Queer music?

Why I love Robbie Williams

Okay, who knew this was gonna be the topic/impetus for my first *real* post on this blog? Not me.

I'm a creature of habit and sloth, but I'm also someone who aspires to be creative... and although I can be ordered to be creative -- I have worked at many newspaper/magazine/contract jobs in the past, all with deadlines -- but in order to REALLY be creative, I need *inspiration*. I try to kid myself that I am creative when I write, so bear with me, here... :p

Well, I was lying here 3/4 asleep with my computer on 'mix', and 'repeat', playing iTunes songs as I dozed, and Robbie Williams' song "Angels" came on. Now, I have ALWAYS had a 'thing' for Williams, since I first ran across his music a few years ago (more on that, in a bit). Well, in my almost-sleep, I recognized it as the version that has a "glitch" on it, and ends up "garbled" toward the end -- it was originally re-recorded off the only copy I had of it, from a tape-recording off the radio. (Stop laughing.) For *whatever* reason, I still had that version on my iTunes, as well as newer version, which is clear and clean, but it was the "old" version that was playing, and that's what dragged me up from the Land of Nod... I wanted to hear the *good* version.

(And yes, I DO still have other "crappy" versions of songs that I have not yet been able to replace via Limewire/Poison, etc. -- fuck the US government; P2P sharing like that is NOT yet illegal where I live, in Canada.)

Anyway, I fought my way back to consciousness, and sat up to change the version of the tune, and then -- as I gradually woke up more -- I realized that I had been woken up by Robbie Williams (which made me smile).

Now, I have been party to Fer's -- my good friend 'Feral', of Feral's Treehouse fame -- admonitions for some time about how any good queer should support good, 'out' queer artists (which I try to do; I luv Jay Brannan!) and eschew closet cases, or those we suspect of being closet cases. And while I agree with him intellectually, that does not (and cannot) negate the fact that I like what I like, in terms of music -- and my taste in music tends to be wildly eclectic, from Gilbert & Sullivan, to Waylon Jennings, to Paul Robeson, to the (Soviet) Red Army Choir -- I LOVE their (voice) version of the old Soviet national anthem -- to kd lang, to Harry Lauder, to William S. Burroughs' and Utah Phillips' spoken-word stuff, to Johnny McGovern to... well, you get the point.

And I agree with Fer's point about the wisdom of listening to openly gay artists, and the subsequent sense of freedom and self-awareness that comes from listening to songs where you don't have to automatically mentally "translate" whenever you hear a guy singing about "her", or a gal singing about "him". It IS liberating to hear someone like Rufus, or Jay, or kd singing openly and proudly about their feelings of love and longing for someone of their own gender. But the what of all the OTHER songs I love, and have listened to, whilst growing up? Is Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" or Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" off my list, because they were each in the closet when they recorded them? Pish. Don't be silly. A good tune is a good tune. Hell, I still listen to a variety of George Michael tunes, and I don't give a damn if I get sneered at by straights OR queers because of that.

Now, one can make the argument that Elton and kd were singing (and writing) back in the "dark ages" just as Cole Porter and Noel Coward were, and so special dispensation can be made for them, as distinct from current-day artists who are (or whom we *suspect* are) queer, such as Mica or Robbie Williams. Maybe so. But while I am a proud fan of folks like Rufus or kd, I have never been an absolutist -- at least in part because there is so much heteronormitave music out there, and I am not necessarily familiar with all the queer music out there. And also in part because I simply don't *care* for some queer music. But also because I DO love some good (even great) music made by straights -- and closet cases.

Does that make me an "assimilationist"? -- not an argument Fer has ever made, BTW... No, I don't think so. I can listen to The Commitments' version of "Dark End Of The Street" and appreciate it in an entirely queer manner, while the fellow across the table from me can appreciate it in an entirely "het" fashion, and it's *still* a great tune. Granted, that same fellow can't listen to Johnny McGovern's "Soccer Practice" or Jay Brannan's "Ever After Happily" and EVER succeed in hearing it as anything *other* than a queer tune, but so what? They got to pretend for all these years that so many of our People were their People, so they're gonna have to learn to make some adjustments in their perceptions. Suck it.

So yeah, I listen to Robbie warbling about chycks in "Angels", even though I *suspect* that he's a total $3 bill. But even if he's not, so what? I love the tune.