It’s pretty obvious that gay people are everywhere, and I
truly feel sorry for the straight folks that are still
seriously icked out by what other consenting adults choose
to do with their genitals. While I feel sorry for those
heterosexuals that harbor bad feelings towards gays, I don’t
feel inclined to tolerate their intolerance.

There is a strange disconnect that many straight people who
aren’t particularly supportive of gay rights seem to have in
regards to certain entertainers, and this goes way back. How
else do we explain the popularity of guys like Liberace or
Paul Lynde among straight audiences, from the 50’s onward?

Did straight people just think “Huh, those guys are
flamboyant…they’re entertainers!”, and accept the obvious
gayness of those entertainers and others like them without
making the obvious conclusion that yes, Liberace probably
fucked men on glittery sequined sheets when no one was
looking.

It just seems weird that during time periods where being a
gay person might quite literally get you killed in certain
places, our grandparents were happily watching old
queens like Paul Lynde or Charles Nelson Reilly ham it up on
The Hollywood Squares.

And that mental disconnect seems to have extended to rock
and pop musicians too, which is strange to me when you
account for the sometimes homophobic nature of many rock
fans. I still remember being in a junior high when Culture
Club hit the scene, and having everyone from the school’s
jock lunkheads population to a few of the teachers express
shock at how a “faggot like Boy George could be popular.”
That’s an actual quote from a teacher I had back then, by
the way.

So, in no particular order, here are a few of the pretty
obviously gay music stars and the songs about gay sex that
somehow were embraced by straight audiences without much
comment.

Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”

As strange as it seems in retrospect, Queen seems to have
had it both ways. They definitely cultivated an image that
toyed with gay themes early on, but they were also embraced
by mainstream rock fans, a lot of which were guys that
probably weren’t particularly nice to gay people. It also
seems ludicrous, but no one seemed to really make the
connection that Freddie Mercury was gay until pretty late in
the band’s career.

In actuality, he seems to have been bisexual. Mercury had a long
term girlfriend, despite apparently living more fully as a
gay man as time went on. He was pretty secretive with his
personal life, and a lot of folks just seemed to miss the
obvious.

Anyway, the lyrics to this song seem to reference sex with
men and women. Something pretty kinky is definitely going on
here:

“Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel ali-i-i-ive and the world it’s turning inside out
Yeah
I’m floatin’ around in ecstasy so,
Don’t stop me now,
Don’t stop me
Cuz I’m havin’ a good time, havin’ a good time

I’m a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I’m gonna go go go
There’s no stopping me

I’m burnin’ through the skies yeah
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you
Don’t stop me now
I’m havin’ such a good time, I’m havin’ a ball
Don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time, just gimme a call
Don’t stop me now, cuz I’m havin’ a good time
Don’t stop me now, yes I’m havin’ a good time I don’t wanna
stop at all
Yeah

I’m a rocket ship on my way to Mars
On a collision course
I am a satellite I’m out of control
I am a sex machine ready to reload
Like an atom bomb about to
Oh oh oh oh oh explode!

I’m burning through the sky Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Don’t stop me
Don’t stop me
Don’t stop me
(Hey hey hey)
Don’t stop me
Don’t stop me
Ooh ooh ooh
(I like it)
Don’t stop me
Don’t stop me
(Havin’ good time, good time)
Don’t stop me don’t stop me
Woooooooh (alright)

***guitar solo***

Ooh I’m burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you

Don’t stop me now
I’m havin’ such a good time
I’m havin’ a ball
Don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time (alright) just gimme a call
Don’t stop me now (havin’ a good time)
Don’t stop me now (yes)
Havin’ such a good time, I don’t wanna stop at all!
La da da da da daa, la da dada la dada da da da,
La dada da da da da da………”

All that “I’m a sex machine ready to reload” and “I wanna
make a supersonic man out of you.” Yeah, I’m going to make a leap and
assume that’s about sex with guys.

2. Lou Reed – Walk on the Wild Side

A great song, and one that got, and still gets, a fair
amount of radio airplay. Probably the one legitimate big
hit Lou Reed had with mainstream rock audiences. And the
lyrics are all about the gays that Lou knew from Andy
Warhol’s Factory scene. Besides the obvious “Shaved her legs
and then he was a she” tell, there’s that whole section
about Candy Darling and Joe Dallesandro:

“Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,
Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.

Candy came from out on the island,
In the backroom she was everybody’s darling,
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She says, hey baby, take a walk on the wild side
Said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
And the colored girls go,

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York City is the place where they said:
Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side

Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Lookin’ for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go, go, go
They said, hey Sugar, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side, alright,
huh

Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side
And the colored girls say

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo”

3. Pete Townshend – “Rough Boys”

Pete Townshend has left a few hints that he enjoys the touch
of another man, but the lyrics to this song make that pretty
clear.

“Tough boys running the streets
Come a little closer rough toys
Under the sheets nobody knows her

Rough boys don’t walk away
I very nearly missed you
Tough boys come over here
I wanna bite and kiss you

I wanna see what I can find
Tough kids take a bottle of wine
When your deal is broken
Ten quid she’s so easy to find
Not a word is spoken

Rough boys don’t walk away
I’m still pretty blissed here
Tough boy I’m gonna carry you home
You got pretty pissed dear

Gonna get inside you
Gonna get inside your bitter mind

Rough boys don’t walk away
I wanna buy you leather
Make noise try and talk me away
We can’t be seen together

Tough kids what can I do?
I’m so pale and weedy
Rough fits in my hush puppy shoes
But I’m still pleading

Tough boys running the streets
Come a little closer
Rough toys under the sheets
Nobody knows her

Rough boys don’t walk away
I very nearly missed you
Tough boys come over here
I wanna bite and kiss you
I wanna see what I can find”

Yeah, there are a couple of mentions of a “her,” but
everything else sounds like an anthem to fabulous gay
leather sex to me. I just wonder how this song was
originally accepted by The Who’s male fans.

4. Mott The Hoople – “All The Young Dudes”

The song was written in the early 70’s by David Bowie who
was busy pissing off homophobes with his Ziggy Stardust
persona, so maybe it’s not surprising that this classic rock
radio staple has gay references in it. It’s a great song,
but again I wonder if rock fans back then just mentally
scanned over the line about “Lucy, (a “He”)dressing like a
queen.”

“Well Billy rapped all night about his suicide
How he kick it in the head when he was twenty-five
Speed jive don’t want to stay alive
When you’re twenty-five
And Wendy’s stealing clothes from marks and sparks
And Freddy’s got spots from ripping off the stars from his
face
Funky little boat race
Television man is crazy saying we’re juvenile deliquent
wrecks
Oh man I need TV when I got T-Rex
Oh brother you guessed
I’m a dude dad
All the young dudes (hey dudes)
Carry the news (where are ya)
Boogaloo dudes (stand up come on)
Carry the news
All the young dudes (I want to hear you)
Carry the news (I want to see you)
Boogaloo dudes (and I want to talk to you all of you)
Carry the news

Now Lucy looks sweet cause he dresses like a queen
But he can kick like a mule it’s a real mean team
But we can love oh yes we can love
And my brother’s back at home with his Beatles and his
Stones
We never got it off on that revolution stuff
What a drag too many snags
Now I’ve drunk a lot of wine and I’m feeling fine
Got to race some cat to bed
Oh is there concrete all around
Or is it in my head
Yeah
I’m a dude dad
All the young dudes (hey dudes)
Carry the news (where are ya)
Boogaloo dudes (stand up)
Carry the news
All the young dudes (I want to hear ya)
Carry the news (I want to see you)
Boogaloo dudes (and I want to relate to you)
Carry the news
All the young dudes (what dudes)

Carry the news (let’s hear the news come on)
Boogaloo dudes (I want to kick you)
Carry the news
All the young dudes (hey you there with the glasses)
Carry the news (I want you)
Boogaloo dudes (I want you at the front)
Carry the news (now you all his friends)
All the young dudes (now you bring him down cause I want
him)
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes (I want him right here bring him come on)
Carry the news (bring him here you go)
All the young dudes (I’ve wanted to do this for years)
Carry the news (there you go)
Boogaloo dudes (how do you feel)
Carry the news”

5. Judas Priest – Take your pick, really

Ok, Judas Priest is a favorite band of mine, and has been
for at least thirty years. I discovered them in their
heyday when I was a young teen in the early 80’s. I’ve been
around the metal scene for that long, and while it seems so
obvious now, metal fans didn’t seem to realize that Rob
Halford was very clearly a gay man. I almost feel like he
was being playful and seeing how far he could take his
leather daddy image without the band’s fans figuring it all
out. And that’s without the obvious lyrical content of many
of their songs. Let’s see…we have:

“Eat Me Alive”

Wrapped tight around me
Like a second flesh hot skin
Cling to my body
As the ecstasy begins
Your wild vibrations
Got me shooting from the hip
Crazed and insatiable let rip
Eat me alive
Sounds like an animal
Panting to the beat
Groan in the pleasure zone
Gasping from the heat
Gut-wrenching frenzy
That deranges every joint
I’m gonna force you at gun point
To eat me alive
Bound to deliver as
You give and I collect
Squealing impassioned as
The rod of steel injects
Lunge to the maximum
Spread-eagled to the wall
You’re well equipped to take it all
So eat me alive”

Ok, so I “guess” this could be some S&M tune involving
heterosexuals, but I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s
about guys getting it on based on everything else I know
about Rob Halford.

The song kicks ass by the way.

Then there’s

“Hot Rockin'”

“I’ve done my share of workin’ out
I wanna go some place where I can scream and shout
Show me the lights, where I can find
The only thing I need to give me peace of mind

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

Where is the spark that kicks the air?
Where is the energy that charges everywhere?
I see the crowd, I hear the roar
I feel my body start to leave the ground and soar

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

I’m goin’ out in search of the bright lights
Somehow I feel that tonight is the right night
I’m almost there I’ve got the vibration
It’s coming strong from this generation

My blood is hot, from now on I’m set free
My pulse is hot, so don’t try to stop me
‘Cause this is it and I’m hot rockin’

Don’t let it stop, don’t let it end
Please let it carry on and on and on again
I get so high knocked off my feet yeah
This is the only way I want, I want, I want, I want

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
Hot rockin’

It’s all I want
It’s all I crave
I just want to go
Hot rockin'”

To be fair, there’s nothing particularly “gay” about the
lyrics to this song…until you see the video that goes
with it. Then you get footage of the band working out,
lifting weights shirtless, then hanging out in a sauna
together, before moving into footage of them playing on
stage where they are “flaming”. Literally, stuff is on
fire.

And it’s another great song.

Then one of their biggest hits.

“Living After Midnight”

“Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn
Lovin’ till the mornin’, then I’m gone, I’m gone

I took the city ’bout one a.m.
Loaded, loaded
I’m all geared up to score again
Loaded, loaded

I come alive in the neon light
That’s when I make my moves right

Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn
Lovin’ till the mornin’, then I’m gone, I’m gone

Got gleaming chrome, reflecting steel
Loaded, loaded
Ready to take on every deal
Loaded, loaded

My pulse is racing, I’m hot to take
But this motor’s revved up, fit to break

Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn
Lovin’ till the mornin’, then I’m gone, I’m gone

I’m aiming for ya
I’m gonna floor ya
My body’s comin’
All night long

The air’s electric, sparkin’ power
Loaded, loaded
I’m getting hotter by the hour
Loaded, loaded

I set my sights and then home in
The joint starts flying when I begin

Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn
Lovin’ till the mornin’, then I’m gone, I’m gone

Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn
Lovin’ till the mornin’, then I’m gone, I’m gone
Livin’ after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn”

Sure a lot of talk about being “loaded”, and…it just
sounds like it’s about gay leather sex.

I’ll take a moment to step on a small soap box in regards to
Judas Priest. Heavy metal fans are often accused of being
degenerate scumbags, and being so macho and intolerant that
gays are mistreated within the subculture. While there are
certainly homophobic metal fans out there, I’ve found that
by and large the fans don’t care, and in the case of high
profile gays like Rob Halford, they are incredibly
supportive.

Anyone that could like heavy metal and disrespect or
mistreat a guy like Rob Halford is scum with no sense of
what that man has done for this form of music. Metal simply
would not have been the same without him, and his
contributions to metal music and culture cannot be
diminished.

Fortunately, most metal heads seem to “get” that.

For my final example, I’ll move on to one of rock and roll’s
original stars.

6. Little Richard – Tutti Frutti

Yep,it’s pretty obvious to modern folks that Little Richard
is some sort of gay or bisexual alien, and that his
contribution to early Rock and Roll can’t be trivialized.
His banshee howls are such a part of the music that maybe
only Chuck Berry really offered any competition way back
then.

I don’t know if mainstream audiences back in the 1950’s knew
Little Richard was gay, but I’m guessing not. More likely
the squares just thought he was another dangerous and crazy
Rock and Roll-playing black man that was going to corrupt
young white kids, and I bet the kids just ate the music up
without really noticing or caring that Little Richard dug
dudes.

But the lyrics to “Tutti Frutti” made his homosexuality as
clear as glass, since some of the original lyrics, the
ones he’d been using while performing in what passed for gay
clubs way back then, included these:

“A wop bop a loo mop, a good goddamn!
Tutti frutti, loose booty
If it don’t fit, don’t force it
You can grease it, make it easy.”

So that line got changed when he recorded the song, although
the teens that were the major audience for early rock and
roll might have benefitted from the original version. I can
see lots of scary conversations after the sock hop:

“Golly gee Peggy Sue, you can still technically say you’re a
virgin if we just stick to anal. Little Richard
approves!”

How Little Richard survived in the South as a black gay man
in the 1950’s I’ll never know, but I’m glad he did. I assume that,
like the other musicians on this list, he benefitted from a
form of mass delusion, where normally intolerant people just
somehow collectively decided that the rock stars they loved
couldn’t possibly be gay or be singing about getting it on
with other dudes, because…they just couldn’t be.

So it’s been going on since the very beginning. The next
time you hear some Neanderthal rock fan call gay people
something nasty, remind him or her that the very music they
love the most has been shaped by gays since its invention.