Born On This Day- August 25th... Elvis Costello

In sheer number of albums, the artists best represented in my music collection would be Tony Bennett, Paul Simon Frank Sinatra, The Police & Sting, k.d. lang, Van Morrison, & at the top of the heap would be Elvis Costello. I was crazy for him from the first listening of Alison from My Aim Is True in 1977.

Declan Patrick MacManus was born on this day in 1954. He is one of my most favorite & important musicians, with many of his huge catalogue of tunes speaking personally to me.

Costello has straddled the genres of punk, new wave, rock, pop, pub rock, traditional Irish, classical/symphonic, art song, country & soundtracks. He certainly has been prolific with 39 albums in 33 years. I used to sing Alison for auditions for shows with rock scores, & it was always included in my cabaret act in the 1980s. I modestly have to say that I feel it is one of my best numbers. I admire Costello's songwriting skills & I am zany for his singing with that hoarse little catch in his voice.

Costello is, decidedly, not gay. He is married to jazz artists Diana Krall. The couple lives in Vancouver BC.

Favorite Elvis Costello songs are too difficult to narrow down, but: Watching The Detectives, Shipbuilding (with a trumpet solo by Chet Baker!), Almost Blue, A Good Year For the Roses, Everyday I Write The Book, She, & God Give Me Strength. I could rhapsodize on & on, but I will just share one with you. This is the best cover of a country song ever.



And, of course, Alison: (You really sing it sometime. Just ask.)

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- July 10th.... Jerry Herman

As a little 10 year old musical comedy queen, I would practice kick stepping my way down the staircase at our house as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually just singing-Steve!). My parents had just been presented me with the Original Broadway Cast album Hello, Dolly! & I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of such infectious tunes. These hummable songs personified the “show tune”. They were tuneful, optimistic, & deceptively simple songs. I had been raised on Lerner & Lowe & Rodgers & Hammerstein, but this new guy was really getting to me. I didn’t know it in 1964, but Jerry Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next 4 decades.

Jerry Herman, who writes the music & lyrics, produced super successful & contagious tunes for the musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mable, & La Cage Aux Folles.

In these musicals our misunderstood leading lady would introduce a song early in the first act that stated her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In There, It’s Today, Each Tomorrow Morning, Look What Happened To Mabel, & A Little More Mascara.

The first act would end in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits: Before The Parade Passes By, If He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am.

That brings us to the big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how their lives have been changed by the mere presence of this woman with the title songs from Dolly & Mame, When Mabel Comes In The Room, One Person, & The Best Of Times. The song- One from A Chorus Line is a parody & homage to these songs.

Despite the formula, these shows & their wonderful & skillful songs make for superior theatre experiences. Some were super hits & others became cult favorites. Herman is the only songwriter to have 3 musical on Broadway at the same time. Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! outsold The Beatles in 1964. The movie versions of Hello, Dolly!& Mame are considered, by most fan of musical theatre, to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the film of Hello, Dolly!& saw it about 20 times. I still love Barbra (decades too young for the role) as Mae West as Dolly Levi. I was very touched that Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put On Your Sunday Clothes.

Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:

“I think my style of musical has come and was very, very good to me, but is gone now. I think it's better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn't make it. I left at my height."

Herman has long been openly gay, & was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1985.  He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold & is still, as he turns 81 years old today, as one of his lyrics proclaims, “alive & well & thriving.”

Herman’s 1983 musical- La Cage Aux Folles was a critical & commercial smash, & also a political & social turning point.  Never before had a pair men held hands in a musical, or sung a love ballad to one another.

George Hearn’s star turn as Za Za, belting out what is probably the most dramatic Act One closer of all time- I Am What I Am, is a forceful call for dignity & acceptance, a surpassingly stalwart statement in the first days of HIV from a composer/lyricist who declared all along that he wanted only to entertain people.

I had the good fortunate to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s & during performances, of course I would close my eyes as the male chorus was singing the title number, & what I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better yet- “Hello, Stephen!”& I was step kick-stepping down that large staircase.

Born On This Day- June 30th... Gay Icon, Lena Mary Calhoun Horne

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

She was my father's favorite movie star & he has a story of filling her automobile's gas tank at the gas station he worked at on La Cienega Boulevard in 1944. Lena Horne had a primary occupation of nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. Besides her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 & brought her 3 Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989. She appeared in 16 feature films & several shorts between 1938 & 1978. She performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony winning show- Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981/1982; & she sang & acted on radio & TV.

Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally & in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers.

By 1969, when Horne acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing & musical training lent he talent to the popular music of the day, rather than the blues & jazz more commonly associated with people of color. Lena's photogenic beauty was close enough to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration & raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, Horne could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.

Horne was closely associated with the songs of her friend-the openly gay Billy Strayhorn.

She left this world 10 years after the start of the new century, with a legacy of the music & images of her stunning beauty.

Portland Pride Day... 25 Gayest Songs Of All Time

25. 9 to 5- Dolly Parton

24. In the Navy- Village People

23. Relax- Frankie Goes To Hollywood

22. Macho Man- Village People

21. Small Town Boy- Bronski  Beat

20. I’m Coming Out- Diana Ross

19. I Am What I Am- Harvey Fierstein

18. I Love The Nightlife- Alicia Bridges

17. Vogue- Madonna

16. Constant Craving- k d lang

15. Xanadu- Olivia Newton-John

14. Go West- Pet Shop Boys

13. No More Tears (Enough is Enough)- Babs & Donna Summer

12. You Make Me Feel Mighty Real- Sylvester

11. Don’t Rain On My Parade- Barbra Streisand

10. Love Shack- B 52s

9. YMCA- Village People

8. Dancing Queen- ABBA

7. Secret Love- Doris Day

6. Faith- George Michael

5. Hot Stuff- Donna Summer

4. We Are Family- Sister Sledge

3. It’s Raining Men- Weather Girls

2. I Will Survive- Gloria Gaynor

1. Over The Rainbow- Judy Garland

He Made It Through The Rain To Sing The Songs The Whole World Sings

Today is the 69th birthday of Barry Alan Pincus of Brooklyn NY. He wrote a whole bunch of songs & along the way sold over 360 million records as writer, producer, arranger or conductor, up there with Sinatra, Michael Jackson or Bruce Springsteen.

Maybe Barry Manilow will never be ready to take a chance again. During a 2004 concert in NYC, just as he started to sing a duet with Brian d’Arcy James, Mailow joked to the audience: “Of course, we're not going to sing it to each other—that would be creepy.”

His own website diminishes the fact that he began his career in a gay bathhouse, despite the fact that he’s admitted ripping off his tuxedo & jumping into the bathhouse’s pool with lots of gay nude men. He blamed losing his inhibitions on the drinks & joints that had been passed to him. Manilow: “That’s such a bit of misinformation. There was just 1 bathhouse called the Continental Bathhouse & I worked there for 2 weekends with Bette Midler & that was it. I accompanied her for two weekends there & then we went on to a lot of nightclubs around NYC, Chicago & L.A. & she exploded like a year later. So it really wasn’t ‘gay bathhouses.’ I don't know where that came from.”

On the plus side, he canceled an appearance on The View because of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s ultra-conservative stance. Manilow: “I strongly disagree with her views, I think she's dangerous & offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her.” When Manilow was being honored in Palm Springs for his AIDS awareness efforts, he stated: “I've had 4 personal assistants in my career since the ’70s, & 3 out of the 4 have died of AIDS. My personal assistants have always become my best friends. They are my brothers.”

Manilow complained that when the Reagans became his neighbors in Bel-Air: "I thought it was pretty hot, but the secret service was all over the place. I always know when they are coming home because of all the helicopters. If I am out there sunbathing in the nude, I go, shit, the Reagans are coming home.”

When Elizabeth Taylor asked him the early 1980s for help raising money to fight the disease he was there. Manilow: “Her friend, Rock Hudson, had died. She was the first one to try to make the public aware of this disease that was infecting everybody, & she was throwing a big dinner party. She called her entertainer friends, & they all turned her down. I don't know why. But I got the call & said, ‘Of course.’ But my band wasn't around. I just went there & played piano & sang for a good hour. It was the first one she had, & it was the first time I had ever done anything like that.”

I have never been, nor do I suspect that I will ever be, a Fanalow. Even with my egalitarian & encompassing musical tastes, I never did find myself on the Manilow journey. The closest to an exception was when I was working for ASCAP in NYC, circa mid-1970s. I was engaged in listening to 6 hours of commercial radio play & entrusted to identify all the music played: commercials, bridges, lead-ins, cues & songs. I would not listen to songs all the way through. I was paid a bonus for finishing more than the 6 hour tape. Yet, I was very taken with an AM radio hit. I knew the song in the first 3 notes, but I would listen all the way through. I began to think it would be an effective ballad in my own act. The song was Weekend In New England sung by Barry Manilow.

I think it is unfortunate that Manilow suffers from the same fear of fan rejection that Liberace did. It would have been fun to have him be an out & proud gay man. For 25 years, Manilow has lived with his "manager" Garry Kief in homes they share in NYC, Bel Air & Palm Springs. Could It Be Magic?

Born On This Day- May 26th... Peggy Lee

It seems just perfect to me that a little redheaded 15 year old boy would be obsessed with a song filled with existentialist angst, a half spoken, half sung opus to disillusionment with life, even when the events are exceptional. The singer suggested that I "break out the booze & have a ball… if that's all …there is". I decided to take the singer’s advice. She also let me know that suicide was not an option, for even that would be a disappointment.


Lady & The Tramp was my favorite childhood Disney movie, & I especially loved singing the songs from the movie into the bathroom mirror as a tot. My parents suggested that I might also enjoy the recordings of Miss Peggy Lee, who had written the songs for the Disney movie, & had voiced several of the characters.

As a kid, I totally got into her albums: Black Coffee, Dream Street, & I Like Men!. But as I became a fan of The Beatles, The Supremes, & The Kinks, I forgot my parental unit's album collection & favored my own. I heard Is That All There Is? on the radio in 1969 & was entranced. I bought the single & played it over & over, sometimes stealing little sips of my father’s whiskey from the forbidden liquor cabinet. I was back to listening to Peggy Lee.

Peggy Lee was a singer, a songwriter, an actress & an innovator. Her popular music is a map to the best of jazz, blues, swing, Latin, & rock. She & recorded over 650 songs & released 60+ albums. Best known for her smooth, sultry 1958 cover of the R&B hit- Fever, in spring 2010, Peggy Lee is back on the Billboard Top 100 album chart for the first time since 1970 with the release of the Starbucks compilation- Come Rain or Come Shine. The album is # 51 on the pop charts, #2 on the jazz charts.


Peggy Lee was one of the few of the traditional pop singers to embrace the songs of the Beatles, Randy Newman ( the arranger & conductor of Is That All There Is?), Carole King, & James Taylor. From 1957 until her final recording in 1993, she routinely released 2 albums a year including standards, her own compositions, & material from new artists.


Lee was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for Is That All There Is? In 1995 she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Peggy Lee was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for her work in Pete Kelly's Blues.


Is she already a Gay Idol? If not, I hereby nominate Miss Peggy Lee. She left us in 2002. Lee would have been 92 today. Is That All There Is?

Born On This Day- May 17th... Lyricist Bob Merrill

I possess a great passion for the art of the popular song. I have a large library of books by & about 20th century songwriters including everyone from Irving Berlin to Sting, Occasionally mentioned as one of the worst songwriters of all time based on his penchant for coming up with best selling novelty songs: If I’d Known You Were Comin’, I'd Have Baked a Cake, Honeycomb, How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania & Mambo Italiano.

Unfair when Bob Merrill is responsible or the music or lyrics for successful Broadway musicals: New Girl In Town, Take Me Along, Carnival, & Funny Girl. But, by the other turn, he gave us the monumental flops: Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Henry, Sweet Henry, Sugar, & The Red Shoes. He also wrote the book & lyrics for the Angela Lansbury vehicle Prettybelle , & the music & lyrics for the Robert Preston musical The Prince of Grand Street , both of which closed during their Boston tryouts. He was nominated for the Tony Award 8 times, but never won. He was nominated for an Oscar for the song- Funny Girl.

Merrill finally tired of the Broadway grind & turned to writing screenplays: the 1975 film Mahogany, starring Diana Ross, WC Fields & Me, with Rod Steiger; Chu Chu & the Philly Flash with Carol Burnett; & Portrait of a Showgirl, starring Rita Moreno, Leslie Ann Warren & Tony Curtis.

Suffering from depression, Bob Merrill took his own life on February 17, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.

Love To Love You Baby

I cannot put into words the emotions that were generated by LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY in the late summer of 1975. It was an aural & sensual thrill that had my 21 year old blood afire. I had great deal of quality sex to that song. Now, gone at only 63… the talented Donna Summer is as dead as my sex life.

Love to Love You Baby was her American chart debut & the first of 19 #1 dance hits from 1975 to 2008, second only to Madonna. During the disco era she burned up the charts: She was the only artist to have 3 consecutive double-LPs hit #1: Live & More, Bad Girls & On the Radio. She was also the first female artist with 4 #1 singles in a 13-month period.

She was never comfortable with the Disco Queen label. Musically, she began to change in 1979 with Hot Stuff, which had a tough, rock 'n' roll beat. Her diverse sound helped her earn Grammy Awards in the dance, Rock, R&B & Gospel categories. Loved her music. I am considering that I may be getting too old for this world.

Born On This Day- May 14th... David & Bobby

In November of 2005, The Oregonian's Music Critic- David Stabler honestly wrote of the music that he wished to played at his funeral & why. He then implored his readers to submit 3 of their own choices. Mine was published & I could not have been more delighted because I am a publicity whore. If I can't see my image on the screen, I find some solace in seeing my name in print.

Click if you want it bigger...

Today marks the birthday of a pair of artists: David Byrne & Bobby Darin, that are very important to me. So much so that I included them both in my own list of songs for my own memorial party (there will be no funeral, please):

Procession: Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads
Recessional: Beyond The Sea by Bobby Darin
Service: Aquas de Marco- Antonio Carlos Jobim

Runners-up & I wish to have included at the party:
I Got You (I Feel Good) by James Brown
God Only Knows by Brian Wilson
If I Had A Boat by Lyle Lovett

It is hard for me to to erase the memory of Kevin Spacey 's ghastly performance as Bobby Darin in the offensive film- Beyond The Sea from my hard drive.

David Byrne, one of the most important musicians in my considerably long life. He looks a bit like the Husband.

Born On This Day- May 11th... Great American Songwriter, Irving Berlin

He was not gay, & he was a Jew who wrote the best selling Christmas song of all time. His life spanned more than 100 years & he composed over 1000 songs. Irving Berlin was born Israel Beilin in 1988, his exact place of birth is unknown, although his family had been living in Tolochin, Russia, when they immigrated to New York in 1893. When his father died, Berlin, just turned 13, worked the streets in various odd jobs, singing for pennies, then as a singing waiter in a Chinatown Cafe. In 1907 he published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, & in 1911 he had his first major international hit - Alexander's Ragtime Band.



For 5 decades, Irving Berlin composed ballads, dance numbers, novelty tunes & love songs that defined American popular song for much of the century. Irving Berlin standards include: How Deep Is the Ocean, Blue Skies, White Christmas, Always, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, There's No Business Like Show Business, Cheek to Cheek, Puttin' on the Ritz, A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, Heat Wave, Easter Parade, Let's Face the Music & Dance, & God Bless America.

He wrote for Broadway & Hollywood. He composed 17 complete scores for Broadway musicals & revues, including the phenomenal score for Annie get Your Gun. Among the Hollywood movie musical classics with scores by Irving Berlin are Top Hat, Follow The Fleet, On The Avenue, Alexander's Rag Time Band, Holiday Inn, This Is The Army, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, White Christmas & There's No Business Like Show Business. His songs have provided memorable moments other films, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Home Alone in 1991. Among his many awards are a dozen Grammys, 2 Tony Awards & the Academy Award for White Christmas in 1942.


In 1978, a jaw-droppingly handsome young man with deep blue eyes, stood center stage, straight up & still & with a sweet pure tenor, sang the 1924 Irving Berlin tune- What’ll I Do? for an audition. I was impressed with his looks & his talent. More than a year later this young man would tell me that he was in love with me while Harry Nillson sang What'll I Do on the stereo in the background. This man would eventually become my Husband & I would spend more than half of my life at his side. What’ll I Do remains my favorite Irving Berlin song, although I love them all. I also have quite a soft spot for You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun:

Oh, a man may be hot...
But he's not... 
When he's shot! 
Oh you can't get a man with a gun!

Don't Leave Me This Way

 652 North LaPeer Drive, West Hollywood

35 years ago tonight, I dropped into Studio One in West Hollywood & dropped a Quaalude.This was my evening of choice in those days. I liked the staff in the their short satin short-shorts.  I danced for 5 hours when a hot, no… sizzling redhead danced beside me, slipped out of his tee shirt & held a little brown bottle under my nose. All of a sudden, I felt the beat of the music, the heat of the guy & I felt all sexy & nice & warm & sexy.

I woke up, remembering nothing, in a 1920s Mediterranean style cottage, a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean in Venice Beach. The gingerman served me coffee & complimented me on my participation in the night before. He asked me if I wanted to go to the beach & I foolishly begged off because I had rehearsal. We came together one more time, showered & I had him drive me home. It was one of those moments I regret, not taking him up on the beach offer.

When our eyes met, & his hand grazed mind as he placed a little brown bottle  under my nose, this song was pounding away on the sound system. Don't Leave Me This Way was first performed by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes 2 years earlier, but as covered by Motown artist Thelma Houston in 1976, this version, with its more overt disco arrangement, was a massive worldwide hit, topping the Soul charts & the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart for this week in May 1977. I find it to be the very best disco song & possibly the best song of the entire 1970's as well.

I think of that Spring night in 1977 whenever I hear Don't Leave Me This Way, but the song took on a different meaning in the 1980s when friends & colleagues began to drop away from HIV.

Thelma Houston turns 65 years old today. Thelma & The Post Apocalyptic Bohemian both made it into the teens of the 21st century. A broken man with empty hands,oh baby please, don't leave me this way.

Very Glad To Be Unhappy... The Sad Song Of Lorenz

In 1980, I appeared in a musical revue- Rodgers & Hart. I had the thrill of singing: I Could Write A Book, Isn’t It Romantic & Where Or When. It was my understanding that I was very good. I do have a way with a song, a dance & an audience.

Lorenz Hart was born 118 years ago today- May 2nd. Hart wrote over 500 songs with the most sophisticated lyrics for the most enthralling melodies. But this is a sad story. He agonized over life. His felt that he was a misplaced person, whose job was to observe the beautiful people, then put ravishing words in their perfect mouths, to make them sound & feel as smart as they seemed.

Richard Rodgers, the Broadway composer, enjoyed long collaborations with the 2 most prominent lyricists of the American musical. He worked with his first partner- Lorenz Hart, from 1919 until Hart's death, at 48, in 1943. He teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II from the groundbreaking Oklahoma! until 1943 with Hammerstein's death, in 1960. His work with Hart makes their tunes particularly non-Hammerstein in flavor.

Written 70 to 90 years ago, mostly for now forgotten Broadway shows & movies, brittle & world-weary tunes: Manhattan, Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine, Where or When, The Lady Is a Tramp, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, & many more, sound both of today & timeless. They sing with confident wit, & confidential despair about hearts ready to break, melt or explode. Rodgers' melodies get you humming & dreaming, but the subject & style of these songs come straight from Hart's heart.

Hart was very short of stature & unattractive in face. Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, "a man who seemed deprived of the happiness his lyrical gifts gave to others.” He was profoundly alcoholic & gay. Hart found little enjoyment in his homosexual experiences. Terrified of intimacy, he would wait for sex partners to fall asleep, then creep out of bed & curl up on the floor of his bedroom closet to get some sleep. Several of Hart's acquaintances confirm that he went to private orgies, but strictly as a voyeur. He found watching from the sidelines less stressful than joining in. He seems to have been incapable of any intimacy, & sought solace in the sexual company of hustlers & the occasional chorus boy. His erratic behavior & troubled ways moved the very straight Rodgers to eventually choose another writing partner.

Offered the chance to write what would become Oklahoma!, Hart sensibly said no thanks. (It's hard to imagine a less Hart-ish show.) After the opening night performance, Hart walked into Sardi's & told Rodgers, "This is one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life, &it'll be playing 20 years from now."

Rodgers & Hart collaborated one more time though. In 1943, they did 5 new songs for a revival of their 1927 hit A Connecticut Yankee. The last lyric Hart wrote was for To Keep My Love Alive, sung by a noble lady who tires easily of men,15 husbands &15 early funerals:
"Sir Philip played the harp; I cussed the thing.
I crowned him with his harp to bust the thing.
& now he plays where harps are just the thing,
To keep my love alive."

Just before the opening of the show, Hart had been on a drinking & hustler binge, & when he arrived at the theater an exasperated Rodgers refused to let him enter the theatre. Hart sat in the November rain on a curbside drinking & crying. 2 days later, ill with pneumonia, he was taken to Doctors' Hospital where he died 3 days later. He was just 47 years old. Now he plays where harps are just the thing.

Some of the Hart lyrics:


• Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered
• Blue Moon
• Dancing on the Ceiling
• Falling in Love with Love
• Glad to Be Unhappy
• Have You Met Miss Jones?
• He Was Too Good to Me
• I Could Write a Book
• I Didn't Know What Time It Was
• I'll Tell The Man In The Street
• Isn't It Romantic?
• It Never Entered My Mind
• It's Easy to Remember
• I've Got 5 Dollars
• I Wish I Were in Love Again
• Johnny One Note
• The Lady Is a Tramp
• Little Girl Blue
• Lover
• Manhattan
• The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
• Mountain Greenery
• My Funny Valentine
• My Heart Stood Still
• My Romance
• Ship Without a Sail
• Sing for Your Supper
• Spring Is Here
• Ten Cents a Dance
• There's a Small Hotel
• This Can't Be Love
• To Keep My Love Alive
• Where or When
• With a Song in My Heart
• You Took Advantage of Me

Hart's bitter sophistication paired well with my own sensibilities & my whiskey-voiced interpretations & I had several Rodger's & Hart songs in my repertoire. It Never Entered My Mind fit my range & disposition rather perfectly. Maybe I should dust it off.

Born On This Day- April 28th... Cabaret Great Blossom Dearie

I am going to become a recluse. I can feel it coming on. Under the new austerity program, I have to diminish my participation in 2 of my favorite activities: cocktail sipping & shopping, & I look so damn feeble, I figure… why not just stay home? I think I am going to spend the summer at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, receiving only the occasional guest, although I would love for any of you stop by for a glass of wine or a libation in the garden.


On the positive side, I am taking on the monumental project of dealing with my CD collection. The husband recently moved an extraordinary piece- a 15 foot long merchant's table with 20 drawers, European pine from the early 19th century, from the den to his studio. This major piece of furniture has long been the home to my music collection. I have decided that since I deal with mostly downloads in the new century, I would move the CDs into storage in my dressing room & free up the many drawers for his art supplies & found objects.


I like to look at each CD & think about why it is the collection & what it means to me, why the artists matters, & what moved me about the music in the first place... or else it goes.


Today is the birthday of a wonderful artist from my collection that was famous for being a bit of a recluse & guarding her privacy. I saw her perform at NYC's Danny’s Skylight Lounge, a number of times in the mid-1970s, at the very apex of her talent.

Singer, pianist & songwriter with an independent spirit, Blossom Dearie had a career that blurred the line between jazz & cabaret. An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs, she rarely raised her sly voice, & she confided song lyrics in a playful style with layers of insinuation. But, just under her fey mask was a needling wit. It brought a breezy sophistication to all of her songs. If you listen closely, you can hear the caustic contempt she brings to her signature song- I’m Hip by Portland’s very own- Dave Frishberg. Mr. Frishberg wrote another of her classics- Peel Me a Grape.




All 6 of her albums on Verve- Blossom Dearie (1956), Give Him the Ooh-La-La (1957), Once Upon a Summertime (1958), Sings Comden & Green (1959), My Gentleman Friend (1959) & Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs(1960) are cult classics. Check out the Vereve remix albums with the Brazylian Girls remix Blossom Dearie - doing Just One of Those Things. The last song Ms. Dearie recorded was -It’s All Right to Be Afraid, a comforting ballad dedicated to the victims & survivors of 9/11.


The jazz pixie with a little girl voice with a bit squeakiness & pageboy haircut was a fixture in New York for decades, she died in 2009 in her Greenwich Village apartment of 50 years. She was 84 years old.

A Sad Song From The Closet

Slick, overproduced, modern R&B is not my favorite genre, but there is no denying the luscious, lustrous instrument of Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr, who was born in 1951, on this day- April 20th. He may have been the premier male R&B singer of his time. He won 8 Grammys including for Song of the Year in 2004- Dance With My Father.

He started as a first rate backup singer for: Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Donna Summer, Bette Midler, Chic, Barbra Streisand. Vandross toured with David Bowie in 1974 & sang backing vocals on the Young Americans album Vandross was mentored by Roberta Flack, who thought he has the makings of a great artist.


Vandross had a series of strong selling solo albums & collaborations in the 1980s, 1990s & early aughts.


Vandross' career he was vexed' by questions about his sexuality. He remained, & he was never romantically linked in the media with women. He never explicitly denied being gay, but he never publicly acknowledged it either. He claimed that he was too busy with his career & “it was not what he wanted.” Vandross' homosexuality was an open secret in the music industry, but never seems mentioned in the list of great gay artists.


Vandross suffered from diabetes & hypertension. His weight fluctuated wildly throughout his career. In 2003 Vandross suffered a stroke at his home in Manhattan. Except for accepting his 2004 his Song of the Year Grammy in 2004, he was never seen in public again. On the video Vandross stated: “Whenever I say goodbye it's never for long because I believe in the power of love.”


Vandross died in July 2005 . He was just 54 years old & reportedly had never fully recovered from the 2003 stroke. He died peacefully, surrounded by his family & friends. He would have been 61 years old today.

Born On This Day- April 16th... Dusty Springfield

For me personally, she is one of the most important recording artists of my considerable lifetime. Her music has moved me, thrilled me & comforted me for nearly 50 years.  For me, the album- Dusty In Memphis is a perfect LP & in my top 5 albums of all time.

Dusty Springfield was an unlikely celebrity. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien was London born on this day in 1939, a month before that start of WW2. She started life as an Irish Catholic schoolgirl, yet she gained stardom as a sultry singer of soul, the "white girl singing black music."

Her love for other women was forbidden & in the UK at the time, illegal. The most frustrating thing for any creative person must be an inability to express in your work the things that mean the most to you. Art is inspired by our strongest emotions, including love & desire. It must be difficult to write, compose, paint or act when your own feelings of love & desire are considered off limits to most of society. Like most of the great gay artists in history, we have found innovative ways of sidestepping the heterosexual expectations of the public yet covertly conveying our constrained emotions in our work.

Springfield’s sexuality is at the heart of the melancholy & vulnerability that she brings her recordings, including this one. Her songs go straight to my heart: How Can I Be Sure, All Cried Out, I Close My Eyes & Count To Ten, Some of Your Lovin’, The Look of Love, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, & my personal favorite, her really truly devastating version of I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. She does more than sell the song; she inhabits & makes them her own in the way that only the true great artists can do.


With a strong, masculine countenance but a feminine style, she appealed to gay men, lesbians. She even went one step further by studying and copying drag acts, creating the image of a woman, dressed like a man who is dressed like a woman. Gender bending & confusing to a 1960s listening public. In the press, her image was still being vigorously protected against her sexuality. Every press release stressed her Catholic faith & middle-class roots. The fact she was living with a fellow singer Norma Tanega was conveniently overlooked. after Springfield & Tanega had split up, there was always an other woman keeping her company.

Springfield also managed an iconic image for herself, tall beehive hair & thick, dark eye make-up. Her look was copied by fellow artists of the time, teenage girls, & drag queens. Her short career left an lasting legacy on modern fashion.

But she had other image matters to worry about too. Having become an expert in all aspects of sound recording, the male dominated industry felt resentment by this young woman who seemed to know it all. She also had a sharp ear for quality & a perfectionist approach to her work. Women were simply not allowed to lean across the mixing desk & proceed to take over. Soon, she had acquired the unfair reputation for being difficult & eccentric. Most producers braced themselves for an argument when they heard that Dusty Springfield would be in their studio that day.


Her headstrong ways & strong working knowledge of the technical aspects of recording did not endear Springfield to the professional male dominated professional musical community, but she certainly enchanting her fans.

In 1964, while on tour in South Africa, & with no real interest in politics, she found it abhorrent that it was illegal to perform a concert to a mixed audience. But there was a loophole in the law presented to her that allowed live performances to mixed audiences as long as they were in a movie theatre. Springfield booked the biggest cinema she could find & played to a large mixed audience. When she arrived back at her hotel, Springfield & her entourage were placed under arrest & deported from the country immediately. Back home the public loved her for it. She was hailed as an anti-apartheid hero.


Springfield was at her apex in the mid-1960s. She had several hit albums, a #1 single-You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, & her own TV show. She had also been credited as the woman who brought Motown to the UK. But in the early 1970s, when I loved her the most, Springfield’s style was pushed aside in preference for more experimental styles & songs with a strong political message. Her simple love songs & throaty jazzy voice, began to lose popularity.


Springfield was sucked into the spiral of drink, drugs & the party culture. She abused a variety substances on a daily basis. The pressure of her double life manifested itself in cutting, depression & a desire to avoid the spotlight. Then an album she had started to record for Atlantic Records was shelved due to her ‘poor mental health’.

Aghast at the abandoned album, Springfield moved to LA & dropped deeper drug abuse, alcohol & self harm. Abandoning her career, she spent most of the 1970s living late nights of partying & drug taking. Her cutting so severe that on several occasions, she was hospitalized.

Late in the 1970s Springfield had begun to speak openly about her attraction to both sexes, although she was never known to ever have had a boyfriend. The poor press she received for coming out devastated Springfield. She told her parents she was gay, but far from outraged, they laughed & did not take the situation seriously. This seemed to hurt her even more.


In the 1980s Springfield’s drug abuse was at an all-time high. She continued to enjoy short-lived affairs with women in the music industry, including Rough Trade’s lead singer, Carol Pope. Her recordings made little impact & had low sales . Springfield was constantly between rehab or the hospital.

Salvation came in 1987 when her long time fans the Pet Shop Boys asked her to collaborate with them . The resulting record,-What Have I Done to Deserve This was a worldwide smash hit & one of my favorite singles ever. All of a sudden, the 48 year-old faded star was among the smart set again. Pet Shop Boys to produce an album for her. Her life started to get better. No drugs & no long nights partying. More hits singles followed.

In 1994, just as Springfield was riding high again in 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She seemed beating the cancer, but remission was to be short lived. For several years, she fought against the second bout of cancer. Before long, it was clear that this time, there would be no remission. Springfield lived with lifelong friend & backing singer, Simon Bell, who took care of her.

On New Year’s 1999, Springfield was awarded an Order of the British Empire for her contribution to music. Too sick to make the ceremony, her long time manager, Vicki Wickham, with permission from Queen Elizabeth 2, picked up the award on her behalf. It was carried directly to Springfield & given to her in front of a few friends, & her doctor. On the day when Springfield would have received the award, she lost her fight against cancer. Her funeral took over the small town where she had spent the end of her life- of Henley, & the service was attended by thousands of mourners including Elvis Costello, Lulu, Elton John & Pet Shop Boys. 10 days after her death. her friend Sir Elton inducted Springfield into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, stating: “She was the greatest white singer of all time”.

Born On This Day- April 8th... Fred Ebb

"One thing I know, & I've always known is I am my own best friend"
Chicago (1977)


You readers know by now that I have a passion for the lyrics that go with the music. Fred Ebb was a real master of the the musical theatre & the popular song. His work has had a huge influence on me & I had the privilege of performing his songs when I played Herr Shultz in Cabaret in Seattle in 1990. His lyrics have touched me, entertained & amazed me for over 5 decades.

He is dead now, bu his last show on Broadway opened after he was gone - The Scottsboro Boys... now that is prolific! As a writer, lyricist, composer & director, Fred Ebb made incalculable contributions to the theatre & popular song. Ebb is a Tony, Grammy, Emmy, Olivier & Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ebb's first professional songwriting assignment came in 1953 when he was hired by Columbia Records to write a song for Judy Garland called Heartbroken. Ebb was introduced to composer John Kander in 1964 by music publisher Tommy Valando & they became one of the most legendary songwriting teams in American Theatre history. Their first successful collaboration was the song My Coloring Book recorded by Barbra Streisand.


Their second theatrical collaboration, Flora, the Red Menace, created a star out of Liza Minnelli in her Tony Award winning Broadway debut. In 1966, Cabaret, opened & received 7 Tony Awards including Best Musical & Best Score. A 1972 movie version of Cabaret starring Liza Minnelli was nominated for 10 Academy Awards & won 8, & was nominated for 9 Golden Globe Awards & won 3 including Best Picture Musical or Comedy. The same year, the songwriting team wrote a number of songs for Minnelli's television special Liza With a Z, directed by Bob Fosse which received an Emmy Award. In 1975, the pair wrote the Broadway musical Chicago, directed by Bob Fosse & starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera & Jerry Orbach.


That musical was successfully revived 20 years later at City Center ENCORES! & subsequently transferred to Broadway where it is currently the longest running revival in Broadway history. In 1977, the team collaborated with Martin Scorsese on the movie New York, New York; the title song was introduced by Liza Minnelli & later recorded by Frank Sinatra, becoming the unofficial theme song of New York City. The Minnelli Broadway vehicle The Act also opened that year. After a 4 year absence, Ebb & Kander returned with Woman of the Year (1981), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985) & Steel Pier (1997). The 2002 feature film Chicago was nominated for 13 Academy Awards & won 6, including Best Picture & was nominated for 8 Golden Globe Awards & won 3, including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.


2 of his "flops" Zorba (1968) & 70 Girls 70 (1971) are 2 of my favorite scores.


For most of his professional life, Ebb lived & worked in an apartment overlooking New York's Central Park. It had a terrific view. His apartment was decorated with theatre memorabilia & German Expressionist paintings & drawings, & he collected record albums as a hobby. Ebb died on September 11, 2004.

Its good, isn't it?

Grand, isn't it?

Great, isn't it?

Swell, isn't it?

Fun, isn't it?

Nowadays

There's men, everywhere

Jazz, everywhere

Booze, everywhere

Life, everywhere

Joy, everywhere

Nowadays

You can like the life you're living

You can live the life you like

You can even marry Harry

But mess around with Ike

& that's good, isn't it?

Grand, isn't it?

Great, isn't it?

Swell, isn't it?

Fun, isn't it?

But nothing stays

In 50 years or so

It's gonna change, you know

But, oh, it's heaven

Nowadays