Barney's Beanery - Fagots Stay Out

 

No, not a music post, but one of cultural interest.....

Yes, the matchbook above echos the "Fagots Stay Out" message of the sign in the West Hollywood bar of Barney Anthony in the early 1960s. It was still brewing controversy in the mid 1980s, as seen in the article below.

AIDS Bells - Ian Jones

 

The AIDS Bells -- Sung by Ian Jones, Written by Arthur Jones.

A haunting dirge about the the losses to AIDS. This is a scarce 7" vinyl, that took me years to track down, so of course I'm sharing it. Google has not helped me track down a year, but I am guessing late 80s/early 90s....if anyone can verify a year of release Please let me know.

 Also check out my special radio documentary, Songs About AIDS. 

http://www.queermusicheritage.com/nov2007.html

 

Everyhead, a Rock Opera (with an Explicit Gay Section)

The year 1975 yielded one of the earliest rock operas that touched gay topics, "Everyhead," an ambitious project inspired by the medieval play "Everyman." It tried to cover the ills of mankind (at least American) all over the map, perhaps a bit too symbolically as the cast wore elaborate masks. According to the show's very active website the masks were "worn to hide the identities of the cast so as not to be recognized and to be possibly arrested by the Hollywood vice squad for performing 'obscenities' in public. And the cast recording was immediately banned from radio, which of course is always good for sales. The show was written by Kenneth Cottrell (who sang lead) and David Maverick Lane. Stan Zipperman produced the LP, which included lead guitar work by Michael Monarch, of the band Steppenwolf.

Of course, I'm taking you right to the "gay stuff," mainly in Act IV, "Winter," (each act has a season). As part of the ten-minute "Ballet of the Deadly Sins" three of the seven songlets (totaling five minutes) get down and dirty, starting with "The Chicken Song." Was this the first time this subject was broached in a rock opera?

Followed directly by "Diesel Women Blues" and "Gimme Your Body"

 

(It was a gatefold LP with eight large images, this one for Diesel Dykes)

 

Hear these Three

I'm also sharing the finale, "Put Away the Masks"

Visit the Website

Circle Jurk - An Obscure Recording by a Member of The Nylons

Billy Newton-Davis

I could go on several tangents when talking about the 2008 EP released by Billy Newton-Davis. First, Davis is the award-winning Canadian artist and long-time member of the hit group The Nylons. That group formed in 1978 and in 2014 did a reunion concert including every living member of the group (there have been twelve different members over they years, and five have died). Davis joined them from 1991 through 1994. Before and after that time he won several Juno Awards, one being for a duet with Celene Dion, in 1989. The Nylons released over a dozen albums.

But this blog is about a VERY obscure and VERY out of the closet solo project, with VERY explicit lyrics, from 2008, called "A Boy's Life / Circle Jurk."

Here's a review from that time, from Now Toronto

Here are the songs:
(and as they are near impossible to find, you can hear them here)

A Boy's Life
White Boys

A Thrill's a Thrill (Still)

Desolate Angel
Sammy
Christopher Street

                                                                           I've Got a Dream

Here's a review from that time that goes into more detail

And, note that on the EP the songs were written by "B Kate Amesbury".....she's got  Quite a history of her own, releasing several recordings in the 1970's under her then name Bill Amesbury. That's right, Bill became Barbara. More on those records, and on a song about her.
And, two of the songs in question can be heard on this show. 

Barbara was looking for someone to record her new songs, and finally found Billy, produced the album and among the songs was included a remake of "A Thrill's a Thrill."

Habanita, from Le Carrousel de Paris

As the liner notes indicate, Habanita was a performer at the world famous female impersonation club Le Carrousel of Paris, and I'm dating this release (on a Belgian label) from the 1960s. I really do not know anymore about this performer, except to say that not too many of the performers also released recordings (among them Coccinelle, Bambi, Sonne Teal and Michou).

Click for

Much More on Le Carrousel

Listen to "Dieu Soit Loué"
Listen to "Mon Coeur N'Était Pas Fait Pour Ça"
Listen to "Les FLonsflons du Bal"
Listen to "Tais-Toi Marseille"

And (added March 2019) there was a 45, dating the release to 1968

Jack Elliott's Gay 45

 

Some of you may have heard of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, shown above, who has been a prolific recording artist since the 1950's, winning Grammy Awards in 1995 and 2009. I'll let Wiki go into a lengthy bio, or those with interest can visit his own website.

Well, This is a Different Jack Elliott, with a minor career and a few 45s on minor labels in the 70s & 80s.

And THIS Jack Elliott in 1979 he had a "gay" song? ...or at least one about gender confusion?

Listen to "The Bars in L.A."

This was actually not a rare theme in country music, as I can easily
point out several songs that used that twist:

Richard Thompson - Woman or a Man (1982)
Michael Doucet - Woman or a Man (1987)
Rodney Carrington - Dancing With A Man (1998)  

and you can hear all of those and more on a QMH show I did
about homophobia in country music, in April 2005. 

*******************

Trivia: If you are questioning if "Jack Elliott" is the same artist as
"Ramblin' Jack Elliott," so was I. And I was thinking it is as
I was able to find an image of another 45 on the same label, see image below.
But I believe I was wrong.

DISCLAIMER, FEB 2022
I no longer think this, a country music expert
says the voice is all wrong and "Ramblin" was never on this label,
was only on large labels. Not sure how the labeling happened;
an error or an outright attempt to get sales for a very low
profile guy with the same name.

  

 

Queer Theory - 1960s Style, Homosexuality on LP

 

 Homosexuality

Pre-Stonewall Spoken-Word Documentary LPs
Queer Theory, 1960s style

"Homosexuality in the American Male"
by Lawrence Schiller, 1967, narrated by George Kennedy

and
"Homosexualité Masculine au Canada Français"
by Christian Delmas, 1968, in French

Here are two "documentary" LPs on the subject of homosexuality in the 1960s, with definitely different viewpoints than we see fifty years later. In the Schiller study many gay people (always gay men) are interviewed and most reflect guilt, shame and internalized homophobia at their "condition." The second LP is on male homosexuals in French Canada, and as I do not speak French I would be grateful if someone would send me a few sentences of a summary of its findings.

You can hear both records and see more information here:
Male Homosexuality in American and French Canada