Sam Smh’s New Sgle ‘Man I Am’ Is Their Gayt Song Yet - Metro Weekly

Contents:

• VILLAGE PEOPLE GIV TMP OK TO PLAY GAY ANTHEMS 'YMCA,' 'MACHO MAN' AT RALLI
• SAM SMH’S NEW SGLE ‘MAN I AM’ IS THEIR GAYT SONG YET

VILLAGE PEOPLE GIV TMP OK TO PLAY GAY ANTHEMS 'YMCA,' 'MACHO MAN' AT RALLI

Morali had been studyg the gay scene New York Cy's Greenwich Village, where was popular to drs up as characters for a night of dancg at the dis. Acrdg to Willis, the group's lead sger and -lyricist until he qu 1983, he was the only straight member of the band and rented assumptns they were a gay group for a gay dience.

Jacqu was suckg up to the gay muny bee he wanted to be a star the gay muny, but I listened to 'Macho Man' and thought, 'This is a parody of what's gog on. "Tmp most recently played Village People's 1978 track "Macho Man, " a song that is wily nsired a gay anthem, as he entered a rally Sardar Patel Stadium Ahmedabad, India, on Monday.

He has been playg the song at ralli sce at least noted the irony of Tmp enterg to "Macho Man, " given his admistratn's track rerd on LGBTQ rights and the fact that Village People is rooted gay culture (the group's name refers to New York Cy's Greenwich Village, which was known for s large gay populatn durg s formatn). "Bee, y'know, he's such a gay in.

SAM SMH’S NEW SGLE ‘MAN I AM’ IS THEIR GAYT SONG YET

27, 1978, and marked the start of the group the way most people remember , they embraced an unrepentantly gay inty – when that was a perilo thg to do – and simultaneoly managed to wre such tchy songs that even the most strint opponents of what they stand for have been happily sgg along wh them for sexual polics of the 1970s were far more plex than many people remember. The Stonewall Rts of 1969 brought the systematic opprsn of gay and lbian people to the natnal nscns for the first time, and by the early '70s, what had long been unrground was begng to be celebrated the mastream. In jt a few years, the Kks sred a Top 10 h wh "Lola" (about a young man who first rists and then embrac fallg love wh a woman who may be transgenr), cross-drsg and androgyny-embracg micians like Lou Reed and David Bowie achieved superstar stat, and movi like The Rocky Horror Picture Show beme cult of which is not to say that bigotry or homophobia somehow subsid: The AIDS epimic, which began the early '80s, was virtually ignored bee was seen as a "gay" disease, and took s for artists and celebri to be fortable g out of the closet.

They heard a mo tape om Willis, a workg actor and sger who had been the origal productn of The Wiz on Broadway, and were imprsed enough wh his voice to ask him to sg on a four-song album of dis songs they were beme the album Village People (named after the rints of New York's Greenwich Village, which at the time was a famoly gay neighborhood). They put ads the Broadway tra papers sayg "Macho Typ Wanted" and veloped a stage show volvg men drsed up what was eher ser archetyp of Amerin masculy or stumed gay dreamboats out lookg for a good time, pendg on your pot of was a Cowboy (Randy Jon), a guy drsed sctive black leather (Glenn Hugh), a Native Amerin (Felipe Rose), a p (Willis), a nstctn worker (David Hodo) and a soldier (Alex Briley). Not everyone the act was gay, but their mic first ught on "black, Lat and gay unrground clubs, " as Jon remembered a 2008 terview wh Sp, and there was no nyg the joyo, goofy and subversive nature of their to Village People's 'I Am What I Am'And 's this happy subversn that powers the 1978 album Macho Man.

Virtually every track on the LP b straight-ahead dis beats and funky horn l wh tongue--cheek (or perhaps tongue on the floor) celebratns of the sexs of men and their bodi, as well as full-throated fens of gay inty. "The album also holds an homage to Key Wt (long known as a gay mec) and a direct celebratn of alternative inty, "I Am What I Am, " which reads like a prequel to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way, " wrten 30 years before that song.