Criminally Underrated LGBTQ+ Musicians You Should Know
Unsurprisingly, the LGBTQ+ community has made massively important contributions to popular music, probably from the dawn of music itself. Here are a bunch of lesser known but influential queer musicians who broke down barriers and made a profound impact on popular culture and society as a whole.
James Booker
James Carroll Booker III was a pianist and saxophonist from New Orleans who had the rare ability to effectively combine a visual spectacle with astonishing, effortless and extraordinary virtuosity. He often performed wearing a flashy cape, an eyepatch with a star at the middle and a wig that was stuffed with cannabis. On his grand piano, there often sat a candelabra as a tribute to one of his heroes, Liberace. His repertoire included blues and jazz standards, Beatles tunes, Chopin, Rachmaninov, and even a syncopated arrangement of “Malagueña.” The legendary Dr. John called Booker “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.”
He recorded with such stars as Amos Milburn, Joe Tex, Shirley and Lee, Huey Smith, Dee Clarke, Earl King, Bobby Blue Bland, Junior Parker, Smiley Lewis, Shirley and Lee, B.B. King, Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and Wilson Pickett. Due to being underage, he would often use a fake ID to gain entry to the clubs. When he was 17, he astonished the classical piano master Arthur Rubenstein with a private performance. In 1960, he scored a hit with “Gonzo,” a peppy organ-driven instrumental that inspired the name of Hunter S. Thompson’s unfiltered approach to journalism.
Unfortunately, after being treated with morphine for a badly broken leg resulting from being struck by an ambulance when he was nine years old, he developed a nagging addiction to heroin, which affected his physical and mental health. While serving time in Angola Prison for drug possession in the late 1960s, he lost his eye in an assault.
Despite a period of success in Europe in the latter 1970s, upon his return to the United States, his physical and mental health declined as his career saw diminishing returns while his performances became less and less consistent. Although he died of kidney failure at age 43 in 1983, his stature as an artist has grown since then.
June Millington and Alice de Buhr of Fanny
In 1970, the all-female rock quartet Fanny, consisting of guitarist June Millington, her sister Jean on bass, keyboardist Nickey Barclay and drummer Alice de Buhr became the first act of its kind to release a full-length album on a major label. David Bowie, who was once in a relationship with Jean Millington, said, “They were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful…They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever.”
They appeared on television programs like The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The David Frost Show, The Dick Cavett Show and Beat Club. They shared stages with acts like Chicago, Steppenwolf, Ike and Tina Turner, Slade, and Humble Pie.
Unfortunately, despite the respect of their peers, the media didn’t take them seriously, just because they were women, and their records only reached the lower end of the Billboard 200. Further complicating matters, both June Millington and Alice de Buhr were both lesbians in an era where intolerance was commonplace. Eventually, these pressures became overwhelming and by 1973, each decided to leave the band.
While Alice went to work as the local marketing director at A&M Records, June and her sister remained active in the music business, but kept a lower profile. In 1986, June Millington and her partner Ann Hackler founded the Institute for the Musical Arts, an all-girls music school that also offers support for women in the music business.
Kid Congo Powers
Brian Tristan, better known as Kid Congo Powers, is probably the quintessential journeyman guitarist of punk rock.
Growing up in Los Angeles County, he found himself drawn to rock and roll, especially the Mexican-American band Thee Midnighters, the glam stylings of David Bowie, and the raw punk sound of the New York Dolls.
In junior high school, he realized he was gay.
By 1976, Brian Tristan became President of the Ramones Fan Club and edited a fanzine dedicated to the L.A. electropunk band The Screamers. In 1979, after some time spent in London and New York City, he befriended Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who invited him to play guitar in his band. He learned on the job in true punk rock style, and eventually Pierce named the band The Gun Club.
Shortly before the band recorded its debut album, Tristan left to join The Cramps, a rockabilly-influenced band led by singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach. Lux Interior gave him the stage name Kid Congo Powers after reading a message on a Santeria votive candle.
During the 1980s through to the middle 1990s, he would divide his time between the Cramps, the Gun Club and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He also performed as part of Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s solo band.
By the latter half of the 1980s, Kid Congo Powers became involved with the AIDS activism group ACT UP. During his final stint with the Gun Club, he teamed up with singer Sally Norvell to form Congo Norvell, a band that fused rock and roll with cabaret music, and performed a series of benefit concerts for friends dying of AIDS.
In 2009, he formed his current project, Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds, taking the name from a line in the David Bowie song “Moonage Daydream.” To this day, he still performs and tours with them.
Andy Fraser
Some classic rock enthusiasts may not know Andy Fraser by name, but without a doubt they have heard the pulsing, syncopated, melodic bass line he played on the chorus of the classic Free song “All Right Now,” which he co-wrote.
He was a child prodigy and a quick study, mastering piano, guitar, and bass. At the tender age of thirteen, he was playing after-hours gigs in West Indian social clubs. By fifteen, he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, a band that had many gifted musicians pass through its ranks, including Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Mick Taylor and Keef Hartley. In 1968, he was invited to join Free, a bluesy quartet that included drummer Simon Kirke, guitarist Paul Kossoff, and soulful baritone singer Paul Rodgers.
Free quickly developed a reputation as a popular live act. By 1970 they struck pay dirt when their song “All Right Now” became an international Top Five hit.
Unfortunately, Free were unable to build on this success, and the band gradually unraveled, owing to overwork, infighting between Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers over the bands musical direction as well as problems caused by Paul Kossoff’s spiraling and ultimately fatal heroin addiction.
During his time in Free, he began to question his sexuality. “[We’d see a gay person,] and it was usually Simon who’d make some homophobic comment. I’d feel the hackles rise but I’d never say anything. I was probably guilty of it myself.”
After he quit Free in 1972, he attempted to form other bands, but found little success. He moved on to songwriting, providing tunes for Three Dog Night, Rod Stewart, Wilson Pickett, Chaka Khan, Bob Seger, and Robert Palmer. Shortly after he moved to the U.S. in 1976, he began to come to terms with his sexuality. Unfortunately, by the mid 1980s, he was diagnosed with AIDS and took time off to focus on his health.
Eventually, he returned to music, performing with Paul Rodgers at the Woodstock ‘94 festival. In 2005, he released his solo album, Naked… and Finally Free.
Sadly, Andy Fraser died on 16 March 2015. He was 62.
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