Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

I remember being in the teens' disco at Pontin's in Camber Sands in the summer of 1977. Disco was huge. We were dancing to this and my mate, Ricky, turns to me with a knowing look and says, "You know that Sylvester's a [insert epithet for gay man], don't ya."

In hindsight, this is interesting for a couple of reasons: firstly, that the signifiers of queerness were lost on people. Really? That man wearing make-up and a dress and singing in a falsetto vocal is not heterosexual? Mind blown. Even years later, I remember older relatives refusing to countenance that Danny LaRue might be gay.

Secondly, at the time, disco was all the rage, due in large part to the film Saturday Night Fever. Whilst I'm quite the fan of the film, it completely elbows out gay culture from the art form, and replaces it with a preening-peacock form of toxic masculinity.

Why am I going on about this? I don't know really, other than I heard I Feel Love in the supermarket this morning and it got me thinking how much times have changed. My kids' generation are really clued-in about sexuality and homophobia is quite unusual and a bit...ick. I think this is one of the major cultural shifts in my lifetime.

I played this (twice) whilst I was putting away the shopping. I was surprised how acoustic and roomy the drum sound is. What a fucking tune though.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Sylvester
#Disco