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You are here: Polari Magazine / LGBT History Month / Our LGBT Histories: Music – Day 12

Our LGBT Histories: Music – Day 12

12 Feb 2013 / Comments Off / in LGBT History Month/by Paul Baker

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact on their own stories.

‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ – Nancy Sinatra
by Paul Baker
………………………………………………………………………………………….

I grew up on a council estate in the north-east in the 1980s and apart from The Golden Girls and Prisoner Cell Block H, pretty much hated the entire cultural output of that decade. I was that swotty kid who took piano lessons, read Agatha Christie and Jane Austen, played Dungeons and Dragons and feigned illness to get out of football. I had one friend, Michael, who was equally gay and fey, but also cool in a way I could never be. He bought Smash Hits and his older sister, who was a trainee hairdresser, put blonde ‘tips’ in his hair for his 14th birthday. To be honest, our emerging sexuality was about the only thing we had in common.

I was always on the run from the present because it was so grey and crap, finding solace in speculative books about a gleaming 21st century future by Arthur C Clarke and Brian Stableford or going back in time, where men had neat, slicked down hair and all the people in films interacted with much better manners. While I could never fathom Duran Duran or Bros, I found a whole new world in the fading LP collections of my older relatives, and I would scour them, making little mix tapes of my favourites. I cautiously presented one such tape to Michael, who was going through a Boy George phase at the time. It began with ‘To save my rock and roll soul’ by The Stylistics, and as there was no internet in those days, for a long time I assumed that the lead singer was a woman rather than a falsetto man.

I wasn’t sure if Michael would appreciate my strange, secret music tastes. But a few days later he rewarded me with his own mix tape, having raided his father’s collection. Among other gems it contained ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ by Nancy Sinatra, and if you have not seen the video of it, you should go and watch it on Youtube now. I still love this song for its nursery-rhyme lyrics and the self-confidence with which Nancy tells her rubbishy boyfriend that she’s going to dump him for someone better. Such good advice paired with great taste in go-go boots to boot. What’s not to love?

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Tags: day 12, lgbt history month 2013, nancy sinatra, polari magazine music choice, these boots are made for walking

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Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

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