It’s Gay Pride weekend here in NYC. In honor of that, I’m digging up classic bits of MANLY men videos on youtube to post to my Facebook page. And one of the key veins of blatant homoerotic images seems to be mid-80s era MTV.
Here’s an old Billy Joel video for the song Allentown. (Apologies for the commercial, but I couldn’t find it without one.) Joel is not the first name I think of when I think “gay pride.” I can only imagine what he thought when he the producer or director for the video took his earnest, social protest song about the plight of blue-collar steel workers seeing their livelihoods disappearing, and then presented him with this concept for a video. What did he say?
The video primarily takes place in a steel mill; apparently the same steel mill that Homer took Bart to in “the Simpsons” episode with John Waters. The video has lots and lots and LOTS of loving shots of men, often shirtless, showing off glistening, waxed, buff chests. And all the guys have well-coiffed, feathered manes that Farrah Fawcett would have been proud to have.
At about 2:02 into it, there is a shot of a bunch of workers showering off, and there is a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of their naked butts. I was trying to recall if their was any kind of angry “Won’t somebody think of the CHILDREN???” type outcry over that, but can’t recall any. There almost certainly would be today.
The video climaxes with a bunch of dancers twirling around before an American flag, including one shirtless dude waving around flaming (and I do mean FAH-LAMING!!) sparklers. I was left with the impression that Joel was getting worked up over nothing - these guys losing their steel-mill gigs only meant more time to devote to their true calling - as broadway dancers.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure this video was only the tip of the iceberg. Looking for more. Any suggestions?
I haven’t seen that video in a long time, but boy howdy does it sound pretty gay from your description. I can’t do that yubertuber thing at work, but I’m trying to recall any hair metal band where they band members strut around on stage in tight spandex, cozy up to each other while they wail on their guitars and wag their tongues all around. Surely there must be dozens of those videos around if not hundreds!
Nope. The award goes hands-down to **Jackson Browne’s **collaboration with the late [sigh] Clarence Clemons in You’re a Friend of Mind.
I believe it won the MTV Award for the Absolute Gayest Video Performance by Two Alleged Straight Males. Cripes you had Browne’s love squeeze at the time, Daryl Hannah “video taping” the affair which led one to wonder why he would pick Clarence over her.
See for yourself here.
Mods, you may now close this thread.
Nope. The hands down winner is Billy Squier’s Rock Me Tonight, which many have argued ruined his career in one fell, if fabulous, swoop.
I probably saw that Allentown video 100 times, and I don’t remember thinking it was particularly gay. But in retrospect, sheesh! If the OP didn’t convince you, then please explain the freaking shower scene!
Dude, there’s absolutely no comparison. Did you go back and watch the videos or are you basing this solely on recall?
I went back and watched Allentown. The shots of the shirtless beefcakes working the heavy machinery are but blips and are there to offer a little eye candy for the ladies at home. The shower scene lasts but a few seconds and is part of so many other images thrown out that it is hardly a central focus. Now I’ll admit at the end when the guy in his Underoos comes out with a flaming bottom it does set the pings off on the Gay-o-Meter but nothing like You’re a Friend of Mine.
Seriously here you have Browne and Clarence staring lovingly in each other’s eyes as they belt out the lyrics, you’ve got them doing that utterly queer (both definitions of the word) head-bobbing thing which could stand alone in its utter gayness but the fact that they’re centimeters from each other’s face and then later they’re clasping hands with the Super Friend’s Hand Shake and doing the head bob and still gazing into each other’s eyes as they sing!!!-----I mean, come ON.
Actually, I agree with minlo somewhat here - while both videos can be seen as gay, there is that little additional oomph that’s added to the Friend of Mine video by the two leads being so close and staring into each others eye. You can probably say that FoM is gay romance, whereas Allentown (and Physical) is gay porn (and in Physical, subtext became text in the final 15 seconds, of course).
One last thing - when the FoM video was released, I remember thinking that they were a bit closer than I would have preferred…
It’s one thing when Madonna’s videos have a gay element- given her audience and her circle of friends, you’d expect that. You’d also expect a certain amount of gayness in videos by, oh, Bette Midler, Paula Abdul, George Michael, the Village People, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, even Judas Priest.
“Allentown” is a puzzler, though, because nothing about either Billy Joel or the song gives off a gay vibe. I’m guessing he or the video director just hired a very gay choreographer, and Billy ended up with something he hadn’t expected.