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\u201cMy aim has been to demonstrate how we, as a coalition, make sense of the sometimes initially underground but often ultimately mainstream culture we built as artists and listeners despite often overwhelming opposition,\u201d he writes in the book\u2019s preface. \u201cMoreover, I\u2019ve attempted to capture the community these nurturing songs give us\u2014especially when we think we\u2019re most alone.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n In this exclusive <\/em><\/em>excerpt<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a>, Walters explores how the <\/em><\/em>Village People<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a>\u2018s legacy of queer classics is complicated by the political belief\u2019s of group\u2019s sole remaining member.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Our prodigious disco proxy, Donna Summer, had many LGBTQ peers who crashed the mainstream. Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes\u2014a studio group fronted by celebrity hairdresser Monti Rock III\u2014released, in 1974, what remains a contender for the campiest record ever to hit the pop Top Ten, \u201cGet Dancin\u2019.\u201d It\u2019s sung by producer Bob Crewe, co-writer Kenny Nolan, and singer Cidny Bullens, who then, decades before his transition, was known as Cindy. They sing the entire song between Rock\u2019s rants, which reprise his conspicuously queeny TV talk show appearances. \u201cMy chiffon is wet, darling,\u201d he quips like Liberace with the gayness knob set to eleven.<\/p>\n Alicia Bridges\u2019 international 1978 hit \u201cI Love the Nightlife (Disco \u2019Round)\u201d (1978) offers subtler commentary that also comes from a queer place. Top gay DJ Jim Burgess maximized its dancefloor potential in a twelve-inch mix so mellow you might not notice that the song is written from the outlook of a neglected woman struggling to leave her womanizing husband. Like so many lesbians then stuck in straight relationships, the song\u2019s protagonist longs for liberation\u2014\u201cack-shon,\u201d Bridges memorably sings. Bridges came out following her 1984 album Hocus Pocus<\/em><\/em>, on Olivia Records\u2019 Second Wave subsidiary, and \u201cNightlife\u201d enjoyed another round of popularity following its appearance in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert<\/em><\/em>, 1994\u2019s hit road comedy in which two drag queens and a trans woman parade a myriad of fabulous, Oscar-winning outfits across the Australian outback.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n