As a young gay man in the late 70's in New York, it was with wondrous delight that I wondered how many of the straight fans knew what the VP were all about underneath the "silly" disco gloss. Oh, for the sleazy innocence of the time.
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Put on YMCA at any family wedding or village festival, or of course, club, and the floor will instantly fill up with people from 5 to 90--ready to dance their hearts out while forming the letters of the song during its chorus.
Try it if you don't believe it!
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Taught for a year right out of college. Went to the Cape to paint houses in Wellfleet. I brought my Village People LP. We wore that music out. No one would admit they like the band. I did admit the vinyl record was mine as I was from NY. Every party exploded when that music came on.
Who would have thought two words could get people so 'partyfied' and the words are not 'mony, mony'.
Nope. Just say...YOUNG MAN.... and away we go.
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I still, after all these years, work out to "San Francisco/Hollywood" from that first Village People album. Unquestionably their best; if you haven't heard it, go find it!
Mr. Belolo and Mr. Morales got it right--the VP were a lot of fun with a fabulous dance beat. A sign of the (good) times...
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All this week in the NY Times:
An interview with an aged Barry Manilow.
A review of a play based on Meat loaf's "Bat out Of Hell".
An obituary for the creator of the Village People.
I feel ancient.
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Little did I know as a naive teenager in the 1970s that the Village People were born out of the gay scene in New York.
No question though, the music was great and the men were attractive.
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Don’t forget the Yankee Stadium grounds crew raking the infield mid game to the blaring sound of “Y.M.C.A” to the delight of the fans.
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Mr Belolo and the Village People's legacy is that whenever the song YMCA or Macho Man would blast from the speakers in disco nightclubs from Key West to Provincetown, London to New York and all over the world the dance floors would immediately fill up with dancers moving with wild joyful abandon. Best of all it still happens today.
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Belolo's insight, in creating the Village People, seemed outlandish at the time - but utterly necessary in retrospect. That is a kind of genius. The band's music was indeed filled with love (and fun).
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