"Why the F@#k Aren't We Famous" by The Kinsey Sicks

The Kinsey Sicks ask the musical question, and I totally agree with them. I've been a huge fan since their first CD in 1997 ("Dragapella") and cheer every time a new one is released, and I have 8 now. Their live shows are hysterical, and they give great head

line making interviews. It's a mystery to me, so check them out, at http://www.kinseysicks.com/ or even better, their YouTube channel, at http://www.youtube.com/user/kinseysicks

The First Openly Gay Country Singer....Was Patrick Haggerty, in 1973

Today I want to salute one of much under-appreciated gay music pioneers, Patrick Haggerty. From my research I believe he was the very first, as leader of his band Lavender Country, to release a recording of country songs with openly gay lyrics, and this was in 1973. On my Queer Music Heritage show for March of 2005, first of a three-parter, I did an in-depth look at this history, and am pleased I got to capture the stories of a few of our early artists.

QMH for March 2005

You can go to the link and hear the entire show, or for convenience, I have a transcribed version of my interview with Patrick below. These were Very political songs, and sometimes quite explicit, as you can see by one of the titles, way to explicit for radio, but I don't think airplay was a goal.

Lavender Country - Back In The Closet Again (1973) 

JD: How did the band Lavender Country get started?

Patrick Haggerty: I formed Lavender Country. I was a pretty rabid gay liberationist in the early 70s when Stonewall hit and I was quite involved in the Seattle movement at the time and I was singing a little bit then, at coffee houses and writing some songs, and I located the musicians for Lavender Country and we rehearsed, made the album and kept it an independent community project and managed to sell a thousand copies of the original 33 1/3 vinyl record.

JD: Who else was in the band?

PH: A man named Michael Carr, who is still a prominent active Jewish homosexual activist, and he lives in Philadelphia now with his long-time partner. A woman named Eve Morris who was an out lesbian at the time. Eve was from Milwaukee and I believe she's in Florida these days. She spent many years in Seattle and she is the female vocalist and the fiddle player. And there was a guy named Bob Hammerstromm who was not gay, but a lovely, lovely human being, a very good guitarist and I ran into him, and he was our lead guitar player. So that's how it all came together. Three of us were gay and Bob Hammerstromm was not gay.

JD: And how did the album actually get produced?

PH: We produced it ourselves, here in Seattle, we raised the money through community efforts to produce it, and an organization called Gay Community Social Services, which is a private 501-C-3 non-profit organization grew up at about that same time that Lavender Country was being produced…

JD: From the back of the album it sounds like it was one of that organization's projects, but really from what you're saying it was closer knit than that.

PH: At the time it was, yes, there was a closer hook-up than it just being one of the projects. I believe Lavender Country may have been the first, if not, one of the first Gay Community Social Services projects, but there have been many over the years.

JD: And how many copies of the album were there?

PH: A thousand.

JD: And how long did the band, as it was, last?

PH: Ah, more than two but probably less than three years, something like that. We ran up and down the coast doing gay prides here and there, in Washington and Oregon and California, and there were some gay symposiums that were a big deal at the time, you know, educational symposiums. We played a lot at those and at various gay community events. But of course gay country music was an absurd proposition at the time for particularly if you thought you were going to make a living at it.

JD: So, were you aware of any other openly gay acts performing at that time?

PH: I was, but not in Seattle. "Lavender Jane Loves Women," Alix Dobkin…she…"Lavender Jane Loves Women" came out just months after "Lavender Country." "Lavender Country" was produced first but Lavender Jane Loves Women" was probably not even a year behind.

JD: Tell me about the song "Back in the Closet Again."

PH: Not only was I doing the gay movement at the time but I was doing the left-oriented movement in general. I was working in a coffee house that was a war-resistors coffee house, for Viet Nam vets and Viet Nam soldiers, and that kind of thing. And I was hooked up with other radical organizations that weren't gay, and in those early days a lot of them had a lot of trouble embracing the gay movement, and many of them were opposed to the gay movement. And there was a big, big to do about whether homosexuals could be revolutionaries, and the struggles around that got pretty intense, frankly.

JD: So this was really the other revolutionary folks wanting the gays back in the closet.

Right. That's what it was about

JD: Well, one song I have to be careful when I play or introduce is "Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears"

PH: Ah yes, that's the one. Again, "Crying' These Cocksucking Tears" is not even a song that's about sex. The song title is of course very controversial, but that's what "Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears" is about. It's about the rigid sex roles that men were educated and trained to assume and how that role was oppressive to women and to us, and how it needed to go. It's a pretty overtly political song.

 

  

And, what's that you say, what about the other artists? I'm sure you thought of kd lang, whose first recording was in 1984, and she came out in 1992 (though quickly by necessity switched from Country). I'll also like to mention some other out-of-the-closet pioneers, such as Doug Stevens & the Outband, releasing three CDs in the 1990's, and Sid Spencer, Jeff Miller, Mark Weigle, Glen Meadmore, Jo Miller, the Cowgirl Sweethearts, and many others you can hear at my website.

The LP of course (with only 1000 copies pressed) is extremely rare, and even the reissue CD is not really available, but Patrick Haggerty has told me he has a few on hand to sell if anyone is interested, contact him at jewelstring@gmail.com

Tom Goss Sings, and Talks About - "Bears"

I've been a big fan of the music, and videos, by Tom Goss for many years. This week he premiered a new video, and what better way to do it in an article in Huffington Post, so I congratulate him for that. The song/video "Bears" is a fun, and very wet romp celebrating the Bear Culture. I could not resist getting some quick comments from Tom about it.

Click to Listen (3:23)

And, the "Bears" video......

Tom Goss Website

Tom Goss Videos

There will be more of my talk with Tom on my August OutRadio show. And, (shameless plug) I've been a supporter of the Bear Music Culture for quite a while, and did a special 6-hour show on it in 2007.

QMH Bear Music Special

Anita Bryant Sucks Oranges

 Houston LGBT History: Ray Hill Talks about Anita Bryant
 36 Years Ago on June 16, 2013

What role did Houston play in the protests against Anita Bryant, and what were the local and national impacts? You’re about to find out.

In January of 1977 Dade County Florida…that’s the county that includes Miami…passed an ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That set off a firestorm and led to the founding of the organization Save Our Children, with Anita Bryant as leader. They very quickly got enough signatures to call for a referendum to overturn the ordinance, with the vote scheduled for June 7th. 

By the time the election was set it only left about two months for the gay community to mount its own campaign. The short time period was just one of the huge obstacles, as they were no match for the highly motivated Christian fundamentalists, who trotted out all the now very tired tirades that homosexuality is immoral and homosexuals want to recruit children. The ordinance was overturned by a two to one margin.

The next day a rally was planned in Norfolk, Virginia, to protest Bryant appearing there, and it was the first successful show of strength. The gay community there had organized well, and planted people inside the auditorium where she was performing. At a particular point they stood up and chanted and stamped their feet and Bryant broke into tears. The national media was ready and picked up and ran with this story. The seeds of gay activism were sown and Houston was next, as Bryant was scheduled to speak before the Texas Bar Association a week later. And Houston was also ready, and the planning and strategy was fascinating.

In an interview with JD Doyle, for the radio show Queer Music Heritage, Houston activist Ray Hill tells about the city’s role in protesting the Bryant bigotry, and at the same time lighting the spark of the LGBT movement in Houston, which quickly spread to other cities.

In the final quote of the piece Hill sums it up: “I don’t think Annise Parker would be mayor of Houston now, if Anita Bryant had not visited this city in ’77. I know that’s an enormous leap, but I think that with Anita coming to town and giving us a clear target to organize an opposition to had an enormous effect on our ability to put together a robust movement that accomplished its goals.”

Houston Protest Photos. Rev. Troy Perry can be 
seen in the photo below, on the right hand side.

On Queer Music Heritage the October 2012 show was a special edition on Songs About Anita Bryant, including the complete Ray Hill interview, and several interviews with some of the activists who helped make the protests happen, in Miami, Norfolk and Houston, along with historian James Sears and several of the artists talking about the songs Bryant inspired. Transcriptions of all interviews can be read on the script page.

 Click to Visit the QMH Anita Bryant Special

The Most Important LGBT Song of Recent Years...Is By A Straight Guy

Macklemore, born Benjamin Haggerty, being from the Northwest and white, is an unlikely rap star, but in the last year or so he has reached unprecedented exposure, thanks to the success of his latest CD, "Thrift Shop," done with his producer, Ryan Lewis. The title track, which makes fun of his liking to wear thrift shop clothing, has garnered about 400 million views on YouTube; yes, million. He releases his music independently, so it's also amazing that this is the first time since 1994 that a CD not supported by a major label has reached #1 on the Billboard charts. 

So, kudos for all of that, but that is not what has gotten Macklemore additional exposure, and new fans, in areas he never would have reached. In July of 2012 the duo, with the vocal help of Mary Lambert, released the single "Same Love" in conjunction with the Music for Marriage Equality Campaign in Washington State, in support of Referendum 74. He issued a statement at the time, " “My hope is that my personal testimony can help in some way to not only advance the dialogue and approve Referendum 74, but also to help shape a culture of belonging in which all people are equal.” And while you cannot measure these things, it probably did help, and same-sex marriage was approved in that state in November.

The video, also released in July 2012, quickly went viral, and has received about 60 million views. I included the song on my October OutRadio show, and that same month they were guests on The Ellen Show, performing the song live, which you can see here.

And the official video, is below, with (by the way, openly lesbian) Mary Lambert providing the stunning chorus. She wrote the chorus' hook:

And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
I can't change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love

When it was originally released a special edition 45 rpm vinyl version was offered.

Macklemore has close gay relatives, but the writing spark for the song was lit when his mother sent him an article about the suicide of a gay 13-year old boy, and the writing was started from that perspective. As he has recounted, “I played it for my producer, Ryan Lewis, who told me, ‘You know what? This is good, but this isn’t your story and you have a story.’”

As I write this, the song has reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, (#5 on the rap charts) and that's probably the highest peak ever reached by what is really a "message song" about homosexuality. The only other recent song that comes to mind in that regard was Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," but to me that's more of an anthem song than a message one, and its message was probably oblivious to many caught up in its catchy rhythms and hook. That could not happen to "Same Love"...you have to listen to the song to "get it," and millions did. And being in the genre of rap music it was certainly a breakthrough.

And over the last several months it seems like it reaches more and more corners of the internet, sort of a ripple effect. Just this week a touching story showed up on the Huffington Post, about a Canadian 8th grader who played the song for his gay teacher, which seemed like the kid's way of saying the teacher being gay was okay with him. One person added his comments to the blog entry, "As a gay man, I have renewed faith in our youth." Well, there's hope.

 Macklemore

Mary Lambert

Below, back of 45 pic sleeve

Update: in the July 27th Billboard issue, "Same Love" is #11 
on the Hot 100 chart, and for the week of July 20th it peaked at #2 
on the Rap chart, only bested by his own song, "Can't Hold Us."

And here's a terrific mini-concert by Mary Lambert

Frank (Foo Foo) Lammar

I have a "holy grail" list, a short one, of those vinyl recordings that have eluded me, and (Yay!) I get to cross one off the list this week. It's the mid-80's LP by Frank (Foo Foo) Lammar, one of the UK's most famed female impersonators. It took me many years to track this puppy down, and cheap it was not, but hey, fanatical collectors will understand, now it's off the list.

Frank Lammar (also spelled Lamarr) began performing in the late 1960's and opened his own club in 1971, taking over the Manchester night spot, The Picador. In 1975 he found another location and this time called it Foo Foo's Palace. He was very successful as a performer and raised large sums for charity, and performed for over thirty years. He died in 2003.

His recording career included two LPs and three 45 rpm records. "My Life at the Palace" was first released in 1975 and again later, with different cover artwork. The third LP, from the  mid-1980's was my holy grail item, shown above, and no, he wasn't particularly a good singer, but must have been grand live. Hear the title track...

Frank Lammar - I Am What I Am

Also (I think) in the 1980's was perhaps his most known recording, and I've read it became a popular drinking song in gay pubs, in Manchester. That was "Around the Old Campfire," which you can hear at the link.

Foo Foo Lammar - Around the Old Campfire

Below, his 2002 autobiography

QMH website pages on Frank Lamarr

Querelle - Music & Art

It had been a while since I thought of the 1982 film "Querelle," directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, or that I owned the soundtrack for it. But a Facebook friend posted on my wall about a Christie's auction of some of the drawings and photos that Andy Warhol used to create the enchanting cover image for the LP. So that started me googling different elements of the art and the music.

Searching on the title "Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves" (on Amazon) I was surprised to find it has inspired a number of recordings over the years, I'm sure more than appeared on the nine albums I show in the graphic below.

But, let's get back to Warhol's art for the film, whose homoerotic plot likely inspired the direction. For example, a poster for the film was blatantly phallic, with the fetching Brad Davis.

More Brad Davis, above center...couldn't resist not sharing this one.

And the resulting art and poster became iconic, often reproduced for posters, etc.

As the Christie's auction runs only for a few more days, I...er...borrowed the images they had up for sale, with starting bids ranging from $2,400 to $16,000. I'm just glad the images were on their site so we mere mortals could see them. Warhol often took scores of photos, which later inspired the drawings, and here are some of both.