Page 16

HIGH GEAR

November, 1975

TOP TEN DISCO TUNES

Provided by Joe Costa of The Bayou Landing

ODDS AND ENDS

1. Fly, Robin, Fly

SINGLES

Silver Convention

2. Change, (Makes you want to hustle) Donald Byrd 3. Undecided Love

4. You Set My Heart On Fire

5. Soul Train '75

The Chequers Tina Charles Soultrain Gang

6. I Just Can't Give You UpFloyd Smith & Salsoul Orch. 7. You'd Be Good For Me

8. Special Delivery

9. Disco Sax

10. Do The Latin Hustle

1. Love To Love You Baby 2. Casanova Brown, If You Want It, How Hi The Moon 3. Every Beat Of My Heart

4. The Entire Album

Ronnie Spector

Midland

Blue Note

Scepter Columbia Soultrain Salsoul

Tom Cat Ariola Westbound

Polly Brown

Houston Person

ALBUMS

Donna Summer (Experience G. Gaynor)

Oasis

Gloria Gaynor MGM (Dreaming A Dream) Crown Heights Affair Barry White's Greatest

Delite

Hits. Special Disco Release. Barry White 20th Century (The Disco Kid) Van McCoy AVCO (Brazil)

5. Change With The Times, Earthquake, Keep On Hustling 6. Peanut Vendo, Frenesi, Brazil

7. New York City Rhythm,

A Boy Like Me

8. Messing With My Mind

9. Do It Anyway You Wanna, Boogie Down U.S.A.

10. Magic Of The Blues

The Ritchie Family 20th Century (Tryin' To Get The Feeling) Barry Manilow Arista (Phoenix) LaBelle Epic (Boogie Down U.S.A.) People's Choice (13 Blue Magic Lane)

Blue Magic

Special Picks For November:

TSOP

ATCO.

Wing And A Prayer

SINGLE

Baby Face

Wing And A Prayer Fife And Drum Corps

ALBUM

Armada Orchestra

NOW AT OUR NEW LOCATION

COVENTRY

BOOKS

10-10 WEEKDAYS

10 7 SATURDAY

1824 Coventry Road

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

(216) 932-8111

44118

Scepter

Time magazine recently printed an interview with Italian journalist, Oriana Fallaci who is well known for her arrogant, flippant attitude toward those whom she interviews. When Time asked if she was a lesbian, Fallaci replied: "Oh my God! Oh mama mia! No scusa, it's obvious I'm not a lesbian, but it's offensive to answer "no" because + feel guilty of something.

...

My liberalism ends when we come to queers and lesbians. I cannot stand them. And if I say it in a loud voice they say I am facist or reactionary." Heil Hitler! And phooey on Fallaci.... According to Boston's Fug Rag. David Cassidy recently told entertainment magazine reporter he is gay. Cassidy joins the growing number of musicians who are publically exiting the closet. Others include David Bowie, Joan Baez, Chris Robinson, and Stefan Grossman Cassidy's newest album, The Higher They Climb. The Harder They Fall is a departure from his teeny bop tripe and establishes him as a major artist in his own right...

Hey now, is this justice? Ford personally calls James Salmites, the man whose car struck his at a Connecticut intersection to see "how he was feeling" and to thank him "for being such a fine young man in the way you handled it." Meanwhile, Oliver Sipple, who is gay did not only not receive a personal call from the President for saving Ford's life (instead of endangering it) but also had to wait 2 weeks to receive a thank you telegram ... Oi vey!.... David Bowie has recently finished footage of his first movie, tentatively titled The Man Who Fell To Earth. The science fiction film is based on the book. by Paul Mayersberg and is scheduled for spring release. A new album coined "The Golden Years" by the master chameleon is due in December. The Hollywood Grapevine also tells us that Ken Russell is considering Bowie for the role of Valentino in his next work... Ah, sweet Fame...

Bowie will make a rare TV appearance on the Cher Show, Sunday night November 23rd.

and

SLA writings seized from the house where the Harris' Patty Hearst were living indicate that efforts to "smash the dependencies created by monogamous personal sexual relationships" developed into open sex with persons of choice and was not limited to persons of the opposite sex ... Can it be that Patty is of androgynous consciousness?

Coming concerts: Barry Manilow is due in town for a December 21st concert at Cleveland's Music Hall and everyone's favorite, Bette Midler will appear at Music Hall from Feb. 4 to 8......

The running battle between Dorothy Fuldheim and local gays continues. Asked by an empathetic woman caller how she felt about Matlovich's discharge, Dorothy surprisingly said, "I would not have discharged him. I also would never deny a gay person a job; however, i still believe that everything in nature is part of an evolutionary pattern. Through cell division nature developed sex as a necessary requisite for survival. Gays just aren't a necessary part of that survival process. Ms. Fuldheim added that "Gays should remember that they are a minority group and not in the majority"........Oh Dorothy, we can't hate you and we can't love you...

A straight student at CSU was overheard saying to a friend, "it looks like Cleveland State has three major newspapers now, The Cauldron, The Vindicator and High Gear". Gee thanks guy...

A PD Magazine feature spotlighting discos quotes author Tim Joyce as saying "The Shaker Club may have the only true disco in Cleveland.". Now, there's a compliment....

The Local Beat: Bellaire Enterprises is planning a big surprise for December. Watch for it ... The CWRU gay radio program is considering syndication throughout Northern Ohio through university related broadcasts Godmother's II is

organizing a machine bowling league for both men and women this week and has initiated a 50c Sunday buffet from 9:00 to 12:00 p.m.... Our apologies go out to Gypsy's Restaurant. In our past bar listings we had set an age limit of eighteen and given the impression that it is a bar. It is not. It is Cleveland's only 24 hour restaurant serving a wide variety of food and no liquor. Gypsy's is closed all day and night on Tuesday, but on ali other days the management asks that gays who work in or near the downtown vicinity stop in for a sandwich. Who knows. Gypsy's might become Cleveland's Georgetown Grill.... To end on a bright note, a Los Angeles friend of the author's went with us to Twiggy's Halloween party and told us that Twiggy's atmosphere and partying was equal to that of any he has seen in L.A... Now will you believe that the best things. in life really are in Cleveland? ... We'll keep trying As Sonya Friedman would say, for a better life, Jerry Juszcyk...

MUSIC

The Ballad

of Ben-Gay

By Matt Phillips

"I would like to dedicate this number to Wayne and Bruce and all my friends at the Chartreuse Moose." Thus begins "The Ballad of Ben Gay," part of a recent album called "Dr. Demento's Delights" (Warner Brothers BS 2855). From there the "ballad" plunges rapidly to the depths of stereotypic humor. Is this what is to follow the long line of Polack and Nigger jokes?

Composers Gulland and McNeely have shown nothing more than their ability to collect a number of gay stereotypes and their extremely poor taste. There is hardly a stereotype that is missed. It all starts with the voice of Ben Gay, a voice so effeminate, almost lispish, that you can see his limp wrist flapping in the breeze. Their attempt at humor continues through velvet saddles, purses, and ripping panty hose by putting them on OVER spurs. At one point he warns his back-up band, The Silly Savages, to play the music right or there would be "Ben Gay all over you."

Such "humor" is enough to make any gay person sick! Unfortunately, many straights will hear this song and laughingly nod their heads in agreement. At a time when straights and gays are starting to communicate, the release of this record can do only harm. There is a minor disclaimer buried in the liner notes saying that Ben Gay is only a stereotype, but this does not erase the damage caused by listening to the record.

It is difficult to understand why Warner Brothers and Dr. Demento even included it in this album, especially when there are several examples of wellwritten songs like Spike Jones' "Ya Wanna Buy A Bunny," Jim Kweskin's version of "If you're a Viper," Jef Jaisun's "Friendly Neighborhood Narco Agent," and Allen Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh."

Some people might think that the appearance of this record signifies progress because "now there are songs about gays." Songs like this are better left unsung and best left unwritten.

Warner Brothers should know better. If they are really that ignorant, gays should enlighten them by telling them that gays are not the successors of blacks and Poles as the butt of humor. (You can let Warner Brothers know your feelings by writing. Warner Brothers Records, Inc. 44 E. 50th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022.)