Badpuppy Gay Today

Monday, 02 June, 1997

BIRMINGHAM BLUES: THEY'RE CALLED "BILL"

PLUS 63 SONGS-- ALL "GAY- FAMOUS"

By Corrine Hicks


 

Take this beer and get ready to add a bucket a' tears to it. One of those Alabamans has gone and done it again! Yup, he's upped and left his girlfriend for a man. The man's name? "BILL". And the popularity of this song called "BILL" proves there's straight women aplenty just crying in their beers about their men--those men who got away--running after their very own "BILL".

Lordie, its all happening in blacked-out Birmingham, where a benighted ABC-affiliate station--Allbritton Communications--still refuses to run ABC's Ellen (an historical event, some free-spirited Alabamans think, matching those memorable "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever" moments of yesteryear).

"BILL", is a hit song--say two radio station managers-- a song whose time has arrived, right in the midst of gay free-speech controversies. To critics, "BILL" is a reminder that True Confessions magazine tales are still dying to be told, and that this new song is a startling example of a stifled common confession-story unexpectedly finding its place in popular music.

Bill sweeps the ladysinger's boyfriend off his feet as Peggy Scott-Adams--a 1960's Ben E. King troupe-retiree-returned--gives us a "My Man He Done Me Wrong Song", except this one's got a different twist that is evidently striking familiar chords across vast Alabama farmlands where, secretively, great numbers of cornholers heist their wares, in this case down by the ol' fishing hole where Bill has taken the lovely singing lady's philandering love.

"It's not about homosexuality or bi-sexuality," insists Peggy Scott-Adams, "it's really about deception." The deception described in the hit song is a common experience among women who've called in to Birmingham stations to say "Yes, this song describes exactly what's happened to me."

Ms. Scott-Adams has been quoted as saying she'd originally feared the song might be misconstrued as "the endorsement of a particular lifestyle" and that Alabamans and others might never, therefore, hear it. She felt relieved--after doing vocals--upon deciding "BILL" isn't about gays, just about people deceiving each other. That the woman she portrays is the deceived one and that the deceivers are gay or bisexual doesn't seem to have occurred to her.

A conspiracy question arises, however, perhaps more troubling. Has "BILL" suddenly become popular in Alabama because it truly does strike a common-experience chord? Or are certain stations playing it to death in a strangely but strategically configured attempt to make listeners believe gays are a threat to everyday relationships or to the common person's already-strained emotional-bank-account. For starters, this question has been answered, it appears, by Pam Cook, promotions coordinator for WENN Radio in Birmingham. "When the song came out (two months ago) everybody wanted to hear it all the time," she says.

In the meantime, Kevin Snow, a well-loved Birmingham comedian and Vice-president of Birmingham Pride Alabama, has charged the Ellen-censoring Alabama ABC affiliate--Allbritton Communications-- and ABC 33/40--with "attempting to take away our right to make our own decisions about what we watch on television." GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is up in arms over this show of self-righteous censorship, one that is embarrassing to Alabamans themselves, a great many being staunch believers in the American ideal of free-speech.

CLUB VERBOTEN, (DCC)
63 SONGS BOOMER BUDDIES LOVE TO BE LOVED BY

Yeah, Gwen, relax. Judy's "Over the Rainbow" is safely within this musical collection, Club Verboten . It was DCC head Marshall Blonstein who hired Richard Oliver to research the selections, chosen from a culture that, incidentally, happens to be gay. Nor are the performers, in many cases, gay. This is music that either evokes old gay club memories, or is about gay issues. Most of it predates the Stonewall rebellion, with the exception of a few early 70's disco sounds.

For understanding the rich development of American gay culture, this album is clearly a gotta-get--especially if you're a the typical bright romantic sort, trying to chase those elusive inner secrets of this long-living tribe--understanding, of course, how taste is a matter of taste.

Not all tastes nor all of the songs--easily debated as entries--will be covered or appear in Club Verboten, but so what? Why not go with the flow and hope to see songs by Freddie Mercury or "2-4-6-8-Motorway" by Tom Robinson, "The Killing of Georgie" by Rod Stewart or "Lola" by the Kinks or "YMCA" by the Village People in another album soon?

Bessie Smith, after all, is here. "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge is too as well as Doris Day's "Secret Love," Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side," and even Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 2".

Richard Oliver's research took a year-and-a-half. There are 63 songs and 96 cuts.

© 1997 BEI; All Rights Reserved.
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