Little late, even for a save, but in light of the Freddie Mercury Biography special I finally cleared out of the TiVo backlog, as good a spot as any for a Top Five. One of the interviewees, standard music biz blowhard and Mercury friend, did the usual modern liberal “Facts? Facts mean nothing to me!” schtick when he blamed Reagan and the conservative attitude in the U.S. for wrecking Queen’s success on this side of the pond after Freddie incorporated more of the gay look in the early 80s. Disregard the band’s sales, continued chart successes, and highly acclaimed work on the Highlander soundtrack. Interviewee even managed to get a swipe in on President George W. Bush, too. Hmmm, President during the Adam Lambert backlash, with more concrete homophobic reactions than either of the conservative leaders cited? Yeah, damn those pesky facts.
Speaking of which, thanks in large part to MTV, I can’t think of a time when the U.S. charts were more populated with gay (or bi-) acts than the Reagan era. As a teen, didn’t care. Dug the tunes and that was that, and never felt the need to do more than bleach my hair from time to time a la Billy Idol. As a 20+ year older adult, while I think guys like Lambert push just to push, still don’t care. Insert “wish I had enough hair on top to bleach” joke here.
TOP FIVE 80s SONGS FROM ACTS THAT JUST HAPPEN(ED) TO BE GAY
5. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: “Two Tribes” — Few current events-oriented songs have as catchy a beat.
4. Culture Club: “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya” — Sucker for horns and hand-claps … and some credit to Billy Madison’s stairs dance to it, too.
3. Bronski Beat: “Smalltown Boy” — Some damn good synth-pop and been jealous of falsettos since the Bee Gees.
2. Joan Jett: “Fake Friends” — Plain and simple, Joan’s a bad-ass and other team or not, oooooh, black leather.
1. Queen: “Radio Ga Ga” — Rank the Live Aid performance as one of (if not the) greatest in rock history.
Honorable Mentions from the “Didn’t Know The Leader Singer/They Were Gay Till the 90s” category: Judas Priest’s “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll” and the Mrs. nominates Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls.” Yes, I was the last person to know about Rob Halford and Brooke claims to have been sheltered in the 80s.
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J.Jett…the girl can rock plus she supports the troops.
Agreed, she did have one of the all-time Rock & Roll anthems.
This is hard because almost every 80s act was either gay or should be.
Not taking the bait, Matt. Besides, the “last, best band of the 80s” was “Androgynous.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLyR4Gj4KKw
@ Matt: Now, now, young minds, new ideas. We talked…
@ Eric: “Two Tribes” has just about the most amazing bassline of the 80s, and is just an endlessly catchy song, to boot, pretty much none of which Franky Goes To Hollywood can take credit for. They didn’t play on their album, not a note. In fact, when Holly Johnson was signed to ZTT records, there wasn’t even a band, just Holly and his lyrics. The studio band was Art of Noise, who were the best studio musicians in the UK at the time, and they were cranking out the hits. Pretty much AON + Trevor Horn could make anyone a hit, and lots of big acts from the period are basically AON + a random singer + Trevor. ABC, for instance? Their big album was AON + Martin Fry + Trevor. Frankie Goes to Hollywood was basically AON + Holly Johnson + Trevor. Lots and lots of other examples, as well.
Just needed to be pointed out.
Sure, but nobody but Paul Rutherford could bring those snazzy dance moves. Sorry, almost forgot Jerome — yisssssssssssssssssss.
Two Tribes from FGH
Any 4 songs from Husker Du’s Metal Circus. Bob Mould is gay.
So’s Grant Hart. Another case I didn’t know their swang till long after most of America knew. Strangely (not unlike Frank Beard being the only ZZ Topper without a beard), bassist Greg Norton, the guy with the Freddie Mercury on steroids handlebar ‘stache, was the sole straight Husker.
Yeah I saw that Freddie Mercury biography and I was amazed by what that guy said. Funny thing is, He never took into account the album “Hot Space”, which set the band back not only in the U.S., but in the U.K as well. They regained the audience in the U.K. but not so much in America, until Freddies untimley death.
Good ol’ Hot Space, never afraid to bring da funk. Can actually understand MTV’s hesitance with the “Body Language” video, but God bless Night Flight for showing it then and YouTube for the 21st century audience…
Curiously, though, Lux Interior from The Cramps wasn’t gay. Neither was Prince. I’d've lost both of those bets.
I don’t think the kids today can appreciate how much time and entertainment we invested in discussing who was and wasn’t a sexual deviant back in those days. My highschool class was about evenly divided on whether Boy George was gay or not, with about half of us thinking he was, and the other half falling back on the Michael Jackson defence of being “Too strange to be gay.” I also remember how all the girlies loved the Go Gos one week, and the next this video came out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7pI1AY5Ux8 and suddenly everyone was convinced they were all lesbians and no one would listen to them anymore.
Ah, good times.
Don’t forget Depeche Mode! Still love “Enjoy the Silence”, “Never Let Me Down Again”, etc.
I just grew up assuming Depeche Mode was gay because they kind of look it, and everyone just told me that they were. Just out of insomniac boredom one night, I started looking up information about them all on Wiki, and as far as I can tell, none of ‘em are gay. Not even Vince Clarke, who left to form Yaz and (Eventually) Erasure.
Which, when you think about it, is damn weird, because they’re clearly, clearly singing some songs about being gay.
R3, are you insinuating “faith” should be capitalized (and is a guy)?
@Republibot 3.0 …
“I just grew up assuming Depeche Mode was gay because they kind of look it, and everyone just told me that they were.”
Hence my comment that almost every 80s act was either gay or should be. Or should I say, should have been.
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