What better time to celebrate these ten glorious gay love songs than Valentine’s day? And if you’re feeling a little scorned by love these days, don’t worry, they don’t all have happy endings.
Rufus Wainwright – “The Art Teacher”
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“He asked us what our favorite work of art was / Never could I tell him it was him.” OK, you got us with that one. This song is technically sung from the perspective of a woman, but Rufus makes it plenty gay. And we love it.
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Matt Alber – “Handsome Man”
A handsome man who also brings you coffee, OJ, a cinnamon bun and and almond croissant?! Too much. Where do we sign up?
Sufjan Stevens – “The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!”
https://youtu.be/pBMwwJMkcRA” width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
Though not explicitly a gay love song, this tune will tug at your nostalgic heart strings with lyrics like “Oh how I meant to tease him / Oh how I meant no harm / Touching his back with my hand I kiss him…I can’t explain the state that I’m in / The state of my heart, he was my best friend / Into the car, from the back seat / Oh admiration in falling asleep.”
Hercules and Love Affair ft. John Grant – “I Try To Talk To You”
Sometimes love is best expressed in interpretive dance.
Sam Smith – “Nirvana”
Sam has spoken publicly about the fact that his Grammy Award-winning album In The Lonely Hour was written post-breakup. But his track “Nirvana” captures some of the good times in spite of impending heartbreak.
Cosmo Jarvis – “Gay Pirates”
Life as a pirate isn’t easy. Life as a gay pirate is even tougher.
R.E.M. – “Be Mine”
https://youtu.be/Uttw126ZteI” width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
If anyone ever wrote us a song like this, it’d be checkmate in one move.
Broken Social Scene – “I’m Still Your Fag”
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Here’s a goth-meets-jock love story that is just chock full of tenderness.
Mashrou’ Leila – “Shim El Yasmine”
https://youtu.be/Sc1XwS4JdfE” width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
Out Lebanese singer Hamed Sinno fronts Mashrou’ Leila, and on this track, sings about a past lover he wanted to introduce to his parents. Even without being able to understand the lyrics, it’s a hauntingly beautiful tune.
Indigo Girls – “Power of Two”
https://youtu.be/hj0yVN8pFNw” width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
The pronouns may be neutral in “Power of Two,” but it’s understood that the song is written about two women. Regardless, it’s a love song worthy of everyone.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Rufus Wainwright oeuvre has turned out to be a disappointment IMO..but The Art Teacher is a work of near fucking genius — it’s like a 40s Woman’s Film incapsulated in a 3 minute (or so) song. Not sure it fits in here though.
Unrequited love seems to be more my speed so I vote Frank Ocean’s Bad Religion :’(
machuffin
I prefer the gorgeous longing of All Time Love by Will Young or the more sparse The Promise by Tracy Chapman (it gets me every time).
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
I think THE best and also most criminally overlooked gay-themed song (and powerful protest about against homophobia and religious bigotry) is “Leviticus: Faggot” by Me’sShell Ndegeocello. The extended album version is sublime.
Honourable mention goes to Rod Stewart’s The Killing Of Georgie
Neither of these love stories end well though 🙁
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05XsgO3t3zQ&spfreload=10
mozzer
Book of Love – Magnetic Fields
Liberation- Pet Shop Boys
Because You’re so Sweet & Always- Erasure
Gruffling
“Ten Great Gay Love Songs To Crack The Toughest Cynic” yeah, no, my cynicism remains strong and is even bolstered by there being a song with ‘fag’ in the title.
McShane
Desert Island – Magnetic Fields. “We’ll develop muscles from cracking coconuts… let our clothing drop off… feel each others butts”
I Blow You Kisses – The Aluminum Group
Two Lights – The Aluminum Group
Scribe38
@Gruffling: I hear you, but did you actually listen to the “fag” song. Sometimes taking ownership of a hurtful word reduces its power.
McShane
Not a love song but, this has to be one of the most bizarrely homoerotic videos of all time.
http://youtu.be/uj6osnssnx4
mododavid
I cry every time I hear Gay Pirates. Thanks, Cosmo, I love you!
Mack
A little bit before all of these time, and probably all of you but ‘Strangers in the Night’ was the gay national anthem at one point.
michael
Sometime around 1983 I had a sometimes bisexual friend who I was very close to.
Joe jackson’s song “Breaking Us In Two’ was our secret theme song.
The lyrics were killer then – and now…
Don’t you feel like trying something new?
Don’t you feel like breaking out
Or breaking us in two?
You don’t do the things that I do
You want to do things I can’t do
Always something breaking us in two
michael
And speaking of Rufus Wainwright…
I also have a soft spot for “My Phone’s On Vibrate For You”
robes323
Sexy Tim Wheeler and Ash’s paean to you gay love – True Love 1980
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HXl8m_IJhpY
And lest we forget Suede’s glammy debut single…
“Well, he writes the line, wrote right down my spine, do you believe in love there?”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3nWJQStqrfw
jwtraveler
@Gruffling: @Scribe38: I liked it (though I could have done without the lipstick). I recommend the “must-see” recent film “Pride” for a perspective on the appropriation of anti-gay epithets.
Captain Obvious
I’ve never really listened to songs that are particularly “gay themed” before, but the lead singer of Neon Trees, who also writes all the lyrics wrote two lesser known songs “Show” and “Tell Me You Love Me” that are clearly about his time as a gay Mormon before coming out.
They’re really nice songs. I like some of his other stuff, but these seem heartfelt with a real purpose, not like the typical mainstream stuff people are forced to do. I assume that’s why they’re only bonus tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JANJsgL_CKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WLQFlcSlvg
When I first heard these songs I didn’t know why they resonated with me so much, in fact he was closeted when he wrote them(hence using “she is a queen”in tell me you love me… cheeky, but still closeted at the time).
He’s out now and sooo many of his lyrics make way more sense now than before. His music is mostly about his experiences and struggles but when you think he’s straight it makes no real sense and just seems confusing. Especially when you listen to a song like “Everybody Talks”.
It’s nice listening to music from someone my age who isn’t being depressing, doesn’t have an agenda, and isn’t writing creepy(or hypersexual) lyrics.
Captain Obvious
Also posted about Neon Trees because they don’t have the gay following they deserve. It’s time gay men stop putting straight women on a pedestal when we have plenty of gay men making music about what gay men go through and identify with. Straight women are making music about what straight women identify with.
michael
@McShane:
@Captain Obvious:
McShane recommended The Aluminum Group and I happily recommend them as well.
They were a coupla’ gay brothers (!) from Chicago who put out several beautiful albums in the late 90s.
We still listen to them regularly.
Lebanese Peanut
A translation for Mashrou’ Leila’s – “Shim El Yasmine” I’m Lebanese and know Arabic 🙂
Smell the jasmine
Taste the molasses
And remember to remember me
Brother don’t forget me
My love, my prize
I would have liked to keep you beside me
Introduce you to my parents, have you crown my heart
Cook your food, mop your home
Spoil your kids, become your housewife
But you’re in your house, and I’m in some house
God, I wish you had never left
This jasmine
Forgets me
The jasmine
Smell the jasmine
And remember to forget me
DistingueTraces
It’s surprising how few straight-up love songs Rufus Wainwright has written. Looking back through his catalog, nearly all of them are from his first album way back when.
DistingueTraces
@Gruffling: Not even mad cause you obviously didn’t listen to it.
“I’m Still Your Fag” is an amazing song.
Gruffling
@DistingueTraces: Of course I didn’t. My statement was pretty clear the title put me off.
tricky ricky
disenchanted by the communards. or always by erasure. I’m just a hopeless romantic.
NotWeirdQueer
This is all great music! Sitting here listening to them.