Badpuppy Gay Today |
Monday, 02 June, 1997 |
Take this beer and get ready to add a bucket a' tears to it. One
of those Alabamans has gone and done it again! Yup, he's upped
and left his girlfriend for a man. The man's name? "BILL".
And the popularity of this song called "BILL" proves
there's straight women aplenty just crying in their beers about
their men--those men who got away--running after their very own
"BILL".
Lordie, its all happening in blacked-out Birmingham, where a benighted
ABC-affiliate station--Allbritton Communications--still refuses
to run ABC's Ellen (an historical event, some free-spirited
Alabamans think, matching those memorable "Segregation Now,
Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever" moments of yesteryear).
"BILL", is a hit song--say two radio station managers--
a song whose time has arrived, right in the midst of gay free-speech
controversies. To critics, "BILL" is a reminder that
True Confessions magazine tales are still dying
to be told, and that this new song is a startling example of a
stifled common confession-story unexpectedly finding its place
in popular music.
Bill sweeps the ladysinger's boyfriend off his feet as Peggy Scott-Adams--a
1960's Ben E. King troupe-retiree-returned--gives us a "My
Man He Done Me Wrong Song", except this one's got a different
twist that is evidently striking familiar chords across vast Alabama
farmlands where, secretively, great numbers of cornholers heist
their wares, in this case down by the ol' fishing hole where Bill
has taken the lovely singing lady's philandering love.
"It's not about homosexuality or bi-sexuality," insists
Peggy Scott-Adams, "it's really about deception." The
deception described in the hit song is a common experience among
women who've called in to Birmingham stations to say "Yes,
this song describes exactly what's happened to me."
Ms. Scott-Adams has been quoted as saying she'd originally feared
the song might be misconstrued as "the endorsement of a particular
lifestyle" and that Alabamans and others might never, therefore,
hear it. She felt relieved--after doing vocals--upon deciding
"BILL" isn't about gays, just about people deceiving
each other. That the woman she portrays is the deceived one and
that the deceivers are gay or bisexual doesn't seem to have occurred
to her.
A conspiracy question arises, however, perhaps more troubling.
Has "BILL" suddenly become popular in Alabama because
it truly does strike a common-experience chord? Or are certain
stations playing it to death in a strangely but strategically
configured attempt to make listeners believe gays are a threat
to everyday relationships or to the common person's already-strained
emotional-bank-account. For starters, this question has been answered,
it appears, by Pam Cook, promotions coordinator for WENN Radio
in Birmingham. "When the song came out (two months ago) everybody
wanted to hear it all the time," she says.
In the meantime, Kevin Snow, a well-loved Birmingham comedian
and Vice-president of Birmingham Pride Alabama, has charged the
Ellen-censoring Alabama ABC affiliate--Allbritton Communications--
and ABC 33/40--with "attempting to take away our right to
make our own decisions about what we watch on television."
GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is up in arms
over this show of self-righteous censorship, one that is embarrassing
to Alabamans themselves, a great many being staunch believers
in the American ideal of free-speech.
Yeah, Gwen, relax. Judy's "Over the Rainbow" is safely
within this musical collection, Club Verboten
. It was DCC head Marshall Blonstein who hired Richard Oliver
to research the selections, chosen from a culture that, incidentally,
happens to be gay. Nor are the performers, in many cases, gay.
This is music that either evokes old gay club memories, or is
about gay issues. Most of it predates the Stonewall rebellion,
with the exception of a few early 70's disco sounds.
For understanding the rich development of American gay culture,
this album is clearly a gotta-get--especially if you're a the
typical bright romantic sort, trying to chase those elusive inner
secrets of this long-living tribe--understanding, of course, how
taste is a matter of taste.
Not all tastes nor all of the songs--easily debated as entries--will
be covered or appear in Club Verboten, but so what?
Why not go with the flow and hope to see songs by Freddie Mercury
or "2-4-6-8-Motorway" by Tom Robinson, "The Killing
of Georgie" by Rod Stewart or "Lola" by the Kinks
or "YMCA" by the Village People in another album
soon?
Bessie Smith, after all, is here. "We Are Family" by
Sister Sledge is too as well as Doris Day's "Secret Love,"
Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side," and even Tchaikovsky's
"Symphony No. 2".
Richard Oliver's research took a year-and-a-half. There are 63
songs and 96 cuts.
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© 1997 BEI;
All Rights Reserved. |
