Monday, February 13, 2012: Josie Cotton - Johnny Are You Queer

Magnet Magazine has a pretty good interview with Josie Cotton regarding the origins of this forever 80's classic (Valley Girl Soundtrack, anyone?)

But, her version breaks down like this.

From that interview: "Forged in the L.A. club scene’s punk-rock underground of the late ’70s, the origins of “Johnny, Are You Queer?” are murky at best. No one can seem to agree about the details, but here’s the story as I understand it. Punk band Fear was the first to perform a version of the song live. They made no mention of any Johnny character...

Enter Bobby and Larson Paine, two guys straight out of Philly—kind of cowboys, kind of marketing-genius types—who had discovered the Go-Go’s at their first gig at the Masque...the Paine brothers [rewrote the song and] had the Go-Go’s perform it in their live show. It became the band’s big song, erupting in total anarchy at the end of the night."

After the Paine Brothers and the Go-Go's parted ways, they were shopping around looking for a singer for "Johnny Are You Queer".

Josie Cotton: "I lobbied hard just to be able to sing on the publishing demo the Paines made for Warner Bros... I had to agree it would be a one-time thing because they were going to find the perfect girl later. Bobby finally told Larson to just let me sing it. It was only a demo. What harm could it do?

The L.A. press never quite forgave me for absconding with “Johnny, Are You Queer?” There was a common misconception that I had somehow stolen the song from the Go-Go’s. I didn’t. "

And thus a classic one-hit wonder was born.

Johnny Are You Queer is one of those great songs where so many different people can get such different responses. On top of the fervent socio-policital/religious/cultural lashings and backlashings upon release, now almost 30 years later* we can add nostalgia as a response as well. But in a good way.  This track manages to retain both its pop-punkish 80's vibe that so many try to copy but usually get totally wrong (think Fountains Of Wayne and you're very close) but also manages to be slightly off-kilter and up front enough to still generate a slightly uncomfortable undercurrent. You can dance to it, but you are still looking around just to make sure everyone else is dancing with you, and not staring at you with knives in their eyes and arms folded in rebuke.

The final word goes to Ms Cotton: "For the record, it was my supreme honor to be the girl who got to stick it in the eye of all the small-minded morons of the world. They owned the word “queer” back then. They kept it in the back of their pickups or in the locker room, to haul out when someone just didn’t look right. Where I grew up, if a guy looked the slightest bit interesting, he was often called a queer. Even if they didn’t say it out loud, there was this look they gave; you could see the pure hate in their eyes."

Here's to sticking it in the eye of all the small-minded morons of the world.

What a great way to start the week.

* HOLY VANISHING DECADES, BATMAN, 30 YEARS?  REALLY?