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A Bridge to Labelle By Kevin Clarke 'Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi?'
There was no mistake, though. It was a tribute to the sound, to the history that was Labelle. To today's generation, not yet born, Labelle was only a faint memory, with a hit song that had surfaced in 1974, heard on the radio but without much more meaning to it than that. To a gay man who'd lived through those times Labelle was much more. Labelle was liberation, freedom, and outrageousness. A Labelle show was a place you could be openly gay, where gay people were sure to congregate. They were not shows, they were events.
Their music at the time was the “girl group sound” which had been adjusted to Patti Labelle's amazing vocals and was mixed with the strong harmonies of Cindy and Sarah on top and the gutsy Nona carrying the bottom. The “girls” were always appreciated as a live act, though their recordings never became as successful as they'd hoped. Nevertheless, they kept working. Legendary black entertainment venues like the Apollo Theatre in New York, the Uptown in Philly, provided endless one-nighters that consumed much of their lives. One day Cindy didn't show up to work and it was discovered she'd joined The Supremes as Florence Ballard's replacement. Devastated at this seeming betrayal the group vowed to carry on. Their search for work took them to England where they appeared on a British TV show called Ready Steady Go!. The show's producer was an energetic visionary, Vicki Wickham, who became enthralled by their sound and it's potential. Among Vicki's claims to fame was her writing of the lyrics to the Dusty Springfield song "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me". This was accomplished with her friend Simon Napier Bell as they sat in the back seat of a taxi during a 15-minute ride to a BBC taping. Vicki Wickham maintained both a professional relationship and a friendship with gay icon Springfield until Dusty's death. When Ready Steady Go! ended it's run Vicki approached the girls with an idea that would forever change the face of music and of the manner in which women would be treated as contributors. The basic idea was simple: take three powerful black women and see to it that they are reborn as the female counterparts of The Rolling Stones. While this concept seemed simple enough, accomplishing it was not. The obstacles were enormous.
She was a natural. Strong, powerful and beautiful, her songs embodied the same things people had always said about Patti's voice. They were getting the songs, and the next obstacle would be getting a white man's rock world to take then seriously. That proved to be problematic and difficult. The world was not ready for a “girl group” not wearing the same outfits and wigs. The world was not ready for black women singing powerful lyrics and chords.
The final obstacle was to get Patti
on board. After "Junkman" they were known as “Patti Labelle and the
Bluebells". She was a counter-point to the idea from the start and the
strength of will of Vicki and Nona eventually ruled the day. Their first
album as Labelle was released in 1970, the self-titled Labelle on Warner
Brothers, and was met with mixed results. The world was not at all ready for
black women rockers and the album was not a hit. There were tour dates
opening for The Who and just enough success to get them a second album,
Moonshadow. Commercial success continued to elude them, however, and it was time for a
record label change and a fresh approach.
There was an album of oldies with Laura Nyro called "Gonna Take A Miracle" made in an attempt to bring Labelle to a wider audience, followed by an RCA album, Pressure Cookin, that that included a medley of Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" with Gil Scott Herons "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and Nona's “Pressure Cookin” that enforced an image of strong black women armed with a message. White rock America was taken aback. There were problems with RCA as well and the album didn't get the push it deserved. It did catch the ear of Epic A&R guru Don Ellis, however, who saw in Labelle a chance for commercial successes. Epic signed the band and the band's first choice for a producer was Bob Crewe, known for his work with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The label balked and wanted the noted New Orleans producer, Allen Toussaint, who'd provided horn arrangements for The Band, to produce. To placate Bob Crewe, The Band offered to record one of his songs. Lady Marmalade was born. There was something else going on, smoldering just under the surface: the relationship of Labelle to it's gay audience. The group followed Bette Midler into The Continental bathhouse in Manhattan and the love affair between them and the gay community was solidified. The Continental was a place where gay people could be unashamedly gay. No matter where they played gay men were there. In time, both Labelle's shows and its audiences became more outrageous. We all went uptown. From smaller clubs, to Carnegie Hall, to the Metropolitan Opera House. With every success came the realization that we as people could and would "finally make it home". There was a moment in all of those shows that remains indelibly etched in my mind as the essence of what Labelle was and how the group related to gay people and to their striving for everyday equality. Nona had a song called “Can I Speak To You Before You Go To Hollywood” that always ended the first act. It culminated with these three beautiful women standing holding each others hands over their heads exhorting their audience: "I believe in you, I hope you do all the things you set out to do, I believe in you I hope all your dreams come true".
Nona Hendryx, Jace Hughes and Carole Pope at a Nona Hendryx show. Carole Pope is the author of her own Biography AntiDiva, currently a best seller in Canada. It is the story of her life as a gay rock icon. Jace Hughes stars in the adult video A Young Man's World
There was never a dry eye in the house. Labelle let us know that we were all one community at that moment, there were no straight people in the audience, no gay people, but only people with dreams and aspirations all of whom, they felt, were powerful, beautiful, and strong together. Labelle was ours and its success was a reaffirmation to gay people everywhere. What was threatening to “white bread America” was home for us. When Labelle moved into the mainstream, we went with them. It's hard to explain how funny some of it was. I remember one show in particular in Milwaukee Wisconsin at an outdoor festival called Summerfest where Labelle was sharing a bill with Joe Cocker. Cocker was replaced by Chuck Berry, causing one of the more interesting culture shocks that were the landmark of Labelle. The oldies audience wasn't ready for Labelle by any means. On this night Labelle opened with "What Can I Do For You" and while the audience was shocked by the energy they saw onstage what they saw in the audience they were not prepared for. There were drag queens dressed in full regalia and every other sort of queen you could imagine, all dancing, dancing. Shocked oldies fans, whose idea of the scandalous was hearing Chuck Berry singing
By the time Patti got to "He met Marmalade down in old New Orleans struttin her stuff on the street” the anger in the audience was gone, the fear of the unknown and the prejudices simply melted as the audience became one, dancing and rejoicing together. Imagine the sight of beer drinking factory workers and some very fierce queens dancing together, mouthing the words “Voulez vous coucher avec moi?” It was surreal to say the least, and it only lasted a few minutes. But for a few glorious moments we had, in Nona's words, "Finally made it home" and as a gay person, I'll say, it really felt good. Like anything else in life, Labelle outgrew its moorings and the three women flew their separate ways. Patti became the Diva she always wanted to be (“Over The Rainbow” is back with a vengeance}, Sarah had a solo hit "Sinner Man" and has among other things been seen recently as a vocalist in Keith Richards' side project "Expensive Wino's". Nona has stayed true to the heart and essence of Labelle, still ahead of her time and still as beautiful and as forceful as ever, a strong-willed woman who always made choices because she believed in those choices and not because they were the way to a quick hit. Nona appeared here in Los Angeles-- last summer-- at the Sunset Junction Street Fair and that magic was again there for all to see. Young and old people of all colors, gay and straight and all folks in between-- dancing their hearts away. It brought back memories of a different time just like the other morning when I heard those unmistakable words on the radio coming from Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink. When they get to the end of that song they harmonize in a way that could best be described as a tribute to Labelle. It's unmistakable. There it is, that bridge that gay people had used so many years ago. We walked across it and danced with factory workers, the bridge that brought us home. Labelle: Something Silver Warner Brothers Archives Nona Hendryx: Transformation :The Best of Nona Hendryx Razor and Tie records. |
Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, and Patti Labelle 
Nona Hendryx in concert 
Nona Hendryx 
© 1997-2002 BEI