Music – Page 6 – THE QUALITY OF MERCY

2018-09-272022-03-05 by David Hughes

Attica: Coming Together

What follows is the recollection and reflection of a remarkable musical work, and my work experience around it.

The prison strike of late summer 2018 was in part a commemoration of the killing of prison organizer and author George Jackson on August 21, 1971 as well as the uprising his death sparked (in part) at Attica nineteen days later on September 9. Having just turned 16 at the time, although I was involved in antiwar activity in Boulder, Jackson and Attica were two coastlines away and easy enough for me to ignore. Two years later I was reacquainted with those struggles—through music. Continue reading “Attica: Coming Together”

2017-06-012022-01-21 by David Hughes

Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out

A review of the book by Martin Aston.

With this new volume, Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out, Aston fills a much needed lapse in LGBT+ pop history. Unlike books such as Zoot Suits and Second-Hand Dresses (1988) edited by Angela McRobbie and John Gill’s Queer Noises (1995), the former which deals with the subject tangentially and the latter which deals with it personally and sporadically, Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache (taking its name from a late ’60s Northern soul hit) moves decade by decade through the 20th century (a bit before, and after), just as the music itself comes into play.

2014-05-162022-01-21 by David Hughes

Venus in Bling: Bryan Ferry Allures, Offends, Endures

A personal, feminist, and aesthetic critique of the style and substance of British rocker Bryan Ferry and his band Roxy Music written for an audience of colored gemstone aficionados.

Written for colored gemstone wholesale enterprise Pala International.

2008-10-262022-01-21 by David Hughes

Profile: Bob Hull, Mattachine Society Co-founder

A profile of Bob Hull.

Bob Hull (above center with fedora) was a founding member of the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles with Harry Hay, Chuck Rowland, Dale Jennings, and Rudi Gernreich. Mattachine set the stage for the gay liberation activism of the 1960s and 1970s, but because of his suicide in 1962, Hull wouldn’t see the movements, marches, and militancy that would soon follow.

This brief profile of Hull is published via The Tangent Group.