Gay songs

Sunday, 20 April 2008

Apart from the few thousand Dutch records that everybody is searching for, there is a lot of Dutch music worth listening too that hardly anybody cares for. The compilations that I mentioned yesterday are just two examples of genres that have been completely overlooked so far. On my long list of projects is a compilation of Dutch gay songs, which I would love to buy if somebody else made it, so I think there will be others interested too. The problem is how too find these record(ing)s.
Among my best finds so far is the 45 theat Harry Thomas made in 1970, along with the book that he wrote: Een homofiel wordt geslagen. The book and the record are courageous attempt to show the discrimination and violence that many homosexuals in Holland had to face. And still have i am afraid, although it seems that the situation has improved. Later Harry Thomas became famous for the Schlager festivals which he organised in the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t like schlagers and I didn’t even know that Harry Thomas was gay until I bought this 45.
Another highlight in this section is a 45 by a guy named Karel, released on Le Monde Records. I don’t know when the record was released, I guess in the early eighties, but I think it is a great record. The A side is a cover of the Perry Como hit, Glendora. The Dutch text stays close to the original text, but it is completely homosexualised. Here it is:

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I don’t know if there are compilations of gay songs in other languages. There must be. I only know of a Stash LP with gay songs from the pre WW2 era. But that can’t be all, or is it? I remember listening to the Tom Robinson record when that came out. Wasn’t the title Glad to be gay ?(I have the LP, but it is too late to go try and find it, because it is in the room of one the childern.) And while I have no inclination to sex with my own kind at all, I was deeply touched by the song of Tom Robinson in which he describes how gays were treated. I had no idea of the situation in those days.

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