Haggerty moved on with his life, marrying his boyfriend, raising a family and continuing to be politically active. “There was a little wound in my heart about the fact that Lavender Country was dead and wasn’t ever going to go anywhere and nobody was ever going to listen to it,” Haggerty said. But after a few years, the album and the group were mostly forgotten. It sold about 1,000 copies, Haggerty estimates, mostly by running ads in underground magazines, and he and his friends spent a couple of years doing Lavender Country shows in the area. The self-titled album “Lavender Country” had little initial impact outside of the Seattle gay community. “So we didn’t have any choice except to make it ourselves and the community of folks who were doing Stonewall rebellion stuff in Seattle.”
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But it was really too outlandish for any genre,” said Haggerty. “ ‘Lavender Country’ had no commercial value when we made it because it was too outlandish. The idea for a record was a collective one, with Haggerty joining up with his friends to write lyrics, play the instruments and collect money to book studio time. As a young man in the 1970s, Haggerty was heavily involved in radical gay rights activism, spurred by the Stonewall rebellion in New York City. Haggerty, now 78, grew up on a tenant dairy farm about 100 miles west of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, one of 10 children. Nearly 50 years later, Lavender Country is back with a sophomore record that connects today’s LGBTQ country musicians to historical roots in activism and social change.
![you tube gay bar song you tube gay bar song](https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/5XEEeLa-_SI/hqdefault.jpg)
Led by singer-songwriter Patrick Haggerty, the self-titled album was created by a collective of activists, singers and musicians with ribald songs focused on LGBTQ people, like “Back in the Closet Again” and “Come Out Singing,” as well as an explicit song bashing straight men that has since become a cult favorite. In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark that would nonetheless disappear for decades. There are bubbly pop songs about falling in love and heartbreak, as well as moody R&B and hip-hop songs that launched movements.NASHVILLE, Tenn. There might be some songs you don't know at the top of the list that nabbed that spot because the track's weight as an anthem was more powerful than streaming numbers. To define a gay anthem (and a great one at that), we took notice of a song's mainstream popularity, but also dissected each track's messaging, quality, queer factor, the icon or ally status of the artist, if the gays scream when the track comes on, and how much of a pop culture moment the track was. The 2010s are coming to an end, and music is gayer than it's ever been.
![you tube gay bar song you tube gay bar song](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yT3aWRmjNYs/hqdefault.jpg)
Gay anthems have evolved, though they still revolved around themes like celebrating your sexuality, unrequited love, overcoming hardship, and ultimately invoking a sense of community. Previously, pop divas have been ubiquitous with gay anthems, but for the first time this decade, we're finally seeing a push of actual LGBTQ artists in mainstream media.
![you tube gay bar song you tube gay bar song](https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/T7wXnfvFfF4/hqdefault.jpg)
Fast forward 20 years and we got songs like "Believe" by Cher or "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera to keep us inspired.Īnthems usually have a few defining qualities. Probably remixed over a trap beat, but nevertheless, they are still celebrated in our community. "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor or "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross are still played in gay clubs around the world. Your mind probably immediately goes to the classics.