QMH June 2009 Bonus Show Script
Songs About Stonewall
Suzanne Cimone - Freedom Day (1995)
This is JD Doyle and welcome to Queer Music Heritage. This is sort of a history show, normally heard on the 4th Monday of the month as part of the show Queer Voices, on KPFT-FM in Houston. My focus is to preserve and share the GLBT music of our history, and I'll mark ten years of doing this next January. And since June marks the 40th anniversary of Stonewall I wanted to do something special, a bonus show where every song is about Stonewall. And in several cases I have short quotes by the artists, talking about their songs.
I started off with Suzanne Cimone, an artist I really don't know much about, other than that she's from San Francisco, and released, as far as I know, her only album in 1995, called "Freedom Day," and that was the title track. Most of the songs you'll hear are from the '90s, but want to go right away to the oldest song lyrically about Stonewall, and actually what I consider the first explicitly gay liberation song.
It was written and recorded by Madeline Davis, and she has a lot of history of her own. She was one of the early members of the Mattachine Society, in Buffalo, New York, and was president of that chapter for many years. One of her biggest honors was in 1972 when she was elected as the first openly lesbian delegate to a major national political convention. It of course was the Democratic convention that nominated McGovern. She is an award-winning author, and has many other accomplishments but I want to get to the music, and to let you hear her talk about the song "Stonewall Nation."
Madeline Davis comments (2004)
I went to the first March I ever attended in 1971. It was the march on the state capitol in Albany. We were at the head of this line of just hundreds of people, and I'd never been in a march before, and it was scary and it was wonderful at the same time. And I was so high from that experience that on the way home I wrote, in my notebook, the words to "Stonewall Nation," and also a poem called "From the Steps of the Capitol, 1971," which is on the reverse side of the original 45 rpm recording of "Stonewall Nation." That was produced at the end of '71 by the Mattachine Society. I think we produced 500 45 rpm records, and people actually bought them. And I know that Craig Rodwell, owner of the Oscar Wilde Bookstore (in Greenwich Village) he would play it in his bookstore every June, during Gay Pride, and I was delighted.
Madeline Davis - Stonewall Nation (1971)
This next song is one of my favorites about Stonewall, and that's its title. The artist is Jimmy Worm, and his 1995 CD was called "I Pledge," which was packed full of very political songs. I asked him which one made him the most proud.
Jimmy Worm comments (2006)
I think probably of all of the songs that I have written the one that is the most meaningful when I listen to it is probably "Stonewall," just because it summarizes in my mind a lot of history. I think that in that song for me something in embracing who those people were helps me in some way appreciate really how easy I have it right now. I'm here in Seattle and I can walk down any street holding my boyfriend's hand, and I have really no worries at all, and I think back to where that started and how difficult it had to be to make those first moves. I don't know, the song just…really, what I wanted it to be was a big thank you to those people who had to go through the really scary stuff, for me to enjoy what I enjoy right now
Worm - Stonewall (1995)
Jimmy Worm, and "Stonewall." And I really admire this next song, done by an artist just going by the name Melinda. Her 1994 cassette tape "Dyke Dramas" is quite hard to find, so I'm glad to share with you her song "Remember Stonewall."
Melinda - Remember Stonewall (1994)
The year 1994 marked the 25th anniversary of Stonewall and one of my artist friends, Tom Wilson Weinberg, put together a recording called "Don't Mess With Mary," in celebration of the event. He already had one related song called "Before Stonewall," that had appeared in his hit and very gay musical "Ten Percent Revue." But he revamped it and this time it was performed by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus Chamber Choir. After the song you'll hear him comment just a bit about it and another track from the CD.
NYC
Gay Men's Chorus Chamber Choir - Before Stonewall (1994)
Jan Tilley - Bricks and Bottles (1994)
Also from Tom Wilson Weinberg's CD "Don't Mess With Mary," that was "Bricks and Bottles" by Jan Tilley.
Of course I've got a song by a transgendered artist. In 1999 Jessica Xavier released an album called "Changeling," and I love it because it really dug deep into expressing the transgender experience. But of more general GLBT meaning was her song "Stonewall"
Jessica Xavier comments (2005)
I wrote that song very specifically back in the early 90s because I was concerned that we were getting 30 years on from the Stonewall Rebellion, and due to a lot of social-political forces, and identity politics and assimilation, that our history was being lost. I was concerned because at the time we were fighting a lot of inclusion battles, trying to become part of the gay and lesbian political agenda, and that was proving to be very difficult. And so Stonewall was kind of a reminder that trans people did play a very significant role in the birth of gay liberation. And my friend, sister, mentor, mother, hero, heroine, goddess, Sylvia Rivera…really, who the song was dedicated to. She was one of the true heroes of the trans movement as well as the LGBT movement, and she loved the song and was very excited and happy that I had written it, cause she too was concerned that her place in history was going to be forgotten, and I'll never let that happen.
Jessica Xavier - Stonewall (1999)
Time for a quick diversion that you probably won't expect, with a bit of the song "No Matter What Sign You Are," by Diana Ross & the Supremes, and I'll explain why you're hearing it.
Diana Ross & the Supremes - No Matter What Sign You Are (1969)
No, that song is of course not about Stonewall, but according to the website of a group called the Stonewall Veterans Association, that was the number one song on the jukebox in the Stonewall Inn during the last week of June, 1969.
Fairy Tales - Stonewall Serenade (1995)
That was called "Stonewall Serenade" and was from the 1995 musical by Eric Lane Barnes, called "Fairy Tales."
One of our most political folk singers is Sandy Rapp, and from her 1995 album "We the People" comes a song with little different slant on the subject. It's called "Everyone Was At Stonewall."
Sandy Rapp - Everyone Was At Stonewall (1995)
Did you know there was a rap song that fits this show. Actually it's by an act that was probably the very first to do lyrically gay rap songs. They were from Los Angeles and were called Age of Consent, and were active from 1981 to 1985. Their work was compiled on a 2004 CD called "Old School on the Down Low," and I'll let you hear group member John Callahan talk about his motivation for writing the song.
John Callahan comments (2007)
I really wanted to do a rap about the Stonewall Rebellion. More and more people don't know anything about it, so I went to Jim Kepner at the time and told him what I was interested in. he gave me information. I interviewed Morris Kite. I talked to sort of the gay godfathers here, and then we just started writing it. And all the details in there, about the women and the drag queens and the throwing of the coins, and all that kind of stuff, that's all real. And we wanted to put those kind of details in so people would hopefully believe that what we're talking about is not a made-up song, but something that actually happened.
Age of Consent - History Rap (1982)
From 1982 that was Age of Consent and their song "History Rap." I had to edit that song just a touch to make it ready for broadcast radio, and I also had to do that with the next one. It takes us all the way to Australia, and to artist Peter Hicks, and I think it's really neat to know that Stonewall inspired people all over the world. Peter explains how he and his partner Jeff wrote the song.
Wasn't there something similar in Australia similar to Stonewall, about ten years later?
Peter Hicks comments (2002)
I'm kind of really the odd one to be talking about cause my partner Geoff is kind of the lyricist, and I'm kind of the tune writer in our kind of setup, but again when we first got together Geoff was kind of, you know he's a little bit older than me. He went through the English sort of gay pride thing that was happening in the 70s. Very much influenced by that was the Stonewall events of 1969. You know, there were aspects of it which never would have happened unless the people stood up in Stonewall in '69 and said, hey, you've come around and stuffed us around one time too many, and we're just not going to take it anymore. I just think it's pretty much a seminal, if not the seminal event of awareness, awakenings of gay/lesbian pride and transsexual pride etc etc
Wasn't there something in Australia similar to Stonewall, about ten years later?
Oh, yeah, I guess you know this is part of the history that kind of gets glossed over, but I think about ten years after Stonewall, that would have been '79, there was decided to have a march in celebratio, a commemoration march, and it happened in Australia in about June, which is sort of our colder period. But the police at the time decided that in their wisdom, or extreme lack thereof, that, hey, we can't allow this sort of thing to happen. You know, like it was okay for people to go to bars and sort of do what they want to do in the sort of cover of night, but these people coming out in the open and expressing their sexuality, and they weren't rooting on the streets or anything, they were holding hands or hugging, or whatever, but that was a bit too much for our police at the time. Because our being oppressed everybody joined in and it became like a Stonewall. It became the beginnings of what was the Mardi Gras. But I guess this was a catalyst you know, a very strong catalyst.
Peter Hicks - Stonewall '69 (1993)
You can only find that song on Peter's 4-song cassette. It's from 1993 and is called "The Man With the Pink Triangle
We're getting close to the end and I can't leave out another favorite of mine. It's a rather playful song from the 1995 album "The Sacred and the Queer," and is by Jallen Rix. It's called "I Saw Jesus Down at Stonewall."
Jallen Rix - I Saw Jesus Down at Stonewall (1995)
We're down to the last song, and I want to thank you all for sharing my look at Songs About Stonewall. There's a lot more information, along with photos of the artists and recordings at my website. That's at www.queermusicheritage.com. And if you have questions or comments about any of the music I've featured, please write me at qmheritage@aol.com. This is JD Doyle, and again thank you for listening to Queer Music Heritage.
My very first show was in January of 2000 and I closed it with a song put together by Jon Gilbert Leavitt, called "Pride." It's kind of a history song, and we tend to forget too much of our history, so I'm glad that he's updated it, and a created a video to go with it, so you can see many, many historic photos of our journey.
Jon Gilbert Leavitt comments (2001)
I came up with the idea for "Pride" in the summer of 1999, when the media started hyping the coming new Millennium and at the same time did countless retrospectives of 20th century history. When I realized that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history was being overlooked, or ignored or just thought of being unworthy of mentioning, I realized there was a void. I also realized that when gay history is talked about Stonewall is the only familiar event that seems to come up, and there's a lot more that happened before, and after 1969. The most important meaning "Pride" has for me is that it can be used as a learning tool, to enlighten some and educate others. After that I guess, "Pride" is a tribute to the people in the past who gave up so much of themselves and had the courage to stand up and fight in a world so different from the world I grew up in. It's a lot easier for us today and I can't imagine the adversity people like Magnus Hirschfeld or Harry Hay or Barbara Gittings or James Baldwin felt. They had great courage. We still have a long way to go for total equality and acceptance, and that can only come with education and exposure, and of course with votes.
Here's Jon Gilbert Leavitt, with additional vocals by Kevin Hannan and Freddy Freeman, and "Pride 2009."
Jon Gilbert Leavitt - Pride 2009 (2009)
Stonewall Inn photos
