Gay bands
 

UteStar's new avatar:

http://cougarguard.com/forum/member.php?u=29

got me thinking. What are the most famous gay bands of all time? Here are a few candidates:

1) Air Supply.

Naturally.

2) Ambrosia

Big band in the late 70's, early 80's. Check out this album cover:

http://www.amazon.com/One-Eighty-Amb...e=UTF8&s=music

I used to get the willies every time I saw it.

3) The BeeGees

I am not sure if these guys were actually gay, but I bet they were. In any case, you had to be gay to like them.

4) ABBA

See item 3

5) The Village People

Just as gay as can be. I always get a little smirk when they play this at the MC. If folks only knew the not-so-hidden meaning of the song.

6) Queen

I don't care if they were gay (some of them at least). Far and away the best of the bunch.

Am I missing any?

One more note: two of these bands (Air Supply & the BeeGees) were from Australia. And ABBA is probably the most popular band in Australian history. What is it with these Aussies anyway?

Maybe not "most famous", but Rufus Wainright is gay and is one of my favorite artists. Elton John is not a "band", but probably is bigger than that whole list combined excepting the BeeGees who you probably hate because you have only heard their disco era music. Oh and BTW, the BeeGees are also Aussies.

Elton John. Yes, indeed.

See, I knew I would forget some obvious ones.

What about Barry Manilow?

?? That's what I said.

We always referred to the BeeGees as the BeGays.

Queen is good, no matter orientation. They appear to have musical diversity.

Um, The Culture Club?

http://www.ultra-pop.org/images/band/culture_club.jpg

Styx. Chicago.

And anybody who likes their music.

Depeche Mode.

Which means there are a lot of homo's in the church.

That reminds me: Is the lead singer for Rush gay? Or does he just sound that way?

Styx, maybe, although they were not really gay, just very 70s-ish which, if you didn't live through the era, is just hard to understand.

Chicago, my young firend, is not in the same category. Chicago (and I am talking only about Chicago before Terry Kath died, and really even before Chicago VI, when they started to decline) was as good a band as you could find. Kath was an abso-freakin'-lutely unbeleiveable guitar player*, the horn section was tight, Bobby Lamm, before he got rich and fat, was a great keyboard player, and Cetera will recevie absolution for all of his post Chicago dreck becasue of his smokin' bass playing. These guys were a very, very tight band. Heavy jazz influence, interesting chord progressions, and very innovative. Better than 99% of the crap that was being played at the time.

Now, if you are talking about anything after Terry Kath died (I think Chicago X or maybe XII was his last album) then you are closer to being correct. I am a huge fan and I have seen them in concert many times over the last 30+ years, but the last couple of times they were actually somewhat embarrassing. So I can understand how a young guy could have the wrong idea baout the band. But just like Mike Tyson is a tattooed clown now but was once the most feared man on the planet, so Chicago may be bad now, but they were once the tightest, most interesting band going.

Not gay at all.


*Jimi Hendrix reportedly said that he wished he could play some of the stuff Kath could play. I am not sure if this si true, but it is plausible as Kath was really that good. Kath was also stupid. His last words, with alcohol tinged breath, were "Don't worry, it's not loaded" (this is true).

Two words. Peter Cetera.

You were not paying attention, my young padwan. Cetera provided the airwaves with a lot of junk in his post Chicago career. And if you want to call that career gay, I would disagree only in the technical sense, and maybe not even then. But before he left chicago he was a fantastic bass player. Really, listen to some of his work. Now he was not the best musician in the band, but he was very solid and he actually played the bass as an instrument with something to say, as oppsoed to finding the root of the chord and then beating the crap out of the thing until the next chord change, which is what passes ofr bass playing in a lot of bands.

You are clearly not yet ready to snatch the pebbles from my hand.

Amen. I mean, the guy did a duet with Amy Grant for crying out loud.

And as fate would have it, my wife likes Peter Cetera. Sigh.....

Jeez, do I need to draw you guys a map? Peter Cetera post chicago is not the same thign as Chicago. Chicago didn't duet with Amy Grant, Cetera did and he did it as a lounge lizard singer, not a bass player. What is so hard to understand about this?

So creekster is an expert attorney, cyclist, travel guide throughout Europe's finest, and gay band expert?

Wow. And he likes Peter Cetera?

Chicago is gay. But the city is fine.

Hey, quit pulling on my chain like that.

LOL. Just yanking your chain, buddy.

I really like your wife.
She has excellent taste.
I bet she even likes crimson.

I'm a homo. I like Chicago.

If two beautiful men cant sing heartfelt romantic songs side by side without being called gay...well, that is a world that I do not want to live in. I prefer to call the two stars of Air Supply 'metrosexuals with little heterosexual desire' instead of 'gay.' Thank you.

What would be a non-gay Chicago Peter Cetera song? All I know is the later stuff like Hard Habit to Break, You're the Inspiration, Love Me Tomorrow, etc. And that stuff is gayer than Richard Marx.

I can't talk because all my favorite 80's stuff is as gay as Clinton from What not to Wear: Depeche Mode, Erasure, OMD, Duran Duran, The Cure, Smith's, etc.

I figured. my comment came off sounding harsher than i meant it to and was really supposed to be amusing. Oh well.

I thought the Bee Gees were from England. And they all have wives - well, at least the ones that are still alive.

While you're correct that The Village People are "just as gay as can be" they pale in comparison to the flaming and uninhibited flaunting of Erasure. I saw them at Park West in '88 and the dude wore a black one-piece woman's swimsuit and glittering pink tutu.

Cetera got softer than the stay puffed man by the end. He sang some good stuff early, however, such as 25 or 6 to 4, Feelin' Stronger Everyday and some other stuff for those of you that got deeper onto the albums. But here is the real point: Cetera was not the primary vocalist or songwriter until much later (and even then mostly for the sappy ballads he worte). He was the freaking bass player. And he played the bass very well.

I've never had a problem with Chicago.

But of the three bands named after cities or states (the three that I can think of anyway), Chicago is 3rd after Kansas and Boston.

Thta is a matter of opinion, and you are as entitled to be wrong about this as Lebowski and friends. ;)

Well, I'm usually wrong about most things, so it wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong now.

I'm waiting for the day when a band calls itself Albequerque. Not that I'd like it, as it would probably sing songs about crack, mullets and IROCs.

Okay I admit that the gay Chicago is the eighties Chicago. I have only heard 25 or 6 to 4 of the old Chicago which I think is a great song. So I have to admit that old Chicago is probably not gay, but the old time fans must have been miserable when they heard the horrors visited upon the ear by teh 1980's Peter Cetera ballad orgy and witnessed the wreckage to the legacy of the band.

It was pretty tough, I must admit. I would stop by the store and buy the newest album hoping for something like the early stuff and then get 6 different variations of "hard habit to break" or somesuch. Pile of crap indeed. The real turning point was Terry kath's death. He was the edge to the band. AFter that they had nothing to give them the edge and they all got softer and softer being only encouraged as their bank accounts continued to swell. Even so, thier early stuff was excellent and, compared to what else was out there, was very innovative and interesting musically.

I iwll alos say that even through the 90s they put on a pretty good concert. LAtely, however, even that has been lost. I last attended a concert last year that they put on with Huey Lewis and the News and came home having enjoyed Huey much more than Chicago, which was a disturbing turn of events for me on mnay levels.

It is sort of like seeing Joe Namath on the Rams, Michael Jordan on the Wizards, or Karl Malone on the Lakers for the fans of these guys. Greatness is so fragile that it can descend into gayness at anytime.

Huey Lewis is fun music. I've always enjoyed their stuff.

You and I have the same taste in music; however, I don't think The Cure has any gayness, just weirdness. Robert Smith is married to a woman, which, granted, doesn't mean he isn't gay, but just because he and his wife seem to share the same wardrobe doesn't demonstrate a tendancy to eat quiche. ;)

Let me add that Huey was great in Concert. A reasonably good band and a very fun without any baggage show. You could take your kids and enjoy it.

I was more of a metal guy growing up, but I always secretly dug the Cure. Robert Smith may look like a freak, but I love his guitar playing - such a unique sound to it.

Judas Priest. Looking back, it's obvious Rob Halford was gay, what with the leather cop outfit and short hair. No one seemed to catch on at the time though. But gay or not, they still rock!

Here's Robert Smith as you might not have ever seen him:

[QUOTE=il Padrino Ute;47162]Here's Robert Smith as you might not have ever seen him:
QUOTE]

Wow, that doesn't even look like the same guy. Just your run-of-the-mill British new waver.

Good song though, I believe I own it on a greatest hits album or something. I'll have to dig around...

[QUOTE=Venkman;47165]Yep - he's actually a real person under all that freak. :)

The greatest hits album you're talking about is probably "Standing on the Beach - The Singles" whichis an excellent compilation. This particular song "A Forest" is on that album.

Erasure is as gay as it gets.. those dudes (?) are flaaaaaaaming..


that said, I dig Erasure music.. :)

[QUOTE=il Padrino Ute;47167]Yeah, I believe that's the one.

Agreed. It's still fun to sing along to their songs,,,especially in the Beavis like fashion of going..."BREAKIN THE LAW! BREAKIN THE LAW!"