Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Bronski Beat

Artist: Bronski Beat
LP: 7" single
Song: "Smalltown Boy"
[ listen ]

When this song came out, I made a photocopy of the cover so I could add it to the new wave music collage on the wall of my bedroom in our Tampico, Washington farmhouse. But Bronski Beat was the first openly gay group I'd ever heard of, and I was afraid someone would notice the song's sleeve with the telltale pink triangle in my collage and figure out I was gay! So I craftily placed this particular piece behind the 1960s lamp that hung over my bed so that you couldn't see it from the room unless you were lying on your back in my bed. I must've figured that by the time somebody was lying in my bed, they would hopefully already be finding out I was gay. Anyway, of course I'm the only one who ever saw it. 

It's still a good song all these 35 years later, don't you think? But seriously, does anyone really believe that any young gay man would be able to fit everything he owns into a little black case? The hair products and face creams alone would fill a very large red one.

Bronski Beat on YouTube:


[ Bronski Beat ]

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