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Sept
2007
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Songs I've Been Meaning to Play No
specific theme for this show, as it's packed full of songs that just
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Maxine Feldman wrote the song "Angry Atthis" in 1969, and it took another three years before it was recorded, as a 45. In those years she was OUT well before it was considered safe for a gay or lesbian artist to be performing openly. This was before Olivia Records or any of the other early openly lesbian recordings. Feldman's openness lost her bookings and she was banned from some clubs, but she never compromised her act or her music. The song "Angry Atthis" later appeared on her 1979 album, "Closet Sale." As a performer, she was a fixture at the Michigan Women's Festival for most of the 70's, and her song "Amazon" became an annual theme song for the event. She passed away on August 18th, in Aberquerque, at age 62. She was indeed one of our pioneers. Click to listen to my April 2002 interview with her.
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Part
1 - 58:08 Part 2 - 76:48
Note:
Many images are double ones, just pass the cursor over them |
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Ron
Romanovsky's 2006 song "Hard Times for Closet Cases" was distributed
as an mp3 only. He's shown above on his 2002 CD, and on the right is Jacqui
& Bernadette of Bluehouse
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Terry Christopher and Nick Granato both released excellent albums this year
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Focus
on Joe Meek
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Joe Meek was a legendary UK record producer from the early 60's. His innovative style and distinctive production techniques brought him much fame at the time, starting with his #1 smash hit "Telstar," as done by the Tornados. But by 1966 he was deep in depression, over declining record successes and the oppression he felt for being homosexual. There was some irony then in the 1966 record he produced for the Tornados. On the flip side of their 45 "Is That I Ship I Hear" he placed what sounded like a throwaway song, called "Do You Come Here Often?" It was an innocuous sounding instrumental but if you got far enough into it, at about the 2:15 mark, you'd hear a bit of conversation by two very campy, bitchy queens. What Was he thinking? Still, this was a milestone, inserting a bit of then-gay life onto vinyl, and on a major label yet. Meek committed suicide, with a shotgun, in 1967. Above Joe Meek is shown on the definitely collector's only release of "I Hear a New World," a historic but generally unlistenable capturing of his early output from 1960. It was recorded much before he had any hits (1960) and was not released until 2001. The next year out of Spain came a Joe Meek Tribute project, from which came the track I shared by La Prohibita, a male rendering of "My Johnny Doesn't Come Around." Find a very interesting article on Joe Meek and his gay recording Here |
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Pete Anders and Vinnie Poncia spread their talent between performing (as the Videls and Tradewinds) and songwriting (for the Ronettes, Darlene Love, and others) and their 1963 demo of "She's the Girl Who Stole My Baby" was irresistible for me. And below, Frankie Gracia had the nickname Cannibal and with his East L.A. group the Headhunters had the first hit with the classic garage rock song "Land of 1000 Dances." (Wilson Pickett would score bigger with it the next year). Garcia was gay and left the music business in 1966 and died of AIDS in 1996.
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Two very talented new artists are Mika, from the UK, and Israel's Ivri Lider
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Tribute
to My Partner, Jeff
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On August 9th my partner Jeff passed away, at age 46 of cancer. We celebrated our 12th anniversary in the hospital four days before he died. He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly. I do not generally bring my personal life into my programming, but feel it is important to include a tribute to him as part of this show. And I have also set up a special section of my site to honor him, and our relationship, which you can visit my Clicking Here. |
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Tret
Fure - Sail Away (2007)
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