OutLoud
Included on this page...
Definition of 'gay and lesbian recordings'.
There are several distinct meanings which are ascribed to the term 'gay and lesbian music'.
1) Music which explicitly reflects gay and lesbian experience
2) Music which is produced by musicians who are (i.e may be) homosexual
3) Music which is popular within the gay and lesbian (sub-)cultures.
The scope of this research is focussed on explicit references.
As background to this 'OutLoud' includes biographical listings which may discuss the sexual orientation of musicians, (although being a homosexual musician is not, of itself, reason for inclusion). I have only been interested to note a gay press scandal about the sexuality of a singer if it has significantly impacted on their career (Johnny Ray), or serves to reveal social attitutdes (Gladys Bently). The Weather Girls and Donna Summer are discussed as gay icons, but there no effort to provide a complete discography for them.
In practise this usually means that all lyric references to gay, lesbian, dyke, faggot, queer, homo, etc. are automatically reason for inclusion. In addition, logically, I have included other clear references where the gender and attraction is only partly clear (e.g. "You played with the boys, you played with the girls, but you got obsessed with the boys"), and other clear references to gay cultural history, issues, icons (e,g, Oscar Wilde's trial) etc.
These references may be viewed as positive or negative, politically pro- or anti. Gay and Lesbian relevance must be "explicit". It should include audible and unambiguous and fall into one or more of the following categories ;
- a) Use of the words gay, lesbian, dyke, fag, queer, "sissy-man" "BD" etc. etc. Ambiguous use of words like gay, queen, lover is not de facto evidence.
- b) The word 'love' or 'lover' when used of a person of the same gender without indication of other significances. Description of homosexual activity or relationship. (e.g."You played with all the boys, You played with all the girls, But you got obsessed by the boys")
- c) Reference to gay personalities, news events or public scandals. ("to suffer like Oscar", "Back in front of the Stonewall")
- d) Drag, TV and TS relevant material is included.
- e) Ambiguous lyrics from artists with a gay/lesbian profile (biography included in text) or whose work is generally relevant
When an album has more than one relevant track, then a full track listing is intended to follow, since this often includes ambiguous references, and is always useful for gauging the context of the album. (e.g. When considering a song called "Circle Jerk" it is useful to know that the LP also contains tracks like "Pope John Can Suck My Dick" and "I Wanna Fuck Your Dad").
Notes on Abbreviations
and Terms
LP = vinyl 12 inch long play album 12"= 'Disco Single' / 12 inch format
7"= 45 rpm single MC=Music Cassette
CD=Compact Disc
...and hence 2LP (Double-album), 3CD (Triple CD-Box)
There has been some attempt to list the formats released in the cases of current and community material. Where possible the original release data is given. Where the song was repackaged (etc.), or became much more widely available in later releases, some further matrix numbers (re-recording dates, etc.) have been provided between (brackets). Promotional releases are indicated, where known.
Specially-defined Terms
within this research
Conscription:
The audience's tendency to identify with an oblique lyric and/or to read (gay) significance into otherwise 'innocent' lyrics. Particularly in pre-liberation culture, the reference may include themes of secrecy, loneliness and proto-liberation. Over The Rainbow is the classic example. see Conscription index.
Transference (Transferred Gender References):
The generalised effect of changing 'he' to 'she', or 'girl' to 'boy', such as can rewrite any gender-specific heterosexual song to have a homosexual perspective.
OGR (Original Gender References):
Academics argue that the lyric should retain the gender references for the sake of 'musicological correctness', or (contracts demand) respect for 'the exact words of the writer, as given'. The latter was noticable as a standard contract clause in anglo-american recording industry before World War Two. Early male performers of Gershwin songs were expected to sing the gender pronouns straight from the (contracted) lyric sheet, irrespective of the performer's gender. Ella Fitzgerald therefore sang Cole Porter's words under a contract to perform the original gender references 'as written', providing many lesbian implications when singing lyrics which Porter wrote for men.
Cross Vocal :
A term used to cover all forms in which the result is understood (by the audience) to be 'a man singing a woman's song', or ' a woman singing a man's song'. This term is conveniently used to cover the tradition, which following on the early classic performances (particularly of works by Porter, Gershwin, Hart, Wise et al) is now perpetuated by Michael Feinstein, David Campbell et al. Original genders are generally retained, though for unclear/diverse reasons.
(HTML) Links to other
OutLoud Resources
The development of links within the text of OutLoud is based on collections of related documents, collections, archive sources. These codes will be 'hidden' in some file formats.
- Images
Mostly a collection of sleeve designs and artwork. In some cases also standard press photos. Items are flagged 'IMG' in the text.
- Disc Archive
Mostly the personal collections of myself, and in a few cases to the owners of rare original material. Items are flagged 'ARCH-A' (the suffix A indicates 'original material. B indicates a broadcastable (cassette) copy of the material. C= for academic information only / damaged audio quality.)
- Documents
Colleted essays, writings, press and internet documents which are preserved in the research archive. For copyright reasons they are not generally linked to the text. Items are flagged ARCH-DOC .
- Lyrics
Complete sets of lyrics are sometimes preserved for subsequent reference. For copyright reasons they are not generally linked to the text. File names typically comprise the first (5) letters of the artist and the first (5) letters of the title.
Other Criteria
for Inclusion
Recordings must have been made "publicly available".
Material produced on vinyl is therefore always included. Video and audio tape must have been "mass-duplicated" and offered for sale, albeit within a limited market. This serves to exclude personal (taped)correspondence, unreleased concert recordings, studio demos. Records and tapes made in small runs for sale to a small audience are included!
Recordings of speech are included in the cases of historical recordings and for theatrical performances.
This includes literary readings and poetry performances, interviews, documentary material on gay/lesbian themes and audio-recordings of theatre and other public events.
Film material
(i.e. feature films, movies, cinema documentaries, advertisements)and radio/television recordings are specifically excluded unless there is explicit relation to an included item. (e.g. "Before Stonewall" (for its rare video footage of listed recordings), "Boys in The Band" (which has a dialogue soundtrack LP.))
Commercially released audio-soundtracks
of films/plays are generally included if relevant, but require either vocal explicitness(dialogue, if on recording) or explicit sleeve notes/pictures. Otherwise instrumental / orchestral scores are only included if there is some reason to believe that the composer was clearly inspired by a gay/lesbian theme. Sleeve notes and quotations may be used in substantiation. Instrumental film themes for gay relevant movies are therefore not generally included, except where written to represent the gay interest/personality (e.g. "Joe Orton's Wedding", Isham's "Times of Harvey Milk").
Language.
OutLoud is not restricted to English and holds material in French, Dutch, Spanish, German and Scandanavian languages as well as some in Italian and Portugese.
Material which is indicated for a restricted audience (e.g. wimmin only) can be listed by agreement. A more liberal interpretation of "lesbian relevant" has been applied with regard to some folk/ new age/ wimmin's music.
Access to many of the listed records can be obtained via the author.
The complete form
of the data is;
- Artist (except where Soundtrack, Show, Book) :
- "Title of Record"
(Record =song when a single item is relevant or album where multiple items are relevant)
- Disc/media format.
- Label (Distributor),
- Catalogue Number(s)
- Country of release (of Recording)
- Year of release (of recording)
- Language (if not native)
- Genre, General index and relevant overview.
- "Track Title" (Time) (Author) (Index); Quotation (or translation (=...)or outline of relevant material.
(references to other entries relevant to this track)
- Additional information.
- Contact: Last known address (up to 3 years)
- other references to main entries
Misc Notes
: Formats and research guidelines
Titles of songs and albums without lyrics quoted fall into one of the following categories.
1) Unlocated so far and thus unknown
2) The title is sufficient to indicate the content
3) Ambiguous, feminist (c.f. lesbian), sexuality (c.f. homosexuality) and songs which are included as part of a complete discography for high profile artists
All literal quotations are placed in inverted commas. Research translations are not in inverted commas and are preceded by "=" and bracketed. The use of inverted commas inside the bracket indicates a translation from the sleeve / press release etc.
Unbracketed text following the song title and time indicates the editors description of the theme. Each song entry finishes with a semi-colon ";"
Alphabetical Order
By 1) Artist
Listed Chronologically by date of recording
2) Title of Film/Show
3) Title of Compilation/Benefit
4) Largest Printed Word on Cover
5) Anonymous
References
Biography
Name (legal name, place of birth, date of birth - date of death)
Index references (biography)
Bibliographical references
1) Other appearances by this artist
2) References to this artist by other artists
3) Production, direction and other credits
4) Thematic reference
Mainstream listings tend to prefer the album or LP on which the material first became widely spread and/or is most widely available. In this respect the research has tended to neglect single (7") releases of certain types of material. Where the single significantly pre-dated the album release it has been retained as a separate listing. Material released before 1980 may also have information on later availability of the material in repackaged form.
In the disco field where the same critereon would have been inappropriate it has been suspended and the preferred format is 12" Maxi-single or Disco single. LPs are also listed but often contain shorter and different (radio) mixes. Where the latter are the case listings have been restricted to prevent duplication of information. Lyrical or musical variation between versions is noted where known.
How much of an artists work is included is guaged by;
1) The proportion of their work which covers the subject
If there is only one song in five/ten albums then tracks are listed in isolation.
LP's are listed in the interim to assist in research. The GLOP index usually indicates an open artist, all of whose work has been deemed relevant.
2) Where an early album contains relevant material the subsequent albums are checked.
Artists who are gay identified in the public mind are also checked.
Where the artist has generally or regularly produced relevant material and/or a high proportion of the entire artist's catalogue is relevant then an attempt is made to list all recordings.
Some leniency in definition has been given here to provide notes for those researching in associated fields
1)"social groupings (e.g. Giorno/Zappa/Anderson), (Reed/Warhol/Underground)
2) highly popular / visible performers (e.g. Joan Armatrading),
3) Work produced by pairs or groups containing multiple gay artists and gay community groups etc. (even if not specifically relevant). (Redwood, Olivia,)
Certain artists whose work is "discrete" but whose audiences generally identifies gay qualities in the work. (e.g. The Nylons)
4) Cinema, Literature and Poetry. Detail is added for purposes of cross-referencing.
References listed after the track info refer to the track alone / specifically, and those after the artist refer to their work generally, or towards associated work.