Mid-Week Music: Bronski Beat - “Why?” (RIP Steve Bronski)
© London Records
I sat down to write this post about the group Gabriels. I was pulled in by singer Jacob Lusk’s soulful falsetto, which immediately reminded me of Jimmy Somerville, former singer of Bronski Beat. As I was pulling up Bronski Beat lyrics in my browser, I read that Steve Bronski, one of the original members of Bronski Beat, died a week ago in a fire in London.
I don’t recall how I came to know Bronski Beat, but I absolutely remember having the cassette of Age of Consent, their first album, and playing it hard. “Smalltown Boy” was their breakthrough single not only for their own success but for laying out the reality of homophobia. Bronski Beat was a trio of openly gay men who seemed to be reacting against the more apolitical (lyrically at least) music of their peers.
“Why?” is the song that sticks in my brain, though. The abrupt confrontation with our collective homophobia was bracing and sung over a hi-nrg beat that guaranteed club play and, at least for me, becoming a life-long ear worm.
Contempt in your eyes when I turn to kiss his lips
Broken I lie, all my feelings denied, blood on your fist
…
Can you tell me why?
…
You in your false securities tear up my life, condemning me
Name me an illness, call me a sin, never feel guilty, never give in
…
Tell me why?
Probably 14 years old at the time, this was probably the first time I really understood the politics of a song that was unabashedly against the status quo. Use of the words “fag” and “faggot” was common in teenagers, as were “gay jokes.” I’m sure the violence was, too, though I never witnessed it at that time in my life. I had gay friends at the time (though none of them had yet come out) and I reflect on how difficult it must have been for them to live among people who accepted their presence but not their real selves.
I imagine Steve and Jimmy and Larry (Steinbachek) in the apartment they shared, fed up with the current scene, writing music and lyrics to break through as something new. I’m so glad they did. I wonder how many other people got a wake-up slap across the face like I did on first hearing them?
Through the rest of the 80s (my teen years), as I became more aware of the openly queer people in my life, I got much more interested in the politics of the movements that came out of the AIDS crisis, especially ACT UP and their slogan “Silence = Death.” Gay life was somewhat normalized around me because of my family’s involvement in the arts and the friends we made. And yet almost 40 years after “Why?” cracked open a new understanding for me how society silences “difference,” we are still accepting people’s presence but not their true selves.
I love you,
David
