theme song: smalltown boy
2021-Dec-25, Saturday 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerToday's theme song is one of those club dance songs with repetitive lyrics that I usually dislike: "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat. I'm pretty sure that I've never once danced to a gay song, regardless of the number of hours I've spent in gay bars over the decades. (I've rarely done some country dancing in groups.) But this song is one of a few "gay anthems" I know. I heard that phrase "run away" played so very many times. After all the positive change I've seen in my lifetime, it's still sadly a persistent and recurring theme.
I share this version because it includes the printed lyrics on screen. There are better audio versions like the official music video which tells the story visually too. But these are the numbing words recited countless times by countless outcasts who needed soothing relief from the harm of mainstream life, back before the concept of "self care" became commonly recognized.
The singer died this month, which is why it comes to mind now. I think I like "Why?" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" better, but this song of theirs is the gay anthem that played repeatedly through gay bars of the past. Take care out there.
Edit at 5pm: Oops, not the singer of this song. That was Jimmy Somerville. Sorry for the misinformation. :(
I share this version because it includes the printed lyrics on screen. There are better audio versions like the official music video which tells the story visually too. But these are the numbing words recited countless times by countless outcasts who needed soothing relief from the harm of mainstream life, back before the concept of "self care" became commonly recognized.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul)
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul)
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul)
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away
Cry, boy, cry; Cry, boy, cry
Cry, boy, cry, boy, cry; Cry, boy, cry, boy, cry
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul)
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (Crying to your soul)
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away
Cry, boy, cry; Cry, boy, cry
Cry, boy, cry, boy, cry; Cry, boy, cry, boy, cry
The singer died this month, which is why it comes to mind now. I think I like "Why?" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" better, but this song of theirs is the gay anthem that played repeatedly through gay bars of the past. Take care out there.
Edit at 5pm: Oops, not the singer of this song. That was Jimmy Somerville. Sorry for the misinformation. :(
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Date: 2021-Dec-26, Sunday 11:34 pm (UTC)Much as I loved the song then - I first heard it when I was LITERALLY standing at a bus station platform in the winter rain, fleeing to Toronto - it would never have to occurred to me that I might one day find him attractive.
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Date: 2021-Dec-27, Monday 11:13 pm (UTC)That's an interesting synchronicity. :) Stereotypes often have some kernel of truth to them somewhere. My favorite line in Cloud Atlas is, "What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?" The song's story played out for lots of people. I think of this particular journey as a kind of emigration pattern. Some leave just for the sake of exploration, but so many people leave to escape the awful fate they see in their future if they remain where they are.
Sometimes the opposite happens. I knew one guy in college who came out to his parents, so his father came out to him as bisexual. That's not usually how it goes. LOL Unfortunately, too many can't escape the trauma, no matter where they go. :( One example that bothered me more than usual was a bus driver here in the Twin Cities who came out later in life. I knew him from a local Bear Coffee group. He couldn't see a place for himself in the old world or the new, and he killed himself a long while back. (And a former college roommate of mine... and too many others.)
This song remains an anthem because it's just too true.