Copyright © 2014 by Matthew J. Jones All Rights Reserved May 2014 For the ones who aren’t here… AIDS does not exist apart from the practices that conceptualize it, represent it, and respond to it. We know AIDS only in and through those practices. This assertion does not contest the existence of viruses, antibodies, infections, or transmission routes. Least of all does it contest the reality of illness, suffering, and death. What it does contest is the notion that there is an underlying reality of AIDS, on which are constructed the representations, or the culture, or the politics of AIDS. If we recognize that AIDS exists only in and through these constructions, then the hope is that we can also recognize the imperative to know them, analyze them, and wrest control of them. Douglas Crimp, “AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism” In this world, there’s a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind and dreaming ahead. Tony Kushner, Angels in America Contents List of Figures – i Acknowledgments – iii Abstract – viii Chapter One: Introduction to Part I – 1 Chapter Two: Popular song and personal Experiences of HIV/AIDS – 42 Chapter Three: Fighting AIDS Through Popular Culture – 126 Chapter Four: Introduction to Part II – 175 Chapter Five: Innocence Dying – 200 Chapter Six: Glitter and Be Gay – 247 Bibliography – 331 Appendices – 350 i List of Figures 1.1 Readers Digest 1987 1 2.1 “Jesus to a Child” Harmonies 49 2.2 Madonna “Safe Sex” 1987 55 2.3 Like a Prayer Insert 1989 56 2.4 Gershwin Prelude II 58 2.5 “The Last Song” Verse 62 2.6 “The Last Song” Chorus 63 2.7 “Hush Hush Hush” Piano 70 2.8 “Hush Hush Hush” Form 70 2.9 “The Summer Sun…” 89 2.10 “The Mirror I find hard to face” 89 2.11 “Fuggi regale fantasima” 90 2.12 Boys for Pele 1996 96 2.13 Chopin Funeral March 100 2.14 Tori Amos “Not the Red Baron” 101 2.15 “Let’s Talk” 115 3.1 “Tainted Love” bass riff 131 3.2 Showers Poster 1982 132 3.3 “Friends” Introduction 140 3.4 “Friends” Cover 1985 141 3.5 “Friends” Verse Melody 142 3.6 “Friends” Chorus 143 3.7 Gaultier Designs 145 3.7 4.1 “On the Other Side” Introduction 182 4.2 “Healing Power of Love” Form 185 4.3 Screenshot from Zero Patience 191 5.1 Michael Callen 200 5.2 Screenshot from Callen Home Movie 204 5.3 Michael Callen 208 5.4 Michael Callen 210 5.5 GaysWeek 1 June 1977 219 5.6 Mike & the Headsets 220 5.7 “Nobody’s Fool” Form 225 5.8 “Nobody’s Fool” Introduction 227 5.9 Michael Callen Headshot 1982-1983 230 5.10 Richard Dworking in Studio 1985 236 ii 5.11 Dworkin and Callen 239 5.12 Lowlife 240 5.13 Callen Twirling Baton 243 5.14 “Living in Wartime” Introduction 245 5.15 “Living in Wartime” Form 246 5.16 “Living in Wartime” Harmony 247 6.1 Receipt for “Warning” Poster 258 6.2 How to Have Sex in an Epidemic 262 6.3 Denver Delegation 1983 266 6.4 The Denver Principles 267 6.5 Being Sworn in for Testimony 269 6.6 Peter Allen AIDS Walk 1986 271 6.7 Ten Percent Revue 290 6.8 The Flirtations Original Sextet 292 6.9 Blossom Figure 1 300 6.10 Blossom Figure 2 301 6.11 Blossom Figure 3 302 iii Acknowledgments There’s an African proverb that says “it takes a village to raise a child.” In many ways, a dissertation is a great deal like a child, and my own dissertation is the bouncing baby of a global village. I could not have done this without the guidance, support, and encouragement of so many… First, my parents, Linda and Anthony Jones, have been unwavering in their support of every step in my musical and academic journey. When I announced that I wanted to be a doctor in elementary school, they probably had in mind a white coat and a stethoscope. And while I’m not going to see patients in the ER anytime soon, this project represents the achievement of a lifelong dream. It would have been impossible without their love, support, and more than a few telephone or Skype sessions during which they talked me down off a ledge with the kind of straight talk that only your parents can give you. It’s been a long journey from Jasper to UVA, especially for a first-generation college student. But you’ve been with me every step of the way, and I love you both. A number of formidable women shaped me along the way: Kaye Chastain and Traci Buckingham (you’ll always be Ms. Mullinax to me) taught me to love words; Faye Kesler, Mary Land, Jan Moody, Susan Naylor, and my grandmother, Nellie Thacker, taught me to love music. Carrie Allen Tipton put my head on straight a few times, and my admiration for her runs deep. Susan Thomas encouraged me from the start of my grad school career and provided me with a perspective on music, gender, sexuality, and life for which I will always be grateful. Fred Maus, my advisor and mentor, sold me on the PhD program at UVA when I met him at a conference. He has continued to challenge my thinking and fixed more than iv a few misplaced modifiers along the way. The rest of my committee: Bonnie Gordon’s guidance and friendship have been sources of inspiration, and Michelle Kisliuk urged me to incorporate my own life experiences into my work. And I was honored that Kath Weston, whose work was a source of inspiration early on, agreed to join my committee. I also extend my gratitude to the rest of the faculty in the McIntire Department of Music. They have created a really amazing community of scholars at UVA, and I am grateful to have been part of it. That community consists of a group of graduate students who are like a family to me. Without Emily Gale, I’d probably have lost my mind early on, and Vic “Trantoria” Szabo helped keep things real on more than one occasion. Kirsten Ek, Vilde Aaslid, Liz Lindau, Nick Rubin, Sarah Culpepper, Kevin Davis, Peter Tschirhart, Jarek Ervin, Craig Comen, Courtney Kleftis, and the rest of you—past, present, future—make our department remarkable. And my fabulous family of choice. Ben “Nita” Phillip, the Bette to my Joan, has opened his apartment in New York City to me more times than either of us care to recall, and Bret “B” Walden, the Suzanne to my Julia, makes sure I have horror movies, Designing Women, and a sympathetic ear for hours of late-night phone calls. Ben Blackman, Mike Hill, Tim Lyons, and Jake Treskovich made sure I was well-fed, entertained, always had Friday night drink always in hand, and kept me centered with TV/Game nights full of Cards Against Humanity, American Horror Story, Downton Abbey, and Looking. Thanks, girls! xoxo In the Fall of 2011, I was finishing doctoral coursework in the Critical and Comparative Studies in Music program at The University of Virginia. As the final project v for Fred Maus’ seminar on music and sexuality, I began to formulate the ideas that eventually became this dissertation. While researching popular music responses to the AIDS epidemic, I kept running across a name: Michael Callen. Though his name was usually buried in a footnote, included in a list of AIDS activists, or glossed over as another musician with AIDS, the name stuck. So, I did what any researcher and Internet junkie would do; I turned to Wikipedia and YouTube. Voila! Callen had a brief Wiki page that outlined his life, activism, and music. At the time, there was precious little footage of Callen online, but a couple of YouTube uploads caught my eye. One, a segment from a television interview, seemed especially promising. So, I wrote the YouTube user who uploaded the video to ask if he had the entire segment. User Bettebyte wrote back several weeks later asking for more information and offered to help with the project. We exchanged private email addresses, and he identified himself as Richard Dworkin. In the interim between our correspondences, I ordered Callen’s CDs from Amazon. When the package arrived, I noticed that all were produced by and featured the drumming of Richard Dworkin. When I played Purple Heart (1988), I experienced the first of many fortuitous moments that have punctuated my research about Callen. Dworkin was not only Callen’s drummer and producer; he was also Callen’s lover and the subject of a song, “Me & Dickie D.” Over the past two years, Richard has been an invaluable resource to this project, and quite literally, it would not exist without his generosity. He has regularly opened his home and his personal archives of tapes, photographs, home videos, and other archival sources to me. And in the process, we’ve talked art, politics, and music, eaten our fair vi share of Thai takeout and Pepperidge Farm Cookies, watched home movies, seen a few plays, and sung the Laura Nyro songbook while I played a jangly bar piano near Grand Central Station. And most importantly, we have become genuine friends. Richard first met Michael Callen in 1982, and over the next decade, they, along with friends, physicians, and fellow musicians, worked to produce some of the best gay music of the era and to literally change our understanding of the AIDS epidemic.