Rob Frydlewicz: Coming Out With the Help of The Village People, April 11, 1978

The late 70's were my formative coming-out years and one of the milestones was when I bought my first Village People album. And although I hadn't heard any of the tracks I bought it anyway. I did so because for weeks I noticed that their San Francisco/Hollywood medley had been high on Billboard's dance chart so I had a hunch I'd enjoy the music.

I was in my junior year at Penn State and I bought the LP at the record store in State College. The songs on this album, e.g. Fire Island and Key West, provided me with somewhat of an education about gay life. I'd get a frisson of excitement listening to lyrics that described decadent places I'd yet to experience.

Delighted with this first album I bought their new one, Macho Man two weeks later. The title track became the group's first charting song on Billboard's Hot 100.

Despite the fact that the Village People were embraced by gay men and their lyrics were full of gay double entendres, they managed to cross over to the general market, which seemed to get a kick out of the group's "camp pop".

The dorm complex I lived at in University Park was also where most members of the football team lived, and on a number of occasions some who lived on my floor asked to borrow these LPs for parties.

After their second album the Village People's next album, Go West, was released in the winter of 1979 and produced the ubiquitous YMCA, which spent 3 weeks at #2 in the winter of '79. The next single In the Navy went to #3 in the springtime. Rolling Stone Magazine even put them on its cover.

However, overexposure soon ensued and the group "jumped the shark" in 1980 with their embarassingly bad movie Can't Stop the Music. Still, I'll always have a warm spot in my heart for them.

For more like this, Rob also has a blog called ZeitGayst

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