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The 20 Queer Songs You Have To Hear
A homo-primer

20. The Pipettes, "I Like A Boy In Uniform (School Uniform)" (2005)



The Pipettes appeal to the John Waters-loving fag in me. If you can't find any joy in a girlpop song where everyone ends up bent, there's just no hope for you.

Why you really need to hear it: It's cute and kitschy and not quite like anything else on Queerics. Trying new things makes you smell better. It was proven by science.


19. Gavin Friday, "Dolls" (1996)



I? Love Gavin Friday. I'll go one step further: anyone who doesn't love Gavin Friday is wrong. I think a lot of musicians get into what they do because they're longing so desperately for what they missed, be it the punk scene in the 70s or, in Gavin's case, Berlin in the 20s. And he does, really, take you right back there with his sexy sexy voice.

And I've mentioned the accordion solo, right? Accordion solo.

Why you really need to hear it: I assume that you, like everyone else in the world, would like more punk cabaret in your life.


18. Rough Trade, "High School Confidential" (1980)



I don't dismiss lesbian music on principle; it's that so much of it is so... embittered. The personal is political, I hate my dad, blah blah dyke-cakes--and that's totally fine, but you know, sometimes you just want music to be fun and sexy and faintly ridiculous. This charming little ditty about desperately lusting after your fille fatale classmate delivers on all counts.

Carole Pope's deep vocals have blown some minds in their time--there's a lot of "Holy crap, that's a chick!?" floating around the internet.

Why you really need to hear it: It is important to remember that when they're not complaining in songs about how everyone hates them for having sex with women, lesbians actually have sex with women. For fun!


17. Lou Reed, "Halloween Parade" (1989)



So Lou Reed has written a lot about his Greenwich Village homo-bubble throughout the years, but this song gets my vote for the most poignant. I know the Queerics audience is pretty young--shit, I'm pretty young--and AIDS is not something we've had to deal with in a personal way; some of us (me again!) are prone to dismissing HIV-as-a-plot-point as cheap and played out. Still, it's worth remembering that there were no antiretroviral drugs until 1987, and throughout that entire decade, people were dropping like flies. This song captures the melancholy better than most, I think.

Why you really need to hear it: Lou Reed can make the craziest shit sound simultaneously mundane and tragic. The vocal delivery here is so perfect and subtle--listen closely.


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