Drew Pisarra's "You're Pretty Gay" is Powerful, Engaging and Insightful

Drew Pisarra is a talented author with a strong narrative voice, a sharp wit, and a unique perspective. He’s previously displayed his knack for creating fascinating and offbeat stories and poems in works such as Publick Spanking, his first book of short stories, and Infinity Standing Up, an intense and passionate sonnet cycle which boldly examines the ups and downs of a modern relationship. You’re Pretty Gay, his latest collection of short fiction, is a finely honed and keenly observed set of stories which examine the queer experience from a variety of settings and viewpoints.

Speaking in Pisarra's sardonic voice, the narrator of these absorbing tales goes from suffering the slings and arrows of a bully, dealing with questions of his sexuality, to quite literally consuming the photos of a departed family member. These superbly written vignettes deal with love, lust, loss, joy, sadness and discovering your sexual identity in a world that pretty much wants to push (and sometimes shove) you into a pre-defined category. The outstanding and well-crafted stories in You’re Pretty Gay are refreshing, challenging and unpredictable.

Pisarra’s style is engaging and accessible, and his work is insightful, poignant, funny and illuminating. His prose can be razor sharp, and he pulls no punches, but that's one of his greatest strengths as a writer.  We're able to empathize with the narrator/main character throughout these tales precisely because the emotions on display in these pages are so raw and honest. Stories such as "The Hat from Hell," "Flashes of the Future," and "Dating Games: Silver Edition," will certainly delight, inspire and (perhaps) shock you just a little bit, and you won't soon forget them.

The book will be released by Chaffinch Press on June 25. You can learn more by following this link: https://chaffinchpress.com. Drew Pisarra is an award-winning poet and playwright who has toured the country with his monologues, worked in the television industry, and has also been part of the installation art duo Saint Flashlight with Molly Gross. The powerful stories in You’re Pretty Gay will challenge your pre-conceived notions of storytelling, and open your eyes to different perspectives about life, family and sexuality. If you haven't yet explored Pisarra's work, You're Pretty Gay is a pretty fine place to start.

Jim Steinman Walks the "Streets of Fire"

Jim Steinman, who passed away recently, was the master of over the top, emotion-filled pop/rock songs. Steinman struck gold with his long-standing collaboration with Meat Loaf on albums like the unforgettable Bat Out of Hell. He also produced and penned hits for Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, and Sisters of Mercy, among others. “Too much is never enough” was always the mantra in Steinman’s musical oeuvre. One of the best showcases for his work was the movie Streets of Fire, which was released in 1984. The film was directed by Walter Hill, who also helmed The Warriors and The Long Riders. Hill had just scored a major hit with 48 Hours, which co-starred Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, so he was a hot property in Hollywood at the time. Hill conceived a story that featured all the things he wanted to see in a movie; lots of action, car chases, motorcycles, and a damsel in distress who is saved by a tough guy anti-hero, all set to a pulsating rock soundtrack.

Originally titled The Adventures of Tom Cody, Hill and screenplay co-author Larry Gross shaped Hill’s concept into a “Rock & Roll Fable” set in “Another, Time, Another Place,” a world that entwined the look of a retro 1950s biker flick fused with the cool vibe and flashy visuals of 1980s music videos. The film tells the story of rock singer Ellen Aim, who’s kidnapped by a gang led by the villainous Raven Shaddock. Her former flame, war veteran Tom Cody, leads a ragtag group of heroes to rescue her, including Billy Fish, Ellen’s manager and current boyfriend, the tough talking female soldier of fortune McCoy, and Tom’s sister Reva. After they track Raven and his gang through the neon streets and rock and roll nights of the city, Tom manages to recue Ellen. But the vengeful Raven wants revenge. He demands a mano a mano showdown with Tom, or he and his gang will cause death and destruction across town.

 The amazing production design and kinetic visuals of the movie, courtesy of noted cinematographer Andrew Lazlo, give the film a look that was unique at the time. Streets of Fire definitely influenced subsequent movies and television shows, and its visionary style holds up well today. The cast includes Michael Pare as Cody, Diane Lane as Ellen Aim, Willem Dafoe as Raven, Rick Moranis as Billy and a fantastic supporting turn from Amy Madigan as McCoy. The part of McCoy was originally written for a man, but when Madigan tested for the part of Tom’s sister, she told director Hill she felt she could play McCoy (then called Mendez in the script), and that it would be really effective to showcase a woman in the role. Madigan turned out to be right, and her performance is one of the highlights of the film, which is an entertaining blend of genres, including Westerns, action movies, biker flicks and an MTV styled rock musical.

 

Speaking of music, Streets of Fire features tunes written by Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers band-mate Benmont Tench, Ry Cooder and Dan Hartman, whose song “I Can Dream About You” became a big hit during the time of the film’s original release. But the songs that perfectly encapsulate what Streets of Fire is all about are a pair of tunes written by Jim Steinman. Originally, Hill wanted to use Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Fire” in the film’s finale, and a sequence was filmed with Diane Lane’s character Ellen Aim performing the song. Negotiations with Springsteen broke down, so Hill and his crew turned to Steinman, who’d written a song called “Nowhere Fast,” which was set to open the film. He composed “Tonight It Was It Means To Be Young” a typically Steinman-esque power rocker, in just two days. The song has all the things we love about Steinman’s music all rolled into a glorious seven minute, over the top, rock and roll epic. The producers loved it so much they spent additional money to re-shoot the closing sequence with Lane lip-syncing the song to vocals by the group Fire, Inc. who had also contributed to “Nowhere Fast.” Fire, Inc. wasn’t an actual band, but the studio group featured vocalists Holly Sherwood and Laurie Sargent, who contributed the vocals for Lane’s on camera performances.

 

The world of Streets of Fire, with its archetypal characters, stunning visuals, and genre-bending story, is a perfect fit for Steinman’s grandiose music, and his songs are certainly highlights of the film. It’s no surprise that two of the music videos created to promote the movie were adapted from those opening and closing sequences. While the film wasn’t a hit upon its original release, it’s turned into something of a cult favorite over the years, and has a loyal cadre of fans. Sadly, since the movie wasn’t successful at the box office, a pair of sequels planned by Walter Hill never materialized, although Road To Hell, a low-budget film directed by Albert Pyun, featuring Michael Pare reprising the role of Tom Cody, was released in 2008. Like the music of Jim Steinman, if it’s in your wheelhouse, Streets of Fire isn’t just a movie you watch it’s a movie you experience. If you’re new to the film, and are looking for something different to watch, I recommend checking it out, especially if you’re a fan of Walter Hill’s other work as a writer and director on films like Hard Times, The Driver, and The Warriors. You might find that Streets of Fire will become a new favorite, or at the very least, a guilty pleasure. I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it and you'll dig the music, too. Here’s a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEOvn2IaLMM.

"Higher Than A Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb": A Chat With Andrew Curry

Andrew Curry, that maestro and super-producer of the indie-pop tribute album, has returned with another outstanding collection of tunes. After previously saluting AM radio hits of the 1970s, British bands of the 1980s, the theme songs to the James Bond films, and the music of Paul Williams, he’s back with Higher Than a Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb. This extraordinary compilation features artists such as Lisa Mychols, Greg Pope and Coke Belda presenting their phenomenal interpretations of the music of Andy Gibb. Once you hear tracks like Pope’s terrific take on “I Just Want To Be Your Everything” and Belda’s deeply emotional version of  “Me (Without You),” I think you’ll agree that Higher Than a Mountain is an exceptional record.  Andrew was kind enough to take some time to chat with me about this latest release from Curry Cuts, his Portland based label. 

 

Q: This is your fifth tribute compilation, after Drink A Toast To Innocence: A Tribute To Lite Rock, Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion, Songs. Bond Songs: The Music Of 007 and White Lace & Promises: The Songs Of Paul Williams. You probably have the process down to a science at this point, but this time around, you had to deal with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Did that world-changing event present any special challenges for you when you were putting this album together?

A: The pandemic definitely impacted this project, practically from the day I started working on it. I had the idea for a tribute to Andy in the latter months of 2019, and I started recruiting musicians shortly thereafter. Anticipating a spring 2020 release date, I asked for songs to be submitted by March of 2020. Well, we all know what happened in March of last year. The world effectively closed. A few musicians were able to work from studio spaces at home, but lots of other folks – even solo musicians who do all the instruments and production work on their music – were left unable to get to their normal studio spaces. Bands who always recorded together in the same space were suddenly unable to do that. So a March 2020 deadline became an April 2020 deadline, then a Halloween 2020 deadline, then a “You know what? Just get it to me whenever you can” deadline. A few folks were able to meet that original date. Others couldn’t get their recordings started until winter of 2021. For a fifteen track compilation, I was literally receiving tracks over a thirteen month span. It was wild.

Q:  Higher Than a Mountain effectively showcases Andy’s talents as both an artist and a songwriter. People tend to forget that Andy and his brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice (The Bee Gees) were multi-talented artists, and had successful careers as writers and producers in addition to having hits of their own. The Bee Gees got unfairly labelled as “just a disco act” after the success of Saturday Night Fever, but their body of work (including the songs they worked on with Andy) really illustrates the breadth of their skills. In the liner notes for the album, you talk about being a fan of Andy and The Bee Gees when you were younger. Was there a conscious effort on your part to try and broaden people’s perceptions about Andy’s music?

A: Definitely. As I say in those same liner notes, the compilation really doubles as a tribute to Andy and his older brothers, who were all essential to Andy’s success, especially Barry, who wrote or co-wrote most of Andy’s biggest hits, and produced them as well. Barry recently released a great album called Greenfields, where he revisits old Bee Gees songs as duets with current country artists. At the end of last year, HBO released How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?, a fantastic documentary about the Bee Gees. So the Gibbs have been back in the spotlight in a way that’s led to a lot of people re-evaluating them and their contributions to the pop music landscape. I wanted Andy to get a bit of recognition as well, because he was really a prominent cog in the Gibb hit-making machine of the late ‘70s. I sometimes think that his contributions to their legacy were overlooked.

Q: The songs on Higher Than A Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb are an eclectic mix of well known tracks and album cuts from Andy’s brief but impressive discography. Did you choose the songs, or did the artists select the tunes they wanted to record?

A: I chose the tracks I wanted to include on the compilation, and I generally offered specific songs to the participating musicians, songs I could really hear them doing in their own personal style. I wanted to include all the hits, of course. But it was just as important that I shine the spotlight on some deeper cuts, some tracks that Andy wrote without the help of his older brothers. It gives us some sense of what kind of artist he might have become had he been able to sustain his career a few years longer.

Q: Do you have any favorites among the deep cuts that you selected for the album?

A: The fun of the projects that I do is re-visiting the source material and discovering songs that maybe I’d forgotten or hadn’t heard in years. “Time Is Time” (covered by Keith Slettedahl on the album) was a song I remembered from back when it was released, but it was never one I gave much thought to in subsequent years. I bet I listened to it 100 times or more as I began putting the record together. It’s definitely one that is worth a new listen, especially for folks who think they know Andy’s sound. It doesn’t fall into the disco/adult contemporary niche that Andy worked so well back in the day, and I think it might have been an even bigger hit had it not come out when the Gibb backlash was in full effect. 

 Q: The artists did a fantastic job making these songs their own, while staying true to the spirit of the originals. Some amped up the power, like The Test Pressings on “Why,” and Irene Pena on “Wherever You Are.” Lisa Mychols’ beautiful cover of “(Our Love) Don’t Throw It All Away,” Minky Starshine’s darker take on “Desire” and Ken Sharp and Fernando Perdomo’s lovely rendition of “One More Look At The Night,” are all highlights of the album. Did any of these versions surprise you when you heard them for the first time?

A: Those are all terrific examples of the variety that’s on this record. Minky has been on my last several compilations, and it’s never easy to predict what his track will sound like. He did a lovely and fairly faithful version of Spandau Ballet’s “True” on Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion, but, as you note, his version of “Desire” on this record is a significant departure from Andy’s original, with those full Bee Gees backing vocals so prominently featured. Lisa Mychols collaborates with her husband Tom Richards on her tracks, and I’m always blown away by their takes on these old songs. Her track on this record, “(Our Love) Don’t Throw It All Away,” layers harmonies on top of harmonies, and the end result just melts me.

As for “Why,” Robbie Rist (of the Test Pressings) told me years ago that he always wants the song that no one else selects. That way he can make it into his own thing. I think that’s precisely what they’ve done with “Why,” a song that was never a single, so fewer people will have an idea about what the original sounds like. They made it into a legit rock song, and I love it.

  

Q: With the success of the HBO documentary, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? Barry’s album, and the upcoming release of your tribute to Andy, it feels like what’s occurring is a well-deserved re-assessment, and even a deeper appreciation, of the music of Andy and his brothers. Do you hope the more casual fans (and even the devoted ones) will take another look at their music after listening to Higher Than a Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb?

A: Well, that’s certainly one of the main goals of the record. I frequently make the argument that no one, not even the Bee Gees themselves, paid a higher price than Andy did for the backlash that hit the Bee Gees so hard at the start of the ‘80s. As I said in my liner notes, the Bee Gees were effectively run off the radio when the ‘80s started, but they were able to pivot to a new career as in-demand songwriters, and they wound up writing some truly enormous hits like “Woman In Love” for Barbra Streisand and “Islands In The Stream” for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. But Andy was never able to make a similar transition, and so he was just casually tossed aside, the victim of a misguided ”We’re done with all the Gibbs” movement on American radio. 

Climbing to such heights, only to then fall so low, it’s no wonder that his problems with addiction spiraled out of control. It’s really a sad story. I think it’s time for folks to get a new perspective on Andy and his music, the way people have been (very justifiably) re-assessing the older Gibb brothers. There’s a biography of Andy coming out in 2022 that I hope folks will read. I’m excited that Higher Than A Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb can be a part of the process which brings a bit more attention to some terrific music and the under-appreciated man who made it.

Thanks to Andrew Curry for chatting with me about his latest project from Curry Cuts. Higher Than A Mountain: The Songs of Andy Gibb will be released digitally on May 7, while the CD version will be be available around May 14. It's always a pleasure to talk with Andrew about his magnificent compilations. Here’s a link to the Bandcamp page for the album, where you an also preview several of the songs from the record: https://currycuts.bandcamp.com/album/higher-than-a-mountain-the-songs-of-andy-gibb.