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JUNE
2006
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Songs I've Been Meaning to Play, Part 1 Don't expect continuity on tonight's show, as the selections are ALL over the map! Lots of unusual songs that just haven't fit on other shows. Plus, some historic Gay Pride songs. And this is Part 1...come back in August for more. |
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Playlist
for June 26, 2006
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Andy Liotta and the Billie Burke Estate start off the show with "Gay" |
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Right, I'm pleased to have become friends with Ron Romanovsky, and was delighted when he sent me his two latest songs, "Sanctity of Marriage" and an updated version of "Don't Use Your Penis for a Brain," which is being premiered on this show. |
Releases by Minneapolis singer/songwriter Larry Havluck are very hard to find. I've only got two: "Bi Now, Gay Later" (1985) and "Half-Life" (1993)....were there more? Let me know if you have other releases. I first became aware of him because Romanovsky & Phillips recorded his song "Must've Been Drunk" on the 1986 album, "Trouble In Paradise." So of course I was anxious for more. I'm glad to share his original version.
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Above, two historic
gay pride 45's. Bobby Sanders' "Stand Up for Your Rights"
(1977) replied directly to Anita Bryant. While I do not know for sure,
I'm presuming it is Sanders singing lead, as he also wrote and produced
the recording. He called his act the International Gay Society. And,
the New Freedom 45 (1976) has quite a story, and I'm glad I was able
to get its lyricist and producer, Nick Curto (below), to tell us about
it. I did the interview by telephone, but while in NYC earlier this
month I got to meet him, and he's still quite busy with various activism
and media projects.
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Probably very few people outside of Houston got to hear John Day perform the song he wrote and recorded using the slogan for Houston's Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade in 1984. He was well-known in Houston in the early-mid 80s as a cabaret performer. He died of AIDS in 1986. Click for more info. |
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"The mission of Diverse Harmony, a gay/straight alliance youth chorus, is to create a safe, affirming environment where everyone is accepted for who they are. We use our passion and the power of music to inspire the celebration of differences in our homes, community and world." So it says on their site, and I've seen their video, I believe it. By the way, Jimmy Worm (below) is on their Board of Directors. |
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I've long admired the political songwriting of Jimmy Worm. His 1995 CD, "I Pledge," is well worth tracking down not only for the two songs from it featured on this show, but for many other tracks. The nearly-impossible to find cassette release from 1992, simply titled "Worm," was his first, and I thank him for sending it to me. His new CD, "Last Chance," from early this year is also excellent, losing none of its edge, a very well-produced album. |
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I
featured Ted Fox's 1992 cassette, "One of Us," on my September
2004 show, never figuring I learn any more about him than what I could
glean off the cassette liner. So I was very pleased to hear from him this
year. He sent me the recent photo (with a haircut and a beard) and tracks
from 1997 from a trio of his, Bophadem. Alas, the three-song EP was never
released, making his permission to air one of the songs ever the more
precious. And, he allowed me to debut his newest recording. It's called
"Positive" and I'm glad his writing is still as vital politically
as his first recording, from 1992.
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A 100-Year Old Queer Song Here's
a rare treat, Billy Murray and his recording of "How'd You Like to
Spoon with Me." Prior to 1925 he recorded more than 4000 songs, mostly
for RCA Victor, and was called the Caruso of the Comic Song. The song
"How'd You Like to Spoon with Me" was written in 1904 by Jerome
Kern, and was a hit the next year by a woman singer. It's Murray's recording
that attracted my attention, as he retained the male-to-male pronouns.
That was a common practice in those days, up through the early 30s, when
publishers controlled song lyrics and did not allow changes, and the public
thought little about any gay angle. But today, we do. It's the oldest
example I know of an inadvertant "gay song" and I'm glad to
share it. Billy Murray was presumedly straight and died in 1954 at age
77. |
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The CD by Jerry Jenkins & His Band of Angels (2000) is a delightful step-back in time, bringing to mind older swing music and a wacky taste of Spike Jones' influence, and it's Very queer. |
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Do
you believe this 45 rpm record was released in 1970, with such an erotic
picture sleeve? Of course that did not occur in the United States. And
Johnny Delgada is not pictured on the cover; he's from Sweden and his
real name was Johnny Bode (1912-1983).
See his bio
I was able to get a translation of part of the back cover notes, where writer/singer Delgada wrote: "On my first encounter with homosexuals, I grasped that there would be a group of cultivated, sensitive people, discriminated against as pariahs. In contrast to the classical period, people treated them like lepers, whom they expelled from the community of the 'healthy.' For more than 2000 years, therefore, no one as risked singing about their loves. How else, wild and unrestrained, could Achilles mourn his dead friend Patroclus. My compositions came quite naturally, which I dedicate to homosexuals." The titles translate to "We Two, We Are Not Like the Others" and "Achilles' Grief." |
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One
of the main reasons the TV show "Will & Grace" was the hit
it was for eight years was Megan Mullally, the openly bisexual actress
who played Karen. A too-well kept secret is that she is also an excellent
vocalist, and not only just in those M&M commercials. On her 2002
album "Big As A Berry" she kept the pronouns intact on Randy
Newman's song "Lonely at the Top, " making it very queer indeed.
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Hank Baron Hank Baron was an excellent singer/songwriter who lived in Philadelphia in the late 70s. Thanks to the folks at the Rainbow History Project, in DC, I'm able to share a couple songs from a concert Baron did as a benefit for a gay radio show in DC called "Friends" on WPFW-FM. I have found a news article on the concert. Click to read it. And see my August show for more music, and some photos of Baron. |
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Well, Willie Nelson got all the attention this past February when he, on the heels of the popularity of the movie "Brokeback Mountain," recorded the song "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other." I was well familiar with the song, as my fave pop-punk band, Pansy Division, featured it on their 1995 album, "Pile Up," and the duo Rick & Andy did the same last year on their CD. But those two queer acts gave us radio-friendly versions. Willie's was not, as it included the f-word. That made me wonder if the original also did, and tracked down the writer, Ned Sublette. The internet is amazing, within two hours he had sent me his own version on a mp3 file, and it's the way Willie recorded it. So I'm sharing with you the original, written in 1981. Also cowboy-inspired, and also not ready for radio, was the song "Marlboro Man," recorded this year by new comer Robert German. He released the song, with several remixes, on an EP and has a full-length CD in the works, and as I've heard some of the new material, I'm looking forward to it...wait till you hear "Fishnet Sailor." |
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Continuing the C&W theme is the very not-for-radio song "Redneck Lesbo," by Corday, so far available only on a CD single from her. Canadian Rae Spoon's album from last year was called "Your Trailer Door," and from New Zealand, I just adore the Topp Twins. Their latest is "Flowergirls & Cowgirls," from 2005. |
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April 2007: Addendum...I identified Rae Spoon as lesbian, I stand corrected. The following is from his website: Spoon is an independent alt-country transgender (a female who identifies as male) Canadian performer. Is this why Rae Spoon is not a household name? "I think the music industry is really about slots, slotting minorities into groups. If you're trans, you can't be a country singer. If you're queer, you can't do this. It's very much behind even where the social consciousness of the country is at because they're very conservative in what they're trying to sell people. And the people in control have all the money. It's a very conservative approach to the industry. As of yet, there's not really a space ... there would be no large label interest in me just based on the fact that I identify as male. I'm certain of it because we've shopped records. You kinda have to wonder what would happen if you took the same CD and put a picture of a girl with blond hair on it." |
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It seems like every year when the Outmusic Awards nominations are announced there always seems to be one CD that somehow, unjustly, just didn't get nominated. And while it may not have won, I really wish the artist had received that recognition. For me this year that sentiment goes to the wonderful album released by Ron Morris, called "Speak True." My regrets were comforted when I got to see Ron perform at a house concert this month, in NYC. He is indeed a wonderful performer, and I'm looking forward to his new CD, which should be out in a few months. And, he's a good sport, as he allowed me to air a demo version of one of the new songs, "My Boyfriend's Back," and recorded some comments on it for use on this show. |
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The photography on this 2005 CD, which I think is incredible, almost upstages the music. The debut CD by Richard Cortez, "Craving Something Beautiful," has one of the sexiest album covers I've seen in quite a while, so I had to share the full-length version of it with you, and also the title track. |
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Right, the production of the musical "I Was a Teenage Homo" has taken years, but will finally happen next year in L.A., the brain child of its writers Jeff Scott and Bill Fagan. I thank Jeff for making available to me a demo of the theme song, as sung by Ralph Gorgolione.
Houstonian Teresa in 1988 wrote and recorded this homage, named after the oldest gay bar in Texas, "Mary's, Naturally." |
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In
1973 14-year old twins Andy & David Williams became the idols of pre-teen
girls (and I'm sure some teen boys) in the magazines of the day. They
had good help to go along with their singing talent, their father was
a Hollywood agent and the uncle was Andy Williams. The picked up their
career in 1987 and by 1993 had released three acclaimed albums,
including the pictured "Harmony Hotel" (1993). David Williams,
in an article in The Advocate in 1994, came out as gay. Their magnificent
AIDS ballad "Don't Look Now" was on "Harmony Hotel."
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kd lang's exquisite rendition of "Secret Love" has not been released an any audio recording and is only found under the closing credits of "The Celluloid Closet" 1995. |
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