The Gayest Record Ever Made

I think I've found the gayest record ever. And no it isn't "YMCA", because, well, it isn't really that gay, a bit of limp innuendo rather than a clenched fist in-your-end-oh. I thought I had quenched this query for good with "Munchausen" by No Bra. But then I found "Castro Boy" over at 20JazzFunkGreats.

"Castro Boy" is a truly remarkable track, a killer Italo-flecked HI-NRG floor shaker that screams shapes and sweat, mirrors and filth, intimacy and debauchery. It laid the blue-print for a decade of chart dominance by electronic dance music artists. It's arpeggiated synths and clever-clever dyanmics sound oh so contemporary.

And that's before the vocal kicks in, a "nelly" voice spewing laugh out loud, crude, vivid lyrics. But with time and hindsight it's the backing vocals that have taken the limelight. The chorus "He's a Castro boy and there is no cure" now holds a grim new significance since they were originally written in 1983. Castro Street was the centre of San Fransico's gay scene before the scene was ravaged by Aids in the mid 80s.

"Castro Boy" is a track that has a sense of time and place yet doesn't sound dated. It is danceable yet not funky. It is bloody funny yet incredibly sad.

"Castro Boy" is a true lost gem.


mp3---> Danny Boy & The Serious Gods - Castro Boy

mp3---> No Bra - Munchausen