How An Openly Gay D.C. Soul Sger Ma Motown History | Bandwidth

gay shoe shine

Izzy Jaecks is a profsnal bootblack. She don't she sho at airports or hotel lobbi, and she tak her reer, one that she stumbled to by accint, serly. And, while today's terpretatn of the morn bootblack means that Jaecks has found work leather and gay bars, she still feels a historil nnectn wh the centuri of artisans who've e before her and who who've ma sho she sce at least the 1600s.

Contents:

TONY WASHGTON, THE FOTTEN GAY SUPERSTAR

* gay shoe shine *

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.

HOW AN OPENLY GAY D.C. SOUL SGER MA MOTOWN HISTORY

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.

WHERE GAY TALE GETS HIS SHO SHED

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.

” 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.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY SHOE SHINE

How An Openly Gay D.C. Soul Sger Ma Motown History | Bandwidth .

TOP