Born On This Day- August 11th... Joe Jackson

I am posting about Joe Jackson, the English singer/songwriter who is the same age as I am, & whom I somewhat resemble... not Joe Jackson, the fabled ball player, or Joe Jackson, the father of Michael, or Joe Jackson, the jazz trombonist, or Joe Jackson, the novelist, or Joe Jackson the music journalist.

I remain a very big fan of his music, but for period, Joe Jackson's music was the soundtrack of my life. In 1982, his album Night & Day was my most played music of the year & spoke to my life in a personal way. This was as era when The Husband & I went out dancing & clubbing every weekend & I felt that I was living in slightly punked up version of a 1930s Hollywood Musical with a score by Gershwin.

Jacksons’s songs, rooted in the late 1970s/early 1980s “new wave” of sophisticated pop/jazz/classical styled rock, maintained an edgy relationship with mainstream gay culture. Even today many people don't even know he is gay, the fact isn't even mentioned on his website.

In his memoir- A Cure for Gravity, Jackson muses on how people make assumptions about him based on his lanky & effeminate appearance. But in the book he remains ambiguous about his orientation, & speaks out against generalizing on anyone's sexuality.

But there are gay references Jackson's music. Jackson says this about meaning behind his song- Real Men: “I see the gay identity has become more & more about being so masculine that you're more straight than the straight guys. & this is something that I find quite funny. I sort of get it, & at the same time, I don't like it that much. It's mixed feelings. & if we're talking about stereotypes, then I guess what I'm saying in the song is that I almost prefer the older stereotype,  this sort of Oscar Wilde/Quentin Crisp gay stereotype.”

Jackson ran a roughly parallel career course to British new wave icon Elvis Costello. Both wrote highly intelligent, smartly musical yet somewhat abrasive punk-informed pop with sophisticated lyrics. Both took a sharp turn early in their careers to explore different musical tributaries, Costello went country & Jackson went jazz, & both matured into well-respected crafters of sharp pop songs in the manner of Burt Bacharach, Costello even going so far as to work with the master himself.

Joe Jackson’s first album- Look Sharp, is a wonder of edgy punk-pop & includes such classics as the cynical Sunday Papers& the sparse, broken,  lurching guitar pop of Is She Really Going Out With Him?, the song that got my attention. But my favorite of his albums is the sublime Night & Day, which, in addition to calling up the spirit of Cole Porter in its title, bringing that erudite uptown sensibility by featuring a drawing of Jackson sitting at a grand piano in some expansive, Manhattan apartment with a view of the skyline, drawn by legendary Broadway caricaturist, Al Hirshfeld.

Night & Day is a cynical, yet sensitive album, full of poignant songs about relationships, (with the occasional up-beat tune, like the rhumba-  Everything Gives You Cancer thrown in the mix. The most poignant of all his songs is my favorite Jackson tune- Real Men. This provocative song is about trying to find your way through the dubious puzzle of social mores, stereotypes & suppositions of being a man, any man, but especially a gay man, in America in the 1980s. Anybody pushing against stereotypes can find solace in Jackson’s sad songs.  Beyond the bombast, the song is heartbreakingly beautiful. I like the way the chorus contrasts between the giant, wordless chords & crashing drum beat fading into a gentle violin line to end the phrase.

This song took a lot of courage for Jackson to release, as it was his first big pronouncement of his sexual orientation to the public. I’d like to think that men everywhere, shiny-leather gay or straight as a line, could find solace in this song & its wise portrayal of the difficulties of being a real man.

Jackson’s more sophisticated, adult approach, was influenced as much by jazz & Latin music as rock. He continued with Body & Soul (1984) Big World (1986), Blaze Of Glory (1989) & Laughter & Lust (1991).

Jackson turned further away from the pop mainstream with the gentle, soul-searching Night Music(1994), the satirical opera Heaven & Hell (1997) & Symphony  #1, which won the 2000 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Also in 2000, Jackson released a sequel Night & Day II, a personal favorite of mine. In 2003, Jackson did an about turn, reuniting the band from his first 3 albums for an acclaimed album of new songs-  Volume 4, and a successful world tour. In 2008, he recorded a minimal, but still majestic album- Rain using just piano, voice, & his original rhythm section.

In addition to his own albums, Jackson has written several film scores, including Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker &James Bridges’ Mike’s Murder. He has also played piano & sung on records by Suzanne Vega, Joan Armatrading, Ruben Blades, Rickie Lee Jones, Nina Hagen, & William Shatner.

His new album-The Duke is a tribute album, with songs by or inspired by the great American Jazz composer-  Duke Ellington. Check out Jackson & Iggy Pop take on Beginning To See The Light on this terrific album.

Born On This Day- May 17th... Wladziu Valentino Liberace

“You know that bank I used to cry all the way to? Well, I bought it.”

Here is the craziest part.. the Husband & I briefly lived in Las Vegas (long story), & even nuttier, we didn’t have an automobile. I would actually walk in the 100 degree heat to the theatre that I was working for. There were no sidewalks. It was just me & the lizards. My route took me right by the Liberace Museum, just a few blocks from our condo. I always glanced in & I enjoyed the camp factor.

When someone seems too obviously & outrageously gay, & yet people in my life seem to not get it, my response is often- “He attended Liberace  Community College”.

Overheard on the Max Train:
Older Gay Guy: That guy is so gay.
Other Guy: Totally gay.
Older Gay Guy: Liberace gay.

Ironic then, the man spent his life time hiding the truth & denied being gay to the very end.

Liberace was an international superstar dating back to the early 1950s. He averaged $5 million a year in income for more than 35 years. The 1978 Guinness Book of World Records identified Liberace as the world's highest paid musician.

He was born Wladziu Valentino Liberace in a Milwaukee suburb in 1919 to poor parents. He was classically trained on the piano as a youth & made his concert debut as a soloist at age 11. As a teenager during the depression, he played piano in speakeasies to make money for his family.

In 1940, Liberace moved to New York. His charm & piano skills paid off. Within 7 years he was touring the hotel clubs. The story might have ended there, except that Las Vegas & TV discovered Liberace’s charms. By the late 1940s he began playing extended runs in Las Vegas. He would appear at the casinos in Vegas regularly for the rest of his life. As Sin City grew, so did Liberace's fame.

Liberace appearances on TV cemented his superstar status. In the early 1950s, Liberace had a variety show on TV, where he would play his elaborate piano, sing & dance a little, & praise his mother Frances, who was always in the audience, & make jokes about the show’s band leader his brother- George. His TV show was a huge hit, & was carried by more stations than I Love Lucy.

In 1954, the year I was born, Liberace played to capacity crowds at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl, & Soldier Field in Chicago. In 1955 he opened at the Riviera in Las Vegas for $50,000 per week, becoming the city's highest paid entertainer. Liberace became a true superstar. He bought lavish mansions, remodeled them extravagantly, & filled them with ornate pianos, antiques, & over the top furniture. He even had a piano shaped swimming pool.

Liberace's musical repertoire included a unique mix of classical, movie themes, cocktail jazz, & sentimental ballads. He knew thousands of songs & could play almost any request from the audience. He would edit classical pieces to under 5 minutes: "I took out the boring parts. I know just how many notes my audience will stand for. If there's any time left over, I fill in with a lot of runs up & down the scale."

He commissioned more elaborate costumes as the years went by. Eventually he was spending $40,000 every year on bigger, flashier, & more opulent costumes. On various tours, he wore a cape made with $60,000 worth of chinchilla, a tuxedo embedded with diamonds spelling out his name, & a King Neptune costume covered in pearls & sea shells weighing 200 pounds. He had large rings shaped like a candelabra & a grand piano, each studded with diamonds. He was the Elton John of his time.

He added showgirls, jugglers, singers, giant water fountains, light shows, a full orchestra, & even an elephant. During many of his shows he flew above the stage from a cable in a feather cape. He toured with a grand piano covered with thousands of glittering mirror tiles.

Liberace emphatically denied his homosexuality throughout his career. He evidently thought that coming out of the closet would hurt his popularity, & his female fans refused to acknowledge the obvious. But his denials unraveled when Liberace was sued for palimony in 1983 by his “chauffeur”- Scott Thorson, who had been living with Liberace for years. Liberace had Thorson on the payroll, dressed him up like himself, & paid for plastic surgery to have Thorson look like a young version of himself. But even this bizarre scandal didn't  put a dent in Liberace's popularity. The case was eventually settled out of court for less that $100,000.

In the 1970s, Liberace moved to Las Vegas, where he was the highest paid performer in the city. Las Vegas is a city built on fantasy, superficiality, & unbridled spending Liberace's calling cards. Both Las Vegas & Liberace proved the same motto: Nothing succeeds like excess.

Liberace was at the apex of his career in the mid-1980s. At Radio City Music Hall he had 3 extended engagements. From 1984-86, he sold out 56 straight shows. Liberace called his Radio City shows "the fulfillment of a dream & the culmination of my forty years in show business." Liberace’s massive fortune continued to grow. He owned houses all over the world & had all of his clothes made especially for him. He even had the front of a Rolls Royce attached to the front of a VW Beatle so he could drive both of his favorite cars at once.

Liberace was in a steady relationship with Jamie Wyatt when the gay world was shaken by AIDS. Liberace discovered that he was HIV positive. In the press, he attributed his weight loss to the popular watermelon diet. After a last tour to promote his new book- The Things I Love, Liberace fell gravely ill. He spent 4 days in hospital before it was decided that the best thing would be for him to go home & die comfortably in his own surroundings. Liberace spent his last days at home with his 27 dogs, watching episodes of The Golden Girls. His family & partner were by his side when Liberace died of a cardiac arrest, brought on by HIV, on February 8th 1987. Only then did the world find out about his hidden life & illness.

Liberace chose a life where showmanship & flamboyance were his mainstay. His lust for everything fabulous, his showmanship & his talent, touched the hearts of his many fans & influenced a long line of artists from Elvis to Adam Lambert. Liberace proved that being fabulous can be a life unto itself.

Steven Soderbergh's movie version of the Liberace/Scott Thorson story has finished filming starring Michael Douglas & Matt Damon.

The Saddest Song

Eleanora Fagan was born on this day in 1915. Eleanora cut school so often she was sent to live at the House of the Good Shepherd, a home for “colored girls” run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. She was returned to her mother after a year, but in 1926, 11 year old Eleanora was raped by a neighbor & sent back to Good Shepherd. But the nuns refused to keep her for long.


At only 11 years old, Eleanora earned money cleaning at a whorehouse. The madam let her listen to the records of Louis Armstrong & Bessie Smith. Eleanora was able to express her feelings with music & she began singing at various storefront churches.


As a young teenager, Eleanora moved to NYC with her mother, to pursue a singing career, instead she found work as a prositute in Harlem.


Billie Holiday was the self creation of young Eleanora Fagen. She began to get small gigs & out of the way clubs, but Holiday was gaining popularity with fellow musicians. After years of touring with Count Basie, Holiday was offered her first steady job at Café Society in 1938, earning $75 a week. She went on to be featured soloist at clubs all over the country, acquiring the nickname “Lady Day.” Her distinctive voice, which she used like a musical instrument, transformed jazz singing. Holiday: “I don’t think I’m singing; I feel like I’m playing a horn.”


Holiday had many affairs with both men & women, but was known as a lesbian among many of her peers in the jazz world, where she aquired the moniker- Mister Holiday, because she was seldom seen in the company of gentlemen. Holiday: “Sure, I’ve been to bed with women… but I was always the man.” Who else can you think of who had an affair with both Orson Welles & Tallulah Bankhead?


Billie Holiday was unlucky in life, unlucky in love & dead from drink & drugs at the age of only 44.

By the late 1930s, Holiday had married small-time drug dealer Jimmy Monroe, who introduced her to opium & heroin. In 1947, she spent a year in prison for possession of drugs. After she was released Holiday had difficulty finding work & she had a string of relationships with maniacal men & a decline into dependence on drugs, a roughening of her voice & a physical decline.

On 10 July 1959, Holiday died in hospital in NYC of cirrhosis of the liver. In a characteristically cruel turn she had been arrested on her deathbed for possession of narcotics, & spent her final days under police guard.


The life & legend of Billie Holiday seems to point to a victim, a problematic, profane & pushy woman. She was after all, a junkie & an alcoholic; she had sex with a great many men & many women.




I like to think that Billie Holiday was a determined woman with a great appetite for life, who lived it on her terms in a man’s world. Holiday was never able to capitalize on her amazing talent to live a life as a music superstar. She couldn’t break the pattern of abuse from others or herself, but that fed her genius. Her brand of self destruction was a plea for the love that ironically her bad behavior pushed away. But that voice, that perfectly imperfect gift, will always be loved & will always break my heart.

Born On This Day- March 2nd... Marc Blitzstein

Born On this day in 1905, Marc Blitzstein was a composer and lyricist of enormous innovation & influence. Blitzstein remains one of the most versatile & fascinating figures in the history of American music, his creations included films scores, Broadway musicals, operas, art songs & chamber pieces. A prominent leftist and social maverick, Blitzstein constantly pushed at the edges of convention in mid-20^th century America in both his work & his life.

With Bernstein

Despite being open about his homosexuality, Blitzstein married when he was 23. He & his wife- Eva Goldbeck, stayed married, united deeply by love & loyalty to leftist causes, until Goldbeck's death in 1936. Because of the era, he needed to be publicly closeted, but Blitzstein was honest about his homosexuality with friends & colleagues. His erotic life seems was exclusively gay. His homosexuality provided the sympathy for outsiders that motivated & inspired his political activism. Goldbeck’s death affected Blitzstein deeply & prompted him to do The Cradle Will Rock.

Interest in Blitzstein & his work declined in the 1960s and 1970s, I have met few people, even in the theatre, who know of him, but he was a significant figure in the history of American musical theater. Some attention to Blitzstein resulted from Tim Robbins' film Cradle Will Rock (1999), which centered on the creation of the original staging of The Cradle Will Rock. In the film, Blitzstein is played by Hank Azaria & is portrayed as gaining inspiration through the ghosts of Bertolt Brecht & Eva Goldbeck. Her death affected Blitzstein deeply & prompted him to dive into the production of The Cradle Will Rock (1936-7), which was cancelled before it even opened because of its anti-establishment, pro-union sentiments. However, it opened Off-Broadway later that season.

In 1958, Blitzstein received a subpoena to appear before the House Committee On Un-American Activities. Testifying in a closed session, Blitzstein admitted his membership of the Communist Party that had ended in 1949, & challenging the right of HUAC to question him at all, refusing to name names. He was recalled for a further public session, but after a day  sitting in a waiting room, he was not called. By 1959, the McCarthy Hearings were running out of steam, but the strain that the experience dipped Blitzstein into despair & deep depression.

Blitzstein's life was troubled & he suffered. He would hang out in dangerous spots, approach the rough trade for rough sex, & ending up in situations that more prudent gay men might have avoided. I have been there myself.

In 1963, Blitzstein decided to spend the winter in Martinique. In January 1964, Blitzstein found himself, 58 years old (the same as I am now), in ill health, in a Martinique waterfront bar, late at night, with large amounts of cash, drinking too much, & trying to pick up 3 sailors, & who amongst us has not? After leaving a bar, one slipped into a nearby alley with Blitzstein to have sex. The others followed & all 3 robbed him, beat him & stripped him of all his clothes except his shirt & socks.

The police found him crying in the middle of the night, & took him to a hospital. He bled to death from internal contusions & he died the next evening.

Leonard Bernstein: "He was so close a personal friend that I cannot even begin to measure our loss of him as a composer. I can only think that I have lost a part of me, but I know also that music has lost an invaluable servant. His special position in musical theatre is irreplaceable.”

In my research if found this, part of a letter to Blitzstein’s sister, dated 1924:

“I am nearing an adjustment which will be productive of many things. I think I have often given the impression (even to people who are close to me, like you) of a mental Organization so in control that the emotional aspect had gone sterile or wasn't born yet. That has been a very small part of the truth. What actually went on was a mechanism, built up of fear, which tried to douse the emotional urge; but which was much less powerful than that urge. I knew it was bad for me; I lacked courage to express the emotional - sexual aux Fond - thing. I think you guess - you know - what all this is about. It has become imperative at last that I cut out the "balance," the "control" (I am a pretty good actor, I project well, nearly everybody thought it was the real thing", and let out what has been secret and furtive in me for so long. Shame is the single largest enemy; the sense of being sick, of living a diseased life, is another. Now, I accept what I, really, know all it involves. In this light, it is absurd to assert that there are no sins; there are definitely Cardinal sins - sins against oneself, against one's law. My sin is, has been ... the willingness to corrupt my nature."

Mr & Mr David Geffen?

I married once for love. It was worth it & it had to be done. A psychic told the Husband that we have had some sort of relationship for many lifetimes. I love him & I married him for love. I married once for love & the next time... I am going to marry for money. I have my eye on David Geffen. He turns 68 today. I hope he received my birthday card.

David Geffen is probably the most successful business person in the entertainment industry, with net worth estimated at $4.4 billion in 2009 (Forbes). Geffen made his money the old fashioned way, starting in the New York mailroom of the William Morris Agency. His overly aggressive style fit right in at Morris where he quickly became the agent for rising East Coast music talent. By the time he was 27, he had his first multi-million dollar deal by signing songwriter Laura Nyro to Columbia. As an independent agent, & with his own label- Asylum, Geffen became a real player in the music biz, representing established artists/groups & creating new ones: The Association, Janis Joplin, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, & Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. In 1971 he was able to sell Asylum to Warner Bros. for $7 million & became head of Warner's Elektra/Asylum label in 1973. He retired the first time in 1976, burned out & dealing with a cancer diagnosis that turned out to be a false alarm.


The next phase of Geffen's career started in 1980 when he came out of retirement to start Geffen Records. He signed some of the biggest acts including Elton John, Donna Summer, & Neil Young. Tough & controversial, Geffen was often at legal odds with his artists & partners. He gained a reputation as a money man who exploited the talent. Geffen rose above it all, & signed Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Peter Gabriel, & Cher to send Geffen Records to sales of $300 million by 1990 & then more success in the 1990s with Nirvana & Sonic Youth. Geffen Records was sold to MCA in 1990 for stock, & Geffen received $710 million when MCA was sold to Matsushita Electric 3 years later. The prolific Geffen  produced movies during this period: Risky Business, Beetlejuice, The Last Boy Scout, Lost in America, & Little Shop of Horrors, & Broadway shows- Cats, Miss Saigon, Dreamgirls & M. Butterfly.


Geffen's net worth is 7 billion dollars., according to Forbes, a true 1%. I know that I could make him happy; there is my trick pelvis & that special thing that I do with. I have it from the source that he is the subject of You're So Vain, the 1972 hit song by Carly Simon.

“When I was plugging songs in back in New York City, I used to wear a jacket, tie & good pants, not jeans. When I moved to Hollywood in the early 1970s, it was jeans & cowboy boots all the way! Although I do admit to having my jeans tailored & chemically “aged”, & wearing highly polished Fry boots with 2 inch stacked heels. It was like John Wayne meets Superfly”

"I'm Standing On The Corner Of Fifth & Vermouth." Considering Tom Waits On His Birthday

He is decidedly not gay & most assuredly not everyone's cup of tea, but not only is he a favorite of the Post Apocalyptic Bohemian, taking up a large section of the Ws in the CD collection, but he is the songwriter of a ditty that I wish to have played at my memorial service. Readers & husbands, take note.

Academy Award nominated & Grammy Award winner, Tom Waits has been one of my most influential musical artists because he has continuously created music outside of fad or fashion. His tunes are off-road adventures taken into the further beyond... way, way gone. Mixing & mashing, songs both sonic & sensual, musical traditions both new & old, & rhythms both mouth-made & sampled from his own instruments. He is equal parts Stephen Foster, Cole Porter, & Bob Dylan.

A successful musician, movie actor, theatre innovator & film composer, Waits has never had a commercial hit; most of his songs are best-known for being covered by other people. He has a huge fan base, but doesn't tour. His razor-sharp wit & lyrical prowess have put him in a category by himself. Just what that category is remains unclear. Waits has a voice soaked in whiskey, aged in the smokehouse & then run over by a 1954 Chevy. He has an obsession with shoes.

I have been listening to Waits for 40 years. I have many favorite Waits songs, but this one means so much to me that I want to leave this world with it as my soundtrack. He lives with his wife in Sonoma. Waits turns 62 today.

Born On This Day- November 14th... Composer Aaron Copeland

I took my very first steps as a performer being an instrumentalist performing symphonic music. Really. I studied piano from ages 6 to 17 & I played the string bass in school orchestras, the Spokane Junior Symphony, & the Tanglewood Youth Symphony. As with so many of my talents, I was bit of a dilettante. If I had really applied myself, I might have been 3rd chair string bass in the 'Possum Holler Symphony Orchestra or in the pit orchestra at the Chateau De Ville Dinner Theatre.

My string playing did come in handy twice in my acting life. My character played the cello in Sondheim's A Little Night Music in 1977, I portrayed LM, who played the bass, in a long run of the rockabilly musical Pump Boys & Dinettes in the early 1990s & I played the piano in Private Lives in college. 

He lived a very cool life as an openly gay man during an era where such a thing could be professional suicide. Unlike many gay men of his age, Aaron Copland was neither ashamed of or tortured by his sexuality. He apparently understood & accepted it from an early age. Throughout his life he was involved in relationships with other men. His affairs were mostly with younger men, usually musicians or artists, whom he mentored, including composer Leonard Bernstein, dancer & artist Erik Johns, photographer Victor Kraft, & music critic Paul Moor.



Copland was an American composer of concert & film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers". While his orchestral music & his ballets found success on the stages & in the concert halls of America, Aaron Copland sought to enter another arena, the emerging industry of motion pictures. He saw this as both a challenge for his abilities as a composer & an opportunity to expand his reputation & audience. However, the tendency of studios to edit & cut movie scores went against Copland’s desire for creative control over his work. Copland found a kindred spirit in director Lewis Milestone, who recognized the benefits of allowing Copland to supervise his own orchestration & refrained from interfering with his work. This collaboration resulted in the film Of Mice and Men (1939) that earned Copland his first nomination for an Academy Award. In a departure from other film scores of the time, Copland’s work largely reflected his own style, instead of borrowing from the late Romantic period. He rejected the common practice of using melodies to identify characters with their own personal themes.

His score for William Wyler's 1949 film, The Heiress won an Academy Award. Several themes he created are encapsulated in the suite Music for Movies, & his score for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Red Pony was given a suite of its own. This suite was one of Copland's personal favorites. It is difficult to overestimate the influence Copland has had on film music. Virtually every composer who scored for western movies, particularly between 1940 & 1960, was shaped by the style Copland developed.


Copland was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in composition for Appalachian Spring. His scores for Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), and The North Star (1943) all received Academy Award nominations, while The Heiress won Best Music in 1949.Copland's best known piece of music is probably Fanfare For the Common Man (1942), a popular choice for opening ceremonies, with its dramatic opening fanfare, & turned into a worldwide pop hit in the 1970s by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Copland's homosexuality was documented in Howard Pollack's biography, Aaron Copland: The Life & Work of an Uncommon Man. Music critic Paul Moor, Copeland's lover in the 1950s:  "By some miracle Aaron remained as free of neurosis as anyone I've ever known. He was one of the dearest, kindest, most thoughtful & fundamentally good human beings I've ever known." Copland died of Alzheimer's disease & respiratory failure in Sleepy Hallow NY, in 1990, just weeks after his 100th birthday.

Born On This Day- September 15th... Bobby Short

He is a favorite of mine. I am feeling it, & never more so than when I am trying to explain pop culture from the 20th century to my young wards- the group of 14 20-30 year olds that I hire, train, schedule, counsel & maintain as part of my job. Despite the fact that I am able reference to Modest Mouse, Rhianna or Weezer, they just stare dumbly, vacant eyed, & with a touch of disgust, if I try to explain to them who Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Iggy Pop, the Clash or Men At Work are in our cultural history. I am truly old hat, old-fangled, old-fashioned, out-of-date, outmoded, & outworn.

I wasn’t dismayed that they didn’t know who Bobby Short was. I didn’t expect them to. I am sure that few in my own circle know of Mr. Short. I just couldn’t get them to wrap their heads around the idea of nightclubs, supper clubs, or Café Society. I was just attempting to give them a jumping off place in today’s lesson.

Mr. Short liked to call himself a saloon singer, a moniker I would have loved to have lived with. His was my 1st choice for an avocation. His saloon, from 1968 until his death in 2005, was one of the most elegant in the country, the intimate Cafe Carlyle tucked in the Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There for 6 months each year, in a room where he was only a few feet from his audience, he sang & accompanied himself on the piano. I saw him perform there 4 times in the mid-1970s.

Mr. Short transcended the role of cabaret entertainer to become a New York institution & a symbol of civilized Manhattan culture. In Woody Allen's films a visit to the Carlyle became an essential stop on his characters' cultural tour. He attracted a chic international fan base that included royalty, movie stars, sports figures, socialites & jazz fans. He also appeared in small roles in TV commercials & movies.

Mr. Short's hobnobbing with the cream of society overshadowed his significance as a jazz pianist, singer & scholar. He dedicated himself to spreading an awareness of the African-American contribution to New York's musical theater. In his list of great American songwriters, Cole Porter stood side by side with Duke Ellington, Eubie Blake, & Fats Waller who wrote- Guess Who's in Town?... Mr. Short's unofficial musical greeting.

Mr. Short had a bout of notoriety in May 1980 when Gloria Vanderbilt sued the River House on the East Side of Manhattan, which had refused to sell her a $1.1 million apartment. She accused the management of racial bias because of her friendship with him. The building's board said it wanted to avoid "unwanted publicity." A month later, she dropped the suit. Mr. Short generally stayed out of the fray but said, "I'm old enough to be sophisticated about these things." This phrase is my new motto.

Born On This Day- August 25th... Leonard Bernstein

In the beautiful New England spring of 1972, I appeared as the Street Singer in a production of The Three Penny Opera produced by a friend at Adam's House at Harvard. At the same time Leonard Bernstein was giving a series of lectures at his Alama Mater – The Unanswered Question. Always absorbing & frequently brilliant, Leonard Bernstein's The Unanswered Question were comprehensible & persuasive discussions of music's history & forms, with particular emphasis modern music. He addressed the average intelligent listener who is not musically trained but wants to know what makes music work & what is meant, for example, by "tonal" & "atonal."

It required some concentration, but Bernstein, a superb teacher, kept technical terms to a minimum, illustrating what he meant with musical examples. I was lucky enough to go to 3 of the 6 lectures, being invited by the maestro after he thrillingly talked to me & gave me advice about singing Kurt Weill’s songs in TheThree Penny Opera when he attended a dress rehearsal of our production.

I already understood his place in music history, especially for his music for West Side Story, On The Town, Wonderful Town & Candide. I didn’t expect to find him so totally sexy & hot, but then, I often find men who are supremely talented to be sexy. I love Jewish men, especially charismatic, one of a kind major 20th century talents, with a flowing mane of hair & the ability to look me in the eye & touch my hand while telling me what he thought I was getting right & what I was missing in my performance. I went home that night simply swooning & with dreams of being the lover of one of history’s most important musical figures.

He may well be more famous among the general public than any other conductor before or since. He wrote 3 symphonies, 2 operas, 5 musicals, a mass, & numerous other pieces. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s, Leonard Bernstein was undoubtedly the most visible proponent of classical music in American culture. Through his outgoing personality & resourceful uses of the media, particularly TV, Bernstein introduced 'highbrow' culture into the homes of middle America, while also defending rock & roll as 'real' music & supporting radical causes.

In spite of Bernstein's speaking out for unpopular causes, he was outspoken on civil rights & Vietnam, he was, for much of his career, unwilling to risk exposure of his homosexuality. Indeed, the social mores of the 1950s & 1960s meant that revealing his homosexuality would undoubtedly have destroyed the celebrity & influence he had attained. Later in life & after the death of his wife in 1978, Bernstein became quite open about his being gay.

He left behind an unprecedented amount of recordings & videos, leaving us with a legacy to be experienced for generations to come, & the memory of one 19 year old boy who melted at having been in his presence. My crush on him never diminished. He was born 93 years ago today.

Born On This Day- August 25th... Rob Halford

I have received comments on this little spot on the Internet from readers noting my egalitarian music collection. Even I have been amused by my music choices as I re-alphabetized a stack of CDs.

The D section includes: D’Angelo, Dan Fogelberg, Damian Rice, Dave Matthews, David Bowie, David Gray, Dean Martin, Depeche Mode, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Donna Summer, Doobie Brothers, Doors, Doris Day, Duke Ellington, Dwight Yokum, & Dusty Springfield. My music is heavy on Pop, R&B & Rock, but there are sufficient sprinklings of Dance, Hip-Hop, Classical, Opera, Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, Latin, Gospel, Alternative & World Beat. Genres that are under-represented include: Polka, New Age, Choral, Christian, Arena Rock & absolutely zero Metal bands.

I was abashed & astonished while researching this post to find that there are actually gay Metal-Heads. Apparently it is not all about GaGa with the gays.

Robert John Arthur Halford, the British sexy, butch lead singer of the seminal Metal Band- Judas Priest has spoken about how he believes his decision to come out publicly as gay helped destroy the myth that metal fans & bands could not accept homosexuality.

Rob Halford: "There are areas of music that are more compassionate, more tolerant, more open, more accepting and more aware. What I think I have done is destroy the myth that heavy metal bands don’t have that capacity. The vast majority of fans did receive me well after he came out. "Those that didn't were the ones that have difficulty accepting people's sexual orientation in general. I think I made some people confront issues they were not ready to deal with."

Halford also said that, although he believed progress had been made in the metal community, there was still a way to go. Halford: "Heavy Metal now is a completely different world compared to Heavy Metal in 1980. The gay & lesbian world is very different now to what it was in 1980. We have all grown to some extent. There is still a long way to go. There are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed, but I think slowly but surely our lives are getting better."

Hiding in plain sight for 2 decades, the closeted Halford modeled his look on the gay leather scene, a drag then adopted by many other metal bands. Heavy Metal concerts & videos don’t appear to me to be much different than look & ambiance of a Saturday night at The Eagle, my neighborhood leather bar.
Halford was lead singer with Judas Priest from 1974-1992, electrifying fans & critics with his 4 octave voice & operatic style. In his personal life, he struggled with alcohol, drugs, & bad relationships. Halford hit bottom when after a terrible row, he caught a taxi, & his boyfriend then shot himself & died in front of him.

Halford cleaned up his life. He played with Pansy Division at gay pride parties in the late 1990s. He came out on MTV in 1998. In 2003, he reunited with Judas Priest. In 2008 the band released a reunion album- Nostradamus, & played on the Masters of Metal Tour. Halford has homes in Phoenix, San Diego, Amsterdam, & his native Walsall, England, also Boy George's hometown. Halford claims that after coming out, the support of the metal community has been "tremendous." Halford has stated that he is a huge Lady GaGa fan. I remain unimpressed by the metal genre, but I am intrigued & a more than a little turned on by him. He turns 60 years old today.

If I owned a Judas Priest CD it would be sitting next to Judy Garland in my collection. This Joan Baez cover is quite moving:

Perfection

"It's not the load that breaks you down,

 it's the way you carry it."

She is still with us in her songs. Click here for last year's Birthday Post:

Lena Horn

March Mix

Members of my closest circle of comrades have given me notice that the March Mix is a hitting a nerve. Independent of each other, I have heard from several sidekicks saying this mix hits the mark & the music makes their bodies move & leaves their cerebrum challenged. I am listening to it this afternoon:

Kyoko's House- Phillip Glass
Blessed- Lucinda Williams
Lovesong- Adele
The Afterlife- Paul Simon
MoneyGrabber- Fitz & The Tantrums
The Roller- Beady Eye
100 Other Lovers- DeVotchka
UBerlin- R.E.M.
Addicted To Love- Florence + The Machine
Pumped Up Kicks- Foster The People
Relax- Dinah Washington/ Thievery Corporation Mix
What'll I Do- Julian Yeo
Just One Of Those Things-  Blossom Dearie/Brazilian Girls Remix
One Million Miles Away- J. Ralph

Dame Shirley Bassey Has A Birthday

There is a list of British acts that have eluded popularity in the USA: Celia Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, & Robbie Williams come to mind. But why hasn’t Shirley Bassey caught on in this country after 50+ years of recording great pop music & being the #1 Female Artist in Britain? Especially with American Gays? The Husband & I really dig her.



We were zany for her cover of Pink's Get The Party Started in the party summer of 2007. Shirley Bassey won an entirely new generation of fans when she guested on a 1997 song from British techno act, Propellerheads. History Repeating charted in both Europe & North America, & appeared on the soundtrack to the popular 1998 film There's Something About Mary. Yet Bassey had already enjoyed a long, 5 decade career as a performer before this point, recording a string of hit singles in the 1960s & garnering a devoted cult following for her torchy, often slightly risqué songs, glamorous looks, & compelling stage presence. Sometimes called "Bassey the Belter" for her strong alto voice, Bassey had previously enjoyed a huge international hit when she performed the title song to the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. She went on to record 3 Bond themes songs, more than any other artist. Don Heckman, writing for the Los Angeles Times, calls Bassey "an extraordinarily powerful live entertainer with one of the most instantly recognizable voices in popular music."

Shirley Bassey is still working as she turns an astonishing 74 years old today.

Born On This Day- January 8th... Music Icon David Bowie

“Interesting…. On announcing that I am bisexual, I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter & a performer, & I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, & I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.”



It is funny, but I seem to really fully embrace artists when they are at their core fans’ & critic’s low ebb: The Beatles- The White Album, The Rolling Stones- Some Girls, U2- Achtung Baby, REM- Automatic For The People. I have listened to & collected David Bowie since 1969 with the release of Space Oddity (a song I still listen to). That is 40+ years of living with David Bowie in his many incarnations & personas. But, my favorite era for David Bowie was not Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Alladin Sane, or the Brian Eno lean years of Low. I love David Bowie of the Let’s Dance era of the mid-1980s. That album, along with Tonight were the soundtrack of the very best time of my life. Modern Love, Let’s Dance, China Girl… songs that mixed blue-eyed soul with an Industrial edge & pop sensibilities. I thought David was in his best voice & his sexiest during this time.

He always bristled, although I can't imagine why, but in the day the Husband was often told, often by strangers, that he strongly resembled David Bowie. I still think he does, although the Husband always dismisses this suggestion.

The End Of The World

click on the image to enlarge

Of course, the 365 days of 2010 did offer up some lovely moments. That’s life. I said that's life, & as funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks, stompin' on a dream. But I don't let it get me down, 'cause this fine old world it keeps spinning around.

It brings me all sorts of pleasure to write posts for this little blog thing. Post Apocalyptic Bohemian is more than an avocation & slightly less than an obsession. I read at least 50 other blogs at least weekly, & I find solace & delight in my friendships in the blogging community. So many interesting people & so many opinions make for lively relationships.

I have experienced the joie de vivre from meeting other bloggers face to face, a sometimes scary proposition akin to dating. Will he like me? This summer we entertained the stimulating, stirring, & striking couple Arnie & Blair with a casual vegetarian dinner in the Boy’s Fort. The only time I had run into this blogging couple, we were all wearing red dresses & having cocktails. I adore both of them.

The very nicest moment of 2010 came late in the year. I had hired RAS to be my assistant 3 years ago. It was a perfect choice. We worked together for 2 years & never had an unkind word, an intrigue, or a disappointment in each other. He was so winning in his role as an assistant, that he moved up in the company & was made a manager, doing essentially what I do at one of our company’s new venues. We see each other at meetings & we email often.

RAS has a formal demeanor & a conservative streak. We are genuinely fond of each other, but I believe that I am often scandalizing to him. The one time that we socialized outside of work, he came to Post Apocalyptic Bohemia for dinner by the fireplace. RAS had his usual single glass of wine as I got a bit lit. I ended up telling him about my short but passionate affair, in, my youth with a major figure in the world of classical music.

The evening was shared with the Husband & T who, along with his much loved standard poodle- Louis, were living with us at the time. T is handsome, talented & charming, & later RAS asked about how I was acquainted with T. I explained that T had been late night take-out food off that internet thing, for the Husband & me a few years ago, & that he just basically never left. RAS was scandalized for sure, which was just the reaction I was going for.

RAS was pleased to discover that I have a passion for the gifted musician Matt Alber. Alber is a masterful & powerful singer/songwriter who I not only admire, but he is responsible for the most gorgeous song that I have ever heard. Alber’s composition-  End Of The World moves me like no other song, & I have bounteous favorite tunes. RAS has a long time friendship with Mr. Alber. I was impressed.

In early November, RAS had emailed me & summoned me to lunch with Matt Alber. Now, I have worked with & have met many famous, talented people, but I was actually more than a little taken aback with the notion of meeting this impressive singer/songwriter. At lunch, I tested my old acting skills by appearing nonchalant about our meeting, but I was truly rattled. Mr. Alber is not only accomplished, but also beautiful. He was accompanied by his equally dazzling boyfriend Phil. I felt out of my league, but Alber could not have been more charming, & I, of course gushed. How else could I react to meeting the creator of a piece of art that moves me so deeply?

I savored every moment of our meeting, & more amazing… I behaved. Thank you, RAS for providing me with my best moment of 2010. Thank you, Matt Alber, for your beautiful music & for not being baffled by a bewitched, broken down old man.

,

Born On This Day- November 22nd... Composer Benjamin Britten

I do not have a driving passion for “serious” music, symphonic work, coral pieces or what is blanketed as “classical music. I am interested in Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, because his story is also one of the great loves stories of the last 100 years & because he was working during a golden age of gay, mostly American & British compser who all knew & fed off of each others artistic energy: Aaaron Copeland, Virgil Thomas, Paul Bowles, Samual Barber, & Leonard Bernstein. Britten composed a series of masterpieces ranging from works for solo piano, oboe & cello, to pieces for chamber ensemble, to concertos & compositions for orchestras both tiny & monumental, even a full ballet. His vocal works encompass folksong arrangements to several song cycles setting poetry by Michelangelo, William Blake, W.H. Auden among others, to the great choral masterpiece, War Requiem. The form for which he is best known is opera: Peter Grimes is arguably one of the most powerful musical dramas of the last century, & he wrote at least 5 other landmark operas that are a part of the major Opera companies' repertory.

The extraordinary tenor- Peter Pears, was Britten's musical partner, life partner & muse. Britten wrote many of his greatest vocal works, from his song cycles to his finest operas, specifically for Pears & his unique & expressive voice. Pears seems a man who has found the acceptance that eluded Britten; in a way, the always present yearning that is a major defining element of Britten's music (he does yearning better than any composer since the also gay Tchaikovsky) is resolved in Pears's comfort with his life & Britten's death. Pears & Britten were understandably reticent to talk being gay, they had lived in a Britain where sodomy carried a career & life destroying prison sentence. It was an era where they were forced to hide their love.


Benjamin Britten visited North America in the spring 1939, & found more than he hoped for. He came from Britain to perform & present some of his compositions in Canada & the USA. It was planned as a relatively short trip, but ended up lasting several years. War broke out in Europe while he was away, & he not to come back to England. Britten was 26 years old, & he would have had to enlist in the military in some form (he returned to England in 1942 & claimed conscientious objector status).


During this visit, Britten & his traveling companion, the tenor Peter Pears, started the love affair that lasted 40+ years, until Britten died in 1976. There is a hotel room in Grand Rapids, MI, that is a place of pilgrimage for gay musicians, where they supposedly consummated their union. Pears wrote later: "I shall never forget a certain night in Grand Rapid. Ich liebe dich, io t’amo, jeg elske dyg, je t’aime, in fact, my little white-thighed beauty, I’m terribly in love with you." How mushy, but Britten was a Brit, & of course his legs were probably very white.

Pears with Britten at the piano

The Britten/ Pears had gay “marriage” that gave life to some of the most magnificent music of the century. Homosexuality was altogether prohibited in England at the time. Still, in a letter to Pears in 1943, Britten writes to a traveling Pears: "Think of all the other married couples who are separated for ever so much longer!" When Britten died, a decade after the repeal of the buggery laws, Queen Elizabeth sent condolences to Pears under the thinly veiled guise of sharing sympathy with "a representative of all who had worked with Lord Britten."


This prohibition of homosexuality is partly responsible for Britten's monument of the 20th century music, the opera Peter Grimes, whose conception started 2 years into the Britten/Pears relationship. It's during the US trip that George Crabbe's poem- The Borough, was pointed out to Britten, & became the inspiration for the opera. The libretto gives us a Grimes not as a murderer, but an outsider, alienated from the life of his fishing village which rejects him, as Britten's homosexuality had isolated him growing up in the conservative seaside.

Britten was recognized as a gifted composer all through his life. He won the only scholarship offered by the Royal College of Music in 1930, at 17. The following year he met W. H. Auden with whom he collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers, radical both in politics & musical direction, & other works. Of more lasting importance was his meeting in 1936 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator & inspiration as well as the partner with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. In early 1939, the pair followed Auden to the USA. There Britten composed Paul Bunyan, his 1st opera, with a libretto by Auden, as well as the 1st of many song cycles for Pears.


The Britten/Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten completing the choral works- Hymn to Saint Cecilia, his last collaboration with Auden, & A Ceremony of Carols during the long voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes, & the premiere at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success so far. Britten was encountering opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment & he withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 & the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly to showcase his own works.


Peter Grimes marked the start of a series of operas, including Billy Budd (1951) & The Turn of the Screw (1954). These operas share common themes, with the theme of the 'outsider' particularly prevalent. Most feature such a character, excluded or misunderstood by society.


In the last decade of his life, Britten suffered from  bad health & depression. His late works became progressively more sparse in texture,including the opera- Death in Venice (1973),


Having previously refused a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage in July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard there.

Jeff Buckley doing Britten...

Happy 112th Birthday, George Gershwin

He would have turned 112 today. I can’t imagine what Brooklyn's own George Gershwin could have produced if had not died at 38 years old. In his short life he produced a huge catalogue of theatre & popular songs that are among the best ever composed. He worked with several lyricists, but it was his life long collaboration with his brother Ira that are, for me, the cream of American theatre music: Swanee, The Man I Love, Embraceable You, But Not For Me, I've Got A Crush On You, Our Love Is Her To Stay, Somebody Loves Me, & Fascinatin' Rhythm. The brothers went to Hollywood & made musical films like Shall We Dance, which included such hits as Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off & They Can’t Take That Away From Me. The brothers were often associated with the work of Fred Astair, on Broadway & in Hollywood.

When he was 25 years old, his jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue premiered in New York’s Aeolian Hall at the concert, “An Experiment in Music.” The audience included Jascha Heifitz, Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Rachmaninov, & Igor Stravinsky. Gershwin followed this success with his orchestral work Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody No. 2 & An American in Paris. Serious music critics were often at a loss as to where to place Gershwin’s classical music in the standard orchestral works. In 1935 he presented an opera- Porgy and Bess in Boston with only moderate success.  It is now recognized as one of the most loved works of American opera & is included in the repertoire of the major opera companies around the world. It included such memorable songs as It Ain’t Necessarily So, I Loves You, Porgy, & Summertime.  He planned a string quartet, a ballet & another opera, but these pieces were never written. At the age of 38, he died of a brain tumor. Today he remains one of America’s most beloved popular musicians.


My favorite Gershwin song (I think it is a very perfect song, really):
Someone To Watch Over Me. But what version? It has been covered by everyone from Ella to Pink, even Amy Winehouse does a stand-up job on this rather difficult tune. Men do it also; I dig Frank Sinatra's take on it. I did it for audtions for a while without changing the pronouns. But, I think I like Linda Ronstadt & Nelson Riddle's the best:

Wake Me Up When September Ends... Songs Of Autumn

Today is the last full day of Summer. I feel the melancholia seeping in, which comes easy to me. Yet, the charms of October are not lost on me.

I am a Green Day fan, & this is my favorite of their songs, & I am moved by this acoustic version by Billy Joe Armstrong's amazing voice moved to full focus. It seems perfect for this week's transition into autumn:




summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends


like my father's come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends


here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are


as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends


summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends


ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when September ends

From My Collection Of Vintage Photos of Men Together

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are


as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends


summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

20 years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends

Billy Joe Armstrong
2005