Talkin’ Music with Jack – 12/11/2013

Talkin’ Gay People, AIDS, and Rod Stewart

By Jack Coll

     The 25^th Anniversary of World AIDS Day was recently celebrated, (12-1-13) and the event was duly noted on the Sunday Morning Talkin’ Head Shows.  Bono of U2 fame was interviewed and if I heard him right he noted that more than 34 million people worldwide have lost their lives to this stinking virus since it was discovered some thirty plus years ago.  I had to think about that number for a minute, 34 million lives, and while we all believe that we are close to a cure, at least we have the medicine to fight it, and keep people alive now, and finally the drugs are cheap enough to help people in some of the poor countries who just ten years ago had no shot at living.  It’s refreshing to know that the music industry is totally involved in helping to bring an end to the AIDS virus.

     Like so many other Americans I don’t know much about the AIDS virus, I’ve been blessed that it has not affected my family, nor am I going to make a study out of it for the sake of this column.  It’s my understanding that the AIDS virus first showed up, or was brought to our attention when members of the gay community started reporting it.  Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when the word “AIDS” started to surface, to many the Gay community was to blame, how sad.  Before AIDS all the gay community had to fight was hatred, now a virus.

     In the 1970’s I was busy raising two kids, working all the overtime I could get pouring iron and aluminum at Hale Pumps Foundry once located on Washington Street in Conshohocken. Donna and I didn’t get out much but sometime in 1977 or 1978 a Rod Stewart ticket dropped on my lap and I was happy to go see him live at the Spectrum.  Donna wasn’t into Rod, so I went with a family friend to see him.  Rod Stewart was at the top of his game, he had songs out like “Tonight’s The Night,” “The first Cut is the Deepest,” “You’re In My Heart,” and “Hot Legs.”

     On the night of the show Rod the Mod was knocking it out of the park with a lot of my favorite songs, and then the lights went down, just a soft spot light was on the stage.  Rod walked over to this lamp-post that was lit up near the side of the stage, he took a seat on the stage floor, with his back leaning on the lamp-post, and began to sing a song that blew me away.

     The song was called “The Killing of Georgie,” a song about a gay man who was a friend of Rod’s.  For some reason, with the discussion of the 25^th Anniversary of World AIDS Day, and the statistic of 34 million AIDS victims dead, my mind flashed back, seeing Rod on stage, sitting against that lamp-post like it was yesterday, and remembering every word to the song “The Killing of Georgie.”

     It turns out the song is based on a true story, with a few of the facts slightly twisted for the sake of the songs balance.  For instance Georgie was killed in 1974, but in the song Rod sings 1975 for rhyming reasons only.  It’s important to remember as the song develops that this was written in the mid 1970’s, gay people were not accepted in the general population, but only accepted in small clubs in New York and perhaps in San Francisco.  As Rod Stewart tells it!

 

The Killing of Georgie

In these days of changing ways

So called liberated days

A story comes to mind of a friend of mine

 

Georgie boy was gay I guess

Nothin’ more or nothin’ less

The kindest guy I ever knew

 

His mother’s tears fell in vain

The afternoon George tried to explain

That he needed love like all the rest

 

Pa said there must be a mistake

How can my son not be straight

After all I’ve said and done for him

 

Leavin’ home on a greyhound bus

Cast out by the one he loves

A victim of these gay days it seems

 

Georgie went to New York town

Where he quickly settled down

And soon became the toast of the great white way

 

Accepted by Manhattan’s elite

In all the places that were chic

No party was complete without George

 

Along the boulevards he’d cruise

And all the old queens blew a fuse

Everybody loved Georgie boy

 

The last time I saw George alive

Was in the summer of seventy-five

He said he was in love I said I’m pleased

 

George attended the opening night

Of another Broadway hype

But split before the final curtain fell

 

Deciding to take a short cut home

Arm in arm they meant no wrong

A gentle breeze blew down Fifth Avenue

 

Out of a darkened side street came

A New Jersey gang with just one aim

To roll some innocent passer-by

There ensued a fearful fight

Screams rang out in the night

Georgie’s head hit a sidewalk cornerstone

 

A leather kid, a switchblade knife

He did not intend to take his life

He just pushed his luck a little too far that night

 

The sight of blood dispersed the gang

A crowd gathered, the police came

An ambulance screamed to halt on Fifty-third and Third

 

Georgie’s life ended there

But I ask who really cares

George once said to me and I quote

 

He said “Never wait or hesitate

Get in kid, before it’s too late

You may never get another chance

‘Cos youth’s a mask but it don’t last

Live it long and live it fast”

Georgie was a friend of mine

 

Yea, like it was yesterday.

 

Answer to Last Week’s Trivia

 

#1   Bruce Springsteen had at least 15 Top Ten Hits, (never a number one hit)  “Born To Run was not one of his top ten hits as it only reached number 23 on the Billboard Charts.

 

#2   The Soul Survivors had two chart hits in the late 1960’s, “Expressway,” (To Your Heart) and “Explosion” (In your Soul).

 

#3   While many fans believed that Harold Melvin was the lead singer for The Blue Notes, it was actually Teddy Pendergrass on lead for many of their hits.

 

This Week’s Trivia

#1   What Band did Rod Stewart play with before going solo?  Hint! It wasn’t Little Feat.

 #2   Maggie May reached Number One, Number 3, Or Number 5 on the billboard charts?

 #3   What song out of the following choices reached Number One on the Billboard Charts?

         “Some Guys Have All The Luck,” “Young Turks,” “You’re In My Heart,” or “Tonight’s The                    

        Night,” (Gonna Be Alright)

 Rod Stewart is playing tonight in Philadelphia if you are attending the show I’m sure you’ll  enjoy it. And maybe, just maybe he’ll perform the “Killing of Georgie.”

 See ya next week