This is a very controversial video cause you are actually admitting, without any shame and in front of the whole world, that you owned a laser disc player.

As a gay guy who loves all music on Vinyl including Punk and Metal, this video was bloody awesome and hilarious! Cheers Robert, you are a legend! 🏳️‍🌈👍

Um…. I’m not offended by Dire Straits using the word, as Mark Knopfler has said since the day the song was released, that he directly quoted an employee of a department store who was making a comment to a coworker about a video they were watching on MTV. And I’m gay.

And its Pride month a year later! I've been watching your channel but I'm just seeing this for the first time! Thank you Robert! I haven't seen any other of the KZfaq VC, especially older ones, mention any of this! I am a 60-ish Gay record collector, rock and rollin', proggin' punk! I worked in record stores in the early 80's. You hit so many great songs and artists (Meg Christianson I saw live at the Santa Monica civic in 84!! I saw Sylvester there too! ) I still have quite a few of my original vinyl of them too. PS "Alpha Twinks"! LOL!! So spot on.

1) "Butch in the Streets (Femme in the Sheets)- Tribe 8 2) "I Kissed a Girl" - Jill Sobule 3) "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" - Magnetic Fields I love what you did with the Anita Bryant record. Since she's one of the 1st people to be publicly pied I continued the tradition in my "Sleazathon" video. Great minds. Happy Pride!

Robert, you are the best channel I’ve stumbled across on KZfaq in a long time. Being around your age and going to college in The Upper Midwest in the 80s, I appreciate your connoisseurship of the music of our times-plus I love vinyl. Thanks for this great video. I’m gonna enjoy your channel.

Alpha Twink is a good band name

The beauty of this video is that you don't have to do a new one each year. We can return to it like a holiday special.

The moment I saw the notification, I instantly began singing "run away, run away..." I think the term you were struggling to conjure was either "falsetto" or "castrato." I really like "Cry" from Jimmy Somerville's solo album Dare to Love. My husband is glad to see that my gaydar is improving. You being a childhood Kiss fan as I, the variety/quality of topics and knowing your music trivia got me watching and over time I started to wonder. Yours is a great list and I appreciate your mentioning the distinction between gay anthems that have no allusion to homosexuality and songs that have gay lyrics. I would like to mention: "In or Out" and "The Whole Night" - Ani DiFranco "King for a Day" and "Coming Clean" - Green Day "A Man Inside My Mouth" - The Cure I know you mentioned the Indigo Girls. As a gay man of the Deep South, I have to mention "Rural F----t" and "Let It Ring" from Amy Ray's solo album Prom. "Freewheel" - Team Dresch In "C'mon and Love Me" - Paul sings that "she's LOOKING every inch a lady..." - didn't say that "she" WAS a lady.... Last March I visited San Francisco for the first time and I blindly saw Perfume Genius at The Fillmore at the recommendation of friends. Their most recent release Set My Heart On Fire Immediately is a fantastic example of a current gay artist putting out strong material. "On the Floor" is great. JD Doyle is THE Queer Music Archivist. I was fortunate to have been interviewed by JD in between a couple of on air performances for his show Queer Voices on Houston's KPFT while on a little tour in 2012. His work is immense and if you'd like, check it out for yourself: queermusicheritage.com/ And finally, I do not mean to co-opt your video for self-promotion by any means - but this is on topic. "Legalize It" and "Gay" are a couple examples of "out" songs that I have written. However, it's "Funnel Cake and Lemonade" from my most recent release (which my husband helped me press on green wax) that I really hope you and your spouse will consider checking out: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m66eppBqybPDj2Q.html And HAPPY PRIDE!!! Thanks for all the great videos. I am going to make some VC vids of my own. Your channel is one of a few that have inspired me.

Smalltown Boy is perhaps THE song for demonstrating gay issues. As well as "Glad to be Gay" by Tom Robinson. Those two songs gave me the kick up the arse to have empathy for gay issues.

This was a fun one Robert!! Was hoping to see my personal favorite, Captain Sensible’s version of Jet Boy Jet Girl. Haha! Nice to see Halford get some props. Have a great weekend!! Cheers, Jon

Props to Rob Halford. "Leather Rebel" from Painkiller, and "Hard as Iron" from Ram it Down. One of the greatest voices in Metal

The guy you used for a kissing prop was hilarious!😂

That smash cut during the Queen tangent was editing comedy genius!

Excellent video, Robert. I’ve just read Rob Halford’s autobiography and it made me laugh when he explained the meaning of some of those old Priest songs. He had the leather look too but no one realised. Comedy. Oh, and Hot Space is one of my favourite Queen albums. Give it another listen 👍👍

The Smiths were overlooked. The Pet Shop Boys’ album Behaviour was very important to me when I was coming out in the late 80s. Glad you included them.

Been watching a lot of your videos lately cos by and large I think you're bang on (especially about the BS that exists) but the face lick, etc in this had me properly LMAO 🤣

Just found your channel, and I love your videos and your sense of humor. Awesome!

Awesome selections! Pansy Division also did "Smells Like Queer Spirit", which Nirvana gave their approval of.

There are a couple of people I'd like to mention. The first is Sylvester. When most people hear the name Sylvester they probably think of a cartoon cat. I'm old enough to remember when Pride Month was to raise awareness of the vulnerable lion population (bad dad joke?). Well, Sylvester the artist was a cool cat. He was one of the queens of disco, along with Donna Summer. I think his song "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" is worth a listen. The second name is Patrick Cowley. He collaborated with Sylvester on "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)." The song was originally a piano tune but Sylvester wanted a disco banger and brought Cowley on board to handle the synthesizers. A Hi-NRG disco anthem was born. The Dark Entries label has put out some great compilations of Cowley's music. When I opened the package (so to speak) for the albums School Daze and Muscle Up, gay porn spilled out onto the floor. Whether gay or straight porn, I am glad no one walked in on me at that moment. "No, it's not what it looks like! I bought this for the music!" Some of the music on the albums had been used in porn videos. Patrick died of AIDS back when it was known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency). He was 31. Sylvester died of AIDS in 1988. He was 41. Anita Bryant is still alive. Having grown up in Indiana in the 80s and 90s, I will say one thing missing from all the 80s' Stranger Things-fuelled nostalgia is the frequent use of gay slurs. Indiana was the home of Ryan White. It is also where Axl Rose came from. Those lyrics were not created in a vacuum. In my lifetime, I have seen people I know go from using gay slurs often, to saying they support civil unions but not marriage, to saying of course gay people should be able to marry, to saying being gay is no longer interesting now that it has been "Disneyfied." Lastly, if you are interested in a historical document of gay life during the 80s, I recommend you check out the 5ninthavenueproject here on KZfaq. It features the videos of pioneering vlogger Nelson Sullivan. He started the videos in '83 and made them up till his death from a heart attack in '89. He lived in a Manhattan that is much different from the one of today. Less Disneyfied? In the videos, you will see Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, RuPaul, Lady Bunny, and the murderer Michael Alig (also from Indiana). OK, I mentioned more than a couple of names. While writing this, Google suggested I correct my spelling of "Rupaul" to RuPaul. Times have changed. I was born the year Anita Bryant got pasted with a pastry. I don't know how much I've changed over the years, if I'm more open or close-minded than I used to be. I do know Anita Bryant like I need a pie in the face.

You have great sense of humor about music. Small Town Boy was my first thought, great song and album. Thank you for not going the easy route with those disco dance songs that do not represent gay life in a positive way. Lyrics matter. Looking forward to your next.

I looooove Bronski Beat --- and Smalltown Boy is fab! Walk on the Wild Side is legend! At about the 6:34 mark LMAO! 😂Hubby slammin the Beatles #Hurtful 😥Nicely done Robert - entertaining and informative. 👍🙂

You crack me up! Great video!

Another laugh-out-loud video, thank you. May want to check out another one by Dire Straits, "Les Boys". Also, the Kinks' "Prince Of The Punks", which I believe is about Tom Robinson.

That Real McCoy joke was very good. Good stuff, man.

Wow! You are kind of an animal, but hilarious! Hope you get more subscribers and amass the audience you deserve. The tone of this video was perfectly nuanced by the way...

Thank you for this. I did not know many of these and now Crusin the Streets is one of my favorite songs. Have been listening to it on repeat.

Love love love the Anita Bryant rant at the end! 😂

This was priceless - great vid : )

Orville Peck recently did a great cover of Small Town Boy. Worth checking out

In UGH! A Music War, "Glad To Be Gay" is performed live

And Elton has An American Trilogy from Songs From The West Coast about the murder of Mattew Shepard. Powerful, wonderful song.

Soooo funny! Who’s that poor guy at 6:30 😂😂😂??!!

I might know a few of those songs 😍 Great job guys !! 🏳️‍🌈

OMG, you make a great leather daddy! I did not expect this video from you, thank you!

It might be too dark but Elton John’s Someone Saved My Life Tonight is about him trying to commit suicide after he forced himself into a relationship with a woman he resented because he couldn’t love her

Nicely done. I especially liked the bits with the uncredited co-star. :) And yes, Judas Priest songs are so much more fun in hindsight. But the good thing about those songs is that they work either way. BTW, were these lyrics understood before Halford came out? I was too young and not into Priest at that time, so I don't know. Faith No More - Be Aggressive would be another good addition. Now I get your heated hatred for Dire Straits. I'm sure you already know this, but in a 1985 interview Knopfler explained that the lyrics are in the first person, but about someone else, an "ignoramus", as he put it. Still a bad idea, and ignorant, but I don't think those would be his choice of words if he were expressing himself.

Rolling Stones: C*cks*cker Blues Joe Jackson: Real Men Erasure: Almost every song in their catalog Pet Shop Boys: Go West

There’s a 1974 country album I listened to recently called Lavender Country where every single song is gay themed (some happy and loving, some political and angry.) It’s not famous, but I feel like more gays should know about it since it’s quite good. Also if 90s songs work, “When a Man Is in Love with a Man” by Of Montreal is pretty much the perfect indie pride theme. Also I knew all of the songs you mentioned, so I feel proud haha.

Great job Robert. I'm sixty so you touched on all the tracks I remember. Here's some songs you didn't have time to mention. On the fun, light side, Josie Cotton's Johnny Are You Queer?. The song still caused controversy and from the dark, obscure, punk side that should not be played at a pride festival, The Angry Samoans' Homosexual.

Only you Robert, only you. This is a fabulous post.

I may not be gay, but I did find this great song by Accept. “London Leatherboys”. That’s a bad ass song. I’ve been binge watching your videos. They’re great. Just subbed. I’m glad I found your channel.

I don't have a RuPaul 45, but i do have a Divine 12" picture disc!

You’re wonderfully hilarious and knowledgeable. I am impressed and appreciative.

Bananarama are another example, cheesy dance moves but you could always go to a club and see people doing the dance moves, to the video, culture club, jimmy sommerville, man to man, divine, so many out there, we all use to do the dance moves, which made it fun to go out on a saturday night, you could have a great time without the drugs and weed. sadly these days are gone

When we first saw a live stream of yours with a guy crossing behind you, a lot of us were wondering. Not sure if you picked it up in the livestream comments or not.

Here's one that's always troubled me, because I'm a huge fan, but the first line in King Crimson's "Great Deceiver" passes me off every time.

How about the Abba remake of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme by Erasure? There are other Erasure ones as well.

6.23 Omg the expression on that guys face? Priceless lmao

My mind was blown when I realized The Dead Kennedys version of I fought the Law (and I won) was about Dan White after listening to Jello talking about him on I blow minds for a living.

Elton John - All the Nasties, All the Young Girls Love Alice, Elton's Song, The Last Song, and American Triangle ( Matthew Sheppard).

You... could argue that "Money for Nothing" us a character song, given that it's some imagined blue-collar fridge installer grousing with envy about new wave pretty boys... but yeah they leave that verse off the radio edit for a reason. I don't think Knopfler has any other big red flags like that but that could be blissful ignorance. Anyway "Smalltown Boy" still crushes and the other guy recommending the Orville Peck cover is spot on.

you forgot Tell Me That You're Gay by Msongs which is on youtube in various mixes and in english and phonetic spanish! a true coming out story at work

All this time later, still watching this one at least once or twice a week. Just shows ya how great the subject matter is. 😉

Spot on with this list thank you love you

I try to snap any Anita Bryant albums I come across in half! One of the more fun gay albums in my collection is "What Makes a Man a Man" by Larry Paulette, from 1977

I like very much the first albums by Erasure. What is their best song in my opinion, hard to say? I think Imagination on the album The Innocents is a good candidate. But there are many others, especially on this 88 album. Catchy Erasure are defined as cheesy by many and it may be true. This is the proof that cheesy does not mean bad.

Where is, Baby’s On Fire, and I’ll come running, by Eno?

My favourite queer song will always be "A Thrill's A Thrill" by the very loud and proud Long John Baldry, written by trans woman Barbary Amesbury

THIS DOOR SWINGS BOTH WAYS HERMAN HERMITS

One of the Queen songs you didn’t mention is “Don’t Stop Me Know” which would seem to be a good addition to this list. A newer song is Take Me To Church by Hozier. The lyrics can be somewhat ambiguous and a main theme is religion’s homophobia, but the video leaves no doubt it is a song to know.

One you won't have in the US - The Rubettes' Under One Roof. They were a cheesy rock n roll band like Mud or Sha Na Na. BUT they did a track called UNDER ONE ROOF and I swear, most explicitly gay story on record. Puts Killing Of Georgie to shame. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/apt3iqyb25-dfZ8.html

The cool thing about Walk on the Wild Side is all the characters referred to in that song were real people. ROTFL for the Adam Lambert section. He was an American Idol winner or finalist, wasn't he? Elton John did a lot of work with Ryan White regarding AIDS. I still need to get some Judas Priest in my collection. Lorne Michaels was a bit of a douche. I am a Rocky Horror virgin, never saw it in a theater. Very cool you have that Pansy Division single. I do want to get some more of their albums. Another really disappointing lyric in a song that makes me cringe every time is the Pogues' song Fairytale of New York - completely unnecessary use of that slur in that song. I still listen to Dire Straits. But I can't listen to The Pogues. BTW, did you post this earlier then remove?

Oh, and half of Brett Anderson's lyrics for Suede (the...London Suede for their awful US name) are wonderfully gay. And he sexed it up in vids. To this day he says he's a bi-man who's married and faithful but never met the right man. Better than the gay-baiting of the Harry Styles types.

Great vid!

Robert!! you are the best :)

I think Adam Lambert should have done exactly that

Two I'd like to add: "Another Love" by Stories (1974) and "The Word Is Out" by Jermaine Stewart (1985).

Wait a minute Robert! Hot Space did give us Under Pressure!!! Love that song 🎵 RIP Freddy and David.

Robert,when you hold the CDs clóse to the camera It is out of the light

What about “Rough Boy” by ZZTossedsalad?

The 1978 Paul Thtanley of KITH solo album. What? You thought he was singing to or about women? Wake up, boiiiii!!!

The Kinks song, ‘Prince of the Punks’ is supposed to be about Tom Robinson. On the same Kinks album there is a song, ‘Mr. Big’ that is about John Lennon. Lol, the title track, ‘life on the road’? mentions gay relations

What about Gay Bar by Electric Six?

Did I miss High school confidential by rough trade?

Hey, I saw New Order in that pile! HAHAHA you did not make that joke with the 45s🤪🤪🤪

That was interesting! And funny!

It's bad and wrong to break records. But if you GOTTA break records, Anita Bryant is a good place to start... :)

A straight man showing he doesn't hate.

I never gave a shit about anyone's peferences. Pansy Division rocks plenty hard for anybody.

I'm surprised he didn't mention the Beatles version of " Boys".

Lou Reed for the win 🎸🎸🎸

"you keep all your money in a big brown bag inside a zoo - what a thing to do" -- now I get it

As early as 1979 we had Kate Bush singing "...he's too busy, hitting the vaseline...", in Wow. !!!! Needless to say, the BBC banned the video of this single, because she suggestively patted her bum while singing that line. :-) God, you gotta love her! Frankie Goes to Hollywood has got to be up there as well, though, especially with Relax. Isn't there some male to male groping in the video somewhere, in among the mayhem? I seem to remember that, though it may have been wishful thinking....

No “All The Girls Love Alice” by Elton John?

If I never have to play Dire Straits or "Sultans of Swing" again I'll be just fine. I've always thought they were assholes.

Anything by Judy garland and Liza minelli.

i got to mention a more recent song how about the Song "Pride" by Cher!? I like it!

Who’s blue shirt guy? Feels like i missed something.

RESPECT - BTW Beatles “You Got To Hide Your Love Away” thought to be about Epstein or even an Epstein/Lennon affair. Also checkout “Sexuality” by straight peoples poet the one and only Billy Bragg, the bard of Barking. Keep on walking the wild side

im not gay but lots of my favorite artists are ,erasure ,andy bell is amazing ...

great vid

Queen - Good old fashioned lover boy?? ? THE Queen Gay Anthem

You are a hoot!

God Is My Co-pilot songs are pretty lesbian. Their “Tight Like Fist” record cover would not make it at a Target. Their “Straight Not” record has better songs … if you like 90’s indie stuff. Spektrum’s “Fun at the Gymkahna Club” has some good songs. Definitely more put together than Co-Pilot. And there’s gotta be some Depeche Mode songs if I think hard enough. Thanks for the fun episode!

several songs. "Billy Don't Fall" by Terence Trent Darby is a warning to a gay friend of his to not fall in love with him ("I'm not that kind of guy"). "Being Boring" by the Pet Shop Boys is a sad commentary on AIDS (. "All the people I was kissing/Some are here and some are missing"). "Boy" by Book Of Love. "Age Of Consent" by New Order. 'Ain't Nobody Straight In L.A." by the Miracles. "Homosexuality" by Modern Rocketry. "I've Got AIDS" by Salt 'n' Pepa. 'We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" by Jermaine Stewart. "All The Girls Love Alice" by Elton John. "Jimmy's Got A Liitle Bit Of Bitch In Him" by Funkadelic. "MENERGY" by Patrick Cowley

Pink Triangle by Weezer? Does that count?

The most bittersweet, romantic (too bad it is not gay, if only a few words were changed..) I Think I'd Rather Be A Cowboy, John Denver. Village People original album is their most worthy to cite, especially as not so many are familiar with it. Must have album is Midnight Rhythm from 1978. From days of uplifting (non sexed and drugged out disco).

The great critic Harold Bloom once wrote that claims for a separate gay canon were equal parts humbuggery and bum buggery.

What about Divine?