Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou Turns 48 Today... Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

He won me over big with Wham! & Careless Whisper in 1984 (my favorite year of my life, so far), & I never let him go. The hits kept coming & I was right there for the next 25+ years. I am just a sucker for a hot ass in a tight pair of jeans, a leather jacket, & some stubble. Add in those phenomenal pipes & the killer hooks & it is a love affair for Stephen. The love has never wavered.

George Michael was the 1st white male to top the Black Music charts & the 1st white male to duet with Aretha Franklin with the infectious single- I Knew You Were Waiting. His breakout solo album Faith (1987) had 5 #1 hit singles & spent 51 weeks in the Billboard Top 10, including 12 weeks at #1.


Faith left Michael struggling to deal with his secret homosexuality. The feelings of loneliness, disaffection were themes in his next album- Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1. (1990) The album had a more soulful & stripped-down sound, producing 5 U.S. Top 40 hits: Waiting For That Day, Cowboys & Angels, Heal the Pain, Praying for Time & the personal confessional song Freedom! 90. It sold 7 million copies & spent 42 weeks in the Billboard Top 100 charts.



George Michael's album- Older is my personal favorite, an album that speaks to me in a deep personal way. Older was the soundtrack of my life in the late 1990s & I was moved by the title track & the mournful Like Jesus To A Child in a way the was profound & very moving. Like Jesus to a Child is a salutation to Michael’s secret partner- Brazilian fashion designer Anselmo Feleppa. Feleppa had died 3 years earlier of an AIDS-related brain hemorrhage, leaving Michael feeling alone & despondent. Michael was not openly gay & no one knew who the song was about. Older went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide & spent more than 96 weeks on the charts.


After grappling with the death of Feleppa, he met his future husband, American Kenny Goss. In 2005, Goss opened the Goss Gallery in Dallas, which shows contemporary art, including those collected by the couple. They have homes in London and Dallas. While the joy of his new relationship started to ease his pain, he soon lost his mother to skin cancer, a loss that tormented George for several years. He did not write or record during that period, except Songs From The Last Century (2000), an album of standards & covers.


In 1998, Michael was arrested in Beverly Hills, California, on a charge of lewd conduct in a park bathroom. The arrest made worldwide headlines & led him to come out of the closet. He poked fun at the arrest in the hit single- Outside.

In 2004 Michael released Patience, which sold more than 200,000 copies in the first week. It spun several Top 10 hits including Freeek!, Amazing & Flawless (Go to the City), all dedicated to Kenny Goss. In 2006, George Michael announced his 1st tour in 15 years. The 25 Live tour was a massive & worldwide, & spanned 3 individual tours over the course of 3 years. He still looks & sounds terrific.

He Made It Through The Rain To Sing The Songs The Whole World Sings

Today is the 68th birthday of Barry Alan Pincus of Brooklyn NY. He wrote a whole bunch of songs & along the way sold over 360 millions records as writer, producer, arranger or conductor. Up there with Sinatra, Michael Jackson or Bruce Springsteen.



Maybe Barry Manilow will never be ready to take a chance again. During a 2004 concert in NYC, just as he started to sing a duet with Brian d’Arcy James, Mailow joked to the audience: “Of course, we're not going to sing it to each other—that would be creepy.”

His own website diminishes the fact that he began his career in a gay bathhouse, despite the fact that he’s admitted ripping off his tuxedo & jumping into the bathhouse’s pool with lots of gay nude men. He blamed losing his inhibitions on the drinks & joints that had been passed to him. Manilow: “That’s such a bit of misinformation. There was just 1 bathhouse called the Continental Bathhouse & I worked there for 2 weekends with Bette Midler & that was it. I accompanied her for two weekends there & then we went on to a lot of nightclubs around NYC, Chicago & L.A. & she exploded like a year later. So it really wasn’t ‘gay bathhouses.’ I don't know where that came from.”

On the plus side, he canceled an appearance on The View because of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s ultra-conservative stance. Manilow: “I strongly disagree with her views, I think she's dangerous & offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her.” When Manilow was being honored in Palm Springs for his AIDS awareness efforts, he stated: “I've had 4 personal assistants in my career since the ’70s, & 3 out of the 4 have died of AIDS. My personal assistants have always become my best friends. They are my brothers.”

Manilow complained that when the Reagans became his neighbors in Bel-Air: "I thought it was pretty hot, but the secret service were all over the place. I always know when they are coming home because of all the helicopters. If I am out there sunbathing in the nude, I go, shit, the Reagans are coming home.

When Elizabeth Taylor asked him the early 1980s for help raising money to fight the disease he was there. Manilow: “Her friend, Rock Hudson, had died. She was the first one to try to make the public aware of this disease that was infecting everybody, & she was throwing a big dinner party. She called her entertainer friends, & they all turned her down. I don't know why. But I got the call & said, ‘Of course.’ But my band wasn't around. I just went there & played piano & sang for a good hour. It was the first one she had, & it was the first time I had ever done anything like that.”

I have never been, nor do I suspect that I will ever be, a Fanalow. Even with my egalitarian & encompassing musical tastes, I never did find myself on the Manilow journey. The closest to an exception was when I was working for ASCAP in NYC, circa mid-1970s. I was engaged in listening to 6 hours of commercial radio play & entrusted to identify all the music played: commercials, bridges, lead-ins, cues & songs. I would not listen to songs all the way through. I was paid a bonus for finishing more than the 6 hour tape. Yet, I was very taken with an AM radio hit. I knew the song in the first 3 notes, but I would listen all the way through. I began to think it would be an effective ballad in my own act. The song was Weekend In New England sung by Barry Manilow.



I think it is unfortunate that Manilow suffers from the same fear of fan rejection that Liberace did. It would have been fun to have him be an out & proud gay man. For 25 years, Manilow has lived with his "manager" Garry Kief in homes they share in NYC, Bel Air & Palm Springs. Could It Be Magic?

Let's Hear It For The Boy... He Turns 50 Today!

"I just want money

 so that I can be really irresponsible."

 George Alan O'Dowd

Boy Past

Boy Present

Who amongst us has not restrained a rent boy to a radiator? I mean you can’t trust them to be left alone in a room. What is a pop star supposed to do?

At the height of his fame, before the bruising blows of pop star failure, drug addiction, & tabloid infamy, Boy George was the embodiment of fantasy escapism. The Karma Chameleon who blurred boundaries of sexuality & gender, he was a figure of wish fulfillment of the desire to be able to transcend our physical limitations & be something other than what we are. Using bewitchment, beauty, & disguise, Boy George showed that you could be anything & anyone & achieve acclaim.

Boy George: British gay soul singer, lyricist, DJ, sexually ambiguous gender-bending superstar of the 80s, trendsetter, fashion model, autobiographer, gay rights campaigner, anti-racism & animal rights activist. During the years of Culture Club he had international success as a media celebrity until revelations about his secret hard drug problem hit the tabloids. At the end of the 1980s he began to rehabilitate & reinvent himself from being an outsider, freak, & victim to respectable celebrity.  He also turned to Buddhism & Hare Krishna philosophy which brought together his pacifist beliefs & vegetarianism.

Helping keep Manhattan clean

In the new century, Boy George continues to record, DJ & make the tabloids. He has been involved in a series of scandals, drug arrests & peculiar behavior, but who else can carry off an ankle monitor with such finesse?  This year marks Boy George's 50th year & the 30th anniversary of Culture Club, celebrating with a reunion tour & a new album in 2012.

Morrissey Turns 52

Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in 1959, on this day- May 22^nd.

I remain a great fan of his bull’s eye baritone & the perfect poetry of his bleak & witty lyrics. Usually a pop star has to be dead before they can become an icon of his stature. The Smiths enjoyed 10 top 10 hits. Morrissey waited an entire 6 months after The Smiths broke up to release his first solo album- Viva Hate.

Like me, Morissey is a vegetarian & animal rights advocate. Unlike me he claims to be celibate. Morrissey frequently tells interviewers who ask him about his sexuality that the question is irrelevant to his music, or he gives an evasive or ambiguous response. He has been hinting lately that he has just had a late blooming sex life.

My favorite Morrissey song is Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before:

Stop me, oh, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've
Heard this one before
Stop me, oh, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love

I was delayed, I was way-laid
An emergency stop
I felt the last 10 seconds of life
I crashed down on the crossbar
& the pain was enough to make
A shy, bald, buddhist reflect
& plan a mass murder
Who said I'd lied to you ?

Oh, who said I'd lied?  Because I never! I never !
Who said I'd lied because I never ?
I was detained, I was restrained
& broke my spleen
& broke my knee
& then he really lays into me
Friday night in Out-patients
Who said I'd lied to you ?

Here & instead of
& ,so I drank 1
It became 4
& when I fell on the floor
I drank more
Stop me, oh, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've
Heard this one before
Stop me, oh, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love

Morrissey/Mars
1986

Born On This Day- May 16th... Wladziu Valentino Liberace

“You know that bank I used to cry all the way to? Well, I bought it.”

Here is the craziest part.. the Husband & I briefly lived in Las Vegas (long story), & even nuttier, we didn’t have an automobile. I would actually walk in the 100 degree heat to the theatre that I was working for. There were no sidewalks. It was just me & the lizards. My route took me right by the Liberace Museum, just a few blocks from our condo. I always glanced in & I enjoyed the camp factor.

When someone seems too obviously & outrageously gay, & yet people in my life seem to not get it, my response is often- “He attended Liberace  Community College”.

Overheard on the Max Train:
Older Gay Guy: That guy is so gay.
Other Guy: Totally gay.
Older Gay Guy: Liberace gay.\

Ironic then, the man spent his life time hiding the truth & denied being gay to the very end.

Liberace was an international superstar dating back to the early 1950s. He averaged $5 million a year in income for more than 35 years. The 1978 Guinness Book of World Records identified Liberace as the world's highest paid musician.

He was born Wladziu Valentino Liberace in a Milwaukee suburb in 1919 to poor parents. He was classically trained on the piano as a youth & made his concert debut as a soloist at age 11. As a teenager during the depression, he played piano in speakeasies to make money for his family.

In 1940, Liberace moved to New York. His charm & piano skills paid off. Within 7 years he was touring the hotel clubs. The story might have ended there, except that Las Vegas & TV discovered Liberace’s charms. By the late 1940s he began playing extended runs in Las Vegas. He would appear at the casinos in Vegas regularly for the rest of his life. As Sin City grew, so did Liberace's fame.

Liberace appearances on TV cemented his superstar status. In the early 1950s, Liberace had a variety show on TV, where he would play his elaborate piano, sing & dance a little, & praise his mother Frances, who was always in the audience, & make jokes about the show’s band leader his brother- George. His TV show was a huge hit, & was carried by more stations than I Love Lucy.

In 1954, the year I was born, Liberace played to capacity crowds at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl, & Soldier Field in Chicago. In 1955 he opened at the Riviera in Las Vegas for $50,000 per week, becoming the city's highest paid entertainer. Liberace became a true superstar. He bought lavish mansions, remodeled them extravagantly, & filled them with ornate pianos, antiques, & over the top furniture. He even had a piano shaped swimming pool.

Liberace's musical repertoire included a unique mix of classical, movie themes, cocktail jazz, & sentimental ballads. He knew thousands of songs & could play almost any request from the audience. He would edit classical pieces to under 5 minutes: "I took out the boring parts. I know just how many notes my audience will stand for. If there's any time left over, I fill in with a lot of runs up & down the scale."

He commissioned more elaborate costumes as the years went by. Eventually he was spending $40,000 every year on bigger, flashier, & more opulent costumes. On various tours, he wore a cape made with $60,000 worth of chinchilla, a tuxedo embedded with diamonds spelling out his name, & a King Neptune costume covered in pearls & sea shells weighing 200 pounds. He had large rings shaped like a candelabra & a grand piano, each studded with diamonds. He was the Elton John of his time.

He added showgirls, jugglers, singers, giant water fountains, light shows, a full orchestra, & even an elephant. During many of his shows he flew above the stage from a cable in a feather cape. He toured with a grand piano covered with thousands of glittering mirror tiles.

Liberace emphatically denied his homosexuality throughout his career. He evidently thought that coming out of the closet would hurt his popularity, & his female fans refused to acknowledge the obvious. But his denials unraveled when Liberace was sued for palimony in 1983 by his “chauffeur”- Scott Thorson, who had been living with Liberace for years. Liberace had Thorson on the payroll, dressed him up like himself, & paid for plastic surgery to have Thorson look like a young version of himself. But even this bizarre scandal didn't  put a dent in Liberace's popularity. The case was eventually settled out of court for less that $100,000.

In the 1970s, Liberace moved to Las Vegas, where he was the highest paid performer in the city. Las Vegas is a city built on fantasy, superficiality, & unbridled spending Liberace's calling cards. Both Las Vegas & Liberace proved the same motto: Nothing succeeds like excess.

Liberace was at the apex of his career in the mid-1980s. At Radio City Music Hall he had 3 extended engagements. From 1984-86, he sold out 56 straight shows. Liberace called his Radio City shows "the fulfillment of a dream & the culmination of my forty years in show business." Liberace’s massive fortune continued to grow. He owned houses all over the world & had all of his clothes made especially for him. He even had the front of a Rolls Royce attached to the front of a VW Beatle so he could drive both of his favorite cars at once.

Liberace was in a steady relationship with Jamie Wyatt when the gay world was shaken by AIDS. Liberace discovered that he was HIV positive. In the press, he attributed his weight loss to the popular watermelon diet. After a last tour to promote his new book- The Things I Love, Liberace fell gravely ill. He spent 4 days in hospital before it was decided that the best thing would be for him to go home & die comfortably in his own surroundings. Liberace spent his last days at home with his 27 dogs, watching episodes of The Golden Girls. His family & partner were by his side when Liberace died of a cardiac arrest, brought on by AIDS, on February 8th 1987. Only then did the world find out about his hidden life & illness.

Liberace chose a life where showmanship & flamboyance were his mainstay. His lust for everything fabulous, his showmanship & his talent, touched the hearts of his many fans & influenced a long line of artists from Elvis to Adam Lambert. Liberace proved that being fabulous can be a life unto itself.

Steven Soderbergh's movie version of the Liberace/Scott Thorson story is being filmed starring Michael Douglas & Matt Damon.

I Want Your Sex

Post Apocalyptic Bohemian favorite George Michael is set to produce a new album with a "collective" of gay musicians, aimed at a young gay audience, as an apology for the homophobia that he believes his turbulent private life has inadvertently generated.

Michael: "I'm looking to work with gay & gay-friendly artists. It will be a gay collective with some songs sung by myself & some songs by unknown gay artists. I have a serious problem with the fact that every time I made a big mistake, I definitely felt I was letting young gay people down because of the homophobia that was thrown at me & the wording of that homophobia. I am going to try & make up for some of the damage that I have inadvertently caused just by making myself so newsworthy and putting myself on the back foot... where there was no room or space to defend gay children from some of that language."


Michael has had several experiences that landed him trouble since he came out in 1998. He was jailed in September 2010 for crashing his Range Rover while under the influence of cannabis, which seems odd to me, because I drive better when I have spent time with Mary Jane.


I am rather certain that the young gay people I know, have no idea who George Michael is. I don't believe his life as an openly gay man has caused homophobia. I, of course, hold him as an inspirational figure.


Michael also announced that he is going on tour a tour with a symphony orchestra, including a charity concert in memory of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, & a show at the Paris Garnier opera house for French First Lady- Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's HIV charity.

Michael will be performing in my garden this summer, at the much in demand mid-summer night's cocktail party. Will you there? 

He Knows How To Give Me Two-Fisted Love

In consideration of the commendable craft of her songwriting, blending jazz, blues & folk & the phenomenal vocal instrument of Phoebe Snow, who left us last week, I devoted some time listening to her catalogue. Despite her success in the 1970s, I wasn't really a fan & never purchased her albums, but hearing her songs on the radio always made me feel good. The exception was her duet with Paul Simon on the hit single Gone At Last, which I was crazy about.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this ditty & it brought out my puerile personality in force:

My baby's out there with his lantern
Searching for an honest man
Oh, it's crisis time
Stuck in the suburbs,
Dying on the vine
He knows how to give me gifts from above
He knows how to give me two-fisted love
Two-fisted love, two-fisted love...
Two-fisted love

I Don't Tell You What To Say, I Don't Tell You What To Do...

Today marks the 65th birthday of Lesley Sue Goldstein. She is a thinly disguised character, played by Bridgett Fonda, in a favorite movie- Grace Of My Heart. The film deals with the struggles with her sexuality, but in real life Leslie Gore wouldn’t come out as gay until 2005. 

"I'm free & I love to be free
"To live my life the way I want
To say & do whatever I please"

Leslie Gore was discovered, nurtured & her early work was produced by Quincy Jones, & what a catalogue of 1960s hits! She was 16 when she had her first hit- It’s My Party.  After she recorded It's My Party, she was told not to be disappointed if it was never released. She didn't think much would become of it until she heard it on the radio. Gore was something of an anomaly in the pop music world, a solo female artist in an age of girl-groups. Gore has lived in NYC with her partner of 31 years- Lois, a jewelry designer. One of her songs has been a personal anthem, sung by your host with conviction & tears, all alone in the house. I love her sound, & I was crazy for her work then & I am crazy about it now:


It’s My Party
Judy’s Turn To Cry
She’s A Fool
You Don’t Own Me
I Don’t Know Anymore
That’s The Way Boys Are
Maybe I Know
The Look Of Love
Sunshine, Lollipops, & Roses
Young Love
California Nights

More Than Glad To Be Unhappy

In 1980, I appeared in a musical revue- Rodgers & Hart. I had the good thrill of singing: Could Write A Book, Isn’t It Romantic & my favorite to charm the audience- Where Or When. It was my understanding that I was very good. I do have a way with a song, a dance & an audience.

Lorenz Hart was born 116 years ago today-May 2nd. Hart wrote over 500 songs with the most sophisticated lyrics for the most enthralling melodies. But this is a sad story. He agonized over life. His felt that he was a misplaced person, whose job was to observe the beautiful people, then put ravishing words in their perfect mouths, to make them sound & feel as smart as they seemed.

Richard Rodgers, the Broadway composer, enjoyed long collaborations with the 2 most prominent lyricists of the American musical. He worked with his first partner- Lorenz Hart, from 1919 until Hart's death, at 48, in 1943. He teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II from the groundbreaking Oklahoma! until 1943 with Hammerstein's death, in 1960. His work with Hart makes their tunes particularly non-Hammerstein in flavor.

Written 70 to 90 years ago, mostly for now forgotten Broadway shows & movies, brittle & world-weary tunes: Manhattan, Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine, Where or When, The Lady Is a Tramp, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, & many more, sound both of today & timeless. They sing with confident wit, & confidential despair about hearts ready to break, melt or explode. Rodgers' melodies get you humming & dreaming, but the subject & style of these songs come straight from Hart's heart.

Hart was very short of stature & unattractive in face. Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, "a man who seemed deprived of the happiness his lyrical gifts gave to others.” He was profoundly alcoholic & gay. Hart found little enjoyment in his homosexual experiences. Terrified of intimacy, he would wait for sex partners to fall asleep, then creep out of bed & curl up on the floor of his bedroom closet to get some sleep. Several of Hart's acquaintances confirm that he went to private orgies, but strictly as a voyeur. He found watching from the sidelines less stressful than joining in. He seems to have been incapable of any intimacy, & sought solace in the sexual company of hustlers & the occasional chorus boy. His erratic behavior & troubled ways moved the very straight Rodgers to eventually choose another writing partner.

Offered the chance to write what would become Oklahoma!, Hart sensibly said no thanks. (It's hard to imagine a less Hart-ish show.) After the opening night performance, Hart walked into Sardi's & told Rodgers, "This is one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life, &it'll be playing 20 years from now."

Rodgers & Hart collaborated one more time though. In 1943, they did 5 new songs for a revival of their 1927 hit A Connecticut Yankee. The last lyric Hart wrote was for To Keep My Love Alive, sung by a noble lady who tires easily of men,15 husbands &15 early funerals:
"Sir Philip played the harp; I cussed the thing.
I crowned him with his harp to bust the thing.
& now he plays where harps are just the thing,
To keep my love alive."

Just before the opening of the show, Hart had been on a drinking & hustler binge, & when he arrived at the theater an exasperated Rodgers refused to let him enter the theatre. Hart sat in the November rain on a curbside drinking & crying. 2 days later, ill with pneumonia, he was taken to Doctors' Hospital where he died 3 days later. He was just 47 years old. Now he plays where harps are just the thing.

Some of the Hart lyrics:


• Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered
• Blue Moon
• Dancing on the Ceiling
• Falling in Love with Love
• Glad to Be Unhappy
• Have You Met Miss Jones?
• He Was Too Good to Me
• I Could Write a Book
• I Didn't Know What Time It Was
• I'll Tell The Man In The Street
• Isn't It Romantic?
• It Never Entered My Mind
• It's Easy to Remember
• I've Got 5 Dollars
• I Wish I Were in Love Again
• Johnny One Note
• The Lady Is a Tramp
• Little Girl Blue
• Lover
• Manhattan
• The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
• Mountain Greenery
• My Funny Valentine
• My Heart Stood Still
• My Romance
• Ship Without a Sail
• Sing for Your Supper
• Spring Is Here
• Ten Cents a Dance
• There's a Small Hotel
• This Can't Be Love
• To Keep My Love Alive
• Where or When
• With a Song in My Heart
• You Took Advantage of Me

I have been happily enamoured of Hart's work for 5 decades, naming a favorite would change on a whim, a mood or the discovery of a lyric that had previously ignored. Today I am drawn to It Never Entered My Mind from 1940. Not to be too immodest, I do this song justice myself:

Born On This Day- April 25th... Lyricist Jerry Leiber

Jerome Leiber is one of the most important & influential songwriters of the 1950s, 1960s, & 1970s. He was a member of The Brill Building stable, & along with his writing partner- Mike Stoller, wrote some of the biggest hits of their era:
There Goes My Baby
Hound Dog
Kansas City
Smokey Joe's Cafe
Yakety Yak
Poison Ivy
Charlie Brown
Ruby Baby
Stand By Me
Jailhouse Rock
Love Potion #9
Searchin
Young Blood
Is That All There Is?
On Broadway
Spanish Harlem

Here is one of my favorite Leiber lyrics:

Pearl's a singer
She stands up when she plays the piano
In a nightclub

Pearl's a singer
She sings song for the lost & the lonely
Her job is entertaining folks
Singing songs & telling jokes in a nightclub

Pearl's a singer
& they say
That she once was a winner in a contest

Pearl's a singer
& they say that she once
Cut a record
They played it for a week or so
On a local radio
It never made it

She wanted to be Betty Grable
But now she sits there
At the beer stained table
Dreaming of the things she never got to do
All those dreams that never came true

Pearl's a singer
She stands up when she plays the piano
In a nightclub

Pearl's a singer
She sings song for the lost & the lonely
Her job is entertaining folks
Singing songs & telling jokes in a nightclub

Pearl's a singer
She stands up when she plays the piano
In a nightclub

Pearl's a singer
She sings song for the lost & the lonely
Her job is entertaining folks
Singing songs & telling jokes
... in a nightclub

Jerome Leiber 1977

A Little Respect For Andy Bell

I have been a big fan of a certain pop happy duo since the mid-1980’s. Erasure consists of the straight songwriter/ keyboardist Vince Clark & openly Gay singer Andy Bell. One of Erasure’s fanatic fan bases comes from within the Gay community itself, where Andy Bell is regarded as a Gay icon to. Growing up with the belief that respect goes a long way, Bell learned that at an early age you should carry through in life what you want given back.

Despite a continued collaboration with Vince Clarke & Erasure, Bell has some of his own solo gigs as a much in demand DJ. If you don’t know Erasure's work, start with the compilation Total Pop! The First 40. Among the digitally remastered tracks: Oh, L’Amour, A Little Respect, Boy, Stand By Your Man, Chain Of Love, & Blue Savannah.

Erasure is known for elaborate stage shows & productions. Bell: “It is always fun creating the various productions. I play a creative role, but we have always had quite a production team. Our swan production was quite over the top.” I was zany for the wild, wild west routine with Bell singing Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man with Erasure partner Vince Clarke (a straight boy) in full drag. Another favorite is his contribution to the original Red+Hot+Blue album- Cole Porter's Too Darn Hot.

In 1985, Clarke picked Andy Bell out of a large group to audition for a new group. Clarke had successfully created 2 other groups that I was mad for: Depeche Mode & Yazoo- featuring singer Alison Moyet. Bell: “I was #36 to audition. After many months in the studio, I also think they figured out I was gay with all the boys I had visiting me during that time.” After 30 years of hits, tours & travel with Clarke, the duo are still very close & continue to coordinate on new projects.

Bell is open about Sylvester & Freddy Mercury as his role models. Bell: “Freddy Mercury, if he were to still be alive today, would have been one of the top performers in the industry. He was so far ahead of his time. & when it comes to sexuality, these days that isn’t such an issue. We have evolved.” Bell claims he would love work with Annie Lennox, who remains one of his favorite singer.

Bell was part of The True Colors tour in 2007 & went to cities around the US and Canada. Presented by the Logo Channel, the tour featured Andy Bell with & without Erasure, Margaret Cho, Cyndi Lauper, Deborah Harry, Rosie O’Donnell & others. The benefit for the HRC, PFLAG & The Matthew Shepard Foundation was a stunning success.

Bell was one of the first pop stars to come out as being gay, & in 2004 he become one of the first pop stars to come out as HIV positive. Bell has known his status since June 1998, when he came down with a case of pneumonia, & was quite happy keeping the news to himself. But when speculation started last winter about his health during a recent double hip replacement, Bell thought he'd set the record straight & try to erase some of the stigma at the same time.

Bell lives the life in London with longtime partner- Paul Hickey. He turns 47 years old on this day- April 25th. Any musical message from Andy Bell will always bring a little RESPECT from Post Apocalyptic Bohemia.

Another Sad Song From The Closet?

Slick, overproduced, modern R&B is not my favorite genre, but there is no denying the luscious, lustrous instrument of Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr, who was born in 1951, on this day- April 20th. He may have been the premier male R&B singer of his time. He won 8 Grammys including for Song of the Year in 2004- Dance With My Father.

He started as a first rate backup singer for: Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Donna Summer, Bette Midler, Chic, Barbra Streisand. Vandross toured with David Bowie in 1974 & sang backing vocals on the Young Americans album Vandross was mentored by Roberta Flack, who thought he has the makings of a great artist.


Vandross had a series of strong selling solo albums & collaborations in the 1980s, 1990s & early aughts.


Vandross' career he was vexed' by questions about his sexuality. He remained, & he was never romantically linked in the media with women. He never explicitly denied being gay, but he never publicly acknowledged it either. He claimed that he was too busy with his career & “it was not what he wanted.” Vandross' homosexuality was an open secret in the music industry, but never seems mentioned in the list of great gay artists.


Vandross suffered from diabetes & hypertension. His weight fluctuated wildly throughout his career. In 2003 Vandross suffered a stroke at his home in Manhattan. Except for accepting his 2004 his Song of the Year Grammy in 2004, he was never seen in public again. On the video Vandross stated: “Whenever I say goodbye it's never for long because I believe in the power of love.”


Vandross died in July 2005 . He was just 54 years old & reportedly had never fully recovered from the 2003 stroke. He died peacefully, surrounded by his family & friends.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

She is one of the most important recording artists of my considerable lifetime. Her music has moved me, thrilled me & comforted me for nearly 50 years.  For me, the album- Dusty In Memphis is a perfect LP & in my top 5 albums of all time.

Dusty Springfield was an unlikely celebrity. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien was London born on this day in 1939, a month before that start of WW2. She started life as an Irish Catholic schoolgirl, yet she gained stardom as a sultry singer of soul, the "white girl singing black music."

Her love for other women was forbidden & in the UK at the time, illegal. The most frustrating thing for any creative person must be an inability to express in your work the things that mean the most to you. Art is inspired by our strongest emotions, including love & desire. It must be difficult to write, compose, paint or act when your own feelings of love & desire are considered off limits to most of society. Like most of the great gay artists in history, we have found innovative ways of sidestepping the heterosexual expectations of the public yet covertly conveying our constrained emotions in our work.

Springfield’s sexuality is at the heart of the melancholy & vulnerability that she brings her recordings, including this one. Her songs go straight to my heart: How Can I Be Sure, All Cried Out, I Close My Eyes & Count To Ten, Some of Your Lovin’, The Look of Love, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, & my personal favorite, her really truly devastating version of I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. She does more than sell the song; she inhabits & makes them her own in the way that only the true great artists can do.


With a strong, masculine countenance but a feminine style, she appealed to gay men, lesbians. She even went one step further by studying and copying drag acts, creating the image of a woman, dressed like a man who is dressed like a woman. Gender bending & confusing to a 1960s listening public. In the press, her image was still being vigorously protected against her sexuality. Every press release stressed her Catholic faith & middle-class roots. The fact she was living with a fellow singer Norma Tanega was conveniently overlooked. after Springfield & Tanega had split up, there was always an other woman keeping her company.

Springfield also managed an iconic image for herself, tall beehive hair & thick, dark eye make-up. Her look was copied by fellow artists of the time, teenage girls, & drag queens. Her short career left an lasting legacy on modern fashion.

But she had other image matters to worry about too. Having become an expert in all aspects of sound recording, the male dominated industry felt resentment by this young woman who seemed to know it all. She also had a sharp ear for quality & a perfectionist approach to her work. Women were simply not allowed to lean across the mixing desk & proceed to take over. Soon, she had acquired the unfair reputation for being difficult & eccentric. Most producers braced themselves for an argument when they heard that Dusty Springfield would be in their studio that day.


Her headstrong ways & strong working knowledge of the technical aspects of recording did not endear Springfield to the professional male dominated professional musical community, but she certainly enchanting her fans.

In 1964, while on tour in South Africa, & with no real interest in politics, she found it abhorrent that it was illegal to perform a concert to a mixed audience. But there was a loophole in the law presented to her that allowed live performances to mixed audiences as long as they were in a movie theatre. Springfield booked the biggest cinema she could find & played to a large mixed audience. When she arrived back at her hotel, Springfield & her entourage were placed under arrest & deported from the country immediately. Back home the public loved her for it. She was hailed as an anti-apartheid hero.


Springfield was at her apex in the mid-1960s. She had several hit albums, a #1 single (You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me), & her own TV show. She had also been credited as the woman who brought Motown to the UK. But in the early 1970s, when I loved her the most, Springfield’s style was pushed aside in preference for more experimental styles & songs with a strong political message. Her simple love songs & throaty jazzy voice, began to lose popularity.


Springfield was sucked into the spiral of drink, drugs & the party culture. She abused a variety substances on a daily basis. The pressure of her double life manifested itself in cutting, depression & a desire to avoid the spotlight. Then an album she had started to record for Atlantic Records was shelved due to her ‘poor mental health’.

Aghast at the abandoned album Springfield moved to LA & dropped deeper drug abuse, alcohol & self harm. Abandoning her career, she spent most of the 1970s living late nights of partying & drug taking. Her cutting so severe that on several occasions, she was hospitalized.

Late in the 1970s Springfield had begun to speak openly about her attraction to both sexes, although she was never known to ever have had a boyfriend. The poor press she received for coming out devastated Springfield. She told her parents she was gay, but far from outraged, they laughed & did not take the situation seriously. This seemed to hurt her even more.


In the 1980s Springfield’s drug abuse was at an all-time high. She continued to enjoy short-lived affairs with women in the music industry, including Rough Trade’s lead singer, Carol Pope. Her recordings made little impact & had low sales . Springfield was constantly between rehab or the hospital.

Salvation came in 1987 when her long time fans the Pet Shop Boys asked her to collaborate with them . The resulting record,-What Have I Done to Deserve This was a worldwide smash hit & one of my favorite singles ever. All of a sudden, the 48 year-old faded star was among the smart set again. Pet Shop Boys to produce an album for her. Her life started to get better. No drugs & no long nights partying. More hits singles followed.

In 1994, just as Springfield was riding high again in 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She seemed beating the cancer, but remission was to be short lived. For several years, she fought against the second bout of cancer. Before long, it was clear that this time, there would be no remission. Springfield lived with lifelong friend & backing singer, Simon Bell, who took care of her.

On New Year’s 1999, Springfield was awarded an Order of the British Empire for her contribution to music. Too sick to make the ceremony, her long time manager, Vicki Wickham, with permission from Queen Elizabeth 2, picked up the award on her behalf. It was carried directly to Springfield & given to her in front of a few friends, & her doctor. On the day when Springfield would have received the award, she lost her fight against cancer. Her funeral took over the small town where she had spent the end of her life- of Henley, & the service was attended by thousands of mourners including Elvis Costello, Lulu, Elton John & Pet Shop Boys. 10 days after her death. her friend Sir Elton inducted Springfield into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, stating: “She was the greatest white singer of all time”.

Born On This Day- March 25th... Jean Sablon

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, & I mean Seattle in the 1990s, the Husband owned his own grocery store/café- Plenty in the Madrona neighborhood. In the search for fun music to play on the sound system, we discovered Post Apocalyptic Bohemian favorite Jean Sablon.

Jean Saboln was openly gay, living with his partner, a US service man, for more than 4 decades, yet he was a matinee idol & the French housewife's pin-up of choice. He recorded in the 1920-1980s, & he topped bills in cabarets & concert halls in Paris, London & on Broadway. In the1960s- 1980s Saboln made highly rated TV specials in France & Britain. Gershwin & Cole Porter wrote songs for him. Sablon helped to popularize swing music in France by teaming up on several occasions with Stephane Grapelli & Django Reinhardt.


In 1937, Sablon made his first visit to the USA. He spent the war years here, singing on stage & on the radio he was featured on the CBS Hit Parade, where he was ranked higher than Sinatra. The microphone revolutionized the music industry, & Sablon pioneered the subtleties of it use.His voice was heard by 50 million listeners twice each week. Bing Crosby owned all of his records, & Sinatra compared himself to Sablon in interviews. Sablon spent some time living in Hollywood where his close friends included Cary Grant, & Marlène Dietrich.

Sablon toured 5 continents demonstrating his independence & inquisitiveness, the qualities led him to introduce many new musical genres to France: biguine, calypso & bossa nova.
 
After Chevalier & Piaf, he was the only French singer to have tremendous success in the USA. In France, his style was that of a chanteur de charme which the American term 'crooner' hardly does justice to, but he was known as "the French Bing Crosby".

Sablon was the very definition of a suave, stylish, seductive Parisian lover. He sang with a velvety voice, thrilling in its lower registers. light & lovely on his upper notes. Listening to him makes me dizzy & horny.

In 1981 he gave his 75th anniversary concert at the Lincoln Center in New York Sablon was beloved in Brazil & it was in Rio de Janeiro, in 1983, that he gave his farewell recital to a very emotional public in tears as he said goodbye: "I bow myself out . . ."


He died in France in 1994.

It's Spring Again & Birds On The Wing Again, Start To Sing Again, That Old Melody

We are just a few hours past the Spring Equinox & I am good & ready for winter to be done. This song is in my all time top 20. I have perhaps 12 artists giving their spin. I play it often at this time of year & I have 2 different versions (Ricki Lee Jones & Ella Fitzgerad) that bookend my Spring Mix that friends are clamoring for:


Once I was a sentimental thing
Threw my heart away each spring
Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance
Promised my first dance to winter
All I've got to shows a splinter for my little fling!


Spring this year has got me feeling like a horse that never left the post

I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Mornings kiss wakes trees & flowers,
& to them I'd like to drink a toast
I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours
Spring can really hang you up the most.


All afternoon those birds twitter twit,
I know the tune, this is love, this is it!
Heard it before & I know the score
& I've decided that spring is a bore!


Love seemed sure around the New Year

Now it’s April & love is just a ghost
Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Spring is here, there's no mistaking
Robins building nests from coast to coast
My heart tries to sing so they won't hear it breaking
Spring can really hang you up the most!


College boys are writing sonnets
In the tender passion they're engrossed
But I'm on the shelf with last years Easter bonnets
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Love came my way, I hoped it would last
We had our day, now that's all in the past
Spring came along, a season of song
Full of sweet promise but something went wrong!


Doctors once prescribed a tonic,
Sulphur & molasses was the dose
Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic
Spring can really hang you up the most!


All alone, the party's over
Old man winter was a gracious host
But when you keep praying for snow to hide the clover
Spring can really hang you up the most!

Born On This Day- March 19th... Athen's Own Ricky Wilson

Ricky Helton Wilson died way too young. He sure was a talented cutie. Ricky was the original guitarist in the rock band The B-52s, which he helped to form in 1976.






What do they put in the water in Athens, Georgia?


At first The B-52s did not have a bass player, so Ricky invented his own tunings on a guitar, grouping the strings into a bass course. It was quite an original sound. It was a sound that I still continue to really dig. I had some major fun on the dance floor in the late 1970s- early 1980s… courtesy of the B-52s. I still love their surf punk party music.


Wilson died on October 12, 1985, aged 32, from health complications related to AIDS. In an interview, fellow band member Kate Pierson stated that Wilson had kept his illness secret from his fellow band members because he 'did not want anyone to worry about him or fuss over him.


Following his death, fellow B-52s' member Keith Strickland, originally the drummer for The B-52s, learned how to play the guitar in a similar fashion to Wilson.


The B-52s effectively disappeared for a couple of years following their loss, unable to continue without their friend & bandmate & in Cindy Wilson's case, brother, but they eventually put the band together again & wnt on to to achieve mainstream worldwide commercial success. The B52s remain musically active & continue to tour.

Born On This Day- February 19th... Beautiful, Bodacious, Buxxom Beth Ditto

Portland has an interesting list of our local Rock celebrities including working members from: Modest Mouse, Sleater-Kinney, The Shins, Spoon, Pavement, The Dandy Warhols, Pink Martini,& the current PDX musical royalty- The Decemberists. My very own neighborhood is the home of provocative, powerful, plus-size punker & cover girl- Beth Ditto of the band- Gossip.

No wonder then that Ditto settled in NoPo. Mary Beth Patterson grew up in a 2-bedroom house in Arkansas, with her mother, 6 siblings & a heap full of stepfathers & relatives, at times there would be 12 people living in the tiny house. Her mother worked swing shift as a nurse in attempt to provide for them all. Ditto was left to her own devices, & she would sometimes shoot squirrels to eat. She would do well trying to survive in my back garden- Squirrel Central. Ditto claims that her childhood seems best summed up during a chance meeting with Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas: “I looked like some wild animal with bruises on my face & chocolate round my mouth. I asked him to sign my dollar bill & he said: ‘I think that’s illegal, little darlin’.’”


Desperate to make music, at 18 Ditto moved to Portland, Oregon & changed her name. Despite her bad ass voice, she wasn’t an overnight success. It took Gossip 4 albums to make it huge with Standing in the Way of Control in 2007. Being a punk is apparently no less demanding than being a fashionista. Ditto: “If you think fashion is snobby, go hang out with some punks. They are beyond elitist.”

She has been with the same woman- Freddie, for a decade+, though they don’t live together. Ditto: “We tried that once & it did not work. We got together when I was 19. I haven’t had any other experiences in my life... & I won’t.” But a surprising domesticity has crept in, as she recently bought herself a house in my neighborhood. I see her around, & of course I would like to make her acquaintance. Hanging out with Ditto at the many Portland Framers’ Markets would be hot. I would like to take her around to the neighborhood dive bars & music venues & we could determine who has the cheapest whiskey & best Tater Tots.


Ditto turns 30 today. Age & dress size.

Born On This Day- December 11th... Francis Albert Sinatra

My favorite sound in the world is a baritone in song & my favorite baritone voice of all time is Frank Sinatra. I understand that he was a lout & a bit of a thug, but no matter what he was like as a human being, I find his pitch, cadence, phrasing & musicality to be the best of all time. I stand by my choice of his 1967 collaborative album- Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, to be a perfect album, in a league with Dusty in Memphis & Revolver. I am willing to put his Columbia “concept” albums with the Nelson Riddle arrangements: In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely, Nice 'n' Easy in the same category.





I think that he was talented &a nimble dancer, holding his own with Gene Kelly. He was an underestimated actor & screen presence, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, & critical acclaim for his work in The Manchurian Candidate. I still find his work to be engaging in the musicals as High Society, Pal Joey. Guys & Dolls & On the Town.


I was living in L.A. in the early 1970s & was fortunate enough to be an acquaintance of actress/singer Betty Garrett. She told me that because of their past affiliations with the Communist Party, thanks to Parks' involvement with people from the Group Theatre, Garrett & her husband- Larry Parks became embroiled with the House Un-American Activities Committee, although only Parks was forced to testify. While Parks willingly admitted he had been a member of the party, he had refused to name others, although it was widely assumed that he had, & he found himself on the Hollywood blacklist.

My friend Betty Garrett & the Chairman of the Board

Garrett also had trouble finding work, although as the mother of 2 young sons, she did not mind being unemployed as much as her husband did. Betty related to me that the only person that would see them socially in Hollywood was Frank Sinatra, who defied Hollywood convention & was open in his support of the couple with friendship & money.


After hearing his recordings for the past 50+ years, I am still moved when I listen to that voice. I think about how well he treated The Parks & his outrage at the racism faced by Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr. & other black entertainers. When I consider his difficult personality, I frame my feelings by his own words: "Being an 18-karat manic-depressive, & having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation.”




He recorded & toured well into his 70s. Sinatra died at 82 years old in 1998. Sinatra's last words: “I’m losing…”, not a phrase he needed much while he was working in show biz.