Gays and Prog Rock

I'm a bit surprised that James LaBrie isn't actually gay, I always thought he was. 

Not prog: Melissa Etheridge is an outspoken lesbian.

ghost_of_morphy wrote: catfood03 wrote: Can you imagine if there wasn't a single Christian voice in prog rock? As a music lover you probably couldn't care less, but as follower of Christ wouldn't you be thrilled to know there are people just like you in progressive music where the playing field is largely secular, even paganistic at times? LOL.  I read your first two sentences and I thought you were a Christian  declaiming against the fact that there weren't more Christians in prog rock.   I suppose that I was influenced by another thread that I read and recently responded to.  Anyhow, after reading the part that I have quoted, I skipped the rest of your post and thought about my answer, and then only returned to learn that I was completely mistaken!    So here is the answer to what I have quoted.  I was quite happy to learn that Rick Wakeman was Christian, but I was a Wakeman fan long before I learned that.  Freddy Mercury is a fantastic vocal talent and I listened to him no less after learning that he was gay.  Neither did I listen to him and think "He's pretty good, but, oh yuck, he's a gay."   I guess my point is that music satisfies a part of us that is on another level than what our moral judgements are founded on.  I realized that lyrics cause a problem here, but I listen for the music.  The angels in Heaven will be singing Frank Zappa's Bobby Brown, possibly, but because the lyrics are funny, not to make people gay.  Shock value is a part of aesthetics and Uncle Frank totally got that.   But yes, if I were gay, I'd be proud to learn that somebody else who was gay was making a major impact on the music scene.  That wouldn't be why I'd listen to them, however.  Gayness or the lack thereof has no influence at all upon the quality of the product.

At first you said you weren't going to respond, but I'm glad you did...

Yes, based on your last paragraph I would say we are both in agreement. I loved Queen's music before I knew what the word "gay" meant, and it didn't change my opinion of the band's music, it just made me happier that there was someone like myself making music that appealed to people of all walks of life, not just gays.

Without regard to genres, there is Elton John, Freddy Mercury, Rob Halford, Joan Jett, Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman, Sinead O'Connor, Aaron Copland, Tchaikovski, Chuck Panozzo (Styx), John Cage, Cole Porter, Roddy Bottum from Faith No More - just off the top of my head -  so, to be honest, the gay community has a spectacular track record in making music...

Of course there are many gay prog musicians out there. But prog is not on the radar of mainstream tabloid media, nor is prog anywhere to be found in streotypical gay culture, hence there is little or no interest in the personal lives of any prog musicians.

The gay community does gravitate to genres where there are many openly gay artists, such as dance music and musical theater. Non-mainstream rock music is typically very much "guy" music, either being very heavy, raunchy lyrics, based on a masculine image, impressive chops, etc. There might be more openly gay proggers if the gay community had room for 20-minute epics on the dance floor, or if prog audiences were big enough to afford a 10-percent drop-off in popularity after such an announcement...

It's a shame that there aren't any gay role models in prog -- gay music fans can find heroes in many other genres of music, but there's not much in prog...


Edited by jplanet - May 31 2009 at 01:50

Hmm, that vibes player Gary Burton is openly gay, right?

BaldFriede wrote: Not prog: Melissa Etheridge is an outspoken lesbian.

There's Marc Almond of 80s group Soft Cell.  I heard something from his Tenement Symphony that might appeal to people here.

kenethlevine wrote: There's Marc Almond of 80s group Soft Cell.  I heard something from his Tenement Symphony that might appeal to people here.

Soft Cell did some very interesting music, along with their hits.

I played in a band that followed Marc Almond at the SF GLBT festival in about 2002. The crowd loved Marc for his openly gay stance in the Brit music biz and tabloids.

The band I was working with was very hetro and somewhat annoying, after Marc had built a huge enthusiastic crowd, these guys chased them all away, ha ha.

StyLaZyn wrote: And James LaBrie should be gay.  Notice his name references cheese as well.

^ Well, as you may probably know this cheese owes its name to the area it comes from, mainly la Brie. Therefore, DT vocalist's last name has more in common with the area than with the cheese that is produced there.