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2 - 64:50
Above right, Geof Morgan also contributed to the "Feeding the Flame" album, but the song "High Risk" came from his 1987 release "Talk It Over." And Lynn Lavner was one of our culture's earliest lesbian comics, releasing a number of albums with clever songs. She got serious, however, with the poignant "Such Fine Young Men," from 1986. |
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Steve Schalchlin is the very talented writer of the 1997 musical "The Last Session." He also released some of the material from that show and others in other two releases, "Living in the Bonus Round," (1996) and "The Bonus Round Sessions," (2000). From that later CD I took song "The Group," telling of an AIDS therapy session. Tom Wilson Weinberg's 1987 musical "Ten Percent Revue" was packed full of politics and commentary on many elements of gay & lesbian life. AIDS inspired two of those songs, "Safe Sex Slut" and "High Risk for Afraids." And in the show you heard Tom Robinson talk about the subtext of his song "Blood Brother. It came from the 1990 album "We Never Had It So Good," which was re-released in 2000 as "Blood Brother." The reference to AIDS in Tom Andersen's song "Yard Sale" are subtle and poignant, and I love Aussie artist David Campbell's version of it, from his 1997 album "Taking the Wheel." Another musical dealing with AIDS was "Elegies," whose full title is "Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens." There's been a number of cast recordings of this show, and I took "My Brother Lived in San Francisco" from the 1993 version, with Kim Criswell on vocals for that song. I used music by Doug Stevens twice in this show, first in this part with his touching song "HIV Blues."
Ond of my favorite interviews from past QMH shows was by Mary Gauthier, as listening to her talk about her craft is fascinating. Her song "Goddamn HIV" is one of her early triumphs. And two straight artists, first Rodney Crowell's superb album "The Houston Kid" has two songs with gay-related lyrics. "The Wandering Boy" tells of a man dying of AIDS coming home to his brother. Reba McEntire's 1994 song "She Thinks His Name Was John" was a great effort to get across the point that AIDS is not a gay disease.
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Top, leave it to the Kinsey Sicks to come up with a humorous song about AIDS medications, from their debut album "Dragapella." And the duo Billi & Patti gave us one of the new AIDS-related songs, "Until There Is a Cure." It's off their 2003 CD "Love and Other 4 Letter Words." Sadly, Mark & Dean are no longer together, but they had two very good and very gay albums. From "Man of My Dreams" came "Is It Over Yet?" Below, the debut album by the very politcal Scott Free yielded a number of songs dealing with the crisis, including "AIDS Dementia." And below that, a fanciful what-if song from Dan Bern's "Fifty Eggs" album imagining how folks would react to a "Cure for AIDS."
The groundbreaking 1993 movie "Philadelphia" landed Tom Hanks his first Oscar and featured a performance by The Flirtations, and the haunting ballad by Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia." While researching this show I discovered the duo Down Low, and their unique song "HIV," in which the virus itself is conveying its message. And I can't resist playing again the beautiful "Don't Look Now," by Andy & David Williams, known as the Williams Brothers. David came out in a 1994 interview in The Advocate.
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And, regular listeners know I love obscurities, and I don't think you'll find anything on the net about the cassette single shown above. From 1990, Andrew Mellen give a rap take on the disease. And, below, Mark Weigle, one of our finest singer/songwriter, has touched on AIDS often in his music. On this show I'm sharing with you from his "The Truth Is" album the song "If It Wasn't Love," and from "Out of the Loop" comes the song "I Remember."
Keith Christopher died of AIDS in 1998. He was a singer and actor and made national television history by being the first openly gay, HIV positve actor to portray a similar character, on the soap opera "Another World." He later starred in "The Guilding Light." In 1995 Billboard Magazine honored him with their Certificate of Achievement for his song "Smiling in the Dark." His song "Pieces of Lives" was inspired by the Names Project Memorail Quilt, as was "Common Threads," by Austin artist Kirt Kempter. Kirt, who has a doctor's degree in geology, released only two albums: "Wrinkle in Time" (1993) and "Strange Things," (1995). But "Common Threads" can only be found on the CD "Family Values: A Compilation of Songs by Austin Lesbian/Gay Singers and Songwriters," from 1996.
And, left, "Until It's Over" was the second album by Positive Voices, a Dallas area chorus formed of HIV positive people, under the direction of Jackson Myars and associated with The Cathedral of Hope, Metropolitan Community Church. Myars wrote many of their songs, including the inspiring "Greater Than AIDS." |
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Let me indulge in my own personal AIDS memorial. Of course I've experienced
Below, by Keith Haring, "Silence = Death," from 1989 |
Let
