The New York band brought same-sex desire to modern indie rock with a song whose lyrics have the lilt of poetry. Her take on the campy track turned Pussycat from the ultimate straight man’s leer into a lustful lesbian rallying cry. Not only did kd lang become one of the first major pop stars to come out, amid a mini-wave in the early 90s, she did so, in part, by performing one of the randiest odes to a female body part ever. Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out (1980)įor decades, Miss Ross’s declarative disco smash has served as the ultimate invitation to not only state your identity, but to revel in it. It’s found in everything from the phallic guitars to the boys’ club bonding of its classic bands. Townshend’s randy song, which caught him longing to “bite and kiss” a rough trade punk, exposed the homoeroticism that underlies so much rock’n’roll. In the recording, the genders in question were blurred, but the accompanying video made them stirringly clear. Co-written with Tom Robinson (of Glad to be Gay fame), Elton’s Song told the sad tale of a young boy’s hopeless crush on another boy. Elton John – Elton’s Song (1979)Īt the commercial nadir of his career – five years after he came out as bisexual and more than a decade before he come out as a gay man – Elton released the most poignant queer song of his career. This classic redefined the entire LGBT community as its own family, decades before same-sex marriage became, in some places, the law. Just as Scott McKenzie’s San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) lured hippies west in 1967, this Village People classic functioned as a welcome mat for gay people at the community’s adopted homeland by the bay. With his ecstatic vocal and driving disco beat, Sylvester captured the sound of liberation in a song. Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (1978) But the deep love he displayed for his doomed friend Georgie – drawn from a true-life story – expressed sentiments otherwise unstated by rock stars of its day. Yes, Stewart’s classic indulged a hoary gay cliche by ending in tragedy.
Rod Stewart – The Killing of Georgie Parts I and II (1976) The first “openly gay” rocker who was actually gay, Jobriath embraced BDSM in this cheeky cult fave. With savvy assistance from Bowie and Mick Ronson, Reed managed to smuggle Andy Warhol’s entire underground – peopled with drag queens, hustlers and drug addicts – right into the heart of the charts. The simultaneously proud – and pained – music Bowie wrote to match his words turned Dudes into an anthem for all gay rock fans. Dudes made the lust of its narrator blatant when he announced his intent to “chase some cat to bed”. Glam rock specialized in sending mixed messages about sexual identity. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images David Bowie – All The Young Dudes, as popularized by Mott the Hoople (1972)ĭavid Bowie. Ray Davies’s empathetic, and accepting, story of a cross-dresser proved so compelling, it became a top 10 smash, even in an infinitely more homophobic time. In the years since, the album has been unearthed as an early gay treasure.
It became a cult item, beloved by stars like Frank Sinatra and Liberace, as well as gay audiences on the east and west coasts. In the early 60s, a straight singer who sang with Stan Kenton’s band generously agreed to voice an album intended for a gay audience on which he sincerely serenaded another man with some of the most passionate love songs ever written. Strayhorn’s clever lyrical dodge gave him both plausible deniability and a pathway towards an eventual truth. Later, it became a jazz standard, with lyrics that pivoted on an antique meaning of the word “gay”.
Though lyricist Billy Strayhorn wrote Lush Life in the 1930s, for a long time he would only perform it in private.