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Out's October issue is jam packed full of all things musical, including our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time. We tapped over 100 musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, and critics to find out their picks for the best queer albums and then ranked their choices to create our list.
All month long Popnography is rolling out a few of those individual top 10 lists from some of our favorite respondents. Today we've chosen Bitch, formerly of the folk/rock duo Bitch and Animal, and now heading up Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion, who recently released their new album B+TEC=. Bitch has also been busy producing Ferron's new album, Boulder.
Bitch's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Squeeze, Singles 45’s and Under
9. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road: This album taught me about expressing longing, desire and sadness in the sexiest way.
8. Michelle Shocked, Short Sharp Shocked: "When I grow up I wanna be an old woman" -- what more can I say?
7. Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman: She was one of my earliest memories of learning about class and race issues through song.
6. Simon and Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: I used to fall asleep to this tape every night for about two years. They are one of my teachers of harmonies.
5. John Coltrane, Impressions: This is one of the albums that taught me most about freedom in music.
4. Iva Bittova, Iva Bittova: I was working at a coffee shop in the East Village when Animal and I first moved to New York. One of my customers heard that I was a violinist and I played with a percussionist. He passed me a tape of her which absolutely bent my mind. Iva has been a huge inspiration as far as how far you can take something. She is not afraid of being completely on the edge. She also reminds me how beautiful being alone can be, and that music is everywhere, in the simplest appliances.
3. Patti Griffin, Living with Ghosts: Still one of my favorite records. How she channels rage, loneliness, and broken-ness in such a simple raw way. A good reminder that love is worth all the pain it brings us. Keep up our struggle, because the struggle will always be there. Plus, this album was a huge inspiration for me when I began to record Ferron.
2. Joni Mitchell, Hejira: My favorite of her records. I identify first as a woman in the world, then as a queer woman. Joni reminds me of the beauty of our own details. She is a traveler, like me -- someone who is a "prisoner of the white lines on the freeway."
1. Ani Difranco, Ani Difranco: My sister mailed me a copied tape of this album in 1991. I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard her. She was so blatant about her politics, her bisexuality, and her amazing sense of poetry. Her liberation has never failed me. She influenced me first as a mentor of words and righteousness, then getting to work with her allowed for her to mentor me in the very cruel world of the "music business" and offered me a different path.
For more from our October music issue, head over to Out.com where you can weigh in on who'd make it to #1 on your Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time.
Previously > Nate Berkus' top 10 > Bruce Vilanch's top 10 > Melissa Ferrick's top 10
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