s skippy the bush kangaroo: A Post-WW II Non-Gay History of Popular Music

skippy the bush kangaroo



Tuesday, July 31, 2012

A Post-WW II Non-Gay History of Popular Music

Cerberus at Sadly, No! does some heavy lifting in response to Dennis Prager's rant about "the California legislature [passing]...the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act[,] which [sic] mandates teaching the contributions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people."

As one of the non-Californians on this blog—though my college girl friend graduated from Barstow High School and my wife's side of the family live in Albany, San Diego*, and (at least until the baby is old enough) Berkeley, so I'm not completely California-Free—I feel it my duty to help Prager set the record straight (as it were).

First, there were the Fifties. Everyone was straight in the Fifties; gays hadn't been invented yet. Certainly, a gay man would not have been the soundtrack of choice for more First Experiences than anyone this side of Barry White. And certainly the people of that time would not have made a Greatest Hits collection by a gay man the best-selling album of that generation, it's longevity on the Billboard charts only supplanted years later but a bunch of English guys singing about their Brain Damage and a Total Eclipse).


And lesbians didn't exist at all. So we certainly would not let our children know about them, or have them appear on something called "Teen Age Music International"


They would have no immortality.**


And then there were the Sixties, where people discovered gays existed, but we try to forget about that. By the late Seventies and early 1980s, Americans hated gays again. Indeed, the only people they hated more were Iranians.

So the last thing they would ever have done is made a gay Iranian into a multi-platinum recording artist who still gets treated as if he were a G-d today. Most especially, we would never use his song at Manly Sporting Events.


Or headlining—and stealing the show—at the worldwide broadcast of a concert for hope, charity, and food.***

By the Nineties, of course, the rise of rap music to the point where white kids were listening to it—and especially "Gangsta Rap"—just reaffirmed that there is no place for gays—and especially not gay men—in music.


And certainly even if there were gay men allowed near rap, they would have no lasting influence.


I hope it's clear from the above that ignoring gays throughout history will not at all negatively impact one's understanding of American popular music.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods is playing at Shakespeare in the Park this year, and I have to find a way to see it. Though I may first have to check what Alex Ross says about it in The New Yorker.

*Oops. Full disclosure: the relative who is generally finishing a stint of indentured servitude at UCLJSD is currently out of the country.

**I would have written this entire post just to get this one in. It's still one of my favorite recordings, and I can't bloody find a copy either.

***Or on movie soundtracks as possibly the greatest karaoke song of all time, even down to its use of bismillah in the lyrics. Or as the creator of a love song the rest of the world likes much more than I do. Devotees are offered the full twenty-plus minutes here:


posted by Ken Houghton at 8:53 PM |

5 Comments:

Er, Lesley Gore is '60s (I was there).

There were others, of course, but this is a nice sample.
commented by Blogger D., 9:46 PM PDT  
Beautifull photos and great blog!
commented by Anonymous jual busana muslim murah ghaniyah, 12:33 AM PDT  
The great Liverachie(sp.) was a big entertainer, Gomer Pyle himself, a great singer, as well as many others were well regarded.
w3ski
commented by Blogger w3ski, 9:11 AM PDT  
D. - Oops. You're right. I think of her as primarily pre 22 Nov 1963 and therefore "before the Sixties" (which ended 8 April 1974, though the case for 14 May 1970 is a decent one).

Will fix it.
commented by Blogger Ken Houghton, 10:39 AM PDT  
about homosexuality being accepted pre-80's its called AIDS, the reality of the fact is that we as homosexuals engaged in sexual activity within a smaller social circle and didn't practice safe sex as often because we didn't view pregnancy as a risk for our community and most other std's contained physical symptoms. This includes men of bi-sexual orientation as well. I knew men who had wives, yet were still part of the circuit. The sad part is one of my friends eventually infected his wife and their unborn child with the disease. All three of them passed away before the 90's

The answer isn't glorification and sugar coating of our culture but education about it and who we are as a culture and human beings. Ignoring the dangers that may or may not be present within ones lifestyle is ignorant. Freddy Mercury may have been an alright singer but you can't ignore the fact his death was in part caused by his own conscious decisions about the life he chose to live.

People don't ignore homosexuals and the impact they've had on art, music and history.

We fought to be accepted just like everyone else, and thats how we've come to be viewed, no different or more distinct than everyone else.
commented by Anonymous Gary Glamour, 1:51 AM PDT  

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