Music is My Radar

The missus and I were out to eat tonight, and Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" came on. This song has two very different connotations for us. For me, I want to make fun of it by doing a silly little dance and try to remember the alternate lyrics I've heard for the song. For my wife it reminds her of the elementary school teacher who made her entire class sing his songs.

At any rate, this led to a discussion of musicians who appear to be gay. I assured her that Manilow was straight, although she still has her doubts. The conversation then veered to Liberace, and the inevitable point that anyone who thought Liberace was straight was either clueless, deluded, or both. Bringing things to a more contemporary period, we then discussed Elton John and finally Michael Stipe. Just as we reached this point in the conversation, "Copacabana" ended and to our utter shock "Radio Free Europe" came on.

You just can't make up coincidences like that.

From there the conversation drifted to how, for people of our generation, there isn't really any stigma attached to a performer being gay. When Elton John came out, as far as we were concerned it was no big deal and no big surprise. Michael Stipe was so annoyed that people would even ask that he tried for a long time not to dignify the question with an answer.

But then my wife said that really we are so accepting because of the music we listen to. That is, that we're progressives because we listen to progressive music. I said, "So if I grew up listening to country music, I'd be a Republican?"

Hmm... there might be something to that.