"No one in the 1970s knew that the Village People were meant to be gay?"

they are lying.

they made such a stink about disco sucks. They even held a "rally" to burn disco records that dissolved into a riot!

Now they can't get enough of disco?

They are lying.

I wasn't born back then but I do wonder since it was way before MTV, music videos, social media, etc. maybe people were just so much less aware of any info besides just the music itself. I would imagine unless you were really into a band, you weren't spending time at the library researching them. Maybe people just heard all these songs, saw them, and just thought they were kooky?

and none of those freaks can dance to a blazing tune like this. Sung by women but VERY FUCKING GAY

Oh, Please OP! We knew. I was a teen and knew. Just like people in that time knew Paul Lynde, Liberace . . .were gay

As someone who was exactly 15 in 1979, I'll confirm that everyone knew the Village People were gay. Gay, gay, gay, all night and all day. Claiming otherwise is just silly and revisionist, probably because the Orange Orangutan likes the beat and simple lyrics but icks at the gay. And, of course, it doesn't help that Victor Willis turned into a MAGAt, now uncomfortable that everyone assumed (assumes?) that he was gay.

They're dressed as gay archetypes. 'Nuff said.

Gay people knew they were gay. Straight people didn't care.

Yes, gay people knew they were gay. But I recall a young straight woman around 1978 saying to me (as they were performing across the street from our workplace), "you know, they're all FAGS (her emphasis).

Of course everyone knew they were gay. I don’t think straights cared one way or the other.

People didn't know (or care) if every member was gay. They *represented* a gay theme. That was their gimmick. You had to have one. Like Manhattan Transfer or KISS.

I didn't know.

Of course, I didn't like their music, and I never listened to it.

[quote]r12 = Of course, I didn't like their music, and I never listened to it.

Didn't hit the discos, SL?

One of their songs came on during a basketball rally at my Christian high school, and everyone started hissing.

Darling @ R13, that wasn't disco music back in my day. And neither was Saturday Night Fever or the Bee Gees.

If you're a gay man of a certain age, you should know better.

For example, does this sound like the Village People to you? This is what I was hearing when I went out, and many others of similar ilk.

I also turned 15 in 1979 and I knew they were gay. In the Navy, YMCA, just listen to the lyrics! They were contemporaneous with the Gay City Rollers.

Even Helen Keller knew they were gay.

Here's another real disco tune, just because I'm feeling nostalgic.

BTW, in 1979, I was going to a lesbian bar in the basement of a building in Frankfurt am Main where they actually had a wooden slat that they opened so that they could look out at you and determine that you were a woman before they let you in.

Good times!

[quote] that wasn't disco music back in my day. And neither was Saturday Night Fever or the Bee Gees. If you're a gay man of a certain age, you should know better. For example, does this sound like the Village People to you? This is what I was hearing when I went out, and many others of similar ilk

You are wrong. What on earth are you babbling about?

The Village People, Saturday Night Fever , the Bee Gees were all considered disco back in the day.

Of course, everyone in NYC at the time knew they were gay. I went to a gay club where they were playing and everyone was screaming for them. Personally, I loved the cowboy.

The Village People starred in the 1980 musical film "Can't Stop the Music". The movie was a box office failure and a critical flop, but it's notable for featuring the group and their hit song "Y.M.C.A.". The film also starred Valerie Perrine, Steve Guttenberg, and Bruce Jenner.

I hated France Joli and her "popping balloons" music

R17- They were gay from OUTERSPACE

That's about three years later than say YMCA, r15. By then, disco was on it's way out. In '74 we were listing to...

So very gay. Everyone knew they were gay. Today's folks are all about revising history, especially when it comes to the gay and the gay liberation movement.

^^Didn't like that song, and certainly never heard it at a gay disco.

But whatever.

Oh, BTW, I mentioned here before (it's a long story, but I'll spare you) that I went to a huge gay disco called Faces in East St. Louis in 1977 when I was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. First I went to a little lesbian bar around the corner, ditched the older lesbian who'd given me a ride there, and then walked with a bunch of girls my age over to Faces, where I had a wonderful time.

But when I left at 4AM, the streets were deserted -- and I saw a drag queen in high heels tearing down the street, purse flying. I was only 18, and from PA Dutch farm country, and I had no idea what kind of danger I was in.

But I managed to walk back to the lesbian bar, and since they were closing as well, I got a ride from a bunch of young women who took me back to my hotel in St. Louis proper.

I guess we just didn't hang out at the same places, R23.

What is recognized as the first disco song?

At one time some were saying "Rock Your Baby" by George McRae

"Rock Your Baby" what memories...

R25 You know nothing about disco.

OP, as I always said to my good friend Rock, those people are ig-nor-RANT!

R26 I think the first real disco hit was in 1973. Barry White's "Loves Theme".

"Rock Your Baby" was 1974.

Makes sense r30

This crap became a huge hit where I live in 1976

You're talking St. Louis, r25, and I'm talking Denver and Des Moines.

And if you think E. St. Louis and St. Louis are the same town... I don't know what to tell you. Hell, they're even in different states.

E. St. Louis, r33.

Hues Corporation Rock the Boat was released in 1973 and slowly climbed up the radio charts due to dance club play. Love's Theme was released a year later.

Everyone knew, but there wasn't a internet where they could loudly display their bigotry. Those really were the days, where people had to keep a lot of their outrage to themselves.

Though we did almost lose our aunt to the shock of seeing a gyrating, loin-clothed Native American dancing to Macho Man on Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve.

[Quote] Of course, everyone in NYC at the time knew they were gay. I went to a gay club where they were playing and everyone was screaming for them. Personally, I loved the cowboy.

As did everyone everywhere You didn't need to go to a gay club or live in NY to realize that they were gay. Most people knew of Greenwich Village's reputation

[quote]Hues Corporation Rock the Boat was released in 1973 and slowly climbed up the radio charts due to dance club play. Love's Theme was released a year later.

The "Rock the Boat" as a single wasn't released until 1974. It went to number 1 over the summer.

"Love's Theme" went to number 1 in February of that year. Months before "Rock The Boat".

Everyone knew and most didn't care because they liked their songs.

I went to the Chicago premiere of “Can’t Stop the Music.” Trust me, everyone present knew the VP were a gay group.

Everyone knew. No different from the disco scene in many towns and many gay neighborhoods.

Straight guys loved Queen and they didn't care that Freddie was gay. Music first.

The two songs I remember most from my first underage visit to a gay bar are Rock the Boat and...

I was in elementary school. I figured they were gay because everyone said it. But it didn't realize they depicted gay stereotypes or heroes. Once I visited NYC in college for the first time and stayed at the Westside YMCA, I knew exactly what the lyrics were talking about. It was amazing.

I swear I was the last to find out. None of the guys were fem, and I was too naive to understand the in-jokes of 'Key West', 'San Francisco' and the 'YMCA'. I just thought they were theatrical, like KISS.

[quote]I wasn't born back then but I do wonder since it was way before MTV

They were not "way before MTV." The Village People began in '77 and were active through the early '80s. MTV debuted in 1981.

A few years earlier was the very popular flamboyance of Bowie, Elton John and Freddie Mercury who most teenagers thought were extremely cool.

It didn't matter. Like they said every week on Bandstand - The songs had a good beat and you could dance to them.

And that music was played at every Italian wedding I went to as a kid. I remember learning the YMCA hand movements and thinking I was so cool!

no one has mentioned

No, not all members of the original Village People were gay. While the group was created to represent gay fantasy figures and was marketed towards a gay audience, the lead singer, Victor Willis, has stated that he is heterosexual, according to EL PAÍS English. The group's two openly gay members were Randy Jones (the cowboy) and Felipe Rose (the Native American), according to EL PAÍS English.

Unless your were at least American, Californian or a gay you would not necessarily know or recognise their gay codes.

They weren't exactly Liberace (which was the point) - and look how he hoodwinked generations of fraus and royalty.

Grew up in a SF suburb. While in high school in the 1970s, we moved to a small town about four hours north of SF. No one up there got that the Village People were gay. They were popular on the local to 40 radio station, but no one got it. You might as well have turned the clock back 30 years there. Having lived near SF, I understood just from the lyrics and imagery that I'd been exposed to that they were hella gay and it was hilarious. In the small town, people were naive, and the rabid Born Again Xtians hadn't taken hold yet. What was cute was that whenever guys were affectionate with each other or joking, everyone would say, "Oh, we'd better call Anita!" as a joke. I don't think they believed that gays actually existed or at least they weren't obsessed with it. In contrast, kids in the SF suburb were very aware, and very homophobic, including friends I'd grown up with. These kids were part of the "Disco Sucks" crowd.

Weren't most of them straight anyway?

^ Straight to cock-sucking, maybe.

R54 Some of them are married to women

Gay people saw the group as gay. Others saw silly men in costumes. Out in the midlands no one cared. The songs were terrific. The group was so obviously cast to fit the costumes.

.[Quote] hey were popular on the local to 40 radio station, but no one got it.

R52 but did they ever see them on TV or in Can't Stop the Music which made more obvious.

Everyone in major metro centers got it.

Ridiculous.

Reality is dying.

OP, I was punched in the face by my oldest brother for dancing to your song.

We knew it was gay. I had to make do with Eurithmics and Duran Duran.

Please, no straight man grows a Glenn Hughes mustache unless it's to frame some cock

The main guy was married to Clair Huxtable, before she became Clair Huxtable

[quote] Some of them are married to women

Well, R55, I guess that settles it!

We knew they were gay in Ohio.

The Village People guys were mostly a mess.

I think Felipe and Randy are the only two who ever came out.

Victor Willis IS out...out as a huge asshole.

I see claims that Glenn Hughes was straight with a wife but...c'mon. He opened his mouth and a leather purse fell out.

Hodo and the other black guy seemed....closety.

They were going to come out publicly, but Gary Morton talked them out of it.

R66, wasn't the original plan for Lucy to be the Indian?

If I never hear that fucking YMCA song ever again that will be just fine.