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Contents:
- TONY WASHGTON, THE FOTTEN GAY SUPERSTAR
- HOW AN OPENLY GAY D.C. SOUL SGER MA MOTOWN HISTORY
- WHERE GAY TALE GETS HIS SHO SHED
TONY WASHGTON, THE FOTTEN GAY SUPERSTAR
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R&B the mid-1970s saw numero acts — Sylvter, Donna Summer, Labelle and Grace Jon among them — whose ascent soundtracked the explosn of gay nightlife that emerged followg the Stonewall rts. C., onted by Tony Washgton, an openly gay sger who wasn’t aaid to sometim perform drag or revise Billy Pl’s h “Me and Mrs. Neher one of those sgl — or anythg else on the but — particularly screamed gay glterati through explic lyrics or feverish energy; Richard Ells’ fabulo ver illtratn did the job proudly.
While drawg on the R&B ntuum of such queer pneers as Gladys Bentley and Ltle Richard, Washgton helped lay the groundwork for the funk-homoeroti athetics of immediate succsors like Sylvter, Cameo’s oime lead sger Wayne Cooper and the Brish soul-dis group Imagatn.
And we n’t fet Prce, who would perfect the art of rporatg queer culture to his artistic advantage, all the while profsg to be a ladi’ a 1977 terview wh The Advote, Washgton seemed well aware of his precent-settg stature as an openly gay sger the R&B scene: “I gus I was tryg to ph the clock ahead, ” he said, referrg to the Dynamic Superrs’ early shows.
HOW AN OPENLY GAY D.C. SOUL SGER MA MOTOWN HISTORY
Overall, The Dynamic Superrs foced on torchy ballads and sctive midtempo soul tun; aga, this was not the propulsive dis that would fe gay nightlife, at least the culture at large. Ashford & Simpson’s superb songwrg at tim ptur the bottled angst of a shunned gay romance, whout dog loudly. “We gave them songs which they uld speak a tth that you believed — [not] jt a gay tth, but a tth of self.
Unterred, Ashford & Simpson worked on the group’s sophomore LP, Pure Pleasure’s artwork was even more sexually suggtive than s precsor. Some of the album’s gay them were ls tucked si this time around too.
WHERE GAY TALE GETS HIS SHO SHED
” But even wh Pure Pleasure ntag stronger material, and the group liverg unfettable performanc on the road wh other Motown acts like the Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonr, the album failed to break argue that Motown failed to strongly publicize the Dynamic Superrs’ albums, at least partly bee of Washgton’s provotive showmanship as an openly gay sger. “I don’t thk the pany was prepared to say that he was a gay man ontg a sgg group, ” Simpson says. ”Ined, Motown’s dalliance wh gay culture somehow proved both uful and disappotg.
It’s important to note that 1975, the same year the label released the Dynamic Superrs’ but, also released Valento’s “I Was Born This Way, ” a shamels gay anthem, on s obscure subsidiary imprt Gaiee Rerds. A., ” would bee timels stapl of gay me to takg advantage of the burgeong dis culture the late 1970s, Motown didn’t seem terted givg the Dynamic Superrs the top-shelf material they’d need to really pete on their latter LPs. G., the thly veiled homophobia and racism of Dis Demoln night Chigo, spearhead by rad ejay Steve the ensug years the Dynamic Superrs languished obscury, spe the fact that Washgton had paved the way for other socially and sexually fearls performers workg all stras of R&B.