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AIDS @ 30: Songs for Those We Lost
by David Byrne and Tracy Baim
2011-09-28

This article shared 9698 times since Wed Sep 28, 2011
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In the last 30 years, there have been many odes to loved ones lost to AIDS-related causes. Interviews, liner notes and introductions at live performances bring light to the artists' backstories on these tracks.

In a 2009 piece in OUT magazine, The Pet Shop Boys said "Being Boring" details the bond between vocalist Neil Tennant and his close childhood friend Chris Dowell. A trip down memory lane surveys decades on this beloved 1990 hit. Once the lyrics approach more modern times, Tennant hints to others he lost, "All the people I was kissing, some are here and some are missing in the 1990s." The black-and-white video, directed by Bruce Weber, depicts a lively party at a mansion attended by models.

"It Couldn't Happen Here" is drawn from a conversation Tennant and Dowell once had about the misconception that the AIDS epidemic would not reach England. Dowell lost his battle to the virus in 1989. The b-side "Your Funny Uncle" revisits Dowell's funeral and is inspired by the poem "Indoor Games near Newbury" by John Betjeman.

The Pet Shop Boys' experience with the virus is recounted further in "The Survivors" from 1996's Bilingual.

The Communards had popular remakes of disco classics "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Don't Leave Me This Way." Jimmy Somerville's group strikes a chord with the stirring piano-based number "For a Friend." Here, using his trademark falsetto, Somerville sings to his deceased friend, Mark Ashton, "All I want to do is kiss you once goodbye." The Mark Ashton Trust was founded to help those living with AIDS.

Ryan White was alienated from his school and Indiana community for being open about his HIV status. The brave boy became an activist and then found himself in the company of celebrities like Michael Jackson.

"Gone Too Soon" from The King of Pop's Dangerous opus is dedicated to White. The single was released on World AIDS Day in 1993. Its video has images of Jackson and White together, as well as headlines covering White's passing and AIDS-related statistics.

Sir Elton John keeps White's memory alive with "Last Song" from the 1992 album The One. During the emotional, final scene of And the Band Played On, "Last Song" is played as images of people who succumbed to AIDS and mourners are shown.

Elton John also was involved in perhaps the most well-known AIDS tribute song, "That's What Friends Are For." The credit was "Dionne Warwick and Fiends," and the friends were Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, singing the 1982 song by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager ( it had been recorded that year by Rod Stewart for the move Night Shift ) . The song was released early in the AIDS epidemic, in 1985, and raised funds for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The song raised $3 million and was released in both the U.S. and United Kingdom.

There were of course many musicians who died of AIDS-related complications, Among the most prominent were Freddie Mercury of Queen ( who died at age 45 in 1991 ) and the disco singer Sylvester ( he died at age 44 in 1988 ) . Flirtations musician and AIDS activist Michael Callen, whose "Living in Wartime" on the Purple Heart CD was an important AIDS anthem, died in 1993.

Ricky Wilson of the B-52's died at age 32 in 1985. German-born Klaus Nomi died bat age 39 in 1983. Cabaret and showtune star Peter Allen died at age 48 in 1992. Some reports have Liberace dying of an AIDS-related illness, at age 67 in 1987.

Former Styx musician Chuck Panozzo came out as a gay man living with HIV in the 1990s and has been a spokesperson about the disease ever since. Chicago musician Scott Free also has several songs about the epidemic, including "Placebo," "AIDS Dementia" and "Leather Ghosts." Drag group Kinsey Sicks feature the song "AZT" on their Dragapella! CD. Lee Lesick's song about AIDS, Jonathan Wesley Oliver Jr." is on his Lee Lessack CD. And popular 1980s gay music duo Romanovsky & Phillips also recorded songs related to AIDS, including "Living with AIDS" and "No False Hope."

Choral groups responded to the crisis with many concerts and benefit performances, and Turtle Creek Choral recorded "When We No Longer Touch" in 1990. The Chicago Gay Men's Chorus and Windy City Gay Chorus lost a large number of members to AIDS.

The world of musicals also included attempts to address AIDS, including the most popular one, Rent, which was also made into a movie.

Popstar Tiffany also dedicates the moving power ballad "Here in My Heart" to White and those serving in The Gulf War. The Diane Warren-penned tune did not impact the charts, but The Scorpions did a cover of "Here in My Heart" in 2000.

Boy George's critically acclaimed 1995 glam rock-themed album Cheapness And Beauty features "Il Adore," a heart-felt track about a friend on his deathbed in a hospital. The tempo picks up for the first time with strings and the hook "It's hard to imagine him as he used to be, laughing, screaming, tumbling queen, like the most amazing light show you've ever seen." In the video, the Culture Club front man flips through a photo album with pictures from his past, including one of the late performance artist Leigh Bowery. The Boy portrayed Bowery in the musical Taboo. Cheapness And Beauty coincided with O'Dowd's tell-all autobiography Take It Like a Man.

In the jacket to 1996's Older, George Michael dedicates the album to Antonio Carlos Jobim and Anselmo Feleppa. The set's lead single "Like Jesus to a Child" and the international hit "You Have Been Loved" are especially for Michael's lover Feleppa, who died of a brain hemorrhage due to complications from AIDS in 1993. This was a bold move, as Michael was not publicly out yet. Lyrically, "Jesus to a Child" could be interpreted as intended for a mentor.

During the height of her risqué phase, Madonna steps off the dancefloor on the somber "In This Life." This track stands out on 1992's Erotica and during the subsequent world tour The Girlie Show. Here, Madonna reflects on losing her friend Martin Burgoyne and her ballet instructor Christopher Flynn. She pleads, "We wait for this thing to go away … Someday I pray it will end, I hope it's in this life."

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony landed a massive hit in 1996 with "Tha Crossroads." This track mentions Eazy-E., in addition to deceased relatives of the group. The video shows a towering grim reaper in sunglasses collecting souls. He leads them atop of a mountain and the late N.W.A. rap icon's spirit nods as he follows.

Not all songs about those we lost are melancholy.

In 1998 Janet Jackson topped the charts with "Together Again," an upbeat ode to friends she lost to AIDS. Here, Jackson dreams about being reunited with them and finding solace that they are with her today in spirit, as she sings "Everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you are there, smilin' back at me. Dancin' in moonlight, I know you are free, 'cause I can see your star, shinin' down on me." "Together Again" since has been used to celebrate Michael Jackson's life.

Dance music singers Salt N Pepa recorded a song in 1992, "Let's Talk about AIDS," a reworking of the group's hit "Let's Talk about Sex."

"Streets of Philadelphia" is Bruce Springsteen's Oscar-winning song for the groundbreaking AIDS-related mainstream film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.

The "Boy Blue" video opens with Cyndi Lauper saying, "This next song is a very special song for me, because I wrote it for one of my best friends." Proceeds from "Boy Blue" benefitted New York City AIDS research and patient care. Although "Boy Blue" was written for her friend who was kicked out of his home and later lost his fight to AIDS, the album's title track "True Colors" outshined this minor hit and became an anthem for the LGBT community. "True Colors" is associated closely with the rainbow flag, as Lauper is known to drape one around her during live performances.

Some lesbian singers also dealt with the crisis through song, including Lynn Lavner, a frequent performer at gay bars and even International Mr. Leather, with her song "Such Fine Young Men" on her I'd Rather Be Cure CD.

In 2010, Lauper and Lady Gaga joined forces to raise HIV/AIDS awareness for women through MAC's VIVA Glam campaign.

The Red+Hot Organization has also produced some 20 albums and raised $10 million to efforts fighting AIDS. They have harnessed the talent of many top musicians and singers to record some wonderful music all while benefiting charities across the world. More than 400 artists have been involved in Red+Hot recordings since their founding in 1989. The first CD, Red Hot + Blue featured David Byrne, Annie Lennox, Tom Waits, U2 and Erasure.

The Queer Music Heritage website includes a section on music influenced by HIV/AIDS, including songs that deal with the epidemic: www.queermusicheritage.us/aids.html .

On that site, they say there have been 185 popular songs that address the AIDS epidemic, and in the classical area, they report on 32 instrumental pieces, 78 songs for solo voice ( 51 of them from The AIDS Quilt Songbook ) and 85 choral pieces ( 51 for men's chorus ) . They say there have been 26 musicals and seven operas on the subject.

The site, which documents the efforts of more than 300 composers, explains how they compiled the listing:

"Although AIDS surely affected an entire generation's experience of music, we tried to be strict in the creation of these lists. We included a work only if a composer or publisher indicated that the piece somehow was about AIDS, or if an original song appeared in the clear context of AIDS, such as Bruce Springsteen's 'Streets of Philadelphia.'

"We did not include works that simply had a dedication to someone who died of AIDS, pieces suggested as appropriate for AIDS memorials or events, or songs about the gay experience that did not at least allude to AIDS. After the list of popular songs, we do include a few recorded collections with original material, but we exclude AIDS fundraising discs and recordings of preexisting works that were performed in the context of AIDS, such as the Red+Hot series.

"Through our research into the music of composers who have died of AIDS, we came across a number of pieces whose connection to AIDS was implied and merited inclusion in these listings. For example, Ronald Roxbury's last completed work was a setting of Walt Whitman's 'Goodbye My Fancy.'

In all, the listings include music by 22 composers who died of AIDS and another eight who are public about living with HIV/AIDS.

"Like Roxbury, a number of other composers set the poetry of Whitman. There are nine settings of poetry by the late Paul Monette, who died of AIDS in 1995."

The website is an invaluable resource, acknowledging the many contributions of artists, both those lost to AIDS and those who have lost people to the disease.


This article shared 9698 times since Wed Sep 28, 2011
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