No you'd never cry to them
just to your soul
Had some "quality time" with the boyfriend yesterday. No plans, just meandering around the city in the rain, and occasionally stopping in a record store to find BRONSKI BEAT's first album, Age of Consent. He really wanted to have the song WHY but the best we could come up with was Jimmy Somerville's The Singles Collection. It had the song, but the 3:58 time seemed off, so I wouldn't let him spend 18.99 plus tax (full price?? - NEVER!), insisting we could find the original on the original album/CD. We didn't. And I found out I was wrong, that the album had a 4 minute version, plus I have, tucked away in the stacks, the 12" 7-minute(ish) version. Ordering the CD from Amazon this morning, I couldn't wait til we got the hard copy, so I downloaded a few tunes, and gosh, does it bring me back! It's funny, sometimes you hear people talk about Bronski Beat/Somerville and say "gee, they never topped that album!" - but listening to it today, I can't imagine how proud I would've been to have ever accomplished anything close to it - so beautiful, so haunting, so angry.... just amazing! And it also reminded me how, as impressive and important it was for "us" (gay folks) - especially young people - to hear this, it amazed me just how fuckin' blind str8's can be. I remember my brother coming off the dance floor back in like '85, commenting on how great the song that had just played was, and if I knew who she was ("WHY?" 12-inch version) - I told him who they were, began to recite lyrics, etc., as his eyes just glazed over and rolled into the back of his head.....Another time, watching MTV, and the video for Smalltown Boy was on. You remember, Jimmy oggling this good-looking swimmer guy with a, well, swimmer's build, then Jimmy gets beat up in an alley, then his parents kick him out, then he's on this train to.... the big city? The video ends, I'm in tears, and the Vee-Jay, Mark Goodlooking says, "ah, Bronski Beat, and SMALLTOWN BOY, a song any young man can relate to....." - HUH? is he clueless? was this a wink-wink to "us" - I doubt it. more likely clueless. anyhoo - here we go -
the two HITS:
- Why?
- Smalltown Boy (extended version)