Village People

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Village People
Village People in Asbury Park, New Jersey on June 3, 2006
Village People in Asbury Park , New Jersey on June 3, 2006
General information
Genre (s) Disco
founding 1977, between 1987 and 1988
resolution 1986
Website http://www.officialvillagepeople.com/
Founding members
Felipe Rose
Police officer & naval officer, lead singer
Victor Willis (1977–1979, 1982–1984)
Alexander Briley
construction worker
 David "Scar" Hodo (1978–1982, from 1987)
Biker in leather
 Glenn M. Hughes (1977–95 & 1997) († 2001)
Randy Jones (1977-1980, 1987-1991)
Current occupation
Indians
 Felipe Rose
Policeman, lead singer
 Ray (moon) Simpson (1979–1982, from 1987)
soldier
 Alexander Briley
construction worker
 David "Scar" Hodo (1977–1982, from 1985)
Biker, leather fetishist
 Eric Anzalone (from Nov. 1995)
Jeff Olson (1980–1985, from 1990/91)
former members
police officer
 Miles Jaye (1983-1984)
police officer
 Ray Stephens (1984–1985)
police officer
 Py Douglas (temporarily)
construction worker
 Marc Lee (1982–1985)
Construction workers or bikers
Bill Whitefield (temporarily)
background
Producer , music
 Jacques Morali († 1991)
Producer, text idea
 Henri Belolo († 2019)
Text copy
 Victor Willis (1977–1979)
Text copy
 Phil Hurt, Boris Whitehead
lots of vocal arrangements, harmonies
 Alexander Briley

Village People are a US disco - band which has formed in the late 1970s.

The hallmarks of the band cast for a gay target group are the catchy melodies and the costumes through which the band members embody masculine stereotypes: the policeman , the Indian , the construction worker , the rocker , the cowboy and the soldier . Topics associated with male homosexuality can be found - subtly woven in - in the lyrics and song titles. Her hits ( YMCA , In the Navy , Macho Man ) are often played to this day and function (even unnoticed) as an interface between gay culture and mainstream.

Career

founding

Village People (1978)

The band was started by the French producer duo Jacques Morali / Henri Belolo . The band name as part of a casting based group made reference to the gay subculture of heavily embossed district Greenwich Village , which is part of Manhattan and colloquially just The Village ( The Village dt. Is called).

There are two very similar versions of what triggered the band's formation. The version by Henri Belolo himself: The two producers saw Felipe Rose, disguised as an Indian, walking down the street in the said New York district and followed him into a gay bar, where he served and danced. When they noticed that a cowboy was watching Rose dance, they came up with the idea of ​​putting together a group of five men who would appeal to a gay audience by embodying different models of classic masculinity. According to a more popular mainstream version of the band's formation, Jacques Morali finds Felipe Rose in his Indian costume dancing in a crowd in New York's Greenwich Village. Rose's outfit gives him the idea of putting together a group of village icons from various American social groups.

When writing the songs for the first album, the writer and producer duo thought of places in the US that were characterized by gay life. So they came to Hollywood , San Francisco , Key West (on the 2nd album) and Fire Island . Fire Island is a small island near Long Island , which was famous for its "tea dance parties" on Sunday at 5 pm, where the best DJs played .

There was a division of labor for composing: Morali was responsible for the melodies, Belolo had the ideas for the lyrics and wrote them in French and / or poor English. In the beginning, Victor Willis translated it into American English, and later a team of good copywriters such as Phil Hurt and Boris Whitehead helped . There was also a rough division in the production work: Moralis was in the studio most of the time and Belolo took care of business.

When the first album Village People was recorded in the New York branch of Sigma Sound Studios , only Victor Willis (original police officer) was there as lead singer . Professionals were hired as background singers. Indian Felipe was invited to the recordings as a " mascot " and also came up with the first photos for the cover and a newspaper advertisement.

In June 1976, the night before meeting Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records (where most of the recordings then appeared) in Los Angeles , they had a DJ play a track. He picked San Francisco , and in the first few seconds it seemed to be a letdown at first as the audience walked off the dance floor. But when the refrain started, a lot of visitors came back. So they could confidently start the negotiations.

The album became an underground hit. When 100,000 were sold, the producers put together a real group, recruited Glenn Hughes (biker), Alexander Briley (soldier), David Hodo (construction worker) and Randy Jones (cowboy) and toured the clubs.

When the DJ Franki Crocker (a legend in this profession) started playing the songs of Village People on the New York radio station WBLS, the breakthrough came.

Musical career

Macho man

The second album Macho Man only made it to the top 20, but the track Macho Man was played by a lot of radio stations and the band went from underground to mainstream.

Cruisin 'with YMCA

The Village People sing their hit, YMCA, with a lively audience

When the producers were working on the songs for the third album, the two were walking down a street; Henri saw the YMCA sign and asked what it was. Jacques replied that it was a place where a lot of people went when they were in town, made good friends there, and then went out. Henri said you could write a song about it. That's how YMCA came about for the third album Cruisin ' . The music arrangement comes from Horace Ott .

The YMCA ( Young Men's Christian Association , dt. CVJM, Christian Association of Young Men , since 1985 in Germany Christian Association of Young People , in the USA there is its own YWCA ( Young Women's Christian Association )) was at that time in the USA known for their family, educational, and health programs, summer camps , sports centers, and the affordable youth hostels mentioned in the song. Since it was an association for men, it was quite popular with gays. Therefore, the song lives from its ambiguity to this day, as it appears ostensibly as a hymn of praise for the club, but also refers in particular to the gays belonging to it and the community among them.

With the song, the band made their breakthrough and the song became number one in the charts and in clubs worldwide, except for the Billboard charts in the USA, where they only landed in second place, as Rod Stewart with Do Ya Think I'm Sexy took the top spot. YMCA is still one of the most commercially successful pop songs in music history. The title was Germanized by the Berlin vocal group Sunday (before singer Dieter Bohlen joined the group) as CVJM (1978, at Toledo, B-side: Stay one more night ).

The album Cruisin ' got platinum and sold worldwide five to six million times. Fans came up with a dance for the song in which the four letters of the title are represented with arms and legs.

Go West with In the Navy

Village People at In the Navy

The main song for the fourth album Go West was actually intended to be the song title of the same name. The guess wasn't so wrong, as the title became a worldwide hit in the 1993 cover version of the Pet Shop Boys .

At that time the single was hardly accepted, so they tried to pull out In the Navy . This was then played by the radio stations. At this early point in time, the US Navy contacted the Village People because the US Navy wanted to use the song in a radio and television commercial to recruit new soldiers. In return, no money was asked for, but support in shooting the video clip. Three weeks later they were shooting in one of the largest naval bases in the world, the San Diego Naval Base in California , and were given a warship, five planes ( Phantom ) and 200 to 300 soldiers. Two weeks after the video clip and commercial first aired, a major New York newspaper ran the headline: The Navy Uses Tax Money to Support a Band with a Video . As a result, the Navy stopped the advertising campaign immediately. The media attention, however, was a good sales promotion ; In the Navy became a big hit. On the big tour with a big band through 52 cities, they played twice in the sold out Madison Square Garden in New York and once in the sold out Felt Forum in Los Angeles .

Rumors about this episode range from assuming the song was written on behalf of the Navy, who wanted something similar after a new membership boom at YMCA , to assuming that the commercial was not used after the Navy realized the song was targeted the Navy's anti- gay policies.

In 2007 the Hot Banditoz released a Spanish cover version called A La Playa .

In the 289th issue of Rolling Stone from April 19, 1979, disco was reported and Village People were depicted on the cover.

Can't stop the music

In late 1979, Victor Willis was replaced by Ray Simpson. According to an English music magazine, Willis has become unreliable and allure. However, he was promised a career as a soloist as "compensation". A solo album by Victor Willis is said to have been recorded but never released.

1980 came out the film Supersound und brante Sprüche (OT: Can't Stop the Music ), in which an invented biography of the Village People is told. Two other protégés of Morali and Belolo also appear in this work, namely David London and The Ritchie Family . In the USA the film and the album were a failure, in Australia number one. Belolo thinks that the film was released too late, when disco was already losing popularity. Others also criticize the fact that he paints a clearly heterosexual picture of the band that leaves no room for the usual speculations. As in Australia, the disco fell in popularity in Europe two years later, and so the record was a pretty good hit here too.

With the end of the disco era came the end of Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records . In 1980 he sold his label to PhonoGram (PolyGram Records, Philips & Siemens, now Universal Music Group). From then on, the Village People's records appeared on other labels. Neil Bogart died of cancer on May 8, 1982 and the label closed completely in 1984.

1981-1983

Mainstream tastes changed from disco to new wave . Therefore, the costumes were replaced by a new look that was inspired by New Romantic , and in 1981 the album Renaissance with the song 5 O'clock In The Morning was released. The band failed to make the change and the album was commercially unsuccessful.

On the two following albums ( Fox on the Box 1982 by RCA-Victor, In the Street 1983) the look became more masculine again.

Sex over the phone

Characters from Star Wars dance with the YMCA audience at the 3rd Star Wars Weekend 2007 at Disney-MGM Studios
Students at a Texas high school dance the YMCA to greet returning soldiers.

In 1985 the effects of AIDS, discovered in 1981, became increasingly visible and threatening. With Sex Over the Phone (at Black Scorpio-CBS), a song took up the topics of AIDS and safe sex for the first time. They even managed to get back to the bottom of the charts in Germany. It might also have helped that they returned to their roots and represented the six stereotypes again. This was their last completely new album, after which only best-of albums, two new singles and numerous remixes were released.

Morali was scared by AIDS and decided to go back to Paris . Belolo joined him and they stopped producing in the US. Morali fell ill with AIDS, was embittered by the foreseeable death and struggled with fate. He died on November 15, 1991 in Paris.

today

In 1986 they took a break from touring life, separated and pursued their individual careers. By then they had sold a total of 65 million records (1987 Dance Music Report).

Between 1987 and 1989 (1988?) They got together again and founded Sixuvus Ltd. ("Six of us"), which she now represents.

The three big hits ( YMCA , In the Navy , Macho Man ) of the Village People are still popular today, so that they have been performing over and over again, sometimes in private. They travel together for 80–120 days a year.

In 1990 they landed a surprise hit in Australia with the single Living In The Wildlife .

For the soccer world championship in 1994 they recorded the titles Far Away in America and United We'll Go together with the German national team . The single reached number 44 in Germany.

In 1999 the Pet Shop Boys released New York City Boy (on the Nightlife album and as a single) - according to their statement as a tribute to the Village People. It imitates the classic Village People and Morali / Belolo disco sound and was produced in collaboration with remixer David Morales .

Glenn Hughes, the first biker, died of lung cancer on March 4, 2001 . Even if he only appeared on the 20th anniversary (1997?) After 1995, he was the embodiment of the Village People for the thousands of fans with whom he was in regular mail contact.

From 2004 to April 2005 they toured as opening act for Cher's Farewell Tour.

From July 18 to July 20, 2004 they appeared as the opener at three doctors' shows in Berlin's Wuhlheide .

They recorded two new singles under the name The Amazing Veepers : Gunbalanya (5 different mixes) and Loveship 2001 (four different mixes).

The band members

Felipe Rose (Indian)

Felipe Rose is truly Native American and was working at Anvil, a gay bar in Greenwich Village , when he was discovered by Morali. He now lives in Richmond with his long-time partner, Charles Sadler, and runs a record label for Native American music, for which he has received several awards. In the band he was mainly responsible for the choreographies.

Victor Willis (policeman, orig.)

When Victor Willis was hired for the first album of the Village People, he had an engagement in the musical The Wiz (of Oz, dt. The magical land ) on Broadway . He helped Belolo get the first few songs into good American English and was also co-writer on Macho Man and In the Navy . In 1978 he married the actress Phylicia Allen (now Phylicia Rashad ), best known for her role as Claire Huxtable on the Bill Cosby show . The marriage lasted only 2 years. In the band he was replaced in 1979 because of his cocaine use . In 1997 he was arrested for robbery and cocaine possession.

After serving a prison sentence, he successfully participated in a rehab program in 2007 and remarried in 2007. In 2011, he sued the Village People's producers for royalties, claiming that he owned the rights to YMCA and several other titles. He also denied that the lyrics were homosexual.

Alexander Briley (soldier)

Alexander Briley was born on April 12, 1951 in Harlem , New York City. He grew up in Harlem and later lived in Mount Vernon . Briley studied singing at the University of Hartford . He played with jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey and appeared in Broadway shows such as Music Magic and in the drama A Lesson from Aloe by Althol Fugard. He currently lives in Westchester , New York.

Glenn M. Hughes (Biker, orig.)

Glenn M. Hughes was born on July 18, 1950. When he answered an ad from Morali in 1977, in the after singers in the macho look with mustache was sought, he was working as a cashier at the tollgate of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel . This incident is also referred to in the movie Can't Stop the Music .

Hughes had been a cabaret artist since the early 1990s and eventually left Village People in 1996 to pursue his successful cabaret program in New York City. He also looked after the Village People's mailbox. One of his favorite hobbies was riding his custom bike, a Harley-Davidson , through the streets of New York City. Glenn M. Hughes died of lung cancer on March 4, 2001 at the age of 50 in his Manhattan apartment. At his own request, he was buried in his leather garb. He does not leave any immediate relatives.

Randy Jones (Cowboy, orig.)

Randy Jones was born on September 13, 1952 in Raleigh , North Carolina . He attended Enloe High School in Raleigh and graduated in the 1970s. He currently lives in New York City.

David Hodo (construction worker, orig.)

David Hodo was born on July 7, 1947 in Palo Alto , California . He is a founding member of the band and performs as a construction worker.

Ray Simpson (policeman, act.)

Ray Simpson was born on January 15, 1954 in New York City and grew up in the Bronx, New York City. Ray Simpson graduated from City College of New York and later enjoyed a successful solo career before joining Village People. He performed with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson prior to joining the Village People . Ray Simpson is married to Leslie Simpson and has a daughter with her. The family currently lives in Teaneck , New Jersey .

Eric Anzalone (biker, act.)

Eric Anzalone attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables , Florida from 1988 to 1990 , where he studied theater. He then moved to California and in 1992 to New Jersey. 1995 replaced Anzalone Glenn Hughes as a biker in the band.

Jeff Olson (cowboy, act.)

Jeff Olson was born in New York City and owned a bar in Los Angeles before joining the band in 1980. He replaced Randy Jones as a cowboy. Jeff Olson lives in Connecticut .

Discussion about the band's relationship to homosexuality

Men in Village People costume at the 2007 Brighton Gay Pride

The questions “Why are the village people particularly popular with many gays?” And “Is the band an example of the connection between the topics of homosexuality and art?” Have not been asked by any other band for so long and so often. This was also supported by the group. For their great success it was necessary that they never clearly identify themselves as a band with a gay background. And some things changed with the emerging success in the mainstream.

“While the group never identified itself as gay, their primary target audience was clearly a gay audience. She successfully translated the interests, coded language and iconography of the gay subculture into music that made it into mainstream pop. Because the meanings and ambiguities of the lyrics and the costumes associated with the group were largely unknown to the general audience, the gay audience not only enjoyed the music for its own sake, but also enjoyed the fact that a mainstream audience ignorantly embraced subcultural values ​​and imagery . "

- Robert Kellerman : glbtq.com

backgrounds

Gays are and, above all, were mostly used to reading between the lines, because the subject of gay love was rarely openly addressed in art, otherwise the censorship would have intervened. The Village People were "gay enough to target a gay market and subtle enough not to offend the mainstream."

Glad to be Gay by Tom Robinson was still open in 1979 as a gay song of the BBC boycotted. The English band Bronski Beat first succeeded in defying conventions in Europein 1984 with Smalltown Boy and Why on their debut album Age of Consent . The single Smalltown Boy reached number 3 in the UK charts and number 48 in the US charts, Why number 6 in the UK charts.

The people involved

The question of whether the band members are gay has not been answered positively or negatively for a long time. For the band as a whole, it cannot be answered today either. For the status of a cult band in the gay community, however, this question is only of secondary importance.

The most important thing is the connection between the actual heads of the band - the producers - and the scene:

  • The French Jacques Morali , initiator of the project, responsible for the melodies, the studio work and many a song concept, was gay.

"Lists. Seriously you know, I want to tell you something. I am gay, you know, myself, so I am not the kind of person to joke about the statement. Because it's my statement, you know? Knowing that the group is gay and that I'm really believing and trusting what I'm doing, it's not a parody at all. "

- Jacques Morali : autumn 1978
  • Henri Belolo came from Casablanca in what was then the French protectorate of Morocco . He was responsible for the text ideas, the basic drafting of the text in French and / or poor English and for business. Although he was straight, he would roam the clubs with Morali, have many friends in the community and talk to them about their preferences, their lifestyle, their musical preferences, dreams and fantasies, which also flowed into his lyrics. At the beginning of the first album, however, he wasn't there.

Some of the band members as such have meanwhile become more known about their private lives.

  • The original members: Felipe Rose and Randy Jones have lived with their same-sex partners for many years. Victor Willis , who is also responsible for some text drafts, was married for two years. In 2008 he says of himself that he was the only straight member of the band. Glenn Hughes died unmarried and without descendants, but was reportedly straight. By David Hodo and Alexander Briley nothing is known about permanent partners or affairs.
  • Later Members: Ray Simpson is married to Leslie and has one daughter. Even Eric Anzalone has a daughter. Nothing is known about permanent partners about Jeff Olson .

Masculine stereotypes

Up until the 1960s, many gay bars in America were dominated by effeminate gays. Even the inconspicuous homosexuals had a repertoire of female gestures, which were often used ironically accentuated among each other. When it comes to sexual contact, a distinction was often made between “active” and “passive” roles. The gay bars competed with travesty shows for the favor of their visitors. The homophile movement advocated total adaptation and inconspicuousness for the streets. You behaved as the scriptures of the majority society dictated, a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Obviously, this should not be generalized to everyone. In addition, there were already from the Second World War, a small S & M - leather scene , the first motorcycle club there was from the early 1950s and some bars from the mid-1950s. Concentrated masculinity existed as an object of illustration in the " pornography " of the time from the 1950s. These were images of athletic men or bodybuilders in static poses, the "physique pictures". The cowboy also played a role again and again.

Through the sexual revolution in the 1960s and above all through the self-assertion around Stonewall in 1969, gay pride and thus more freedom came up - people were now actively fighting for it and not just asking for tolerance. To the horror of the homophiles, efficient behavior outside the bars became apparent. There was a spirit of optimism in the gay districts , the urge for freedom. The scene quickly expanded, became more diverse, the leather scene was more integrated and people questioned their self-image. Travesty shows disappeared from the bars, people no longer cared about the distinction between “active” and “passive”, but “everyone did everything”. (Something similar happened in Amsterdam after 1953/1955 , when local police politics became more liberal and around two gay dance halls were tolerated.) The pendulum swung strongly in the opposite direction. From a historical point of view, a necessary counter-cliché was built along the traditional social guidelines about masculinity, which was intended to finally destroy not only the old prejudices of society but also those in one's own head, and a hyper-masculinity developed compared to the then average ideal of masculinity . (Only after both extremes was it possible for the masses to decouple sexual behavior and gender role behavior themselves, and it leveled off from the 1980s onwards.) At this time, the Castro clone with an often thick mustache and many bars used Western themes and names. But it was mostly the same people as before.

Emergence

In the late 1970s, when the Village People came into being, this phenomenon was in full swing. Morali saw Rose in Indian costume and bells on her feet in the gay bar called Anvil ("anvil"). A week later he saw him again at the nightclub called 12 West in the West Village , part of Greenwich Village. Rose danced near a man dressed like a cowboy and another wearing a construction helmet . “And then I said to myself, 'You know, that's fantastic' - to see the cowboy, the Indian, the construction worker with all the other men around. And I also thought that gay people don't have a group, nobody who personifies gay people, you know? And I said to Felipe: 'One day I will need you.' "Still without thinking about a performing group, Morali began to produce with these ulterior motives. “I never thought that a straight target group would take up this. I just wanted to do something for the gay market. ”This can also be clearly heard in the first few songs, if you are familiar with the scene. Singers were hired for the recording and models for the photo of the record cover. The first cover (there are two different ones for the first record) with the committed models looks like a group of men standing in front of a gay bar / leather bar on a warm evening. Including the archetypes mentioned so far, but also Castro Clones, a leather guy and on the back even a man in a tuxedo. It was an ethnically mixed group with the Indians, some whites and some blacks. Simple people you get to see when you go out in (Greenwich) Village . And the seaman and captain added later also corresponds to this picture.

When over 200,000 records had been sold, people started looking for “singers and dancers, handsome and with mustaches” in the Village Voice . After a lackluster first appearance on the television show Soul Train , Morali regrouped and recruited the final founding members. They then recorded Macho Man and toured the United States. In 1978 Morali sold his rights to the group to Bill Aucoin , manager of the Kiss group , for US $ 1 million, but remained in charge of the music and producer.

change

“I don't think… that the straight audience knows they are a gay group…. Anyway, the Village People don't look like queens, they look like lads. And straight boys in America expect to get the macho look. ”And that's how it stayed for the most part, despite the article in Rolling Stone in the fall of 1978 and supported by the group. In 1978, Hodo said that he soon started parodying the whole thing because it was more fun. Opposite Morali, Belolo and Willis the rest of the group took the whole thing with humor and Hodo explained part of the success. “We make ourselves available for as many interpretations as possible.” According to Rose (2008), there was no subversive intention on the part of the group. But the will to want to work and earn money. According to Jones (2005), this spread her music as well as subtly and subversively - in a non-offensive way - her “liberation message”. The group realized that if they want to be successful, also in merchandising with Halloween costumes and snack cans and if the poster is to appear in teenage magazines and if teenagers are to hang the posters, there is no direct answer to that question. The media of the gay scene were not particularly happy about it at first, because they wanted to have a positive role model to show, which was almost non-existent at the time.

The stereotypes from the gay scene were mixed up with stereotypes from the film industry that were already familiar and accepted by society. The audience that the group initially performed live in front of were mostly blacks, Latinos and gays. With the tour it became a large straight fan base. Which means that the statement “We didn't start out as a gay group” is also justified. According to Hughes, female fans saw her not as homosexual, but as "six humpy guys", and believes women "get into the sex we sell." The group's concept spoke the emerging Concept of narcissism paired with psychological and physical health that exuded self-acceptance.

Over time, the content of the songs that can be understood as gay codes became less. In the 1980 film Can't Stop the Music , a busty blonde was often at the side of the group, even in the all-male YMCA. She was also the group's first woman on a record cover. After her New Wave attempt in 1981, on the next album cover of Fox on the Box (1982), a black beauty was sitting at the mixer of a studio and was raved about by the boys. Since the group was different and the audience was very diverse, one had something against being referred to too publicly as a "gay group". It could still put people off.

While the other band members and Belolo have been telling a little about past times and backgrounds here and there since sometime after 2000, but largely ignored the sexual orientation of the other band members, ex-member Willis stands out because he is the only heterosexual on his homepage to boast of original Village People. According to his own statements, he has not given an interview over the years, but he had the publicist Alice Wolf, who immediately added that Willis has nothing against homosexuality, broadcast in 2007; the hits he wrote (from the second record) had no gay background and he was appalled by the gay subtext that they only got through the gay associations with the band, feared that this would end up in a niche market. Therefore, after the US Navy withdrew the promotional video, he left the band out of frustration, which contradicts the previous account of his progress. As a copywriter, he still receives about $ 1 million in royalties annually. Two weeks after the announcement, Willis would host a 30-year show in Las Vegas, and a tour and book were announced for nine months later. Simpson says about the book that he wishes his colleague all the best and that there is a different story for each story.

Song lyrics

You can hear them with “gay ears”, but you don't have to, they are general enough. As times change and historical background knowledge is lost, here are some explanations of the compounds that occur:

  • The debut album Village People (1977) only has 4 maxi-length songs (about 5 minutes), two on each side. The A-side covers gay life on the west coast (San Francisco / Hollywood) and the B-side covers gay life on the east coast (Fire Island / [Greenwich] Village People). Hodo: "Our first album was possibly the gayest album ever." The lyrics came from Morali, Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead .
    • San Francisco (You've Got Me) is a declaration of love to the city. The three most important streets of the gay scene there are described with Folsom, Polk and Castro Street and the corresponding visitors with leather, “Shimmering Night” (queens, male prostitutes) and jeans (Castro Clone). The city's liberality is also celebrated. The second part of the song is the love game with the city, or with another partner in the city, depending on the interpretation.
    • Hollywood (Everybody Is A Star) is about someone who sells everything, maybe takes out a loan, moves to Hollywood , changes his name, realizes his dream of becoming a star - because everyone in Hollywood is a star - and forgets what he or she does once was. Only the most expensive is good enough for him, New Yorkers will soon look up, but it's more of a game, a show-off. Whether he was really ever in Hollywood or successful is an open question if he has to call himself. It is a general story, but also well known in the scene, especially with a name change in order to remain undetected as possible. West Hollywood saw a large influx of gays in the early 1970s.
    • Fire Island is about the small island near New York, where you spent a "funky weekend", there is "the sun and the sea" and "where love is free". The clubs "Ice Palace", "Monster", "Blue Whale", "Sandpiper" and "Botel" are mentioned, where people danced from the "Tea dance parties" at five in the afternoon until the early hours of the morning. They were visited to a large extent by gays, DJs loved them because the audience was more willing to experiment and you could try new things and part of the disco history was written there. There are also cruising areas on the island. "Don't go in the bushes, someone might grab ya" ("Don't go into the bushes, someone could grab you") or "someone might stab ya" ("someone might 'stab you") are those probably the clearest lines in all Village People songs.
    • Village People is a hymn of the times for the residents ("Village People") and activists of Greenwich Village who took part in the "Gay Liberation". “Now is the time”, “your fight is mine”, “let's fight for the rights and do this during the day” (no longer hide at night), “your freedom is in sight”, “we cannot are denied, the signs are on our side now ”,“ we are now one and take our place in the sun ”and“ we have to be free ”are quite clear, especially with the history and the origin of the name of the band.
  • In Macho Man (1978) Willis already and Belolo have cooperated. There are 5 maxi-length songs (4-6 min.), Two on the A-side and three on the B-side, with one on the B-side being a medley of two songs.
    • The theme song Macho Man is about the gym and training. A very general topic - therefore successful in the mainstream - but also a hymn to the hyper masculine gay “clone” generation, the archetypes that the group represents. The line “Call him Mister Eagle, dig his chains.” (“Call him Mister Eagle, love his chains”) is relatively clear. Eagle is the name or part of the name of some leather bars around the world. In New York, for example, The Eagle's Nest existed from 1970 to 2000 . The topic of freedom is also included again and is continued in the following song. “Everyone should be a macho. To live a life in freedom, the macho takes a stand. Have your own lifestyles and ideals. Achieving access to the bond of competence, that is the art. ”In 2008 Willis distanced himself from a gay context.
    • The song flows seamlessly into I Am What I Am on the LP . This is a basic theme of the gay liberation and was implemented even more aptly five years later by Jerry Herman ( I Am What I Am ). With the Village People too, being allowed to be who you are is an anthem. People have a right to be who they are, no matter who they love or what skin color they are. People have the right to free will and love is not a sin. People have the right to live with whomever they wish, happily and “nobody has the right to choose my love for me. I was born free. ”“ I didn't choose what I am. I say I am what I am This is my significant other. […] I say I am what I am. Please try to understand. "
    • In Key West someone told his mother that it was too cold for him and that he was drawn to Key West in the sun. Key West has been a tourist area, especially since the Cuban Missile Crisis, which attracts many eccentric people and also gays. Key West is the key to happiness for the protagonist, he will have fun there. The leisure nights are the best there, during the day he will lie in the sun and the nights will be beating around his ears.
    • The medley Just A Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody was recorded by Louis Prima in 1956 . With the mention of sweet Mamma , a Sugar Mommy , this song clearly deals with a straight topic. The medley consists of the English version of the song Schöner Gigolo (original artist: Richard Tauber ) and the song I Ain't Got Nobody (original artist: Marion Harris ).
    • The last number Sodom And Gomorrah tells the story of the two cities and is a mixture between disco and gospel. The subject has long been associated with homosexuality, including what the real sin of Sodom is. The song mainly speaks of lust and the bad / horny men who gather around the visitors in Lot's house. There is no known explanation for the reasons why the song was recorded, but with reference to this story homosexuals were punished with death in order to protect their own city.
  • The name of the third LP Cruisin ' can generally have several meanings. On the one hand it can mean ordinary, relaxed cruising around with a ship or vehicle, then the extension to cruising mostly teenagers and gay cruising , whereby the words used are mostly the same in English. The latter meaning became known to a wider audience two years later when the film Cruising (film) came out.
    • There are various components to the song YMCA , which are covered in the article. The entire song is not gay in terms of lyrics, but the Morali chorus can be read that way. Willis wrote the rest of the text according to Morali's concept. The song also has a gay origin and is musically an anthem like partly Village People and especially I am what i am and the later Go West and Liberation .
    • The medley The Women / I'm a Cruiser clearly addresses the heterosexual. But I'm a Cruiser can also be used alone. There you can, for example, the refrain lines "I'm a cruiser, cruising everything i see, / I'm a cruiser, do you look so good to mee" ("I am a cruiser, (he) cruise everything that I see, / I'm a cruiser, you look so good to me ”) transferred without any problems.
    • In My Roommate , someone complains about their roommate, who is crazy about dancing, believes he is the greatest dancer of all time, always has to try new steps and easily sings wrongly in the shower. The narrator cannot sleep as a result, be it during the day, at noon or at night, he complains of going crazy. The roommate breaks all the rules and when the narrator opens the box to take out his jacket, he finds a note with the message: "I went to the disco, I took your best jacket." Throughout the song, the choir is always on Sung line: "My roommate, my roommate", which sounds a bit annoyed, but not angry, almost like a hymn to the roommate. For Randy Jones, it's 2005's gayest song in the Village People.
  • Go West
    • In In the Navy there is only the context that as YMCA is a pure men club. Willis distanced himself from a gay connection in 2008.
    • The song Go West is about a loving couple who have had enough of the hustle and bustle in the East and want to leave for the quieter West together and start a new life. In the new location there is sea, beach, sun in winter and lots of space. The general slogan “Go West” has been around for a long time. On the LP record cover, Hawaiian shirts, cocktails and a pineapple indirectly suggest that it could be Hawaii. The slogan “Go West” has had a meaning and a goal in the gay scene for a long time: California or San Francisco. When the song came out, it was the culmination of a "gay escape" to California that was known even to activists in the small town of Clearfield, Utah and was associated with the song. Willis denies any gay-themed intention on his part. This can be good and it can still have a gay background if Moralis was the initiator and draftsman. The Pet Shop Boys changed a few small things in their 1993 cover version that make it more obvious.
  • Live And Sleazy mostly contains live versions of popular songs and little new.
  • A busty blonde is always there in the film Can't Stop the Music , even in the YMCA.
    • Liberation is a general hymn for free spirits who stand up for their convictions and gain influence. It is transferable 1: 1 to the Gay Liberation.
  • The 1985 album Sex Over the Phone has sexuality as its main theme . Regarding the time frame: Studies in Africa in 1984 showed that AIDS occurred equally frequently in women and men, regardless of drug use and blood transfusions. Not much has been said about it in the general public. On July 25, 1985, Rock Hudson announced that he had AIDS and died on October 2, 1985. In 1985 the first antibody test was approved and z. B. in Germany from October 1985 only tested preparations are permitted. The first AIDS conference took place this year, and this year a first report on hemophiliacs infected with blood and that 70% of their women were infected attracted increased attention. There is movement in general AIDS prevention. There was a lot of discussion, before that especially in the gay scene, especially from 1983, while the general public only became more interested in the topic from 1985.
    • The future of sexuality was also discussed. Sex Over the Phone , which was recorded in 1984, was one of the safer sex options . It is therefore regarded as the first thematization of safer sex in music and it is implemented in a completely heterosexual manner. The front of the single record cover also shows a lady in lingerie and a man with a bare chest on the back.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US R&B R&B
1977 Village People - - - - US54
gold
gold

(86 weeks)US 		R&B36 (8 weeks)
R&B
1978 Macho man - - - - US24
platinum
platinum

(69 weeks)US 		R&B31 (32 weeks)
R&B
Producer: Jacques Morali
Cruisin ' DE1
gold
gold

(23 weeks)DE 		AT1 (16 weeks)
AT 		- UK24 (9 weeks)
UK 		US3
platinum
platinum

(45 weeks)US 		R&B5 (29 weeks)
R&B
Producer: Jacques Morali
Recording: Sigma Sound Studios, New York
1979 Go West DE14 (13 weeks)
DE 		AT22 (8 weeks)
AT 		- UK14th
gold
gold

(19 weeks)UK 		US8th
platinum
platinum

(21 weeks)US 		R&B14 (12 weeks)
R&B
Producer: Jacques Morali
1980 Can't stop the music - AT20 (2 weeks)
AT 		- UK9 (8 weeks)
UK 		US47 (12 weeks)
US 		-
Producer: Jacques Morali
with two tracks each by David London and The Ritchie Family ; Soundtrack
1981 Renaissance - - - - US138 (4 weeks)
US 		-
Producers: Jacques Morali, Dennis Frederiksen

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

  • 1982: Fox on the Box ( Reissue as In the Street )
  • 1985: Sex over the Phone
  • 1995: Fire Island (feat. Felipe Rose )

Filmography

Video albums

  • 1993: Village People - Best Of , (PAL-VHS), 73 minutes, Videos & Live.
  • 2002: The Best Of The Village People (PAL-DVD), 73 minutes, videos & live.
  • 2003: The Village People Collection , (PAL-DVD).
  • 2003: Village People - Live in Japan (DVD), 68 minutes (or 2005)
  • 2004: The Best (Golden Box) (+ Audio-CD) (PAL-DVD), Videos & Live, DSS 5.1 / Digitally Remastered.

Awards

The Village People receive their star on the Walk of Fame

literature

  • Randy Jones, Mark Bego: Macho Man: The Disco Era and Gay America's “Coming Out,” Praeger Publishers, 2008, ISBN 0-275-99962-9 .
  • John Donald Gustav-Wrathall: Take the Young Stranger by the Hand: Same-Sex Relations and the YMCA from: Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society , University of Chicago Press
  1. 2000, (Paperback) ISBN 0-226-90785-6 .
  2. 1998, (hardcover) ISBN 0-226-90784-8 .

Web links

Commons : Village People  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

General

Village people, especially today

Dance Street Records in Germany had produced a new single with David Hodo in 2004 (My Sweet Lord) and with Randy Jones from 2007 to 2008 three new singles (Your Disco Needs You, New York City Boy and If I Can´t Have You), all of which were distributed by ZYX Music and can also be found on numerous compilations.

Casablanca Records

Others

  1. ↑ Village People: The gay biker is dead. In: Spiegel Online . March 17, 2001, Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  2. ↑ laut.de: Village People Biography [1]
  3. ↑ Musicline.de: Village People - Biography [2]
  4. ↑ a b Spin Magazine Online: YMCA (An Oral History)
  5. ↑ Movie review: Gay Sex in the 70s: [3] , 2000
  6. ↑ classicbands.com [4] , 2000
  7. ↑ a b disco-disco.com: Interview with Henri Belolo , 2000
  8. ↑ officialvillagepeople.com - History ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , seen on March 13, 2007, as well as in many short articles @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.officialvillagepeople.com
  9. ↑ 1979 Rolling Stone Covers 7/26 , rollingstone.com
  10. ↑ Nicole Pasulka: Wanted: Macho Men with Mustaches , The Believer, July / August 2013
  11. ^ A b Steve Wildsmith: MACHO MEN: The Village People still going strong, 30 years later ( August 20, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive ), The Daily Times, September 5, 2008
  12. ↑ a b c d "Randy Jones interview (January 2005)" in: Script for Jan 24 & 31, 2005, QMH , Queer Music Heritage
  13. ↑ Robert Kellerman: Village People ( April 27, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ), glbtq.com, viewed March 21, 2007
  14. ↑ Linda Rapp: Robinson, Tom ( Memento from January 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), 2004, Version: January 22, 2006, in: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): Glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
  15. ↑ a b c d Michael DeAngelis: Gay fandom and crossover stardom: James Dean, Mel Gibson, and Keanu Reeves , Duke University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8223-2738-4 , p. 137
  16. ↑ a b Victor Willis World - About Vivtor ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Version: August 4, 2008, Access: October 21, 2008 “Visually, Village People was a group of dancers. But on stage, radio and in the ears of millions of fans, Village People was and still is the voice of Victor Willis, its legendary original lead singer and only straight member. " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.victorwillisworld.com
  17. ↑ a b c Erwin J. Haeberle: Bisexualities - History and Dimensions of a Modern Scientific Problem , published in:
    EJ Haeberle and R. Gindorf: Bisexualities - Ideology and Practice of Sexual Contact with Both Sexes , Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, p. 1 -39
  18. ↑ a b Matthew D. Johnson: Leather Culture ( Memento from April 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), 2004, Version: November 23, 2006, in: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): Glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian , Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
  19. ↑ Gay leather magazines , Cuirmale, Netherlands, Accessed April 5, 2009
  20. ↑ a b Eric Patterson: The Western ( Memento from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Version: March 12, 2008, HTML-S. 9 & 10, in: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): Glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
  21. ^ Gert Hekma: The Amsterdam Bar Culture And Changing Gay / Lesbian Identities ( Memento of October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Gay Studies University of Amsterdam
  22. ^ A b Martin P. Levine, Michael S. Kimmel: Gay macho: the life and death of the homosexual clone , New York University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8147-4695-0 , chapter: "(I Wanna Be a) Macho Man "- The Masculinization of Clone Social Life , p. 55 ff.
  23. ↑ Castro Clone , homowiki.de
  24. ↑ "And after that I say to myself," Morali told Rolling Stone's Emerson, "'You know, this is fantastic' - to see the cowboy, the Indian, the construction worker with other men around. And also, I think in myself [sic] that the gay people have no group, nobody to personalize the gay people, you know? And I say to Felipe, 'One of these days I'm going to employ you.' "From an interview in Rolling Stone on October 5, 1978
  25. ^ "I never thought that straight audiences were going to catch on to it," Morali divulged to Emerson. "I wanted to do something only for the gay market." Quotes from an interview in Rolling Stone, 1978
  26. ^ A b Marjorie Burgess: The Village People Biography , musicianguide.com; with excerpts from an interview by Ken Emerson with Jacques Morali, which was published in the Rolling Stones.
  27. ↑ "gay singers and dancers, very good-looking and with mustaches", there are other mentions without gay, so I left it out.
  28. ↑ Dave Laing: Glenn Hughes , March 30, 2001
  29. ^ "I don't think ... that straight audiences know they are a gay group .... Anyway, the Village People don't look like queens, they look like boys. And the straight guys in America want to get the macho look. ”Jacques Morali in the fall of 1978, probably Rolling Stone, otherwise a New Yorker
  30. ↑ Robert Hofler: Village People celebrate milestone At 30, they're still here and queer ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Variety, April 12, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  31. ^ Village People ( Memento from June 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), songtext.net, query: April 7, 2009
  32. ↑ "We makes ourselves available to as many interpretations as possible"
  33. ^ A b Jeff Pearlman: "YMCA" (An Oral History) , May 27, 2008
  34. ↑ a b c d e Canadian Press: 'Macho Man,' 'YMCA' about straight fun: publicist , ctv.ca, August 2, 2007
  35. ↑ San Francisco (song) on homowiki.de
  36. ↑ Rosa Reitsamer: From “Disco” to DISCO ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.female-consequences.org
  37. ↑ Bill Brewster: Gay Pop ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) , formerly seen on djhistory.com on March 29, 2007, now on archive.org
  38. ↑ Discoguy: Barry Lederer , disco-disco.com, 2005-2009
  39. ^ The Eagle's Nest at 142 Eleventh Avenue: 1970-2000 ( March 19, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), History of Gay Bars in New York, December 23, 2007
  40. ↑ Connell O'Donovan: "Go West - This is Our Destiny": Arcadia, Gay Flight, and the Idea (l) of California , June 1999
  41. ↑ Chart sources: Singles Albums UK1 UK2 US
  42. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  43. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .