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Tuesday, August 1, 2006

The Top 50 Gay Albums of All Time

Posted by on August 1 at 10:30 AM

It’s a weakness: I will pay attention to any and all music lists, no matter how arbitrary or pointless or stupid. So imagine my glee at the new list compiled by UK gay mag Attitude, ranking the Top 50 Gay Albums of All Time.

As far as arbitrary lists, this one’s a corker, drawing on some mysterious combination of nominations from celebrities (Boy George casts his vote for #10! Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears supports #25!) and the general gay sentiment of Attitude’s editors. A lot of the press coverage of the list focuses on the inclusion of the Beatles’ Please Please Me (“George and Paul singing into one microphone, their cheeks touching, was the gayest thing we’d ever seen,” says former Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell), and there are a couple other such vaguely-gay acts in the rankings (Belle and Sebastian at #48! Kate Bush at #16!).

But mostly, it’s gay, gay, GAY, with the top spot taken, most righteously, by the Scissor Sisters, with Morrissey coming in at a respectable #3.

As for the glaring omissions: No Hedwig? No Erasure?!

As for subtler omissions: No Notorious BIG? Call me crazy, but that creepy way Puffy has of whisper-repeating every other line of Biggie’s has always seemed super gay to me…

Full gay list after the jump.

50. Divine - Jungle Jezebel
49. Girls Aloud - What Will The Neighbours Say?
48. Belle And Sebastian - Tigermilk
47. Tom Stephan - Drag Addict
46. Tori Amos - From The Choirgirl Motel
45. Jobriath - Jobriath
44. Dionne Warwick - Sings The Bacharach & David Songbook
43. The Associates - Sulk
42. KD Lang - Ingenue
41. Deee-Lite - World Clique
40. Malcolm McLaren - Waltz Darling
39. A Chorus Line - OST
38. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
37. Christina Aguilera - Stripped
36. Larry Levan - Live At Paradise Garage
35. Dead Or Alive - Nude
34. Diana Ross - Diana
33. Freddie Mercury & Monserrat Caballe - Barcelona
32. Lil' Kim - Hardcore
31. Cher - Believe
30. The Beatles - Please Please Me
29. Bananarama - Wow!
28. Barbra Streisand - Guilty
27. Suede - Suede
26. Steps - Step One
25. Prince - Controversy
24. Klaus Nomi - Klaus Nomi
23. Jesus Loves You - The Martyr Mantras
22. Bette Midler - The Divine Miss M
21. Lou Reed - Transformer
20. Bronski Beat - The Age Of Consent
19. Sylvester - Step II
18. Rufus Wainwright - Want One
17. Judy Garland - Judy At Carnegie Hall
16. Kate Bush - Lionheart
15. Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
14. Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
13. Take That - Take That And Party
12. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
11. Pet Shop Boys - Introspective
10. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
09. Donna Summer - Bad Girls
08. Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
07. Madonna - Erotica
06. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome
05. George Michael - Older
04. Kylie Minogue - Light Years
03. Morrissey - Vauxhall & I
02. Abba - Arrival
01. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters


CommentsRSS icon

What? No Olivia Newton-John? I would nominate her TOTALLY HOT album to be on the list somewhere.

corrections
it's choirgirl HOTEL. tori would never a room from outdoors.

and as this country's most respected kate bush expert, I must say that her first album, the kick inside, is far gayer as a whole than lionheart even though the album has that cute little story about homolove "Kashka From Baghdad"

ok, I just looked up the lyrics and, considering the world right now, find the somg to be far more poignant than what she was going for in '78.

Kashka from Baghdad
Lives in sin, they say,
With another man,
But no one knows who.

Old friends never call there.
Some wonder if life's
Inside at all--
If there's life inside at all.

But we know the lady who rents the room.
She catches them calling a la lune.

At night
They're seen
Laughing,
Loving.
They know
The way
To be
Happy.

They never go for walks.
Maybe it's because
The moon's not bright enough.
There's light in love, you see.

I watch their shadows,
Tall and slim,
In the window opposite.
I long to be with them.

'Cause when all the alley-cats come out,
You can hear music from Kashka's house.

At night
They're seen
Laughing,
Loving.
They know
The way
To be
Happy.

"Watching every night.*
Don't you know they're seen?
Won't you let me laugh?
Let me in your love.


Top 50 Gay Albums and Chrous Line is the only show album? And where is Ethel Merman's Disco Album?

Where are the Weather Girls? It's Raining Men is the gayest song evah!

No Hedwig! That's wrong. This list is very questionable. Entertaining none the less. Where are those Indigo Girls?


NO ERASURE???? That is a crime. Vince Clark was a genius and Andy Bell has one of the most beautiful voices of all time.

Seriously, Erasure not being on that list is a serious oversight. They are one of the gayest acts EVER. Didn't anybody who made that list see any of their videos?

And obviously, I am very serious about my feelings on this matter. That's what I get for trying to do 10 things at once.

Man Who Sold the World ??? It is one of the heaviest Albums Bowie put out not very "gay". Whatever that is supposed to imply. But surely if you want to have a Bowie album with a "gay" theme or androgynous feel then it would be Ziggy Stardust.
"People Stared at the makeup on his face - Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace"
But then I guess people always mix up the song "Man Who sold the world" with the Album of the same name.
Now where in this list is is a female point of view. This is all Male oriented and as usual representing everyone. What about some Susi Quatro, Marlene Detricht, Janis Joplin, Joan Jet. Also where is "Queen" in all of this, it is after all a UK mag that compiled the list?.

Divine is more gay then Andy Bell? SOMEONE has issues...

Bowie's wearing a dress on the original cover, which passes for gay in some circles I guess. Not in mine. The real gay Bowie is "John, I'm Only Dancing", but that's a single. If you had to pick a gay Bowie album, it would probably be Young Americans. The Weather Girls is a huge omission. In fact, this shouldn't be the gayest albums, it should be the gayest RECORDS, i.e., singles. You know, for dancing. Cher, for instance; nobody cares about the album, they want "Believe". I would also submit that almost all hair metal is sublimally gay, especially anything Axl Rose sings.

That's one hetero's POV.

How about Jimmy Somerville's solo album where he covers Sylvester's "You Make me Feel (Mighty Real)." Now that's a gay album.

Leonard Bernstein's original score (especially "There's a Place for Us") to "West Side Story."

"UNPLUGGED" by Liberace:
.
Start the Day With a Smile, If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake, Rock and Roll Waltz, I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad, You’re Just in Love, If You Wanna Be Happy, Hey Liberace, Don’t Ever Marry For Money, A Tisket a Tasket, Over the Rainbow, I’ll Be Seeing You, When Liberace Winks at Me.

I think this list is interesting, but I that it has more of UK spin on things. Perhaps Mr Schmader could come up with a US version.

There is a big difference between songs vs. albums. Too many single songs, actually. Some might include:

I Will Survive
We Are Family
Got To Be Real
I'm Coming Out
that RuPaul song?
numerous Madonna

No Magnetic Fields??

Of course, this is silly. I can quibble with a lot, and I agree with a lot of the quibbles above. But to me there are two glaring omissions:

1) Depeche Mode's Violator. Enjoy the Silence and Policy of Truth were vital coming out messages for me...

and

2) Pink Floyd's The Wall. Perhaps less obvious, and maybe wishful thinking on my part - but I hear that album as a clarion call to come out. I listened to it at full volume, all the way through, the morning I came out to my family.

No.

Not without Nina Hagen.

MJB - you reminded me that the song that triggered my first coming out to a friend was The Smiths "How Soon Is Now". Interesting what pushes that final step. I'll have to dig out The Wall and have another listen

BostonBear - The Wall can certainly be interpreted as other things, drug abuse, the isolating nature of rockstar fame, etc. But for me, the last lines of "The Trial", the climax of the album, ends with a judge declaring sentence on Mr. Floyd:

Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear,
I sentence you to be exposed before your peers...
Tear Down the Wall!

(Followed by the crowd shanting "Tear Down the Wall" until it explodes)

then the final song, "Outside the Wall", quietly singing:

`All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.
...
OK, it's no Cher, but I like it.

As far as singles, don't forget "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow and his spangled covered body suit.

no way! this is just so wrong. Where is Depeche Mode's "Speak and Spell"? Also, Talk Talk's first album should be there. Also, where the hell are The Smiths? ALL of their albums should be included, EVERY ONE. Roxy Music's Avalon should be there somewhere. What are the people who made this list listening to. I bet they prance around the house listening to WHAM going OOOOOOOH this is the most relevant music that I have ever heard! I have a message for you, stop ogling your george michael poster that you have placed above your bed, pick up EVERY depeche mode and smiths cd and listen, ok. Martin Gore is a genius, and you left his band out. BE ASHAMED. now I will let you go back to tongue kissing your pet shop boys cd cover.

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