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Another weird week is almost over - it began with some welcome sunshine and actual heat on actual skin, but is drawing to its end with a return to dankness, with heavy rain forecast for this afternoon. Such is life in the UK.
To top it all, we should have genuinely been "in the mood for a party" - for tomorrow was supposed to have been the (rescheduled) Gay Pride march in London, which is now cancelled thanks to the ineptitude of the "organisers" as much as the dreaded you-know-what.
Coincidentally, this week we also heard the sad news of the death of Mr The Reverend Carl Bean, a very early gay rights pioneer who made a cult Disco classic under the aegis of no less than Motown Records way back in 1977 and went on to found a church catering for a black LGBT+ congregation and a prestigious AIDS Foundation, to boot!
I can think of few better ways to launch a weekend than by featuring that very anthem - and Thank Disco It's (another non-Pride) Friday!
I'm walking through life in nature's disguise
You laugh at me and you criticise
'cause I'm happy, carefree and gay - Yes, I'm gay
It ain't a fault it's a fact
I was born this way Now I won't judge you
Don't you judge me
We're all the way nature meant us to be
I'm happy - I'm carefree - I'm gay
I was born this way
You call me strange 'cause you don't understand
God's role for me in life's overall plan
I've learned to hold my head up high
Not in scorn nor disgrace
Doin' my thing individually
Entwined with this human race
Now I won't judge you - don't you judge me
We're all the way nature meant us to be
I'm happy - I'm carefree - I'm gay
I was born this way
You laugh at me and you got the nerve to criticise
If I were you I'd sit down
And consider what you're doin'
Love me and I love you
And together ain't no tellin' what we'll do
Yeah - born I said
From a little bitty bitty boy
I was born this way
I love you, I love you
And even you - born this way - yeah
I'm tellin' y'all one more time
I was born this way, proud to tell it
I was born this way
Gonna shout it, tell the world about it
I was born this way
[Yes, this song was allegedly "credited as an inspiration" for La GaGa's much later similarly-named "song"/cover of Madonna - but looking at this early review, she didn't even acknowledge its existence at first...]
RIP, Carl Bean (26th May 1944 – 7th September 2021)
Much, much more about the singer and the song at the dearly-missed Queer Music Heritage site.
Footnote:
The article I linked to above also happened to feature yet another song with a similar title...
...from one of our most treasured Patron Saints!
Have a fab weekend, dear reader!
Nice bit of Dusty - reminds me of club music in the late eighties.
ReplyDeleteI'm being mizzled into submission by the Devon weather, I know that if I go out I'll be soaked through in seconds.
Have a good weekend!
Sx
The Dusty song was indeed from 1987's Reputation albom. The version I posted is, it turns out, a remix - here's the original (which, in places, actually sounds like the GaGa track; she obviously stole from more sources than just Madge's Express Yourself).
DeleteIt's grim here too, but at least it's warm. Party on! Jx
Is that really ALL Dusty? Wow. I can't believe Gaga wasn't sued for appropriation. What year did that come out? It's rather amazing. And CARL BEAN - on Motown, no less??? Wow. That's a slice of gay history I have never been aware of... thanks for bringing it to my attention. His song is great... way ahead of it's time and nicely done. Have a lovely weekend. 80 degrees and sunny here... so out to the prairie I go... to sit under my favorite oak tree. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteAs I said to Ms Scarlet above, it's from her Reputation album in 1987 (which was re-released in the States as Reputations and Rarities a decade later).
DeleteGaGa should have been sued many times in her career for nicking ideas - she pissed Bette Midler off for stealing her famous "Dolores Delargo" mermaid-in-a-wheelchair routine, so annoyed Grace Jones that she said, when asked in an interview "I don't do duets with impersonators"; she stole the "meat dress" from the cover of an Undertones LP from 1983, her "Lobster hat" from Isabella Blow, and myriad "looks" from Daphne Guinness and Roisin Murphy. I can't stand her.
Carl Bean was indeed a pioneer - as was whoever at Motown first purchased the song! Jx
What happened to the meat dress? I hope she washed and reused it - I hate to see food wasted.
ReplyDeleteRIP to a great and brave man. He should be better known.
Dusty rules - my six year old daughter loves I Only Want To Be With You.
That meat would have been rancid by the time she'd finished wearing it... Jx
DeletePS Everyone loves Dusty!
She could have given it to her dogs.
ReplyDeleteNo use as a dress, though, just ironing it would be a nightmare
Madonna has the nerve of the Devil
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm more than well aware of Ms Ciccione's own "influences" [she's been slagged-off for her uncredited sampling in Vogue and a few other songs, to boot] - but unlike GaGa, she has at least spoken at great length about how she wanted to be like her icons such as Monroe, Dietrich and so on, and why she chose to do photoshoots based on all of them, as well as adapt aspects of their style in various videos and performances.
DeleteIt's a little different to Ms Germanotta making regular "appearances" in numerous new "press-photographer-friendly" costumes that were not in fact "new" at all, but other people's own "look" - and then nicking other people's music as well... Jx
The Reverend's song is a GREAT way to start the weekend! And Dusty has me almost wanting to go to a club. Almost.
ReplyDeleteInstead, my weekend has started with a pomegrante & rose gin (or two) while I watch the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks!
Happy Weekend, Jon!
I haven't been to a club in years - even before lockdown. My creaking knees would probably drown out the music anyway, so probably just as well.
DeleteI don't like flavoured gins. I prefer to add mixers myself, rather than have some factory in an industrial estate outside Warrington inject some synthetic flavourings into it. Jx
It is amazing just how early and ground breaking Carl Bean's 'I was born this way' was
ReplyDeleteHe and Dusty are people to be proud of in a year without 'Pride'
True pioneers, both. Today's gayers owe them a huge debt. Jx
Delete