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As we come to end of our month long look at the making of our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time list created by polling over 100 musicians, filmmakers, writers and critics, Shana and I thought we'd be a bit indulgent and list our own top 10 favorite queer albums. [Ed. note: And by "indulgent" we mean allow you the opportunity to mock our musical taste.]
It was excruciatingly difficult to come up with this list, and as you'll see, not every album is by a queer artist but many/most of the albums I chose conjure up very specific memories of my formative years as a fag trapped in the industrial wilds of small town Wisconsin. These are the albums that kept me from stuffing my pockets with rocks and sinking myself to the bottom of Lake Michigan, by the artists I desperately wanted to be, screw, and/or be saved by.
Noah's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Bjork, Debut: When I think of my junior year of high school, I think of a class trip to Italy and "Big Time Sensuality" on repeat in a tiny Roman hotel room while my friend Tiffany, drunk on peach schnapps, tried to seduce me. Like Bjork, I "didn't know my future after [that] weekend" but I knew enough to know it would never include heavy petting with Tiffany.
9. Depeche Mode, Violator: Depeche Mode makes the best make out music. It's sexy, but it's also sad. Sort of a "since the world is ending, why don't we hump?" kind of vibe. A word to the wise: If any guy ever takes me home and puts this album on he will be in for the hottest two to 11 (depending on how early I have to be up the next morning) hours of his life.
8. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral: I went to my first gay club when I was in 12th grade. It was in Milwaukee, a half an hour away from my home, and it had an Industrial 16+ night (the very thought of which now qualifies as bona fide nightmare fuel). When "March of the Pigs" came on everyone cleared the floor so a handful of guys could pummel each other and whenever the snarling guitars dropped out and Trent purred "Now doesn't that make you feel better?" the entire club screamed, "NO!" I screamed along with them, but moments like that were one of the few times in high school I actually did feel better.
7. Madonna, Erotica: My parents made me buy the censored version, but I didn't care. I remember that fall was our volleyball unit in freshman gym class and I would practice serving over for hours in my backyard while my boom box blared "Bye Bye Baby" and "Deeper and Deeper" over and over and over again. I think I still probably serve like a fag.
6. Kate Bush, Hounds of Love: "Cloudbusting" is one of my favorite songs ever. Most people don't know it's based on the book by Peter Reich about his father, Wilhelm Reich, famed philosopher, sex theorist, and scientist who claimed to have a machine that could make rain. The government arrested him for his "dangerous ideas" and his son never saw him again. After my dad died last year it meant even more to me.
Read the rest of Noah's top 10 list after the jump...
5. Tori Amos, Boys for Pele: Tori + Harpsichord + Wailing "You think I'm a queer! I think you're a queer" = Mesmerizing
4. George Michael, Faith: How lucky was I that this album came out around the same time that I got really into masturbating. Of maybe it was because of this album that I got really into masturbating?
3. Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual: I used to loudly insert "AND BOYS!" into the chorus of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" because I felt left out. My
best friend Annie Lees and I spent many summer afternoons dressed up
like Cyndi Lauper and selling tropical punch Kool Aid on the sidewalk
in front of my
house. Looking back on it, I'm not quite sure why we thought that'd be
a good sales tactic (and it wasn't -- we were lucky if we made enough
money to buy a grab bag of Funyuns from the corner Laundromat).
2. Ani DiFranco, Dilate: This album not only seemed to be speaking to, about, and for me -- it also lassoed me my best friend, Kate. I was
playing it the first day of college and she heard it wafting out of my
dorm room. She stopped by -- and though she denies it -- instantly fell
in love with me. Once we sorted out the fact that I was gay (it didn't
take long) Ani and Kate, each in their own way, were two of my biggest post-coming out support systems.
1. The Magnetic Fields, Get Lost: Being a poet, when it
comes to music, I sometimes rank the importance of lyrics over
instrumentation but with this album I couldn't choose one or the other
even if you held a submachine gun to my left temple. The synths! Oh, the synths!
And Stephen Merritt's voice! I dare you to listen to "All the
Umbrellas in London" or "Smoke and Mirrors" and not melt into a puddle
of despondently happy goo.
We'll have Shana's top 10 tomorrow,
but in the meantime, head on over to Out.com and let us know who you'd choose for #1 on your own
personal Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time.
Previously > Molly Siegel's top 10 > Junior Vasquez's top 10 > Kate Bornstein's top 10
My itunes genius function has been playing Cloudbusting for me a lot lately, and I don't mind at all.
Nice list!
Posted by: raymond | October 02, 2008 at 05:47 PM