Tag Archives: the 70s

Openly gay and openly HIV+ bassist Andy Fraser has died at the age of 62. Fraser is best known as the author of his group Free’s classic 1970 hit, All Right Now. Via the BBC: The musician died on Monday and he had been fighting cancer and AIDS, according to an official statement regarding his death. The Riverside County coroner …

Via the Hollywood Reporter: Gene Patton, the NBC stagehand in Burbank who stole the spotlight as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine on NBC’s wacky The Gong Show, died Monday, his family announced. He was 82. Patton died in Pasadena, according to a spokeswoman at the local Woods-Valentine Mortuary. He had suffered from diabetes. At a random moment during the game …

Via the Los Angeles Times: A federal jury found Tuesday that the 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines” infringed on the Marvin Gaye chart-topper “Got to Give It Up,” awarding nearly $7.4 million to Gaye’s children. Jurors found against singer-songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, but held harmless the record company and rapper T.I. The verdict capped a trial that lasted …

Stereogum recaps: Mark Mothersbaugh was born legally blind. It wasn’t until he was in second grade that he was finally diagnosed with myopia and got his first pair of glasses. In a new animated video made for Google Play, the DEVO member narrates how his discovery of the world led him to want to become an artist. Then, he recounts …

The children of the late Marvin Gaye are suing Robin Thicke for the profits of Blurred Lines, which has sold 15 million copies, earning $5M each for Thicke and its songwriter Pharrell Williams, who testified yesterday as the trial ended. Williams said after the song was released, he saw similarities between “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s work but said that wasn’t …

What was the first record you ever bought? Mine is above.

Every gay man of a certain vintage is very familiar with these ladies. Via Eurweb: In case you haven’t heard, Disco queens Evelyn “Champagne” King, Martha Wash and Linda Clifford have come together as the “First Ladies of Disco.” Look for the ladies to soon be out and about promoting their new single “Show Some Love” which is is set …

Hearst’s pooch won best of breed for the toy group and will compete in the finals tonight. The dog is named Rocket, not Tania as one might hope.

Via Entertainment Tonight: Billy Crystal blazed trails in the 1970s by playing Jodie Dallas on Soap, the first openly gay character to regularly appear on a network television show. These days, however, the 66-year-old funnyman thinks that TV”s depiction of homosexuality has come a long way — perhaps even too far. Speaking to journalists at the TV Critics Association press …

A Jimmy Somerville fan has compiled the below video to accompany his latest release. As a challenge to hardcore disco heads, let’s see who can name all of the artists that appear. Some of them are extremely well-known, but there are a few fairly obscure acts too. I think I count 21 in total. RELATED: The  single and 12″ are …

Happy 90th Birthday, President Carter! Michelle and I send our best wishes to you and Rosalynn. -bo pic.twitter.com/Du99I0S524 — The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 1, 2014 Last night President Obama congratulated former President Jimmy Carter on his 90th birthday. Carter is the sixth US president to become a nonagenarian. The others: George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, …

The reunited Boomtown Rats performed stateside for the first time in more than 20 years on Friday in a showcase at Manhattan’s Terminal 5. Their 1979 classic below was written about a San Diego school shooting – which at the time was so unusual that (spurred by the shooter’s reason) it was worth writing a song about. Frontman Bob Geldof, …

She said as she sat in the host’s chair in order to show her most flattering side.

Henry Stone, whose TK Records provided much of the 70s’ disco soundtrack, has died in Miami at the age of 93. Via Billboard: In 1948, Stone moved to Miami where he set up Seminole, a record-distribution business and Crystal recording studio. Three years later, he recorded his first artist, a pianist-singer from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind …

Via the Randy Report: Fans of classic 70s and 80s pop/rock/dance music – mark your calendars! On July 2, 2014, The GRAMMY Museum will unveil its latest temporary exhibition, Donna Summer: Four Seasons of Love. Located on the Museum’s fourth floor, the exhibition will offer visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic career of 5-time Grammy Award-winner Donna Summer. This …

JMG reader Dave Evans has compiled over 70 minutes of gay-related news reports that aired in the 1970s. Among the topics: Anita Bryant, gay rights marches, the slaying of Harvey Milk, and the riots that erupted after the Dan White verdict. Worth your time. RELATED: Last week Evans compiled news clips from the first ten years of HIV/AIDS.

Two-time Emmy-winning actress Ann B. Davis died today. CNN reports: Ann B. Davis, known for her role as housekeeper Alice Nelson on “The Brady Bunch,” died Sunday, close friend Bishop William Frey said. She was 88. According to Frey, Davis fell and hit her head Saturday morning in her bathroom. She suffered a subdural hematoma and never regained consciousness. Appearing …

Via Boy Culture, here’s a great nod to 70’s gay disco culture via a track the label winkingly claims to have “discovered” in their vaults. They nailed it – lyrics, music, costumes, and video effects. “Pretty boys on the prowl and the girls who are draggin’ / I’m part of their world cuz baby I’m haggin’.”   Loving this. 

Ray Manzarek, founding member of the iconic band The Doors, has died at the age of 74. Manzarek founded The Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock ‘n’ roll acts to emerge from the 1960s and continues to resonate with fans decades after Morrison’s death brought the …

Deadline reports on the coming Anita Bryant biopic: Uma Thurman will star as controversial anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in Anita, produced by Sex And the City creator Darren Star, Howard Rosenman, Jeffrey Schwarz and Dennis Erdman. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will direct from a screenplay by Chad Hodge. Those filmmakers, who most recently helmed Lovelace, won Oscars for Common …