Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933
Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos, Fantasy, and the Performativity of Identities
Monica Bradley Escuela de Lenguas Modernas Universidad de Costa Rica
The emergence of desire, and hence our biological response, is thus bound up in our ability to fantasize, to inhabit an imagined scenario that, in turn, ‘produces what we understand as sexuality’ (Whitely 251).
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality” (Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”).
Abstract The following article explores different conceptions of fantasy and science fiction that characterized many popular music performances in the 1970’s predominantly in the genres of glam rock and funk. By focusing on a few artists that were at the peak of their music careers at this time, such as David Bowie, P-Funk, Queen, Labelle and others, it attempts to un-earth some historical conditions for women, queers, and people of color and reveal how these artists have attempted to escape and transform certain realities by transgressing the boundaries of real/fiction, masculinity/ femininity, race, sexuality, and the “alien”.
Key words: Glam rock, Funk, music, science fiction, queer, gender, race
Resumen El siguiente artículo explora las diferentes concepciones de fantasía y ciencia ficción que caracterizan muchas formas de actuación en la música popular de los años setentas, predominantemente en los géneros de glam rock y funk. Pondré especial atención en algunos artistas que estuvieron en el ápice de su carrera musical en este tiempo como David Bowie,
Recepción: 29-03-16 Aceptación: 12-12-16 388 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933
P-Funk, Queen, Labelle, y otros quienes intentaron traer a la realidad temas sobre condiciones históricas en mujeres, queers y personas de color . Asimismo, demostraré la forma en que estos artistas intentaron escapar y transformar ciertas realidades mediante la trasgresión de los límites entre realidad/ficción, masculinidad/feminidad, la raza, la sexualidad y el “alien”.
Palabras claves: Glam rock, Funk, música, ciencia ficción,queer , género, raza
he two quotes by Whitely bodies of discourse, and discourses of and Queen at the beginning bodies intersect to foreclose any easy Tof this article point to a distinction between actor and stage, fairly obvious connection between between sender/receiver, channel, fantasy, desire, and popular music. code, message, context” (2). Both listening to and performing In the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” music is, in part, a projection of our quoted at the beginning of this paper, fantasies and desire to create (or the line that immediately follows is: exist in) a world we do not quite “Open your eyes, look up to the skies and inhabit, yet these fantasies are also see.” It is this “looking up to the skies,” constructed by our social “realities”. not toward a god or a ‘heaven’ but As Butler explains, construction is towards the stars, the universe, and the “neither a subject nor its act, but a “alien” in popular music that interests process of reiteration by which both me. Therefore, this paper explores ‘subjects’ and ‘acts’ come to appear at different conceptions of fantasy and all” (Bodies 9). In effect, what fantasies science fiction that characterized many we are afforded and what personas popular music performances in the we are able to perform and ‘absorb’ 1970’s predominantly in the genres of into our identities are set into action glam rock and funk (although many of (and limited) by the social conditions these performers queer the boundaries of a particular time and place, yet of the genres). By specifically focusing these performances also (often quite on a few artists that were at the peak of skillfully) put into affect future social their music careers at this time, such as “realities”. So considering that certain David Bowie, P-Funk, Queen, Labelle genders, sexualities, and races have and others, this article attempts to been figured outside of the realm of the un-earth some historical conditions ‘human’ in Western history, this paper for women, queers, and people of color questions how various Glam Rock and and reveal how these artists have Funk performers in the 1970’s have attempted to escape and transform subverted these claims and created an certain realities by transgressing the alternate reality where they can forge boundaries of real/fiction, time and a unique existence through fantasy space, masculinity/femininity, race, and performance. As Halberstam and sexuality, and the “alien” as well as Livingston write, “Posthuman bodies the limitations of their performances. are not slaves to masterdiscourses Like Whitely, “I have chosen to focus but emerge at nodes where bodies, primarily on the 1970’s—a period BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 389 when fantasy was arguably preferable Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh to the continuing problems associated Bulsara on the African Island of with gay identity within the real and Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) of unforgiving world of popular music,” Indian Parsi heritage, and went to but I also want to explore how fantasy boarding school in India, where he and science fiction became a more started going by Freddie (Davis 1). viable ‘reality’ for multiple subject After he finished school, he returned to formations in popular music and put Zanzibar, but did not stay long before future relations into effect (260). he and his family moved to England Considering the racism, sexism, during the Zanzibar revolution. In homophobia, the Vietnam War, Wa- England, Mercury started the band tergate, Cold War politics, Nixon, anti- Queen and legally changed his name colonial struggles, the assassination of to Freddie Mercury (2). According to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm some of Mercury’s friends, changing X, the intensification of capitalism as his name also signaled a moving away well as the emergence of Star Trek and from his former identity. As quoted to the “success” Space Program in gen- David Bret, “[Farrokh] Bulsara was a eral, we can see how certain artists name he had buried. He never wanted who were marginalized in regards to to talk about any period in his life gender, race and/or sexuality or simply before he became Freddie Mercury, rejected the values of the white hetero- and everything about Freddie Mercury sexual suburbia might look to space, was a self-constructed thing” (Bret not as more territory to colonize, but as 20). His family suggested that by not a place not yet colonized, and a place highlighting his Parsi heritage, he was that can be utilized in the subversion sheltering himself from the racism of an oppressive society. As Whitely against British Asians (Taraporevala writes, “Popular music provides a spe- 172). Yet it wasn’t just Mercury’s cific insight into the ways in which Parsi heritage that he did not embrace fantasy…can signal both what is de- publicly in his identity, he also was not nied and what we would like to experi- open about his sexuality for many years ence. Likewise, fantasy, as is a setting and did not disclose his HIV status for desire, provides a particular space until right before he died. Obviously, for the performer herself, allowing ac- this is due to homophobia as well as the cess to otherwise prohibited thoughts intense fear by a mainstream public and acts via subversion of performance and many rock fans of HIV positive codes associated with particular music or people with AIDS. Even though genres” (251). So when we apply this the early 70’s was characterized by understanding of fantasy and desire to more acceptance of gay and lesbian artists such as Freddie Mercury from identities (after the Stonewall Queen, who gained popularity towards Riots, England’s decriminalization the end of glam rock, we see the emer- of homosexual acts, the Sexual gence of stage personas that are creat- Revolution, as well as the gender ed directly from lived reality, but also fluidity that characterized glam rock), function as an attempt to escape and there was also considerable backlash subvert certain realities. towards these accomplishments and 390 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 many people still voiced their overt rejection of some of the sacrifices that hatred of gay and lesbian individuals have been (often forcibly and violently) and communities. Furthermore, made to keep humanity ‘human’ for a when AIDS was first discovered, it select few. was (and is) characterized as a gay So to exist as a ‘human’ or even disease and god’s way punishing the ‘super-human’ performer, oftentimes queers. As Whitely points out, “While one must allude and leave the fantasy Queen’s popularity can be related to intact and the mask in place, as Queen the ascendancy of glam and glitter in reveals in their 1991 hit “Innuendo”: the early to mid-1970’s, it is apparent that the flirtation with androgyny and While we live according to race, colour sexuality that characterized many of or creed, While we rule by blind mad- its prominent performers…was not ness and pure greed, Our lives dictated accompanied by an acceptance of gay by tradition, superstition, false reli- sexuality by the general public” (253). gion…Through the sorrow all through With so many barriers threatening our splendour, Don’t take offence at to hurt his musical career and personal my innuendo. You can be anything you life, it is not hard to understand why want to be. Just turn yourself into an- he would create an alter-ego identity ything you think that you could ever be. that subverts these systems (while maintaining his commercial success This song signals a rejection of some and sanity). After all, many queer of the ‘traditions’ of rock and society, people and people of color have done/ while also affirming the creativity that do this all the time: pass as white to rock music makes space for. In the avoid discrimination and hate, pass music video, different masks appear as straight to keep one’s job and and disappear on the screen, both safety. They often do while making pointing to the identities Mercury and changes from the inside and waiting the other musicians in Queen have had for the right moment when they have to put on to maintain their success as the power to affect a greater change. well as the masks that their fans must We are constantly sacrificing parts wear to exist legibly in this world. “In of ourselves to exist as intelligible effect, its operatic camp revealed the subjects in this world. As Halberstam ‘queer’ imaginary that underpinned writes, “Liminal subjects—those Queen’s musical output, the ‘innuendo’ that are excluded from ‘the norms that was not fully acknowledged until that govern the recognizability of the 1991 when Mercury confirmed publicly human’—are sacrificed to maintain the that he had AIDS” (Whitely 254). In coherence within the category of the this moment, Mercury truly had the human, and for them style is both the influence to make a difference for people sign of their exclusion and the mode by all over this world with AIDS. Through which they survive nonetheless” (Smell “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Innunendo” 4). The style of many of these creative and their other songs (some of which personas or alter-egos in glam and are ironically still played in sports funk are a performative affirmation stadiums globally), Queen revealed of a post-human identity: a subversive how tenuous a time the 1970’s through BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 391 the 90’s were for queer people, while ethos and therefore falls on the post- simultaneously “challenging social, countercultural side of the divide” cultural, and musical structures in (131). Furthermore, many of Bowie’s [their] invocation of gay male desire” songs are “about a desire for escape (254). Thus, while the camp theatrics of transcendence that seems unlikely of Queen obviously opposed “vigorous to be fulfilled” and a direct rejection heterosexuality of traditional rock” of this utopian ideal (130). While the and the (presumed) heterosexuality article mostly focuses on Bowie’s album of male sporting events (highlighting The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust the homoeroticism of both), they and The Spiders from Mars, perhaps were also constructed through these Bowie’s 1969 hit “Space Oddity” serves traditions (251). The ‘tradition’ in rock as a prequel to this performative that I want to focus more directly on identity and reveals some of Bowie’s now is glam rock and particularly first inclinations for exploring an alien the influence of David Bowie and his alter-ego. This song traces a manned alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, a sexually space mission, led by Major Tom, and fluid space alien, who took turning was influenced by the movie 2001: A himself “into anything [he] thought Space Odyssey by Staneley Kubrick [he] could ever be” to new extremes in as well as various space missions by popular music. To many Bowie was the Soviet Union and U.S. In Bowie’s the personification of human alterity, song, Major Tom is stranded in space, science fiction, and the rejection of the telling his wife that he loves her, while call for “naturalism” that characterized back home they “want to know who’s much the hippie counter-culture of the shirt [he] wear[s],” which lends itself 1960’s. As Auslander wrote, “ Bowie to a critique of consumerism and its borrowed a set of tropes associated impact on the (U.S.) space program with outer space from psychedelic rock that perhaps falls more closely to the only to put them to a very different hippies critique of technology than ideological use” (107). his later songs. Furthermore, Bowie’s In the counter-culture of the 60’s, 1972 hit “Ashes to Ashes” is a sequel space travel often carried overtones to this earlier song about Major Tom, of LSD “trips” and other psychedelic but rather than following the same drugs, and “aliens” were often figured space narrative, tells of his addiction as “benign” beings that would help and attempt to get clean, presumably bring out a utopian world that already from heroin, reinforcing the connection existed on another planet. Yet while between space travel and drugs and many hippies hoped for a utopian adding a dystopic view to both. world in space, they also had many Perhaps my interest in the space “reservations about technology and program’s affect on popular music the military-industrial complex,” comes from growing up in Cape and both are taken on and critiqued Canaveral, Florida, where I remember by Ziggy Stardust, who was moving seeing the (predominantly white and away from many of these values (127- middle-class) tourists flock to see the 8). Thus, “Ziggy Stardust…implies a shuttle launch. Many of the stores rejection of values central to the hippie and restaurants have space travel 392 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 themes, like a sandwich shop that has and rock music in general is: “I’m not every picture of the U.S. astronaut the man they think I am at home, Oh no crews hanging on the walls. Seeing no no I’m a rocket man.” “Rocket Man” these images continually growing up, can easily be read as representing Elton I could not help but notice a similarity John himself since rock stars were between the astronauts: almost all of idealized in similar ways as astronauts them were white and male, with an and were also held to super-human occasional token women or person of standards. If this is so, Elton John is color. These images clearly show who certainly not the only ‘star’ looking to was supposed to explore and benefit the stars; on The Rise and Fall album from the U.S. space program, and Bowie released the song “Star,” which women, queers and people of color included lyrics like: “I could make a were not included. After all, NASA transformation as a rock & roll star. public relations worked very hard to So inviting - so enticing to play the keep the image of astronauts as the part…I’m so wiped out with things as ‘ideal’ human, or “clean-living, healthy they are.” Yet while Bowie’s character examples of American manhood” (hence of Ziggy Stardust looks at stardom as white, married, and middle-class), and a libratory place, Elton John’s “Rocket the first woman or African-American Man” seems to be longing for a more astronaut did not fly until 1983, and “traditional” life, as he writes: “I miss to date there has never been an openly the earth so much, I miss my wife.” queer astronaut (Trux 33). Yet despite So while Rocket Man and Major Tom the marginalization of many people by seem to reinforce an idealization of the space program, many of the white astronauts as “family men” making middle-class kids of the counter-culture tough sacrifices for the country, in were impressed by the “success” of “Ashes to Ashes”, Bowie’s Major Tom the first man on the moon in 1969. can be figured as a rejection of a “Not only was the counter-cultural certain types of normalization. Bowie infatuation with astrology given a sings, “Do you remember a guy that’s strong, television-validated antidote been in such an early song…Ashes to of applied astronomy, but billions of ashes, funk to funky, we know Major kids who had not signed up for either Tom’s a junky.” However, despite the belief system were totally convinced,” possible subversive reading’s of Elton and David Bowie and other glam John’s and Bowie’s songs, it’s clear that rockers such as Elton John picked up “Rocket Man” and Major Tom, like the on this enthusiasm, while also offering actual astronauts, did not represent a critique of it through their music the majority of the public, so it is it is (Eniss in Auslander 130). easy to understand why, in the same In 1972, Elton John released the year, Gil Scott-Heron expressed his popular hit “Rocket Man” that fit anger at “Whitey on the Moon” and the with the idealization of white male billions of tax dollars spent on space astronauts by a mainstream public. travel that doesn’t include people of Perhaps the one line of the song color, while so many are suffering on that lends itself to a critique of the this earth. He writes: heteronormativiy of the Space Program BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 393
The man just upped my rent last night 70’s, and put less emphasis on peace cuz Whitey’s on the moon. No hot and love (not that he opposed these water, no toilets, no lights but Whitey’s things) and more on (gender, sexual, on the moon…Y’ know, I jus’ ‘bout had and stylistic) rebellion. my fill of Whitey on the moon, I think One way that Bowie came to cause I’ll send these doctor bills, Airmail trouble is through the open bisexuality special, to Whitey on the moon. and gender fluidity that Ziggy Stardust represented and performed, which So when George Clinton and became an integral part of Bowie’s alter- P-Funk take off for their “Earth Tour,” ego. As Auslander quotes, “Bowie’s calling for the “the Mothership” to alien persona was emblematic of his “swing down,” interesting subversions bi-sexual alienation from heterosexual of the white space program happen male-dominated world of rock music” through a phantasmal inclusion of (McLeod in Auslander 132). So when people of color in a funky alterity of Bowie said in an interview, “I’m Gay… space and science fiction. and always have been,” he transformed While Bowie does reference actual and destabilized the masculine rock astronauts, he mostly focuses on a star identity by bringing attention to phantasmal alterity of space travel the performative aspects of masculine as well (queers and drug users aren’t rock performances, which he probably allowed in space either, at least not by could not have gotten away with had NASA). Perhaps this is what Bowie he not been “intentionally” performing refers to when he calls himself “the an “alien” character himself (Watts space invader” in “Moonage Daydream”: in Auslander 134). As Butler writes, I’m the space invader, I’ll be a rock ‘n’ “the site of a transvestite on stage rollin’ bitch for you… Put your ray gun can compel pleasure and applause, to my head... Freak out in a moonage while the site of the same transvestite daydream. Oh yeah!” This song on the seat next to us on the bus can obviously refers to the counterculture’s compel fear, rage, even violence” use of space travel as drug use, even (“Phenomenology” 398). So likewise, as though Bowie is also moving away Glam rock fan, we might realize that from their call for “naturalness”. Far all gender is performative through from being utopic, Bowie’s reference theatrical performances like Bowie’s, to alien creatures is meant to threaten but we can also remind ourselves that mainstream culture’s fear of difference “‘this is just an act,’ and de-realize and deviance, through songs like the act, make acting into something “Starman”: Here’s a starman waiting quite distinct from what is real… in the sky. He’d like to come and meet Because of this distinction, one can us But he thinks he’d blow our minds… maintain one’s sense of reality in the He’s told us not to blow it, Cause he face of this temporary challenge” (398). knows it’s all worthwhile…Don’t tell Yet within glam rock, many fans and your poppa or he’ll get us locked up performers (including Bowie) absorb in fright. So it seems Ziggy Stardust, this gender-bending performance into like the Starman, came down to stir their identities, and this performance (fantastic) trouble for the youth in the (like all gender performances) becomes 394 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 stable through repetition. Thus, this Yet Ziggy Stardust was retired after androgynous theatricality ceases about a year, as Bowie sings in “Ziggy to be solely performance, but also Stardust”: “He took it all too far but boy becomes a more ‘naturalized’ form could he play guitar, Making love with of performativity, and the ‘fantasy’ his ego Ziggy sucked up into his mind” becomes more “real”. As Auslander and did not appear on stage again, but writes, “If Bowie’s public performances still performs through his influence on of bisexuality can be said to have other artists and the references made emphasized the socially constructed about him, such as Saul Williams status of gay sexual identities, then recent album, “The Inevitable Rise and his framing of rock heterosexuality Liberation of Niggy Tardust,” who also through that identity reveals the extent credits George Clinton’s alter-ego of to which rock’s normative sexuality is Starchild for his inspiration. also constructed through and by the Even though glam rock was very music itself” (138). subversive in regards to sexuality With this understanding of and gender norms in rock music, one performativity and its relation to rock cannot fail to notice that glam rock music, we can read the prohibition is predominantly white and male. It of certain sexualities in rock that seems that Bowie himself references underlies the theatricality of “gender- this after he retires Ziggy and turns fuck” on stage. Bowie gives us a himself into the Thin White Duke. Yet glimpse of this in his song “Lady when we look more at Clinton’s alter-ego Stardust,” which refers to Marc Bolan of Starchild and Dr. Funkenstein, some (often thought of as the founder of interesting differences and similarities glam rock): “I smiled sadly for a love I that emerge in the early 70’s since both could not obey, Lady stardust sang his funk and glam rock came from similar songs of darkness and dismay.” Lou influences such as psychedelic rock Reed, another glam rock artist along and certainly influenced each other. with Bowie and Bolan, also created Furthermore, both glam and funk an alter-ego identity, “the Phantom greatly impacted notions of hybridity, of Rock” that allowed him to be much authenticity, theatricality, the focus on more playful with his sexuality as well visual elements of costume and stage through acts like kissing Bowie on the design, the subversion of mainstream lips with “studied deliberation” at a values, and the “alien” in music and press conference (Bockris in Auslander culture. As Halberstam and Livingston 134). As Halberstam writes, “Queer remark, “The human wanders, lost, uses of time and space develop in into a maze of sex changes, wardrobe opposition to the institutions of family, changes, make-overs, and cover heterosexuality, and reproduction, versions that imbricate human reality and queer subcultures develop into post-modern realness” (7). While as alternatives to kin-ship based the one book on funk that I could find notions of community,” and glam rock defines the music/movement as “a certainly became a queer popular natural release of the essence within,” culture/ subculture community and an there are certainly many layers and alternative form of kinship (Smell 3). different histories and influences on BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 395 funk that I will not be able to do justice ways of walking, standing and to in this paper (Vincent 3). Vincent talking, and a means of constituting writes that “funk is at the extremes and sustaining camaraderie and of everything,” and there seems to be community (26). some truth to this statement when we look at the amazing blending While Vincent attempts to and juxtaposition of different styles describe funk as anti-integrationist and traditions of music, beats and and an “essential” and “pure” type rhythms, cultural tropes and cosmic of music with strong roots in “the imageries (3). As Harris writes, “Funk African tradition” (unlike disco, which is a style of music in which elements according to the author “denigrated” of jazz, pop rock, gospel and the Blues and “feminized” black popular music are fused to create a rhythmic, soulful “into senseless…dance drivel”), I think sound. Funk thrives on rhythm, and funk music is more complex and less the art of it depends on the level of linear than this author implies (154). togetherness between the performers” And while Auslander did neglect a (in Vincent 15). While funk developed through analysis of race in glam rock, as “a deliberate reaction to—and Vincent did not just fail to look at rejection of—the traditional Western gender and heteronormativity in Funk world’s predilection for formality, music, but actually promoted sexism pretense, and self-repression,” it was (and heteronormativity) through also about performing a different quick dismissals of women artists and form of black identity that moves charges of sexism against some aspects away from the values of the black of funk music. He writes, referring to church and the counter-culture, the late 70’s, “What was really needed while still appropriating aspects of at the time was funk radio, a format both, as well as African rhythms, of black music with masculinity beats and religious cosmologies and and consciousness that affirmed the redefining science fiction to form an values of the black community. What “aesthetic of deliberate confusion” (5, happened was disco radio, the death of 4). Funk combines all of these different rhythm and blues,” while dismissing ‘traditions’ “so that everyone on this the Village People as “a gay macho earth and beyond can groove together… spoof” and other important disco divas and [bring] the energies of the life force as the “deluge of disco bimbos” (210, into the present” (264). As Stuart Hall 209,193). He continually invokes “the remarks about bodily stylization: black community,” which, for him, is almost always male and heterosexual. Selective appropriation, incorporation, Furthermore, he uses parts of the and rearticulation of European lyrics of some rather sexist songs, yet ideologies, cultures, and institutions, fails to mention or critique them and alongside the African heritage…led even says that they are not sexist. He to linguistic innovations in rhetorical writes, “P-Funk ideals incorporate, stylization of the body, forms of and celebrate, the intensity of the occupying an alien social space, sexual drive, and the absurd realties heightened expressions, hairstyles, of sexual attractions…while affirming 396 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 the humanity of women in the process,” This was really disappointing because yet makes no critique of songs such as funk made some amazing innovations “Handcuffs” that have lyrics like “If I to current notions of performativity have to keep you barefoot and pregnant, and theatricality in music that needs a oh, to keep you here in my world. (Lay more thorough exploration. down, girl) Lay down and take off-a Despite the failings of Vincent’s your shoes cause I’m a-gonna do to book on funk, he does a great job at you what it is I got to do” (Parliament) explaining the historical moment and the song “No Head, No Backstage for a black underclass (even if it was Pass” (Funkadelic) as well as some male) that led to the development of pretty sexist cartoons on their album the funk. Two of the greatest heroes covers (262). in the civil rights movement and the However, this is not to say that black power movement had just been funk music was sexist, and glam rock assassinated, the Black Panthers were was not; after all, while perhaps Bowie labeled as the number one threat to had less overtly sexist lyrics, there U.S. security, and while the conditions was certainly an almost calculated for black inner city children (and exclusion of women (with the exception adults) were deplorable, there was also of Suzi Quatro, who fell toward the end strong rhetoric of black pride and a of glam rock), even more so than in feeling like complete revolution could Funk which had a few token women still happen, offering hope to younger throughout. “For all of glam rock’s generations of black children. In 1968, play with unconventional gender James Brown released his powerful and performances, virtually all glam rock critical song, “Say it Loud, I’m Black performers and producers were male. and I’m Proud” that revolutionalized In these respects, glam rock was funk (and all) music. Brown affirmed: entirely in line with the conventions “Never before had black popular music of rock music as a traditionally male- explicitly reflected the bitterness of dominated form” (195). Furthermore, blacks towards the white man—and while funk was certainly androcentric, here it was done in ferocious funk” much in line with the black nationalism (78). Then in 1969, Sly and the Family of the day, much of glam’s success is Stone released their instrumental owed to women, but is rarely credited: song, “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey,” “there is no question but that June and both of these songs reflected a Bolan and Angela Bowie were crucial historical moment in the U.S. when in the development of their respective blacks felt they could actually tell white husbands’ innovation—each served people how they felt about the racism as a combined muse, social secretary, that permeates so much of American manager, and stylist (196). Perhaps my culture. Through black power, black anger at this particular androcentric nationalism and black pride rhetoric and essentialist book on funk is that it such as “Black is beautiful,” “Black is the only academic book that I could quickly become a word praise, a find on funk, while there were a few superlative, an icon” in the late 60’s, good books on glam rock to choose from and it opposed and enormously retired (which has everything to do with race). the use of the out-dated word “negro,” BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 397 that was created by white oppressors They still call it the White House, but (55). Likewise, the word Funk, which that’s a temporary condition, too… is associated with a state of depression Hey, uh, we didn’t get our forty acres and/or a foul smell, was also professed and a mule, but we did get you, CC, as a word of celebration, often carrying heh, yeah…And don’t be surprised if sexual connotations. Hence, “Even Ali is in the White House, Reverend the negative, offensive terms funk Ike, Secretary of the Treasure, Richard and funky were being reclaimed as Pryor, Minister of Education, Stevie something worthwhile, if only because— Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts, and or especially because—of their centrality Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady. to the black experience” (56). Thus, as Stuart Hall wrote, In this song, they invoke the “[Popular culture] is a theater of (unfulfilled) promises made during the popular desires, a theatre of popular civil war along with current conditions fantasies. It is where we discover for the people in the city (which they and play with the identifications of note is 80% black and suggest that these ourselves, where we are imagined, bodies contain power in themselves). where we are represented, not only to Yet one cannot help but notice that all the audiences out there who do not get of the “theoretical” people in positions the message, but to ourselves for the of power in the “Chocolate” House are first time,” and in the late 60’s and male except for Aretha Franklin, the early 70’s, this self-representation first lady, which hardly disturbs the and stylization was happening on a gender status quo. As Butler writes, revolutionary scale in black popular “This style is never fully self-styled, for culture and having a revolutionary styles have a history, and that history effect on U.S. culture (32). Perhaps the conditions and limits possibilities,” stylizations of hybridity and cultural and it seems that sexism was a limit subversions of funk (as well as glam not quite overcome in most music and rock) emerged from the civil rights much of the black power movements movement and became the political of the early 70’s (likewise racism performance of “othered” identities wasn’t quite overcome in the feminist that it did in order to bring attention movements of the 70’s) (Performative to the political nature of bodies and 273). So with the particular cultural styles. To quote Hall again, “Think significance that the body has had of how these cultures have used the for so many people who have been body—as if it was, and it often was, the defined, limited and enslaved through only cultural capital we had. We have it, it is no surprise that “style—which worked on ourselves as the canvasses mainstream cultural critics often of representation” (27). It seems that believe to be mere husk, the wrapping, Parliament did exactly this in their the sugar coating on the pill—has invocation of Washington D.C. as the become itself the subject of what is “Chocolate City” in their 1975 hit. going on” (Hall 27). They sing: One way that P-Funk (the combi- nation of Parliament and Funkadelic) created a subversive stylization of the 398 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 body is by taking tropes from science incorporations in a modern world. As fiction and centering it around the Vincent puts it, “Clinton’s use of op- lives of black people. After all, while eratic vocals and church-based funk Star Trek was breaking some ground chants were common, but they become having an inter-racial cast and cast- subversive when the lyrics reprised ing Lt. Uhura with a position on the well-known themes in black religion, bridge, her role was also minimal (but while affirming present-day circum- important enough to have Dr. Martin stances of blacks” (254). Luther King Jr. convince her to stay to Perhaps one of the most potent be a role model for young black girls, examples of P-Funks subversive which she was for Mae Jamison, the “rituals” is the song “Mothership first woman of color in space in 1991), Connection (Star Child),” in which that was far from enough, and Clinton each character had ritualistic lines and took Sci-fi into his own hands and “ar- chants (including the audience), before ticulated a new worldview” (254): they would call the (very expensive) “mothership” to swing down through We had put black people in situations the use of a chant from a traditional nobody ever thought they would be in, black spiritual. In this song, they like the White House. I figured another would also refer to Sci-Fi myths about place you wouldn’t think black people the origins of the Egyptian pyramids would be was in outer space. I was a big and “the controversies surrounding fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with historical accounts of the African a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped origins of civilization” (254). They like a Cadillac, and we did all these sing: “We have returned to claim the James Brown-type grooves, but with Pyramids…Swing down, sweet chariot street talk and ghetto slang. (Hicks 1) Stop, and let me ride… Starchild here, citizens of the universe, Time to Through P-Funk’s use of different move on, Light years in time Ahead characters, costumes, and cosmologies of our time” (Parliament). As Vincent that affirmed black existence in a rac- acknowledges, “What Clinton and ist world, they offered hope through his funky tribe did was create an escapism, while actually transforming alternate worldview, complete with realities on this earth through theatri- creation myths, funky superheros, cal performance (which was certainly and a framework for black fantasy “absorbed” into Clinton’s identity and and spiritual cultivation that could ego as well). As Braidotti points out, withstand the pressures of living in a “Science fiction becomes a vehicle for white world” (263). One of the songs in the reflection on our own limits, on which Parliament refers to the “white” the cultural, ideological and technical world’s jealously of black freedom closures of our times” (184). And in P- of expression (or funk) is the song Funk’s science fiction became a vehicle “Unfunky Kind of UFO”, which tells for freedom and liberation, commu- of space aliens who are attempting to nity and collective spirit, and allowed steal his funk. They sing: You’ve got for reflection and reclamation of -Afri the groove and we want some We’re can “traditions” through post-modern unfunky and we’re obsolete (and out of BRADLEY. Glam Rock and Funk Alter-Egos... 399 time) And we’re out of time Gonna take Quatro herself was quite aware of the your funk and make it mine. masculinity of rock (even glam rock) While this paper does not explore and made use of it: “Yeah, it’s phallic… in length, I do want to note that the guitar is for the head, but the bass women were also an important part of gets you right between the legs” (in glam rock and funk even if they were Auslander 203). marginalized and did not receive the Part of the reason that the alter- attention they deserved. Labelle, or egos of Mercury, Bowie, Quartro, “the silver suited space divas” who Clinton and others interest me so merged glam, funk and disco, might much is because of the early exclusions have only had one chart-topping hit, of the theatrical in constructions of “Lady Marmalade,” in 1975, but they the performative utterance, which has nonetheless brought the realities had some residual affects on notions of sexism to the forefront through of performativity. As Derrida writes, their costumes, lyrics, and amazing “For, ultimately, isn’t it true that performances. As Vincent rightfully what Austin excludes as anomaly, credited them: “Lady Marmalade” exceptions, ‘non-serious’ citation (on blew the lid off of the standards of stage, in a poem, or a soliloquy) is the sexual innuendo and skyrocketed the determined modification of a general group’s star status” (192). Likewsie, citationality – or rather, a general there were other influential women in iterability—without which there would Funk as well such as Chaka Khan from be not even a ‘successful’ performative?” Rufus, Yvonne Fair, and The Brides of (17). This exclusion led me to question Funkenstien. Furthermore, as much how certain artists have challenged as glam rock was about challenging this assertion through the overt conventional notions of masculinity theatricality of their performances and and heterosexuality in rock music, it alter-ego creations that are absorbed did not do much to open up the doors for into their identities through repetition women in this field with the exception and iterability. As Braidotti explains, of Suzi Quartro. As Auslander writes, “’Becoming’ is about repetition, but also “Glam rock’s gender-bending did about memories of the non-dominant open a space for unconventional kind. It is about affinities and the performances of female gender… even capacity both to sustain and generate if only one musician claimed that inter-connectedness” (8). It becomes space” (192). Even though I disagree his clear through the appropriation of minimization of the absence of women different cultural cues of glam rock in glam rock, Quartro’s performance of and funk that these artists prove that a glamorized female masculinity and the “non-serious,” the fantasy, and her stage persona transformed the the theatrical are just as “real” or identities of women in rock. “Like all “authentic” as anything else, and are rock musicians’ performance personae, likewise very much a construction of Quartro’s masculine image was other “acts” and historical conditions, carefully constructed and maintained… and by revealing this, these artists turn Like Bowie, Quatro performed her these terms around on themselves, persona offstage as well as on” (200). displacing them completely. In other 400 Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 26, 2017 / 387-401 / ISSN: 1659-1933 words, “By drawing on the fantastical, Spiders from Mars. Vinyl Record. at least improbable, possibility of alien RCA Records, 1972. existence, such artists actively subvert Braidotti, Rosi. Metamorphoses: and negate notions of authenticity…By Towards a Materialist History of employing metaphors of space, alien Becoming. Cambridge: Polity, 2002. being or futurism, metaphors that are Bret, David. Living on the Edge: The by definition unknowable, such artists Freddie Mercury Story. London: and works constantly ‘differ’ the notion Robson Books, 1996. of ‘authentic’ identity” (McLeod in Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On Auslander 132). And when the notion of the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New the “authentic” has been so damaging York: Routledge, 1993. to queers, women, and people of color, --. “Performative Acts and Gender turning the “authentic” human against Constitution: An Essay in Pheno- itself is as subversive as one gets. menology and Feminist Theory.” The Feminism and Visual Cultu- re Reader. Ed. Amelia Jones. New Bibliography York: Routledge, 2003. 392-401. Davis, Andy. “Queen before Queen.” Auslander, Philip. Performing Glam Record Collector Magazine 3, 1996. Rock; Gender and Theatricality in
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