Strong Love: Songs Of Gay Liberation 1972-81 (Baby Pink Vinyl)

• Track Listing

On limited Baby Pink vinyl. Originally released on CD in 2012, Chapter's landmark compilation of 70s gay musical

pioneers gets a vinyl release for the first time ever - and on pink vinyl to boot!

Strong Love explores the first wave of openly gay songwriting, emerging

after New York's Stonewall Riots kickstarted the modern gay rights

movement in 1969. It took just a few years for the defiant chanting and

interlocked arms of early 70s pride marches to reverberate onto record,

and Strong Love begins with the earliest known example, 1972's A Gay Song

by London hippie collective Everyone Involved.

Across 15 tracks, the compilation takes in disarmingly personal folk,

uplifting soul, outsider country and dark synth-rock. But tellingly, none

of it's songs could be considered well-known. New York's Steven

Grossman released the first major label album by an openly gay artist in

1974, and Tom Robinson hit the UK Top 20 with the fiery Glad To Be Gay

in 1978, but these are the exceptions. The coy ambivalence of Lou Reed

and David Bowie was about as sexually adventurous as the 1970s music

industry got, and most Strong Love artists released their own self-funded

recordings in very limited numbers.

Unlike their lesbian counterparts, who joined forces to create long-lasting

record labels, strong distribution networks and considerable sales figures,

gay male musicians in the 1970s existed largely in solitary bubbles. Which

doesn't mean they didn't carve out niches of their own. Chris Robison

played with the New York Dolls and Elephant's Memory, while LA glam

seducer Smokey saw members of the Stooges and Quiet Riot pass

through his backing band. Steven Grossman was covered by Twiggy and

Scrumbly & Martin are infamous for their work with San Francisco drag

hippies the Cockettes.

Strong Love illustrate the vision, talent and raw courage that drove 1970s

songwriters to sacrifice popular careers for the sake of honesty and selfexpression. Compiled by Chapter Music's Guy Blackman, with an

evocative introduction from drummer Richard Dworkin (who played

with Blackberri and Buena Vista), the album is a powerful tribute to

pioneering artists whose music has been neglected for too long.

"Highly recommended" - Pitchfork

"A collection of protest songs worthy of the 'classic' moniker" - Beat Magazine