Darren Ockert "The Rain from London" EP

Since I met Darren Ockert in 2006 his music has done nothing except impress me. I loved his debut album that year, “Anything Is Possible,” and the two songs from it that got remixes, and 2010’s single, “Celebrity du Jour.” But I’ve been wanting more. I guess I have to be patient, but help is on the way. Today Darren just released a new 4-track EP named “The Rain from London,” that has grabbed me just like the others. And I understand the next EP is already being mixed. By the way, the “Rain from London” connection is likely because Darren’s a Brit. But it’s okay, he’s living in Florida now.

Visit the Darren Ockert Website

 Below, Darren & I, in 2006, in The Village...yeah, I had my moustache then.

German Lesbian Bands

One of the segments of my current Queer Music Heritage show is “German GLBT Music,” and it’s a quick history, with all the songs but one sung in German. It was a fun show to prepare (and a lot of work) and one section I found especially interesting was on three German lesbian bands, and one solo artist:

The Flying Lesbians

Lysistrara

Witch Is Witch

Carolina Brauckmann

The Flying Lesbians were (no surprise) the most out of these and the earliest, in 1975, and their album is the only one reissued on CD. It even contained a track sung in English.

Listen to “I’m a Lesbian, How About You?”

The second band I list called themselves and their 1979 album Lysistrara, named after the Greek play by Aristophanes, Lysistrata, in which the women had the power. Monika Jaeckel, from The Flying Lesbians, and Barbara Bauermeister, from Lysistrara, got together in 1979 to form the duo Witch Is Witch, releasing their album by the same name. And Carolina Brauckmann was also direct in her 1982 LP, “Satirische Lesbengesänge,” or “Satirical Lesbian Songs.” A gallery of complete liner notes, some with translated lyrics, for these four albums is found on the following link.

The Flying Lesbians, and More

*****

 And, please check out my entire special QMH German show, Here

Bayard Rustin Sings

I want to join those honoring the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Bayard Rustin, and of course I’m doing it with music. It’s easy to use search engines to learn of the history of this remarkable leader, but not so easy to learn of this other side of him, the singer.

The 10” LP above was recorded in the 1940s when Rustin was secretary for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). You can read the full back cover notes on my website, but a section of it is below.

Listen to “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” 

The cassette tape below was released in 1988, a year after his death, and the date of recording is not given, but it was obviously a live performance. One Wiki reference gives a recording year as 1972.

Listen to Scandalized My Name / I’ve Been Buked / House of the Rising Sun

Both of these recordings are available on CD.

I want to recommend the video shown below, as a quick history lesson on the contributions of Bayard Rustin to the Civil Rights Movement.

View the Video

Rustin’s influence goes on, and one example is the sampling of a speech by him, used to start off the hip hop track “We Out,” found on the 2004 CD “The Famous Outlaw League of Proto-Negroes,” by Deep Dickollective. That group, led by Juba Kalamka, was a project by a number of some of the most talented artists of that genre.

Listen to “We Out” by Deep Dickollective

D/DC disbanded in 2008, but here is some summary data for the group.

Labi Siffre - Something Inside So Strong

Labi Siffre was born in London in 1945 and started his music career in the 1960’s, playing with a number of jazz and other groups, and in 1970 actually started recording his music. He had some success in the 70’s and early 80’s and then took a break for a while. In 1985 he saw a film about violence by whites against blacks in South Africa was inspired to write his masterpiece, “Something Inside So Strong.” It was intended as an anti-apartheid message, but it became a general anthem against oppression and bigotry. We are fortunate to be able to refer to a video of Siffre performing his classic live.

Click to View the Video

 

 

The song “Something Inside So Strong” has been covered by many artists, including Kenny Rogers, who made it the title track of an album. Another indication of the song’s power and reach is that it has been recorded by at least 20 gay & lesbian choruses from around the world, and performed live by many more. Giving just one example is the version by the Seattle Men’s Chorus, from 1996.

   

 

Listen to Seattle Men’s Chorus

Listen to Labi Siffre’s original 1987 recording

 

Siffre met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in 1964, and when the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 became effective in the UK in 2005, they became legally recognized partners.

 

Songs of a Lesbian Anarchist

That’s the subtitle of Kathy Fire’s 1978 LP “Songs of Fire.” And her album is filled with rage, including the closing track, “Mother Rage,” dealing with rape. 

Kathy Fire's activism began early and she founded a chapter of NOW in South New Jersey, which led to her meeting many feminists from Philadelphia, and she heard the call to move there. After that move she help found the group Dyketactics, which quickly caught attention when they staged a sit-in in 1975, taking over the City Council offices, and being forcibly ejected by the police. More protests followed and Fire began writing songs about these causes. She told an interviewer from the Philadelphia Gay News that she recorded a cassette and sent it to every single women’s record company. And the only company responding was a male-run company, Folkways, which had a policy of allowing artists free hand. By the end of the 1970’s, she and lover, poet Barbara Ruth, had moved to San Diego.

The song from the album of most interest to my queer website is “Crazy.”

Click to Listen to "Crazy"

See the QMH Kathy Fire page for Lyrics and More

It is fortunate for historians that Kathy Fire chose Folkways. Its founder, Moses Asch, built his label as the “voice of the people,” and that included gay & lesbian artists. The label released six albums of this genre:

Michael Cohen – What Did You Expect? (Folkways 8582, 1973)

Eric Bentley – Eric Bentley Sings the Queen of 42nd Street (Folkways 8581, 1974)

Michael Cohen – Some of Us Had to Live (Folkways 8583, 1976)

Kathy Fire – Songs of Fire (Folkways 8585, 1978)

Various Artists – Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men (Folkways 37587, 1979)

Various Artists -- Gay & Straight Together (Folkways 8580, 1980)

And from the Paredon Records label, also available is:
New Harmony Sisterhood Band - Ain't I A Woman? (Paredon 1038, 1977)

And in a wonderful endeavor, the Smithsonian Institute bought the entire Folkways catalog, and created the label Smithsonian Folkways, making all of it available for order online in CD or download format. 

See http://www.folkways.si.edu/

 If anyone has recent information about Kathy Fire, please contact me.

Charles Ludlum's "The Ridiculous Theatrical Company"

Charles Ludlam (1943 - 1987), playwright, director, and actor, founded The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in NYC in 1967. He often appeared in his own plays, in female roles. As a writer he was prolific, but his most popular play by far was "The Mystery of Irma Vep." This 1992 CD honored the 25th anniversary of the company with songs from a selection of its shows.

Click to Hear

"Heterosexual Heidi"

"The Conqueror"

"Thank God, He Made Me a Drag Queen"

Charles Ludlum's lover, Everett Quinton, sings lead on "The Conqueror."
He took over the company after Ludlam's death.

 

Click for More Info on My Website

Is this THE most gay video?

From Denmark, Thomas Bickham created his gay diva identity in the early 2000’s, and in 2006 Tomboy was ready to be released, like Kracken, onto the unwary world. And over two million Youtube hits later, Tomboy’s “OK2GAY” was a video hit.

 Click to Watch the Video

A full-length CD was released in 2006, with other camp tracks, though nothing to match the gay-in-your-face energy of “OK2BGAY.” The CD booklet is deluxe, with a couple dozen pics of Tomboy in OUT-rageous costumes.

A new label re-released the CD in 2008, with a new title ("Step Into the Music,") and cover, but don't worry, the same camp-for-days tracks will be found.