Currently listening to...

...the historically important "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat, from their groundbreaking album "Age of Consent." It's fascinating sometimes what pops up on my playlist... this is a song I have not heard in a very long time (I guess my iTunes just passes on certain songs, playing them only once in a long while).

Released in 1984, "Smalltown Boy" became an anthem for LGBT rights during that time. It addresses issues of homophobia, societal and familial rejection, bullying, and physical and emotional abuse. Although I was not rejected by my own family, thankfully, I was the target of years of bullying and physical assaults, so this song occupied and still occupies a special place in my heart. I remember the first time I heard it: I was at the Greek Theater in Berkeley waiting for Simple Minds to perform. It really struck me, since I had never really heard a song about me or my own experiences. It was a powerful moment. Bronski Beat recognized me, and validated the pain and confusion.

Thematically, it reminds me so much of the song "Flawless (Go To The City)" by George Michael in which he urges gay men and women to get out of their small towns and go to the city where a better life awaits (previously here). Or at least a more tolerant life, one that is not filled with daily hatred and attacks. There is a very long history indeed of gay men and women leaving small towns and small-minded areas for metropolitan areas where they are accepted. Gay ghettoes arose in cities precisely because of their proximity to centers of culture, literature, and the arts. It's a sad, heartbreaking reality for many men and women but often one must leave one's place of creation because it has turned into a place of destruction. For one's own safety, both mentally and physically, sometimes the best option is to escape.

Musically, the song is from a 1980s genre known as "synthpop," a term meaning music that was created solely or primarily by synthesizers or electronic keyboards, which in turn grew out of a 1970s electronic sound from Europe and groups like Kraftwerk. Groups like Depeche Mode, A Flock of Seagulls, and The Human League were part of this 80s sound. But despite the fact that "disco" had died a painful death just a few years earlier, Bronski Beat combined the synthpop sound with serious dance beats and a male falsetto, which was a direct and deliberate tribute to gay disco acts singing in falsetto, particularly the legendary Sylvester.

The video for the song offers a tiny ray of hope in that it paints a picture not quite as bleak as the lyrics. Our narrator, lead singer Jimmy Sommerville, has friends (fellow band members Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek), and his mom is upset to see him leave home. At least that is more than what some terrified gay youth have when they are kicked out of their homes with nothing, thanks to fearful, ignorant, often self-righteous "Christian" families.

You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face

Mother will never understand
Why you had to leave
But the answers you seek
Will never be found at home
The love that you need
Will never be found at home

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Pushed around and kicked around
Always a lonely boy
You were the one
That they'd talk about around town
As they put you down

And as hard as they would try
They'd hurt to make you cry
But you never cried to them
Just to your soul
No you never cried to them
Just to your soul

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Cry, boy, cry...

You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face