Songs For Saturday: Pride Month Playlist with Pete Townsend, Demi Lovato and the Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield

 

Hi there! Welcome to another edition of Songs For Saturday, my weekly forum where I post songs I like.

My tastes in music can be a bit eclectic so I try to find some themes for my Saturday playlists on occasion. 

Today's playlist is inspired by Pride Month. 

First up is a song by Pete Townsend from one of his solo albums away from The Who. This is a song called "And I Moved".  

 

My main attraction for this song is the rapid fire piano work behind a relentless beat. 

I've included this song for Pride Month because Peter Townsend, a male singer, performs the song with male pronouns.

And I moved

As I saw him looking in through my window

His eyes were silent lies

And I moved

And I saw him standing in the doorway

His figure merely filled the space

And I moved

But I moved toward him

And I moved

And his hands felt like ice exciting

As he laid me back just like an empty dress

And I moved

But a minute after he was weeping

His tears his only truth.

And I moved

But I moved toward him

There are some contradictions about why Pete Townsend performed the song with male pronouns. 

In a 1989 interview, he called the song a "coming out, an acknowledgment of the fact that I'd had a gay life, and that I understood what gay sex was about."

In a 1994 interview, Townsend said the song "was actually about the friends I've had who are gay. So the interviewer kind of dotted the t's and crossed the i's and assumed that this was a coming out, which it wasn't at all."

Townshend later wrote in his 2012 autobiography that he is "probably bisexual". 

Whatever his reasons and his own personal journey with his sexuality, a man singing a love song about another man was a daring choice in 1980. 

Next up is a song from Demi Lovato which was a big hit about 6 years ago and was a daring song about one woman's attraction to another woman. Here is "Cool For the Summer". 

"Cool for the Summer" is not a blatant lesbian anthem; it attracted attention for its bi-curious hints. But those hints made "Cool For the Summer" unique in most Top 40 play lists. 

Demi Lovato showed her support for the LGBTQ+ community and demonstrated against North Carolina's anti-LGBT bathroom bill during her performance of "Cool for the Summer" at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards on May 22, 2016. 

(EDIT: My daughter reminded me that Demi recently came out as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.) 

Rounding out today's play list is a record from the Pet Shop Boys in a duet with Dusty Springfield, "What Have I Done To Deserve This".  

While the status of the Pet Shop Boys as gay icons is well know, I was only recently made aware of Dusty Springfield's status within the LGBTQ+ community.   A pop music legend since the 1960's, Dustu had open relationships with women over her lifetime, including musician Norma Tanega. (Click here for my post on Norma from May of last year.)  

Today's play list is dedicated to my daughter Randie. As your father, I will always love you and I am proud of you. I will always try to be the best ally I can, even if I get my pronouns wrong. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.