'Y.M.C.A.,' The Sports Anthem About A Gay Cisg Spot: Lyrics And Meang

Contents:

• HAPPY PRIDE! HOW “Y.M.C.A.” BEME A GAY ANTHEM!
• THE REAL STORY OF THE YMCA THAT INSPIRED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE'S GAY ANTHEM
• 'Y.M.C.A.,' THE SPORTS ANTHEM ABOUT A GAY CISG SPOT: LYRICS AND MEANG
• FROM YMCA TO BLOOM: CHARTG THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY ANTHEM
• GAY ANTHEM Y.M.C.A DANC TO HISTORY AT LEADG U.S. LIBRARY
• IS Y.M.C.A. REALLY A GAY SONG? THE MEANG OF THE LYRICS
• YMCA PARTNERS WH BOY GEE TO EMBRACE EPONYMO GAY ANTHEM FOR FIRST TIME

HAPPY PRIDE! HOW “Y.M.C.A.” BEME A GAY ANTHEM!

” Though, today, you’ll hear the track at everythg om a school dance to a 50th anniversary party, has also been adopted by the gay muny as one of s unofficial anthems.

The songs targeted a niche rerd buyg dience: gay disthequ and their patrons. The tl were self-explanatory: “Fire Island” (the East Coast’s gay summer retreat); “San Francis (You’ve Got Me)” (the Wt ast’s premier gay statn); “Village People” (a look at the habants of New York Cy’s largely gay Greenwich Village); and “In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star), ” the promise of artistic acplishment the word’s entertament pal. Village People nsisted of six members, each of whom personified a popular gay archetype.

Only Willis and Rose participated on the “Village People” LP–wh Rose roly creded as “Felipe ‘Indian From the Anvil’“ (the Anvil was a gay NYC sex club).

THE REAL STORY OF THE YMCA THAT INSPIRED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE'S GAY ANTHEM

The gay msagg their songs, the gay fantasy stripper-stum, the gay dancg and fx macho posturg seemed to go over the heads of the dience–or they jt didn’t re. “Key Wt” (a gay rort statn), “Jt a Gigolo, ” “I Am What I Am” (a gay claratn), and “Sodom and Gomorrah” reached their re dience–but the sgle “Macho Man” reached further. An energetic chant song whose lyrics extoled the male form, exercise and gym culture, “Macho Man” was heard by straight dienc as ls gay and more sports/athletics/ol-du fun mic.

'Y.M.C.A.,' THE SPORTS ANTHEM ABOUT A GAY CISG SPOT: LYRICS AND MEANG

Neteen seventy-ne’s double entendre-tled “Cs’” (referencg gay cisg) h stor jt seven months after “Macho Man.

FROM YMCA TO BLOOM: CHARTG THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY ANTHEM

” was not a “gay” song, but “a song for everyone. Addnally, lyrics like “lger on the siwalk where the neon signs are pretty” and “someone who is jt like you and needs a gentle hand to gui them along” were tac vatns for a gay listeng dience. ” was more than a h rerd, was a cultural tone: a world anthem built on, for, and about gay life and sensibili that was, neverthels, fully embraced by mastream dienc.

GAY ANTHEM Y.M.C.A DANC TO HISTORY AT LEADG U.S. LIBRARY

In the 40 years sce the Village People released “YMCA, ” the song has bee a cultural touchstone: a gay anthem famo for s nuendos and double entendr about young, f men “havg a good time, ” as well as a staple at Yanke gam and bar song has also immortalized the Young Men's Christian Associatn pop culture. Yet former rints of the McBurney Y Chelsea — the buildg that spired the song, and which was featured the vio released late 1978 — say the realy of stays at the YMCA those days was more plited than the lyrics portray, wh gay culture and workg-class workouts existg a sgle munal space. “There was certaly a party aspect to their vio and that time was the height of all the gay clubs Chelsea, ” rells Davidson Garrett, who lived at the McBurney Y om 1978 through 2000.

“[The YMCA] did have some overlappg of gay cisg.

IS Y.M.C.A. REALLY A GAY SONG? THE MEANG OF THE LYRICS

Garrett adds unrgraduate stunts and disabled men to the mix of ethnilly and racially diverse renters, about half of whom he timat were gay. Often gay and their 20s or 30s, the weekend guts ed the YMCA “as a drsg room, ” and as a place to discreetly hook up, Garrett says. Meanwhile, hoekeepers me not jt to offer towels and change your sheets, but to keep an eye on you, Kangappadan of the song’s charm, of urse, is s petg terpretatns: It n be read equally well as a celebratn of gay culture or of the workg man.

And as a Sp oral history revealed on the song's 30th anniversary ten years ago, even the group self didn't agree on the proper Hodo (“the nstctn worker”) sisted to Sp that Jacqu Morali, the French producer who helped create the group and -wrote the song wh lead sger Victor Willis (“the p”), certaly had the gay muny md when he me up wh the song.

There’s nothg gay about them. ”Jon, who was a Y member at the time, sists to Gothamist that the band's artistic tent wasn’t to produce a gay anthem. “But if you happen to be a gay man and have the experience and perspective of hookg up wh each other, ’s another way n be perceived.

YMCA PARTNERS WH BOY GEE TO EMBRACE EPONYMO GAY ANTHEM FOR FIRST TIME

What began as a gay anthem performed by the Village People has been cleansed of s mp and brought to the mastream as an upbeat song about how great is to work out at the Y. " was immediately adopted as a gay anthem not only bee of s subtext and bangg dis beat, but the Village People were the most "out" gay mil act of the era ( spe of their very straight lead sger), but did beg as a song about gay sex? Three inic gay anthems turn 40 this year: Sylvter’s You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive and the Village People’s YMCA.

The 2009 book Queer by Simon Gage, Lisa Richards and Howard Wilmot lists 10 thematic creria for gay anthems: “a big-voiced diva”, “overg hardship love”, “you are not alone”, “throw your r away”, “hard-won self-teem”, “unashamed sexualy”, “search for acceptance”, “torch song for the world-weary”, “love nquers all” and “no apologi”. Gay pop n now, like never before, be both mastream and sexy: Troye Sivan’s Bloom is a thly veiled scriptn of losg his virgy, begng wh the playground chant of “Take a trip to my garn / I’ve got so much to show you” before the chos has him repeat, tong hard on every tough snare beat: “I bloom, I bloom, jt for you”.

Compare that wh Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy, an 80s gay anthem all about havg to pe opprsn.