Tuesday 23 June 2015

Holy Moses, our hearts are screaming



Another timeslip moment, methinks! And it's an appropriate one for our little countdown to Gay Pride 2015 on Saturday...

For we've landed in June 1991, when, after a hiatus since my first time in 1985 - having recently ditched a very unpleasant five-year relationship [and spent those years without having been anywhere, at all, let alone to anything as "gay" as "Pride"; it's a long story] - I gathered my skirts and trolled off to London with some chums for what I recall as being a very modest, yet hugely entertaining, Gay Pride march (from Embankment to Kennington Park) and festival (with loads of covert "in-shrubbery action")...

It's the year that Serena McKellen was invited for tea with then-PM John Major to talk about gay rights, and was knighted; there was a lesbian kiss on LA Law; Freddie Mercury died; The Lost Language of Cranes, My Own Private Idaho and Thelma & Louise were on the big screen; and, this very week twenty-four years ago, the mighty duo Erasure were "gaying-up" the upper echelons of the UK charts...


Go ahead with your dreaming
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kicking up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring

Go ahead with your scheming
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cooking up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands

And they covered up the sun
Until the birds had flown away
And the fishes in the sea
Had gone to sleep

Go ahead with your dreaming
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kicking up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring

Go ahead with your scheming
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cooking up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands

And they covered up the sun
Until the birds had flown away
And the fishes in the sea
Had gone to sleep

Holy Moses, our hearts are screaming
Souls are lifting only dreaming
We'll be waiting some are praying
For a time when no one's cheating

The sunlight rising over the horizon
Just a distant memory the dawn chorus
Birds singing bells ringing
In our hearts in our minds

And they covered up the sun
Until the birds had flown away
And the fishes in the sea
Had gone to sleep


Ah, memories...

Erasure official website

8 comments:

  1. One forgets how mainstream gayness was back in the olden days.
    Look back with Pride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It still is - it's just we don't take any notice any more. Unfortunately, the instances of "covert in-shrubbery action" have somewhat declined in consequence. Which is a shame.

      Delete
  2. I'm just glad I got all my shrubbery action out when I did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am pleased I got to experience it all, too, long before "delving into the shrubbery" merely involved a pruning shears and a trug. Jx

      Delete
  3. Erasure had such an incredible run on the UK singles chart - and this number has to be one of their best!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hit after hit after hit - and yet, strangely unacknowledged for their influence (in comparison to, for example, Pet Shop Boys or Andy's old band-mates Depeche Mode; but then again Erasure were never so successful in America). Jx

      Delete
  4. Erasure often seem to fall in a similar category to Bananarama - all this chart success and several excellent albums, yet constantly overlooked. A shame, really.

    ReplyDelete

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