Randy Jones, the inimitable Cowboy from the Village People, hosted (or in his words, endured) a showing of 1980 VP vehicle Can’t Stop the Music at the Alamo Downtown last night. The film holds up better than I remember, mostly as harebrained camp but with some charmingly over-the-top brilliance as well. During the Q&A, Jones confirmed some old rumor of Warhol-involvement/influence, evident throughout in the film’s saturated colors and especially in the totally nuts “YMCA” montage gym sequence, liberally ripped from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and owing a lot more to Busby Berkeley – save for the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it male frontal nudity or Valerie Perrine’s magnificent breasts.
I regret saving my Q for the CD-signing line. When I asked Randy the cliché question if he felt obligated at weddings to lead the inevitable “YMCA” dance, he related a great story about singing the song at Bush’s second inauguration, which he described as “going into the belly of the beast” and sticking something in it. He then performed his rendition for the lucky few of us left in the lobby. It began with (I shit you not) the Mary Tyler Moore theme (Randy, G.W. took your invitation literally and did not stop at the “town”) and slid into campy gay national anthem. The crowd of Republicans all got up at the prescribed time, he said, and performed the proper arm choreography, “like third-graders.”
Tickets are still available for tonight’s Tab Hunter extravaganza (see below), and check back later today for a post about the parade.
This article appears in June 1 • 2007.