I usually have 2 books going at the same time. For my MAX train ride, I often read non-fiction & my current commuter book is- My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them, edited by Michael Montlack. These are carefully chosen, insightful, funny & poignant short essays by gay writers & poets on the woman they chose as their Diva. The contributors were asked by the editor:
Who is this woman to you?
Why are you attracted to her?
What about her speaks to you about being gay?
How has she influenced your life?
Only 1 woman by 1 writer could be represented in the book; no repeats. The book has some of the usual suspects: Cher, Bette Midler, & Diana Ross, but many off- beat choices as well: Julia Child, Queen Elizabeth 1, & Sappho. It gave me pause to consider who my Diva would be. I really like, know alot about & can tell anecdotes about the biggies: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe & Marlene Dietrich. I think almost all gay men of a certain age can. It seems to be in our genes & part of our common language. Gay men seem to have an allegiance to certain talents with more focus than straight people. It makes me sad that younger gay men won’t know or care about them, but they will have divas of their own: Madonna, Mary J Blige, or Tori Amos. The baby queers will have their own divas & I won’t know who they are talking about. Says Montlack: “Whatever role the divas have played for us individually or communally- muse, goddess, sister, pioneer, survivor, alter ego, fairy godmother- they have protected us, guided us, & delighted us”. Sam J. Miller says it so well in his essay on Bessie Smith- “The gay community also has lots of to learn from women who seize hold of the oppression they face & turn it into something revolutionary, something beautiful, something fabulous.”
My true muses have always found their way to me through rock & roll & popular song, not the movies or stage. I have short listed my own diva to Dusty Springfield, Marianne Faithfull, or Annie Lennox. Although I love all 3 beyond all reason, I find that Annie Lennox is the owner of the most thrilling & seductive voice in pop. She holds out her bare arms & shows me her wrists: "there's no Band-Aids on me yet," she says. I am reminded again of the potency & power of her presence, the range & sweep of her high, clear voice & the fabulous catalogue of perfect pop songs on which she can draw her true artistry. These songs are full of cunning ideas, true emotions, & ferocious hooks, from storming Eurythmics classics such as Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These & Here Comes the Rain Again to shivery solo ballads such as Why (one of the greatest songs ever written), or her magnificent album of covers- Medusa including A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Take Me To The River & Train In Vain.. She is eloquent & poetic, but her underlying pessimism verges on the brutal. There is really no one quite like Annie Lennox. For more 30 years, she has maintained a striking image, often verging on the androgynous, but embodying the qualities I admire most in a woman: strength, intelligence & independence. As a gay man she makes me want to turn personal melancholy into shimmery, beautiful, honest music. Her music has been a soundtrack to my life in 3 different decades. She speaks to me...like no other.
"I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me."
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