This is sad, and I’m thinking craziness is to blame. She put out two excellent albums in the late 80s, early 90s: Short, Sharp Shocked and Arkansas Traveler. SSShocked is anecdotal and loosely autobiographical. Traveler is historical. I saw her put on a helluva show at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis in the mid 90s.
The last albums I bought by her had some stuff about Jesus, but seemed like it was an intelligent, non-trite Jesus… sort of Laura Nyro Jesus. Apparently that shit is like heroin, and can over your life real easy.
She is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, or at least was hospitalized for schizophrenia in her youth. Her stage name is a reference to the shock treatment she recieved.
I can’t see how this can be a career move. Outside the Phelps family most anti gay marriage people like to phrase their arguments in nicer tones than “God hates fags.” They usually have a love the sinner, hate the sin thing going on, or will even say they have nothing against gays, they just want to “preserve marriage.” Further, while I know little about the subject, it seems to me that most Christian pop music is bland pop country or watered down hard rock. Generally Christian pop musicians present a wholesome all-American image. Fans are likely to stay away from an unstable formerly homeless butch woman who joined the occupy protests when they were going on.
Well, putting “principle over profit” would mean cancelling the shows with the expectation that the ticket holders would have still come to the show and spent money in the venue that night rather than cancelling the ticket purchases and demanding a refund.
The San Francisco venue ended up refunding the angry patrons who walked out.
If refunding tickets is the expectation, it’s much easier to get on top of it ahead of time. Cancelling the bookings gives the venues an opportunity to book a non-trainwreck to fill the spot.
It’s easy to stand on principle when it matches up with the best business decision. Cancelling the gigs in this case is a very clear business decision. Nobody’s going to cancel a Chris Brown concert on principle.
Wikipedia quotes a 1990 interview with Shocked where she said “I resent like hell that I was maybe 18 years old before I even heard the ‘L’ word. I mean, that’s understood, growing up sheltered in a Mormon environment. But it would have made all the difference for me had I grown up knowing that the reason I didn’t fit in, was because they hadn’t told me there were more categories to fit into.” So she has in the past dropped some pretty big hints that she’s gay or bi. I don’t know enough about her to guess as to whether she’s a self-loathing closet case now or was confused/just trying to get attention then.
I dunno. This seems awfully calculated. By the looks of it, she’s done a lot of performing over the past few years, yet she makes these statements when she arrives in San Francisco? And it immediately makes national headlines? Who called the press?
Maybe I’m over thinking it, but it stinks to high heaven.
I don’t know much about this woman, but maybe it’s just called “getting older”. It’s common as dirt for the same people who reflexively rage against authority figures in their youth, to turn into sneering authoritarians later in life.
First I think both Kirk Cameron and Michelle Shocked are sincere in their beliefs.
Second I don’t think Michelle Shocked’s bizarre tirade is going to get her any fans among even gay hating Christians. (maybe the Phelps clan.) Kirk Cameron was young when he converted (again, I think sincerely.) Michelle Shocked is 51 years old. Kirk Cameron is a squeaky clean conservative American boy. Michelle Shokced is a butch looking woman, deeply disturbed, who has recently railed against wall street. If this is a plan, it’s an awful one.
I don’t think this is anything other than what it appears to be, the sincere ravings of a disturbed woman.
Oh, I don’t think she’s insincere, but I will admit that my first thought was something along the lines of your last sentence. I just thought it was odd that this story was everywhere, considering her lack of celebrity status.
It kind of reminded me of that time Michael Richards freaked out and yelled racial epithets at some black hecklers. Sometimes people melt down, it happens on this message board from time to time. If they are even remotely famous it makes the news.
Just so weird. Why say anything at all, and to such a captive audience, knowing there were bound to be a significant number of LGBT people in the audience? That was low and frankly evil.
She had a tour and some sold out shows. It’s not a huge deal but it’s better than 99% of musicians. Now she has nothing. There’s no way this was a calculated career move.
I’m also betting that Shocked’s outburst was more of a symptom of illness rather than any actual intolerance, and that she needs compassion more than condemnation.
There was an album called “Short Sharp Shock” by the punk band Chaos UK that was released in 1984, four years before Michelle Shocked’s “Short Sharp Shocked”.
I’m betting that her album is a play off of the Chaos UK one. Firstly, both album covers show a protesting young person being arrested by the police. Secondly, the pink handwriting on the cover of Shocked’s “Short Sharp Shocked” is very similar to the pink handwriting on the cover of the hardcore band Dead Kennedy’s 1982 release “Plastic Surgery Disasters”.
So I’m guessing that Shocked had some knowledge of punk and hardcore bands, and used both covers as the inspiration for her own.