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Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!dyer
From: dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Songs about being...
Message-ID: <18904@wivax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Oct-83 17:55:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: wivax.18904
Posted: Sun Oct 23 17:55:28 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Oct-83 21:06:52 EDT
References: <18900@wivax.UUCP>
Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma.  01879
Lines: 54

Here are two mail responses to the question about songs with
a gay theme.  I also add my own two cents.

/Steve Dyer

**************

Nym,
	Holly Near has a lot of good stuff recorded in the past few
years.  She started out in the early seventies with a lot of Vietnam
stuff and gradually became involved with other issues.

**************

I have found several albums which have quite enjoyable music along this
line.  One of them is "Gay and Straight Together" on the Folkways label.
Gay and Straight Together has several selections that were recorded on
an open stage in a, I presume, gay bar.  They are excellent.  If you
need to know the record number, I can get it and send it to you.

Another album which I quite like is by Charlie Murphy, titled "Catch
the Fire".  If my memory serves me correctly, it is produced by Good
Fairy Productions.  Again if you need the details, I can get them for
you.

Another album which I have heard some selections off of, but which I
don't have is titled "Walls to Roses -- Songs of Changing Men" and
produced on the Folkways lable.  I have ordered this album for myself
from a local record store, and will be able to provide you with more
information when it comes in.

If you are interested in lesbian music,  I could get you some information
on it also, but nothing particular comes to mind at this time.

I hope this has been of help.  I would be interested in hearing how
you like these albums if you get a chance to hear them.

**************

I have the "Walls to Roses" album, and it is a strange mixture of
the very good and the uncomfortably bad.  One song, "The Sensitive
Little Boy", is hilarious and touching, but there are others that
are just plain lugubrious.  I find that it's aligned a little too
much along the GCN/Cambridge/leftist axis for my own taste, but
others might certainly not feel that way.  I think it is worth having,
given the scarcity of records with gay topics.  It's from 1979,
Folkways FTS 37587.

I like Joan Armatrading's albums, first and foremost because she
is a terrific artist, but she often presents songs which don't
have references to the traditional sex roles.

/Steve Dyer
decvax!bbncca!sdyer