Queering the Textures of Rock and Roll History
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: QUEERING THE TEXTURES OF ROCK AND ROLL HISTORY Vincent Lamar Stephens, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed by: Professor Nancy L. Struna, Department of American Studies My dissertation provides an alternative history to traditional rock histories by exploring how the experiences of several key gay, lesbian and bisexual musicians expose the restrictive sexual and gender economies of the rock era music industry. Industrial discrimination has led many queer performers to downplay their sexualities and simulate conformist gender behavior. Rock historians have consistently overlooked hierarchies of sexuality and gender which necessitates a corrective history. My study begins by challenging historical views of rock music as socially progressive and illuminating how the rock industry failed to correct pre-rock industry racial biases, which are evident in the economic exploitation of early African-American rock performers and the scarcity of African-Americans at the executive levels of rock production and distribution. Premature historical celebrations of racial progress have severely limited critical attention to more invisible forms of sexual and gender discrimination in the industry including homophobia and sexism. I also challenge the dominant historical argument of canonical rock histories that rock music’s corporate expansion fundamentally tainted the rock’s aesthetic quality and social importance during periods when the commercial and creative influence of queer and/or female performers and audiences gained centrality. Rock has maintained its vitality as more diverse performers and sensibilities have informed its cultural scope. My study describes the contributions of several queer performers to rock era music and illustrates how they have resisted sexual and gender invisibility through discernible strategies signifying sexual and/or gender differences. I employ gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, Christopher Nealon’s theory of pre-Stonewall gay and lesbian culture and Marlon Ross’ notion of the gay and lesbian crossover dynamic to trace the complex relationships between queer strategies of negotiation and the development of self- consciously queer identified community based in post-WWII era social and political movements. Overall, this dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach, including an analysis of canonical rock histories, supplemental histories of American popular music, queer social histories and popular press materials to address historic absences. QUEERING THE TEXTURES OF ROCK AND ROLL HISTORY by Vincent Lamar Stephens Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor Nancy L. Struna, Chair Professor John L. Caughey Professor William A. Cohen Professor Sherri L. Parks Professor Clyde A. Woods © Copyright by Vincent Lamar Stephens 2005 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my committee members whose support and direction have shaped the completion of this study. I am particularly grateful to my director Nancy Struna for her enthusiasm, consistency, sound advice and good humor. Your contributions have been indispensable. I want to acknowledge Bill Cohen for his intellectual thoroughness and professionalism. I would like to thank John Caughey and Sherri Parks for years of support and encouragement inside and outside of the classroom and Clyde Woods for supplying several useful resources for this study. I am thankful to Koritha Mitchell and Bruce Johansen who have been kind enough to share their research and exchange ideas with me during this process and have served as great dissertation study partners and friends. Special thanks to Carmen Gillespie who has served as an excellent outside advisor on this study, supported my scholarly development and been a great friend. I must recognize Christopher Nealon for kindly meeting with me to discuss my work and sharing his insights. I am grateful for good memories with my American Studies classmates especially Jane, Cheryl, Isa, and Raquel, my colleagues in Afro-American Studies, and my co-workers in the CMPS Dean’s Office. I also want to acknowledge some my closest friends for their support during the dissertation process including Susan Lombardi-Verticelli, Eric Nelson, Seth Peterson, Laurice Smith, Jennifer Weisman, Dawn Johnson, and Sherwynn Umali. Finally, I want to express my appreciation to my family, especially my parents Betty Brown and Ralph Stephens, for giving me the personal, intellectual and creative nourishment to cultivate my academic and extracurricular interests. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………ii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 PART I: Revisiting Rock History Chapter One As Read in Books—The Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rock and the Rest……………………61 Chapter Two Outing Rock History’s Racial and Sexual Closets…………………………………...125 Chapter Three Betrayed Authenticities from Schlock Rock to Disco………………………………...174 PART II: Historicizing Queer Musicians Chapter Four 1950s Queer Chameleons……………………………………………………………238 Chapter Five 1950s Queer Non-Conformists………………………………………………………287 Chapter Six Recovering Rock’s Invisible Queer Women………………………………………….331 Chapter Seven Integration, Exploitation and Separation in the 1970s………………………………377 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...417 Appendix A iv General Bibliography and Works Cited……………………………………………...448 1 Introduction On June 26, 2003 I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Within the stunning I. M. Pei designed waterfront building their is an odd tension between its functioning as a museum, aiming to capture compelling stories of one of the most influential cultural industries of the twentieth century. and suburban shopping mall-cum-tourist spectacle replete with grey bubble floors, floating oversized objects and a museum store where one could purchase CDs and museum magnets. Like rock ‘n’ roll itself the museum seemed caught in an attempt to convey heart, soul and guts but in forms that were palatable to ensure broad appeal and maximum profitability. These aims were not unusual but compromised the range of stories it could tell about the people and activities that shaped rock ‘n’ roll. The first official activity my fellow attendees and I experienced was a little film called Mystery Train, intended to show how rock ‘n’ roll was a synthesis of indigenous forms of American music—country blues, hillbilly music, and spirituals--and a liberator for the cultural underclass. Throughout the film segments were divided by footage of moving trains, presumably a metaphor for progress. The first segment showed still images of poor rural whites and blacks mixed with images cotton fields, chain gangs, and segregation era signs, and people dancing and playing music. The film progressed showing footage of country and bluesmen Hank Williams, Bob Wills & the Playboys, Jimmie Rodgers, Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Woody Guthrie, etc. The next segment continued and we saw swing era images of Louis Armstrong, the Savoy, the Cotton Club, Count Basie, people swing dancing with Louis Jordan singing. The concluding segment introduced us to rock ‘n’ roll via footage of Sun Records, footage of Elvis 2 Presley, color pastiches of teens dancing, Buddy Holly footage interspersed with rebel imagery of Marlon Brando from the Wild One, followed by rapid fire clips Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Jackie Wilson. Near the beginning of the film the narrator stated, “Imagine there was a time in America without rock ‘n’ roll . .” Then viewers saw stock 50s footage of white people buying products, with Doris Day’s “Que Sera Sera” playing in the background, followed by images of Dean Martin, an excerpt of Perry Como’s “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom),” a clip from TV’s Hit Parade spliced with people sitting at home and concluding with a white child being put to bed followed by the segments I’ve described. The film was slick and amusing in its suggestion that rock ‘n’ roll literally saved America from the cultural evils of Perry Como but ultimately I found the film naïve, off-putting and disingenuous. From this film you’d never know how Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” idolized Dean Martin.1 Nor would you imagine the “Queen of Soul”—Aretha Franklin--admired Doris Day enough to mention her in her autobiography. 2 Never mind Liberace’s impact on America’s biggest 70s rock star Elton John. More importantly one might think rock ‘n’ roll was the quintessential ticket for the liberation of the social and economic underclass. Guitars and dancing closed the 1 See p. 69, 123 in Miller, James. Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll: 1947-1977. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. 2 “Rosemary Clooney was cool and so was Doris Day. I always thought Doris was underrated as a vocalist,” p. 89-90 in Franklin, Aretha with David Ritz. Aretha: From These Roots. New York: Villard, 1999. 3 cultural gaps between the races and classes as opposed to say, increased access to education, progressive political movements, pivotal judicial decisions and legislative reform throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century. These details were a lot less interesting when you had more obvious enemies (Day, Como, Martin ) and heroes (Williams, Presley,