An Artist's Sexuality Detracting Fans

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Recently at another message board, someone suggested (well blatantly stated) that Scott Walker was homosexual and his relationship with a certain Mr J. King was more than just friends. The posts thereafter were rants by fans (more so the older female fan that lived the walker bros phenom of the 60's) that were filled with denial, slight homophobia and refusal to believe that the love songs they ingest as their own, maybe isn't directed to them afterall, but towards the other sex.

The question is, does it make a differnce? Do songs take on a new life when realising the author is attracted to a different sex than what the listener initially percieved? (George Michael and Elton John are the major examples of the last 30 years)

― vantasma, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The people who care about this have bigger problems--they're not only homophobic, they're delusional. Scott Walker didn't perform "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" for that woman, and if she doesn't realize that 35 years after the fact, she's not worth talking about.

It's fun to fantasize your position in the realm of a musician's music, and it's great to feel like that musician is singing to you. But 'e ain't, and at some point the listener has to realize that.

― J, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1) No.

2) They can take on a different meaning if you want them to.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, but ask a homophobic Judas Priest fan.

― Jordan, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am semi-obsessive about the music of Scott Walker, and I didn't know this about him. Does it make a bit of difference? No. It seems silly that it would upset or bother people.

― Nicole, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to me. It's good to know people share the same view.

― vantasma, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For me, it just doesn't matter...

I hadn't heard that story about Scott Walker (which board was that on.. be interesting to read it..) but I wouldn't be suprised, he was friends with King in the 60's and there were all kind of rumours about him for years... Who gives a fuck, he made some of the best records of the late 60's...

Kitchens Of Distinction is one band of the last 10 years I really think would have been bigger had they been fronted by a straight man singing songs about girls.....

A love song is a song about love, whether for a boy or girl - it's something everyone in the world to relate to.....

― Baxter Wingnut, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't imagine myself being sung to. I identify with the singer's feelings. It doesn't matter what kind of love he or she feels offstage. I assume they're all hopelessly perverted.

― Curt, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm shocked. I'll never listen to "Tilt" the same way again.

― dan, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Never mind about what happens when it is revealed that an artist is gay - let's face it, Bowie was never the same after he went 'straight'.

― Darren, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Everytime I hear Erasures " A Little Respect" I dance, sing and jump around like im light in the loafers, I even have little "gay" hand movements I make like I'm singing to a crowd.

― The Guru, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Interesting topic. Begs another question altogether: Does an artist have a responsibility to be to true to his/her own sexuality if their music is almost entirely preoccupied with sex to begin with?

I'm not too interested in artists whose work is too subversive and/or slippery to discuss. I'm talking about artists who are quite clearly gay (say, oh I dunno, George Michael) and yet feel the need to make brash, expensive, cliched videos (*coughFreeekcough*) that essentially champion how impossibly, heterosexually, sex-godly they are?

Head-in-the-sand cop-out or necessary commercial self-preservation?

― Mark, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, but Judas Priest songs like "Jawbreaker", "Eat Me Alive", "Pain & Pleasure", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Hell Bent For Leather", "Sinner", "Grinder", "The Ripper", "Delivering The Goods", etc. etc. take on a STRANGE new meaning once you realise Rob Halford squats on knobs.

― Brave Ulysses, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think if I found out that Holly Near was straight, it would drastically alter my perception of her work, and would rightly cause many of her fans to feel a little worried.

― John Darnielle, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember a straight female friend of mine being disbelieving (almost angry) when she found out Ani DiFranco had married a guy, and especially when she realised that her favourite Ani album Dilate was about that guy. I guessed she'd come out within three months, but it only took seven weeks after that.

― Tim, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have always thought Scott Walker was gay, because his music sounds too camp to be a put on

― anthony, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Is this where I make some joke about what KD Lang has a "Constant Craving" for?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 16 May 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

KD Lang was never really in a closet. When she accepted her Juno in a wedding dress and proclaimed "This is probably the only time I'll get to wear this." it was a bit of a tipoff to something people already knew. Now when she came out as a veg that was a different story.

Im thinking of Ashley MacIssac as being a good example. Its part sexuality and part lifestyle that really threw off alot of people out east from his excellent playing. Combined with his big mouth it nearly sank him which would have been a shame.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 16 May 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

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