cowley's recording career began when he was asked to join San Francisco-based artist, Sylvester, in the studio after Sylvester heard what Cowley was doing with the synthesizer and was excited by his innovative techniques. The result was the album "Step II" which skyrocketed Sylvester to international notoriety. The album landed Cowley a job as a back-up musician on Sylvester's subsequent world-wide tour.
Cowley remained close to the San Francisco club scene and eventually joined forces with producer Marty Blecman to form Megatone Records in the summer of 1981. Under auspices of their partnership Cowley created a successful dance-oriented 12" single that opened the doors for his award-winning "Megatron Man" LP.
While writing the music for his latest album, he also wrote and produced the successful dance single "Right on Target" for San Francisco artist Paul Parker which reached #1 on Billboard's Disco Charts. He reunited with Sylvester during the same period and produced the chart-busting "Do You Wanna Funk", also on the Megatone label.
Patrick Cowley died of complications due to AIDS in 1982.
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Patrick Cowley
Marketplace 15,036 For Sale
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Reviews Show All 11 Reviews
sleptsov
March 27, 2020
If I was asked who is the best electronic musician in the world, I would answer that it is Patrick Cowley. A genius who anticipated all electronic music, with all its styles and varieties. I listen to all his albums and get goosebumps from each of them. The most underrated electronic musician, the pioneer of electronics, the one who could have been a real star in the 80's and 90's.Words are not enough to describe the emotions that I feel listening to his innovative and BRILLIANT music.
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Bourbonman
February 1, 2020
It is crazy that so much of his stuff is coming out that has been gathering dust (Dark Entries). The man has been gone for almost 40 years and he still blow people´s minds..
Bring it on.
Bring it on.
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deep_honey
April 29, 2019
Dark Entries is preparing a fourth compilation of unreleased works, to be released in the coming months. Stay tuned...
esacnitsuj
January 9, 2011
edited over 10 years ago
BTW. And this is so very true. I look like a tall version of Patrick Cowley. My hair grows like his, same color & used to be blonde when younger. I have the same facial features, eyes, moustache, etc.
I have a pic of myself underneath Patrick Cowley posed as he was & you'd swear we were twins, only I'm 6' 4" tall! :-)
I've had people in NYC & other places think I was him, but that's when I was younger (20's - 30's) I'm 47 now & still do look like him or what he would look like at my age.R.I.P. my dear twin brother Patrick ;-)
Patrick Cowley passed on Novemeber 12th, 1982 due to complications of HIV/AIDS. He will always be missed by me and many, many others. IMHO, Patrick's music had its own original sound & the work he did "patching" all those sounds in. Using turn knobs, not sliders like todays mixers, etc. His sound paved the way for trance, house, dance, disco, etc!
There is no denying that! :-)
Patrick is yet another who passed of this horrific "Human Immunodeficiency Virus". Many of our great talents died with HIV/AIDS. More than you'd ever think or know of!
They will Alawys be Remembered! :-)
I have a pic of myself underneath Patrick Cowley posed as he was & you'd swear we were twins, only I'm 6' 4" tall! :-)
I've had people in NYC & other places think I was him, but that's when I was younger (20's - 30's) I'm 47 now & still do look like him or what he would look like at my age.R.I.P. my dear twin brother Patrick ;-)
Patrick Cowley passed on Novemeber 12th, 1982 due to complications of HIV/AIDS. He will always be missed by me and many, many others. IMHO, Patrick's music had its own original sound & the work he did "patching" all those sounds in. Using turn knobs, not sliders like todays mixers, etc. His sound paved the way for trance, house, dance, disco, etc!
There is no denying that! :-)
Patrick is yet another who passed of this horrific "Human Immunodeficiency Virus". Many of our great talents died with HIV/AIDS. More than you'd ever think or know of!
They will Alawys be Remembered! :-)
esacnitsuj
January 9, 2011
edited over 10 years ago
Mr. Patrick Joseph Cowley passed on from complications due to AIDS. HIV is only the beginning. If you get that under control, then you may not get a rare pneumonia called Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia or other "opportunistic infections" e.g. Cancers one normally would never get, rare diseases, etc. If you have a Dx of one of these, then you get AIDS. Once you have AIDS, it's harder to get under control & AIDS IS NOT immune to straight people nor kids either! In my small city in Atlantic Canada there are at least over 2000 people under age 20 who are walking around HIV+
It is a horrific disease that can be treated very well now!
Anyhow, to get to the point, I have a beatiful pic of Patrick Cowley that DJ Harold Ranger gave me & I can make copies. Can I upload images to this site?
DJ Harold Ranger wrote in the corner of his pic:
Cowley, Patrick-In memory of Patrick Cowley who passed away November 12th, 1982.
I want to LIFT OFF and become a MEGATRON MAN.
I am full of MENERGY and heading for a TECH-NO-LOGICAL WORLD.
You being the MUTANT MAN, I put a LINE ON YOU and made you an X-FACTOR.
It was such a MIND WARP, that it became an INVASION.
THEY CAME AT NIGHT to TAKE YOU HOME. I'm now alone and GOIN'HOME to a TEEN PLANET.
It's such a PRIMITIVE WORLD, that they still go on a SEA HUNT.
THANK GOD FOR MUSIC and we all need to GET A LITTLE.
Backstage DJ Harold Ranger (some words I canged myself.)
P.S. (I'll upload my photo & I might sell some on photo paper for a fair price, as I have a photo printer.)
It is a horrific disease that can be treated very well now!
Anyhow, to get to the point, I have a beatiful pic of Patrick Cowley that DJ Harold Ranger gave me & I can make copies. Can I upload images to this site?
DJ Harold Ranger wrote in the corner of his pic:
Cowley, Patrick-In memory of Patrick Cowley who passed away November 12th, 1982.
I want to LIFT OFF and become a MEGATRON MAN.
I am full of MENERGY and heading for a TECH-NO-LOGICAL WORLD.
You being the MUTANT MAN, I put a LINE ON YOU and made you an X-FACTOR.
It was such a MIND WARP, that it became an INVASION.
THEY CAME AT NIGHT to TAKE YOU HOME. I'm now alone and GOIN'HOME to a TEEN PLANET.
It's such a PRIMITIVE WORLD, that they still go on a SEA HUNT.
THANK GOD FOR MUSIC and we all need to GET A LITTLE.
Backstage DJ Harold Ranger (some words I canged myself.)
P.S. (I'll upload my photo & I might sell some on photo paper for a fair price, as I have a photo printer.)
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Mr.Fonk
July 22, 2005
edited over 16 years ago
My deepest respect to Mr.Patrick Cowley. He was one of the visionary pioneers of the early electronic music scene, and his records and mixes became blueprints for many recent retro-ish releases. Sadly enough, he already passed away. All we have left is his legacy: spaced out, electrified disco music by the Megatron Man!
Ashley_Pomeroy
July 22, 2005
edited over 16 years ago
Patrick Cowley was one of the artists who bridged the gap between disco and the hi-NRG sound of the mid-80s; he wasn't quite a pioneer of modern electronic dance music, instead occupying a similar off-to-one-side spot as Giorgio Moroder, Jan Hammer, Harold Faltermeyer and the like. His style is essentially derivative of Moroder, although he has left behind a number of classic disco singles, including 'Do You Wanna Funk', 'Menergy' and his voluminous remix of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'. He was also a talented synth keyboardist, and is part of a generation of early electronic musicians - again, just like Hammer, Moroder, and so forth - who grew up at a time when synthesisers were generally seen in the forbidding, academic context of experimental music, and who took the tools of Stockhausen etc and used them to make people dance.
Listened to in 2005, his music had dated, but in a generally good way; the production uses a lot of analogue synthesisers and real drums, and consequently it doesn't sound as thin and weedy as pop-dance singles from later in the decade ('Menergy' has an unimpressive 'robot voice' effect but otherwise swoops and swooshes in the classic style, and has a wonderful soaring disco diva vocal). Indeed, he was an early exponent of the kind of 'big production' that became mainstream in rock music during the 80s, but instead applied to synthesisers.
He was big in gay disco circles, didn't really cross over into the mainstream, and is a cult figure nowadays.
Listened to in 2005, his music had dated, but in a generally good way; the production uses a lot of analogue synthesisers and real drums, and consequently it doesn't sound as thin and weedy as pop-dance singles from later in the decade ('Menergy' has an unimpressive 'robot voice' effect but otherwise swoops and swooshes in the classic style, and has a wonderful soaring disco diva vocal). Indeed, he was an early exponent of the kind of 'big production' that became mainstream in rock music during the 80s, but instead applied to synthesisers.
He was big in gay disco circles, didn't really cross over into the mainstream, and is a cult figure nowadays.
Lavenderbyrd
September 15, 2020