A couple of weeks ago I was at a showcase for gay and lesbian musicians called Alt Q. Like any show of that type the performances were uneven. There was too much poetry for my taste, the angry lesbian poetry in particular didn’t do much for me. But there was some fantastic music that night as well, and it made me think that Cover Freak should do a little showcase of music by homosexuals.

Husker Du “Eight Miles High” (The Byrds)
Husker Du’s singer and guitarist Bob Mould is a gay man and that surprised me when I found that out. At the time I was kinda young and stupid and never even considered that a gay man would play such aggressive guitar-driven music.

Judas Priest “Diamonds And Rust” (Joan Baez)
I wasn’t all that surprised to learn that Judas Priest singer Rob Halford is gay. I had already had my horizons broadened by Bob Mould and let’s face it, Mr. Halford does dress like he’s competing in the International Mr. Leather contest.

Marc Almond “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones)
When I’m in the mood for some overwrought singing Marc Almond is my go-to artist. You can always count on him to go all drama queen on any song he gets his hands on. He’s done a couple of albums of French cabaret music that are truly amazing if you’re into that sort of thing.

k.d. lang “The Air That I Breathe” (The Hollies)
I’m sure that being a lesbian in a small town on the Canadian prairie was not easy for k.d. lang. But I’m convinced that being a vegetarian in the middle of cattle country was a bigger challenge. At any rate this song comes from her 1997 album Drag, a wonderful collections of songs about smoking.

Scissor Sisters “Take Me Out” (Franz Ferdinand)
The three guys in the Scissor Sisters are gay and they get bonus gay points for going all Elton John on this cover.