If you haven't picked up Out's October music issue you're missing out on over 125 pages of rock & roll photo shoots, interviews, fashion and our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time. We compiled the list by asking over 100 musicians, filmmakers, writers, and critics to send us their top 10 choices for the best and queerest albums ever and then ranking the most popular picks.
Because there wasn't enough room in the magazine to feature the top 10s themselves, all month long Popnography has been dedicated to running some of our favorite famous friends' lists. Today's list comes from Murray Hill. The celebrated drag king can frequently be found in New York's East Village hosting events like Ms. Lez and drag bingo, as well as routinely emceeing concerts for bands like Le Tigre and The Gossip.
Murray Hill's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Saturday Night Fever original motion picture soundtrack
9. Tina Turner, Private Dancer
8. Etta James, At Last
7. Liza Minnelli, Liza with a Z
6. Gypsy original motion picture soundtrack
5. Judy Garland, Judy at Carnegie Hall: What can you say about my pal Judy that hasn't been said before! This record is what showbiz used to be, it's all razzle dazzle and the most poignant singing you'll ever hear.
4. Le Tigre, This Island: Le Tigre hit a grand slam with this record! I emceed the West Coast tour for this album at The El Rey in LA and The Fillmore in SF, and the gigs were my favorite showbiz gigs ever. Seeing their audience of young, queer kids screaming at the top of their lungs, dancing, and having the time of their lives was so inspirational. Le Tigre got 'em dancing and sent a positive and hopeful message at the same time.
3. Antony and the Johnsons, I Am a Bird Now: For a guy my age and of my stature, I'll tell you something that I've told no one else -- this record brings me to tears. It's so moving, beautiful, it just packs an emotional punch. The kid's a genius.
2. The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control: I've had the honor to emcee some of their concerts and be in their "Listen Up" video, and I will say, hands down, this is the greatest, most important band playing today. They have a voice that is so needed for the queer community. Beth Ditto's pipes are of steel and she's fearless both on and off-stage -- a true trailblazer. Not to mention, the music gets me off my La-Z-Boy and on to the dance floor!
1. Frances Faye, Caught in the Act: Frances Faye was one of the greatest lounge singers ever to hit Las Vegas in the '50s. She had a huge gay following and her "assistant" was her partner! Sadly, she's been left out of history books. This record has influenced me more than anything else in my showbiz life. The songs are swinging, but the hilarious campy banter is the bomb. If you listen closely, you can hear all the double-entendres and gay references, especially on "Frances and Her Friends."
There's a whole lot more where that came from -- continue to check back here for more top 10s and head over to Out.com for all the highlights from Out's October music issue.
Out's October issue features our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, as calculated by polling over 100 musicians, actors, writers, performance artists, and critics.
To celebrate the achievement, we're rolling out the individual top 10
lists of some of our favorite respondents, including today's list
submitted by Ari Gold. The rapper, singer, and dance musician has released several successful albums including last year's Transport Systems, which Gold himself proclaimed "the gayest album ever."
Ari Gold's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Christina Aguilera, Stripped: While it seems that the newer crop of pop stars
prefer to sell albums by being safe, blank slates, Christina tried to have
something to say about her own sexual freedom as a woman and made an album of
both bangin' sexy club tracks as well as gorgeous and soulful ballads. Including
a man on man kiss in the "Beautiful" video made the message of the song the
"True Colors" queer anthem of a new generation.
9. Adam Joseph, How I Seem To Be: If perhaps we could watch the Grammys
and see lots of LGBTQ artists being nominated, Adam Joseph would have at least
been nominated for Best New Artist and probably would have taken home a slew of
other awards for this accomplished debut. Soulful, honest and musically mature
for such a young artist, this album remains one of my favorites and the fact
that he is openly gay in both his life and lyrics is the icing on the cake.
8. Me'shell Ndegeocello, Peace Beyond Passion: Not many artists either in
1996 or in 2008 after achieving mainstream recognition would take the risk of
releasing a first single off their sophomore album called "Leviticus: Faggot"
but openly bisexual musician Me'shell Ndegeocello took that risk with a powerful
song that dealt with religion and homophobia. Rapping, singing, writing,
producing and playing bass, Me'shell remains a one of a kind groundbreaking
artist and the music grooves and preaches hard.
7. Kevin Aviance, Box Of Chocolates: If rock 'n roll was truly still about
challenging the norm and rebellion, bald and black Kevin Aviance would be the
biggest star on the planet. No one else on the music scene blurs gender lines,
gives you fashion, performance art, faggotry and keeps it all edgy like Kevin
Aviance. This debut album spawned a bunch of #1 Billboard Dance hits but it is
Kevin's avant-garde live performances of songs like "Cunty" and "Din Dad Da" at
clubs all over the world and especially New York that made you feel like there
was meaning and community to going out to the gay clubs. For better and for
worse, many gay people find who they are through the club scene and Kevin's
performances either make people face their own internalized fears and prejudices
or make people feel welcome no matter how big a freak they feel they might be.
Give Kevin the props he deserves!
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.
If you haven't picked up Out's October music issue yet, you're missing out big time! Besides all the usual cutting edge fashion, photography, and features you've come to expect and love from Out, we've also announced our first ever Top 100 Greatest and Gayest Albums of All Time.
We asked over 100 musicians, writers, filmmakers, and critics to choose their 10 favorite queer albums and then we created our list using their picks. All month long Popnography is bringing you selected top 10 lists, like today's from Nate Berkus. The interior designer is most famous for his work with the Oprah Winfrey show, and he was featured on the August 2007 cover of Out, as well as on our Power 50 list.
Nate Berkus' top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. The Fugees, Greatest Hits 9. Destiny's Child, Destiny Fulfilled 8. Fergie, The Dutchess 7. Madonna, Madonna 6. R.E.M., Greatest Hits 5. Mariah Carey, The # 1's 4. The Smiths, Meat Is Murder 3. James Taylor, Greatest Hits 2. Indigo Girls, Closer To Fine 1. 10,000 Maniacs, In My Tribe
Alongside a parade of rock and roll features, photos, and fashion, Out's October music issue offers up our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time. The list was comprised by collecting the individual top 10 lists of over 100 musicians, filmmakers, writers, and critics.
All month long Popnography is rolling out some our favorite top 10 lists by some of our famous friends like Bruce Vilanch. The comic, writer, and actor has penned jokes for the Academy Awards, been featured on Hollywood Squares with Whoopi Goldberg, and starred on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.
Bruce Vilanch's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time: 10. Mae West, Great Balls of Fire: She could sing the phone book and make it dirty, but instead she sings a bunch of rock ‘n’ roll lyrics and makes them dirtier than we know they are. She was about a hundred years old when she did this.
9. Millie Jackson, Millie Jackson Live: The original Shirley Q. Licker, the original Geraldine, the original Mary J. Blige. Imagine Tina Turner and Gladys Knight crossed with Lea DeLaria. Onstage, she drank beer from a bottle as if she were giving head. When she put the bottle down and the beer overflowed the top, she would smile and say, “Yeah, that’s how you know it’s over.”
8. Lily Tomlin, The Ernestine Album: Her most popular character, the arch bitch representative of the phone company (back when there was only one). It’s a 48-minute lesson in how to make Giving Attitude work for you in real life.
7. TC Jones, Mask and Gown: A truly brilliant and hilarious drag queen in the original cast album of his Broadway show. He does everyone from Hollywood’s golden age. He was so good that when he took his trademark final bow and ripped off his wig to reveal his shaved head, an older woman two seats away from me gasped, “Oh, the poor woman, she’s bald!”
6. Peter Allen, Peter Allen Live at Carnegie Hall: A great and vastly underrated performer. On the live album, you can feel the sly interplay between Peter and his audience, who knew he was gay, but also knew he had been married to Liza, and were delighted to be with a man of more than a few layers. Everybody was in on it, and it was a party.
5. Sylvester, Sylvester live at the San Francisco Opera House: The only live album that’s worth playing on a dance floor (Donna Summer had one, too, that’s pretty great) and it’s pure, unalloyed joy. The Weather Girls sing back-up (as Tons o’ Fun). There’s something about a huge man in a kaftan singing “You make my body strong” that appeals to me for so many obvious reasons.
4. Frances Faye, Caught in the Act: It’s the late 50s or early 60s and here’s this tiny woman singing “Gay, gay, gay, is there another way?” as she pounds on a piano on a stage in Las Vegas with an audience full of adoring stars who she names in one of her songs. Deliriously hip, and very moving when she gets down to singing lyrics like “I’m drunk with love/my body aches/just one drink/is all it takes.”
3. Bette Midler, The Divine Miss M: Her first album, the one where she catches you with that incredibly sexy, slowed-down recasting of “Do You Wanna Dance?” and then proceeds to breathe life into a trove of old songs. It’s totally inspiring, uses camp to make art, and when she sings “You’ve got to have friends,” she is singing the national anthem of every gay person who ever had issues with their family.
2. Judy Garland, Judy at Carnegie Hall: The DREAMGIRLS of the previous generation, the one album that everyone of a certain age listened to so often they knew it by heart. There isn’t a phony moment on it, the woman is literally singing her heart out, concealing nothing. She forgets the words, she doesn’t give a shit, and when she makes the big notes, the audience goes completely wild and you will, too, even if you don’t know her history as well as they did.
1. Laura Nyro and Patty LaBelle, Gonna Take a Miracle: Way before she came out, but soon after she had become the most influential singer-songwriter of her age, the folk-rocker went to Philly and collaborated with gamble and huff on this acoustic reworking of some old R&B songs. They brought in Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah dash (well before lady marmalade) and the four voices are staggering, heartbreaking and roof-shaking. It’s simple music that was never written to be this complex, but these girls looked at it from another angle, which is the hallmark of the gay approach to life, and which so often results in great art.
Out's October issue is chock full of music, from our profile of rising neo-disco queen Roisin Murphy to our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time. The list was formulated with the help of over 100 musicians, writers, filmmakers, and critics who took a few moments out of their busy lives to jot down the top 10 coolest and queerest albums in their record collection.
Because there just wasn't enough room to run those lists in the magazine, we're running our favorite top 10's all month long on Popnography. Today's featured selections come from Melissa Ferrick, who released her newest album, Goodbye Youth, earlier this week. The folk rocker's ninth studio album, it's been described as her most intimate, stripped down collection of songs ever.
Melissa Ferrick's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, Shooting Rubber bands at the Stars: This was the first recording I heard of a woman who spoke truth to me. It resonated with how I felt. I was in high school, in therapy, and ready to shave my head (or someone else's) and this record saved my life.
9. Suzanne Vega, Suzanne Vega: This record was given to me by my grandparents for Christmas. This was also the first CD I ever got (wow times have changed!). They "accidentally" bought her debut album instead of Solitude Standing (which, with “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” was the hit at the time) and little did I know how big "Small Blue Thing," "Marlena on the Wall," and "Gypsy" would hit me. I actually quoted a lyric off this record in my high school yearbook. 8. Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman: This record as well, in a softer more subtle way, made me think more than any other music I had heard before. I was living in Boston and the arrival of an African American, most likely gay, woman was a miracle. Tracy Chapman's music has always had a way of reminding me that I am not alone. 7. Sinead O'Connor, The Lion and the Cobra: Wow -– this album rattled my world. It was as loud and full of rage as my brain and soul were. I shaved my head, too, and started wearing leather. 6. Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime: I discovered this on vinyl in the "cool" import section of the record store and I've been a fan ever since. He is political and stressed and searching and pissed off and I LOVE his music. He helped me learn that all men didn't suck and to play the guitar like I felt: fast, hard, and certain.
5. R.E.M., Document: What can you say about this absolutely amazing record? They changed the validity of college radio and the importance of lyric and melody in a rock form. I saw this tour in Boston at the Centrum and cried and sang the whole time. I also forgot where I parked my car.
4. The Indigo Girls, The Indigo Girls: I listened to this record so many times that i bought it three times. I would invite people over just to hear it. "Listen to THIS!!!" I would say and force people to sit down and then crank the volume up. The musicality and performances on this album are impeccable.
3. Joan Armatrading, Joan Armatrading: Forever I tried to sing alone with "Down To Zero," and forever I can not phrase it the way she does. My parents used to listen to this record when was little and I found it again in college. She taught me how to sing by having songs that make you want to sing along.
2. k.d.Lang, Absolute Torch and Twang: This record BLEW ME AWAY. It is so broad and beautiful and rock and sweet and has those long lines that her voice sails over like the picture on the cover of the Canadian sky. Her face and smile and mastery of the voice that comes from one's feet still wows me. I LOVE this record.
1. Ani DiFranco, Dilate: This was the first Ani record I bought and I bought it in 1999, so I was a bit late to the DiFranco camp, but I also thought it was called Di-Latte (like a coffee drink) for two years. This record took me two years to digest. It overwhelmed me. It was too much –- I couldn't wrap myself around it. It bothered me sometimes as if I was a little kid. Sometimes like a hunger. Sometimes like the truth. I kept coming back to this record and listening to what was so hard to hear for so long. Ani puts words to experiences from my generation with a poise and generosity I had never, and still haven’t heard. She is brave and small. Her music is smart and funny. She unconsciously embodies a duality that was clearly given to her as a gift for the rest of us to aspire to.
Mirror Mirror -- one of our seven Young Soul Rebels bands profiled and photographed at Out.com -- consists of gay songwriters David Riley (above, left)
and Ryan Lucero (right) and percussionist Matt Bagdanoff (center), but
the trio often pulls in friends and guest musicians. These unpredictable lads
know the true meaning of spectacle, as demonstrated by the visual side
dishes they serve up during theirs shows, which they perform not only
in rock venues but also in galleries and art spaces. Riley tells me
that at a New York City gallery show last week the band made stuffed
fabric snakes, tied the audience members together to create an
interactive bonding experience, and whipped up some “experimental”
Jell-O.
Riley also explains that a major influence for their debut album, The Society for the Advancement of Inflammatory
Consciousness (yeah, we have no idea what the hell that means either), was
Purusha’s book The Divine Androgyne, a sort of self-help guide told
from an extremely gay male perspective. “It’s like a ‘finding God
through sex’ manual,” he says. “You know, exploring the dark side of
self-help, letting go of the ego -- it has a new age feel, but
twisted.”
Featuring escapist folk songs, puzzling lullabies, and robotic
choral sections, the album unfolds like a shape-shifting,
transformative journey into the psyches of runaways, hustlers, and
hedonists, a welcome nod to Warhol and his Factory oddballs. If you're
in the New York City area, head over to Brooklyn's Zebulon tonight at
8:00 PM to see the group unveil their just-completed video for "New
Horizons" and play a song or two from the record. The album comes out on Cochon records today.
And to kick off the celebration, read on for Mirror Mirror’s
thorough -- and I must say excellent -- top 10 list of the greatest,
gayest albums of all time...
Out's October music issue features our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time. To concoct the list we invited over 100 musicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, and critics to send in their top 10 favorite queer albums (however they wanted to define that was up to them) and then we took note of which bands and records kept popping up time and time again.
All month long on Popnography we're running those exclusive top 10 lists from individual respondents, especially those who offered a little extra commentary about their choices. Today's list comes from Frankie Goes to Hollywood's original frontman, Holly Johnson. Perhaps most famous for their brooding, infectious dance cut "Relax," the band's Welcome to the Pleasuredome album came in at #51 on our Top 100.
Holly Johnson's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: I'm from Liverpool, near Penny Lane and I couldn't help being influenced by this truly trailblazing album by the ultimate pop group managed by a Gay Man called Brian Epstein. The world would have missed this cultural watershed without his influence.
9. T. REX, Electric Warrior: Marc Bolan wore make Up and Glitter on his face and introduced Androgyne into the Pop Firmament.
8.David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars: Hot on the Heels of Marc Bolan the self proclaimed Bisexual with the help of his American Wife Angela Bowie , added an intergalactic dimension and glamour to the gay movement.
7. Jobraith, Creatures Of The Street: No one took him seriously at the time, for so many reasons, but he was the original gay street punk. His lavish, unfinished stage set was bought by Bowie for The Diamond Dogs Tour.
6. The Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground: Another album that was almost ignored on release but became a classic. “Venus In Furs” was the anthem for the S&M Leather fetish future.
5. Sylvester, Sylvester: The first time a drag queen disco danced into your living room thru the TV Screen.
4. Grace Jones, Nightclubbing: Feeling Like A Woman, Looking Like A Man.
3. Klaus Nomi, Simple Man: Teutonic Titwillow who amazed the New York demimonde with his Operatic Arias and downright hysterical version of “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead.”
2. Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now: This album will still sound beautiful in 100 years time.
1. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Welcome To The Pleasuredome: No one else will list it so I'm going to. This Album had a huge influence on the Remix Pop Culture of the next two decades. Fusing Rock Disco and Electronica in a cum in your face Crisco covered wet dream. Still sounds hot today.
Check out all of the October issue's music-related features at Out.com, including a look back at the life of Arthur Russell, and then let us know what your own favorite greatest, gayest albums of all time are.
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