Troy Walker - Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe (1964)
Jackie Shane - Any Other Way (1963)
Billy Strayhorn - Lush Life (1964)
Frances Faye - Night And Day (1959)
Minette - LBJ, Don't Take My Man Away (1968)
Zebedy Colt - The Man I Love (1970)
Love Is A Drag - My Man (1962)
Mad About the Boy - Mad About the Boy (mid-60s)
Maxine Feldman - Angry Atthis (1972)
Madeline Davis - Stonewall Nation (1972)
Lavender Country - Back in the Closet Again (1973)
Doug Stevens & the Outband - Out in the
      Country (1993)
The Faggot - Women With Women,
      Men With Men (1973)
Let My People Come - I'm Gay (1974)
Chris Robison - Lookin' For A Boy Tonight (1973)
Steven Grossman - Out (1974)
Valentino - I Was Born This Way (1975)
Carl Bean - I Was Born This Way (1977)

Click on the Artist Name for website
on them, if one is available

Click to hear the entire song   And click for more information on this song.

Merrit Brunies & His Friar's Inn Orchestra - Masculine Women, Feminine Men (1926)

To me the obvious place to start is 1926 and the Blues, and the obvious song is by the Mother of the Blues,
Ma Rainey. It's the "Prove It On Me Blues" and is a Blues classic and often recorded. Listen for my favorite line in the song, "I went out last night with a gang of my friends, they must have been women, cause I don't like no men."

Ma Rainey - Prove It On Me Blues (1928)  
Bessie Jackson - B.D. Woman's Blues (1935)  

   Often considered the "Mother of the Blues"

   Eric Garber essay on black gay/lesbian culture

   For both artists see QMH shows for June 2004 and Oct 2007

Also recorded under the name Lucille Bogan

She is known for recording some very raunchy blues records, including her notorious "Shave 'Em Dry."

Blues Artist Ma Rainey

I went from Ma Rainey into one of the best known
songs by Bessie Jackson, who also recorded
under the name Lucille Bogan. In 1935 she
released "B.D. Women Blues" and the B.D. stood
for Bull Dykes or more colloquially Bull Daggers.
Time constraints prevent me from including a
number of other artists, like Bessie Smith and
Gladys Bentley.

And students may want to ask themselves, why was
it for the most part only the women who were so
musically outspoken? There is one male blues artist
I want to mention, Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, who
often sang his songs as a female impersonator,
which probably made it easier for him in 1929 to
sing "My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll."

Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon - My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll (1929)  

See June 2004 and Oct 2007 QMH Shows.

Click for More Information

See QMH show for June 2004       

Click for More Information on "Cross Vocals"

The public knew of the restrictions on singers and did not really pay attention to any gay connotations. That just wasn't in their consciousness. But today
we do, which make these a lot of fun.

Oh, take a mental note for the audio version of this show. I'm going to play many pairs of songs, where I'll break out of one and go to the other. This may not always be a smooth transition, as gee, I chose these pairings for their history and not music compatibility.

Douglas Byng & Lance Lister - Cabaret Boys (1928)

Click for More Information
Click for a 1932 video of Byng singing in drag

Recommended Autobiography: "As You Were, Reminiscences by Douglas Byng," (1970)

   Pansy Craze artists Jean Malin and Bruz Fletcher

Jean Malin - I'd Rather Be Spanish Than Manish (1931)  

Click for More Information on Jean Malin

Bruz Fletcher - She's My Most Intimate Friend (1937)  

Click for More Information on Bruz Fletcher

See QMH show on The Pansy Craze, for May 2010

Recommended Book: "Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890 - 1940," by George Chauncey, (1995). A number of chapters cover the time period of what is now known as the Pansy Craze.

Recommended Biography: "Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & A Riotous Vamp" by Tyler Alpern (2010)

Noel Coward - Green Carnation (1933)  

See QMH shows for July 2000 and June 2004

The only clip I know where Coward sings the
song himself is only 48 seconds long, so I added
at the end of it a full version from 1967 by
Edward Earle & the Satisfactions

And this is a good place to slip in the sort of
recitation singing style of Ray Bourbon. He was our
culture's most prolific female impersonator, with
recordings spanning from the 30s through the 60s.
He died in prison in Texas in 1971, but that's a whole
other very colorful story. Let me give you a history
reference point. In 1952 Christine Jorgensen had her
famous sex-change operation, so this was still in the
news. So, around 1956 Ray Boubon changed the
spelling of his first name from R-a-y to R-a-e and
released an album called "Let Me Tell You About
My Operation," in which he played to the hilt his sex
change, which was all hype, never happened. I did
tell you he was colorful. Here's a bit of the title track.

See QMH show for May 2010
Click for Much More Information on Ray Bourbon

Also see the Female Impersonation
Section of my site for more Info

That was Jose Sarria, and I think he's one of our history's heroes.
Along with a long performing career in drag in San Francisco,
mainly at a club called The Black Cat, he was also political and
community-minded. He ran, although unsuccessfully, for the
Board of Supervisors, in 1961, which was twelve years before
Harvey Milk first ran, in 1973. And he also founded the Imperial
Court system, and was its first Empress. That system is still going strong today, with chapters all over North America, and their
fundraising efforts over the years for gay & lesbian charities have been enormous.

See QMH show for Oct 2000

Jose Sarria Interview: Nov 2012
Click for More Information

I have examples of straight women singers like Nan Blakstone and Ruth Wallis doing relatively friendly
gay novelty songs, and then there's this not so friendly parody commercial, from I believe the 50s.

Chesterfield Cigarettes commercial (1950s)  
Byrd E Bath - Homer the Happy Little Homo (1963)         

And this is a good time to mention one of our mysteries. In the early 1960s a record label called Camp Records released two albums and a dozen 45s, pretty much exemplifying camp humor, with all of its mincing stereotypes. They were very coy on the album jackets as to who the singers really were, either, they said, as an attempt at protecting them or perhaps, I think, hyping the product. Who knows? And who knows who were really behind the label. All the singers' names were obviously made up, like B. Bubba, Sandy Beech, Max Minty & the Gay Blades, and this one, by Byrd E Bath. It's called "Homer the Happy Little Homo."

 Click for Much More Information on the Camp Records Label

Teddy & Darrel - Strangers In The Night (1966)  

I followed "Homer the Happy Little Homo" with one
not so happy, or in this case, not so gay friendly.
In 1966 Teddy & Darrel released an LP called
"These Are the Hits, You Silly Savages." And the
super-stereotypical limp-voiced "Strangers In The
Night" was the 45 from that album. The story I
heard on this one is that the album was an effort
to track homosexuals. Here's the plan, you

release an album, and track the sales of it to see
see where those creatures live. The record label
was owned by Mike Curb, the then future mega
successful record producer and future very
conservative lieutenant governor of California.
The plan didn't work because record sales were
just too spread out. I'd love for someone to dig
into this rumor and let me know if it's the real story.

See QMH show for September 2002

Lisa Ben - Frankie & Johnny (1960)  

Lisa Ben's song was likely never intended to do
much commercially, but this one was and
homophobia stopped it cold. In 1964 a nightclub
singer in L.A. named Troy Walker released his first
album, "Troy Walker Live," which obviously
captured elements of his shows. Even though he
was a very flamboyant performer, one song worked

well live, but not on vinyl, as distributors sent the
album back, big time. They felt their customers
were just not ready for a song with a man singing
to a man, as in Troy's version of a song made
popular by Judy Garland, "Happiness Is a Thing
Called Joe."

Jackie Shane - Any Other Way (1963)  

Homophobia didn't seem to bother an American artist named Jackie Shane much, but then he was
performing mainly in the lounge circuit in Toronto. Crowds came for his silky smooth voice as much as
his flamboyant effeminate stage persona. And he got a hit record along the way, at least in Canada
where reached number 2 on the charts in 1963. His songs lyrics say "tell her that I'm happy, tell her
that I'm gay, tell her that I wouldn't have it, Any Other Way."

                          Click for More Information

Frances Faye - Night And Day (1959)  

Yes, jazz artist Frances Faye was gay gay gay, as you could hear in the song "Night and Day," from her
1959 album "Caught in the Act." She was in fact fairly open about her sexuality, especially given the times
in which she was most popular, from the 40s through the 60s.

See QMH show for Feb 2003
Click for More Information on Frances Faye

Recommended Biography: "Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn," by David Hajdu (1996)

I want to slip in this next artist, not because she
was ever accused of being a good singer, but to my
mind it was pretty radical for a female impersonator
to release an album in 1968 that was not comprised
of comedy routines or cabaret standards. The artist
was Minette, which was her real last name, and the
songs on her album were all written by her and

were very topical. Again, this was 1968 and all over the news was the hippie movement,
psychedelic drugs and the Vietnam war, and
she dealt with all those subjects. So I picked
the only queer song you'll ever hear about
Lyndon Johnson. It's called "LBJ, Don't
Take My Man Away."

And you may ask, surely there must have been gay cabaret in these years, and you'd be right, and I've three albums in mind, none of which were very commercially done, but all were blatantly man on an lyrics. So I've put them in a mini-medley. First
is Zebedy Colt from his 1970 album "I'll Sing For You," and then there are two tracks from albums where the singers were not identified. One was called "Love Is A Drag," from 1962, and you need to see the cover of that one. It has two guys in the shadows, and says on the front "For Adult Listeners Only," as if the very act of singing even those tame lyrics to another man made it only for adults. It gets better. On the back the LP jacket goes on about how brave the singer was, but then does not name him. And the other nameless singer was on the album "Mad About the Boy," from the mid-60s. That was done by that Camp Records label I played for you earlier. The songs are "The Man I Love," "My Man," and "Mad About the Boy."

Click for More Info on Zebedy Colt
Click for More on "Love Is A Drag"
Click for More on "Mad About the Boy"

We're up to 1972 now, and almost up to the
Women's Music Movement, but not quite. That
really didn't start until 1974. In 1972 we saw the
release of two 45 rpm records and I consider
one the first openly lesbian 45 and the other the
first gay liberation 45. The openly lesbian one
was by Maxine Feldman, and she actually wrote
it in early 1969, before Stonewall, though it did
not get released until 1972. It was called "Angry
Atthis." In an interview she told me Atthis was one
of Sappho's lovers and also she was doing a word
play, and was also saying she was "angry at this."

Click to Hear QMH Maxine Feldman Interview
Click to Hear QMH Madeline Davis Interview

After Maxine Feldman was Madeline Davis, and her
song, written in 1971 was called "Stonewall Nation."
It was written after she participated in her first gay
march in Albany NY. And she got to sing it at her
second gay pride march, and for years she sang it
at many pride venues. She wasn't just singing
during those years. She was one of the early
members of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara
Frontier, and was president of that chapter in 1972.
One of her biggest accomplishments was in 1972
when she was elected as the first openly lesbian
delegate to a major national political convention.
It was of course the Democratic convention that
nominated McGovern, and Jim Foster from San
Francisco that same year was first gay male
delegate. She has other educational and literary
accomplishments but I'll let you find those on my
website.

I jumped way ahead for that one, but it was to make a point. "Lavender Country" was the first full-length
openly gay country album, in 1973, and it took until 1993, twenty years later, for the second, "Out in the
Country," by Doug Stevens & the Outband. A twenty-year gap. And I do believe the gap continues.

Click to Hear Interviews with Patrick Haggerty and Doug Stevens

My next category is musicals, and 1973 saw the first openly gay one. I believe you would consider a musical named "The Faggot" as openly gay. Characters in the show included Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Catherine the Great, so I assume the plot was a bit catch-as-catch can, but it started out queer from the first song, "Women With Women, Men With Men."

The Faggot - Women With Women, Men With Men (1973)  
Let My People Come - I'm Gay (1974)  

Attracting a lot more attention the next year, 1974, was the hit show "Let My People Come." Now, it was not at all a quote unquote "gay musical." It was a sexual musical, including all the bases, and it included a gay song and a lesbian one. From the cast you heard Marty Duffy and Joe Jones sing "I'm Gay."

See my Gay Musicals Section,   Shows for Aug 2003 and Sep 2003,   And Faggot & Let My People Come

Recommended Book: "Something for the Boys: Musical Theatre and Gay Culture," by
John M. Clum, (2001). Why do gay men love musical theatre? This book explores that.

The year 1973 also brought one of the first openly gay rock albums. The act was called Chris Robison and his Many Hand Band, and while it contained several very gay songs, the most gay was "Lookin' For A Boy Tonight."

Chris Robison - Lookin' For A Boy Tonight (1973)           Click to Hear Chris Robison Interview

And up next is some history. In 1974 Steven Grossman had the distinction of being the first artist to have a lyrically gay album released by a major label. The label was Mercury and the album was "Caravan Tonight," and the most known song from it is called "Out." I'm sharing with you the whole song, as you really need to hear how it builds to its end. Steven Grossman, and "Out."

Steven Grossman - Out (1974)            Steven Grossman Tribute Section

This is the end of the Audio Segment, Part 1, of Queer Music History 101. You'll have to listen to Part 2 to
hear about the Women's Music Movement, Disco, Glam Rock, Chorus music, Folk music and much more.
Ending this part is a pair of historic dance records. Now, you don't normally think of Motown Records
and gay recordings in the same breath, but there's reason to. And the result is, if you will, a gay liberation
disco song. There's no confusing the song's lyrics. They include the lines "I'm happy, I'm carefree and
I'm gay, yes, I'm gay, t'aint no fault, tis a fact I was born this way."