February 23, 2023 • 56 mins
After Queen singer Freddie Mercury’s death in the fall of 1991, musicians confronted the AIDS crisis head-on. The band’s remaining members and a star-studded lineup celebrated the frontman’s legacy at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in spring 1992. Hip-hop trio Salt-N-Pepa reworked their single “Let’s Talk About Sex” into “Let’s Talk About AIDS” for an ABC special. R&B newcomers TLC appeared on talk shows with condoms emblazoned on their flashy attire. Meanwhile, the compilation album Red Hot + Dance—featuring three exclusive tracks from George Michael—set out to raise awareness about safe sex and LGBTQ rights and raise funds for AIDS charities.
Also in 1992: U2 released their anthemic ballad “One,“ partly inspired by HIV-positive artist and activist David Wojnarowicz; Madonna called for frank discussions about queerness and desire with her controversial photo book Sex and groundbreaking album Erotica; and Elton John launched the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which would become one of the largest HIV-related funders in the world.
But as a 1992 New York Times article declared, tackling AIDS was a “creative and ethical minefield” for pop stars. In this episode, we look at the various ways they navigated it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where Were You in ninety two is a production of iHeartRadio.
It reflects the fear of the time period, the repression
of people's sexuality, the homophobia, all of that was rooted
in fear of AIDS. In that respect, the album is
one of the first full albums that really is a
(00:22):
reflection of the AIDS era. Welcome to Where Are You
in ninety two, a podcast in which I Your host
Jason Lamfier look back at the major hits, one hit wonders,
shocking news stories, and irresistible scandals that shaped what might
be the wildest, most eclectic, most controversial twelve months of
(00:46):
music ever this week. After Queen singer Freddie Murcury's death
in the fall of nineteen ninety one, musicians began confronting
the AIDS crisis head on. Madonna, Elton, John You Two
and Salton Pepper wrote songs that addressed the disease. R
and B newcomer's TLC appeared on talk shows with condoms
(01:07):
emblazoned on their flashy attire. Meanwhile, the compilation album Red
Pot and Dance, featuring three exclusive tracks from George Michael,
set out to raise awareness about safe sex, raise funds
for AIDS charities and change the narrative around LGBTQ rights.
But as a nineteen ninety two New York Times article declared,
(01:29):
tackling AIDS was a creative and ethical minefield for pop stars.
In this episode, we looked at the various ways they
navigated it. It was November nineteen ninety one. Freddie Mercury
had not performed live with Queen in five years. The
group's last show with him at Nabworth Park in England
(01:52):
had drawn an audience of more than one hundred and
twenty thousand adoring fans, but he was too weak and
in too much pain to take the stage ever again.
Mercury had just returned from Switzerland and had been living
as a recluse at Garden Lodge in London. Speculation that
he was dying was rampant. Images of him looking pale
and gaunt had been splashed all over the tabloids and papers.
(02:15):
He had him revealed that he had AIDS to the
public or even to his parents, but the press and
paparassi lingered outside the wall surrounding his property. They knew
something was wrong. He would spend most of the day
in bed, sometimes drifting through his home and garden. He
was emaciated and losing his eyesight and could barely walk.
He had stopped taking the medication that had been keeping
(02:37):
him alive. A few select visitors were invited to see him.
Less than two weeks later, he had lost his sight
and was living off fluids. On Friday, November twenty second,
Mercury asked to see Queen's manager, Jim Beach, who came
to his home and met with him in his bedroom.
Hours later, Beach emerged saying Mercury was ready to tell
(02:59):
the world the truth. At midnight, his team released an
official statement on behalf of the singer, in addition to
disclosing that he had tested positive and now had aids.
The statement read quote, I hope that everyone will join
with my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight
against this terrible disease. Two days later, on Sunday, November
(03:23):
twenty fourth, nineteen ninety one, Mercury died. He was forty five.
A few weeks later, Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen's most beloved track,
was rereleased. It would soar to number one on the
UK singles charts. It's second time hitting number one in
(03:46):
the UK and stay there for five weeks. All the
proceeds from the rerelease, which totaled around one million pounds,
were donated to the Terence Higgins Trust, the UK's leading
HIV and AIDS charity. The song is the UK's third
biggest selling single of all time and the most streamed
song of the twentieth century. The remaining members of Queen
(04:10):
knew they had to do something. Before his death, Freddie
Mercury had faded from the public eye. The most recent
published images of him were tragic and exploitative, signaling his
impending death. The band wanted to celebrate his life, the
Freddie they knew and loved, as guitarist Brian May sat
at the time. Giving their frontman and friend a proper
(04:32):
send off was not only what they felt fans needed,
but also the closure they needed. Mercury became the first
high profile person to die of an AIDE related illness
in the UK, but this disease was much bigger than him.
AIDS related deaths were on the rise. By January nineteen
ninety two, almost four hundred and fifty thousand AIDS cases
(04:55):
had been reported to the Global Program on AIDS of
the World Health Organization, but the estimated number of adult
cases was one point five million, tens of thousands were dying.
In nineteen ninety two, HIV infection became the leading cause
of death for men between the ages of twenty five
and forty four. By nineteen ninety four, it would become
(05:19):
the leading cause of death among all Americans between the
ages of twenty five and forty four. The Freddie Mercury
(05:39):
Tribute Concert took place on April twentieth, nineteen ninety two,
at London's Wembley Stadium, where Mercury had delivered his dynamic
performance at the iconic benefit event Live Aid in nineteen
eighty five. As Queen's songwriter and drummer Roger Taylor said
on the eve of the concert, quote, Obviously, losing Freddy
has brought at home to us in a big way
(06:02):
and many other people that I know. As time goes on,
it becomes more of a threat. The threat is growing,
I think, and I don't think the awareness is growing.
So this seems like, especially for us, a good time
to do this. In addition to Queen, the show's performers
included Elton John, George Michael, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Robert
(06:23):
Plant of led Zeppelin, Roger Daltrey of The Who, Guns N' Roses,
Metallica Seal Deaf Leopard, Lisa Stansfield You Two Vias Satellite,
and Eliza Minelli. Actress and longtime AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor
delivered an AIDS prevention speech. Clips of Mercury interacting with
fans were played after her speech. The concerts sets ranged
(06:47):
from the truly wild to the truly iconic. Elton John
and Axel Rose led Queen's remaining members in an impassioned
rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, a song that was very much
back in the Zega stue to the original version's appearance
in a now legendary headbanging scene and the comedy Wayne's World.
George Michael's take on Somebody to Love is astonishing. It's
(07:09):
no wonder that when the cover was officially released a
year later, it bolted to the top of the UK
singles chart. And then, for God's sake, please go watch
and rewatch because you will need to. David Bowie and
Annie Lennox's performance of under Pressure, originally a Queen Bowie duet,
decked out in an enormous black hooped tool dress with
(07:32):
a silver necklace, lamy top, sporting the most fabulously exaggerated
raccoon eyes, her voice shattering the stratosphere. Lennox manages to
do the unthinkable and sort of outshine Bowie, though he
still absolutely slays in a mint green suit with his
token velvety groon. The pair closes the number locked in
(07:55):
a desperate, melodramatic embrace that truly honors the rock for
hybrid songwriting. Freddie Mercury perfected. They knew they'd nailed it,
as Lennox recalled and Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne's twenty
sixteen books Somebody to Love The Life, Death, and Legacy
of Freddie Mercury quote, the performance was electrical and totally
(08:18):
on point. It was one of the high points of
my life and mine. I divied my life into before
seeing Annie Lennox and David Bowie perform under pressure and
after seeing Annie Lennox and David Bowie perform under pressure
the crazy thing. Fans didn't even know who besides the
(08:41):
remaining members of Queen was performing when the concerts tickets
went on sale, Still, all seventy two thousand of them
were snatched up in just three hours. Remember this was
pre Internet. That was the power of Queen and Freddie Mercury.
The concerts profits, reportedly some twelve million pounds, helped launch
the AIDS Cherry organization Mercury Phoenix Trust. The concert was
(09:04):
also broadcast live on television and radio to seventy six
countries around the world, hitting an estimated audience of up
to one billion. After Mercury's death, many who had never
felt affected by the AIDS crisis suddenly were the remaining
(09:25):
members of Queen, and the group's fans came to better
understand what the disease was about. Some of the prejudice
surrounding AIDS would start to fade away. The Freddie Mercury
Tribute Concert was their glorious goodbye to a fallen hero.
It was also a reckoning. With his passing, they were
forced to confront the fact that they may have to
say goodbye to many more. Pop music is supposed to
(09:52):
make you feel good at its best, good and sexy,
even when it's tackling unrequited love or a romance cut short.
It's sadness connects with us, makes us feel like we're
not alone. If we two are suffering from heartache or
relationship woes. It nudges us toward healing. This suffering is universal.
But what if that sadness is deeper? What if the
(10:14):
end of the relationship is the most permanent kind? What
if the song is cloaked in the shadow of death.
A nineteen ninety two New York Times article titled the
Uneasy Alliance between AIDS and Pop pondered these questions, arguing
that pop music and AIDS were quote unquote strange bedfellows.
The piece read quote forced together. Pop and AIDS compromise
(10:38):
each other, forming a contradictory alliance between an industry that
market sex is fun and a disease that links sex
with death. How do you successfully capture the gravity of
AIDS in a three and a half minute pop song?
How do you sell it when many don't understand it
or wish to turn their backs on it, or worse,
believe those suffering from it deserve to suffer? How do
(11:01):
you capture something so dark, painful, and terrifying in a
song without looking glib or insincere or preachy? And yet,
how do you make people understand without conveying that this darkness, pain,
and terror are synonymous with the virus, because in nineteen
ninety two, AIDS was still considered fatal. The answer is
(11:23):
both complicated and not. Aid's awareness and activism and pop
was tough and risky territory, But for certain artists, the
reality of the crisis, its severity, and in some cases,
its proximity to their lives was undeniable. For them, the
choice was simple, do nothing or do something. AIDS demanded
their attention, and it demanded action. In nineteen ninety two,
(11:48):
major artists and entertainers were taking action, partly because they
felt if they didn't, who would. Politicians weren't doing enough,
nor were churches. Summer nineteen ninety two was, in a
sense the summer of safe sex, at least when it
came to the messaging. A handful of musicians were putting
out into the world hoping their fans would choose to listen.
(12:09):
One of those musicians was George Michael, who in nineteen
ninety two was in the upper echelon of pop stars.
He had performed in the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert and
devoted plenty of his time to aid's philanthropy, all while
dodging questions about his sexual orientation. Hey, I said this
ship was complicated, but he had a new idea. John
(12:34):
Carlin founded Red Hot, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting HIV
and AIDS through music and pop culture, with his friend
Lee Blake in nineteen eighty nine. Since then, the organization
has raised more than fifteen million dollars for charities like
AMPHAR and Act UP, and released some twenty music compilations,
starting with nineteen nineties Red Hot and Blue, an album
(12:56):
of reinterpretations of Cole Porter songs that featured art It's
Like You Two, David Byrne, Katie lang In, Shande O'Connor.
In nineteen ninety two, Carlin had lost his job at
his Manhattan law firm. He had taken on Red Hot
as a pro bono client of the firm, and while
he says he was able to carry out all his responsibilities,
it wasn't happy about his work with the group. Says Carlin.
(13:19):
I was basically kicked on the street around that time,
and I didn't quite know what I was going to do.
And then one day, out of the blue, I got
a call from someone who worked very closely with George
Michael me Andy Stevens, and Andy said George is a
(13:42):
big fan of Red Hot and Blue. He'd like to
donate a song to your next album, and I'm thinking
to myself, we don't have a next album. Carlin was
at an impass it as great as Red Hot Blue
was that it cost me my job. It was exhausting.
It wasn't exactly how I imagine my life at the moment.
(14:06):
But in nineteen ninety two, one thing that you could
not do was turned down the gift of the George
Michael saw. George Michael essentially kicked off what became a series,
which wasn't something that we had in mind. The other
thing that's really important for people to understand about George
(14:26):
Michael in nineteen ninety two was he wasn't out so
about George Michael being famous and openly queer in nineteen
ninety two was dangerous, especially given the close association between
aids and gay men at the time. As the second
episode of this podcast made clear, virtually no well known
musicians were openly queer in nineteen eighty two. Katie Lang,
(14:49):
who came out that year, was one of the few
if a closeted pop superstar was willing to put his
reputation on the line and lend Carlin's project the gravitas
it needed. Carlin thought he should probably take the risk two.
After all, this was an international crisis that had showed
no signs of slowing down. George was a member of
(15:10):
the gay community. The gay community was being ravaged. I
think he had a boyfriend who was HIV positive at
the time. Nineteen ninety two was the worst year in
the world for gay people. Nineteen ninety two is the
year where so many people died, and because the retrovirals
hadn't come into play, so so many people living with
(15:35):
AIDS just crashed in nineteen ninety two. If the Coal
Porter Covers compilation Red Hot and Blue targeted an affluent,
urban queer mail audience what was initially thought of as
a chief demographic affected by HIV and AIDS, it's follow
up a turned to another audience. This something lived where
(15:55):
George was helpful was who's at risk now? It was
the young club kids, and it's much harder to tell
young hormonal club kids to practice safe or sex. These
are the people going out getting busy. Didn't necessarily get
(16:18):
the first message. Red Hot's second compilation was Red Hot
and Dance, which consisted mostly of remix dands and pop
tracks from the likes of Madonna, Seal, Crystal Waters, PM Don,
Lisa Stansfield and Slide the Family Stone featuring cover by
Keith Pairing. It was anchored by three new exclusive songs,
(16:41):
the George Michael donated to Red Hot, the top ten
Nuvo disco cut, Too Funky, Do You Really Want to Know,
and Happy, all of which he recorded for the follow
up to was acclaimed nineteen ninety album Listen Without Prejudice
Volume one. Too Funky was Michael's final single for his
contract with Sony Music before he took legal action to
get out of it, claiming the label's lack of support
(17:03):
for rud Hotten Dance was one of the reasons he
wanted to cut ties with it. Dude was not fucking around. Slick, buoyant,
and seductive, Red Hotten Dance could be considered an antidote
to the melancholy and tragedy of the AIDS crisis. It
suggested that change could come not only through research and activism,
(17:23):
but through unity through bodies, black, brown, white, queer, trans
straight coming together. It was about liberation, leaving the shadows
and living life out in the open, on the dance floor,
in the bedroom. But it was also about facing the
truth if in too funky. Michael sang I Gotta get
(17:43):
inside of You. His next track on Red Hotten Dance,
Do You Really Want to Know, included the lyrics I
used to say it, but it's no longer true because
what you don't know can really hurt you. It can
kill you, baby. And then later the world is full
of lovers after night and week after week, trusting to
luck and their pockets full of rubbers. The message was clear,
(18:06):
sucks was inevitable. Safety was essential To drive that message home,
Red Hot and Dance was paired with a street poster
campaign photographed by Bigwig Lensman, Stephen Mazelle, Stephen Klein, and
Bruce Webber, featuring queer and straight couples and intimate poses.
The posters boasted the slogan safe sucks as hot sex.
(18:29):
Red Hot also collaborated with MTV on a special that
aired around the world, directed by Mark Pellington, whose nineteen
ninety two video for Pearl Jams Jeremy would win four VMA's.
The documentary, also titled Red Hot and Dance, included interviews
with young people affected by HIV and AIDS, medical professionals
and celebrities like RuPaul, Cindy Lauper and Salt and Pepperkids
(18:52):
is sexually transmitted disease. So if you want to protect people,
you have to talk about set. How we sold the
Red Hot and Dance TV special to MTV was basically
going in and saying, with all due respect, this whole
channel is about selling sex to under h teenagers. It's like,
(19:14):
this is why you exist. Red Hot and Dance. The
special put condom use and Queerness front and center nineteen
ninety two is really like a transition near a tipping
point around using condoms. There was a lot of work
to make that part of people's behavior. The musicians involved
(19:37):
in the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert and Red Hot were
among a new wave of entertainers advocating for safe sex
and LGBTQ rights. It's changing behavior and changing the narrative,
and I think that's the way you have to work
at pop culture and propaganda. So there were a lot
of people in the early nineties doing both of the
(20:00):
those things and they had a huge impact. Those things
had to be done, and Red Hot was just a
little piece of that. It was part of a chorus
of people saying, this makes no sense. You know, we're
going to change the culture. Up next, after the break,
(20:27):
we look at the other major artists who confronted the
AIDS crisis in nineteen eighty two, including Salt and Pepper, Elton, John, TLC,
You Two, and Madonna. It was the summer of nineteen
(20:49):
ninety two, the summer musicians were turning their attention to
safe sex and the AIDS crisis. MTV aired Red Hot
and Dance, a special to coincide with the release of
an album of the same name, assembled by the not
for profit Red Hot Organization. The record was a collection
of George Michael songs and remixed dance tracks to raise
(21:09):
money for AIDS awareness and charities. Also that summer, ABC
broadcast in a New Light, a Call to Action in
the War against AIDS, a two hour AIDS awareness special
introduced by Elizabeth Taylor and featuring performances and cameos and
the likes of Anita Baker, share Clint Black, Reba McIntyre,
and Salt and Pepper set to aid's imagery. The network
(21:32):
donated its net advertising proceeds from the special to AIDS education,
prevention and support services. It was a significant move for
a big foreign network. When it came to HIV and
AIDS awareness. In nineteen eighty two, Salton Peppa were doing
the work. In fact, they were one of the first
high profile acts to put the cause to music. In
(21:53):
August nineteen ninety one, the trio had released Let's Talk
About Sex. Okay. Yeah, it was clearly intended to drop
some jaws and seals and records, but the song was
also essentially a safe sex campaign. In their minds and
in the minds of many AIDS activists, people were afraid
to discuss sex, which was a major hurdle in combating
the disease. Says rud Hot co founder John Carlin, I
(22:16):
have a good friend Kendall Thomas. Early AIDS activists never
a backt up, and he says something which has always
stayed with these how come when people talk about the
history of AIDS, people don't talk about sex. AIDS is
also spread through intravenous drug users sharing needles, but the
most common mode of exposure is through sex. Not placing
(22:40):
sex at the heart of the conversation about HIV and
AIDS was basically ignoring the real issue. Solom Pepper weren't
here for that. The hip hop trio had already pushed
the envelope with their nineteen eighty six far from subtle
single push It, But Let's talk about sex. They achieved
a rare feat. They made a song about safe sex
and gentially about HIV and AIDS. There was not only
(23:03):
bold and uncomfortable enough to make listeners pay attention, but
also smart, funny, at times, pretty sexy, and not overly preachy.
Check these lyrics. But anyway, ready or not, here he
comes and like a dumb son of a gun. Oops,
he forgot the condoms. Oh well, you say, what the hell?
It's chill. I won't get God, I'm on the pill
(23:23):
until the sores start to puff and spore. He gave
it to you, and now it's yours. Now. There is
some scary ass high school health class shit, but also facts.
So much hip hop at the time was objectifying women,
but these ladies were taken the genre by the balls
(23:45):
and taking real talk into your homes and cars and clubs.
They sounded tough and confident, like they had agency over
their mouths and bodies. They were the safe sex sages
all swagger and SaaS and wisdom. As Soul aka Cheryl
James told Rolling Stone in nineteen ninety four, quote, the
song was not about sex. The song was about communication
(24:08):
and talking about a subject that nobody wants to talk about.
So just from the gate, for me, it was brilliant,
said Peppa aka Sandra Denton. Quote. It wasn't a dirty song.
It was an enlightenment song. The tracks sticky chorus goes,
let's talk about sex, baby, Let's talk about you and me.
Let's talk about all the good things and the bad
(24:30):
things that maybe. The video features couples kissing and embracing,
and in one version of it, as the rappers get
to the line and the bad things that may be
and the last minute of the song, the camera cuts
to a skeleton sporting a necklace that reads and big
black letters AIDS with a red circle around it. Over
the skeleton's mouth is a piece of yellow tape bearing
(24:51):
the word censored. The image is actually a little chilling,
like SMPS take on the nineteen eighty seven Silence equals
death slogan and poster with the pink trying which the
AIDS coalition to unleash power or act up would use
as this defining image and their activist campaign against the epidemic.
(25:14):
ABC newscaster Peter Jennings took notice after overhearing his daughter
playing Let's Talk About Sex. He gave the lyrics a
closer listen and really dug its message. In February nineteen
ninety two, he enlisted Salt and Peppa for Growing Up
in the Age of AIDS, a TV special he was hosting,
asking them to rerecord the track as Let's Talk About AIDS.
(25:36):
The retooled version addressed AIDS and the ignorance and stigma
surrounding it more directly than any mainstream pop or hip
hop artist had before. Sample lyrics, I got some news
for you, so listen please, It's not a black, white,
or gay disease. Then later to the unconcerned and uninformed,
you think you can't get it, well you're wrong. Don't dismiss,
(25:58):
disc or blacklist the topic. That ain't going to stop
it now. If you go about it right, you just
might save your life. Don't be uptight. Come join the fight.
As Peppa told Yahoo Entertainment in twenty twenty one, quote
at the time, it felt like a sense of obligation,
but when you listen to the lyrics, the awareness. We
(26:18):
were ahead of our time advocating for this message at
that time. For him to change let's talk about sex
to let's talk about AIDS, it was a no brainer
for us to how to get that message out. Salt
added quote. One of the things that I really love
about that particular moment is that people were afraid to
talk about it at that time. It was a very unpopular,
(26:40):
unspoken thing. We took it head on and we remade
the song, and we became advocates for AIDS and HIV awareness.
I think that's a huge part of our history something
to celebrate. Salt and Peppa weren't the only hip hop
trio taking on save sex at that point. Another would
make it an integral part of their branding and esthetic.
The female threesome of Tan t Bos Watkins, Rozanda Chili
(27:04):
Thomas and Lisa left I Lopez, better known as TLC,
sprang up at the beginning of nineteen ninety two, and
by the middle of that year they'd blown up, becoming
one of the most successful new acts of the year
and eventually one of the most successful acts of the
nineties period. You could draw a line from SMP to TLC.
(27:37):
SNP formed in Queens, New York in nineteen eighty five.
TLC formed in Atlanta in nineteen ninety when its members
were in their early twenties, but they'd studied Salm Peppa
and had taken a page from their book, bringing a
similar strut in silliness to their music and visuals. They
had a very clear identity from the get go, coming
off like the antithesis on the scantily clad psultry women
(28:00):
populating so many hip hop videos at the time. They
dressed like their male counterparts, but with less self seriousness
and more whimsy baggy jeans, oversized shirts, boxer shorts, and
flashy colors. Their vibe was upbeat, frisky, self assured. If
you want to know what so much of the early
nineties were about, at least the good times, just take
(28:20):
a look at the cover of their nineteen ninety two
debut album, Oh On the TLC tip Joyous. In the
video for the LP's lead single, Ain't Too Proud to
beg the group channeled that whimsy, positive energy, and wild
style into a good cause. If pinning condoms to their
clothes for their entree into the world was pretty whack
(28:41):
Lisa left eye. Lopez putting one over her left eye
was just extra. But when your rhymes and flow are
so thoroughly enjoyable as hers were, you can get away
with looking like some planned parenthood pirate. Take the songs
hook for example, Yo, if I need it in the
morning or the middle of the night, I ain't too
proud to BEG. If the lovin is strong and he
(29:02):
got it going on and I ain't too proud to
BEG two inches or a yard rock hard, or if
it's saggin, I ain't too proud to BEG. So it
ain't like I'm bragging. Just joined the pattiwagon because I
ain't too proud to BEG. I ain't too proud to BEG. Okay,
I know it's weird when I recite rap lyrics, but
as many of you have noticed, we can't play the
songs on this podcast anyway. You have to admit that
(29:24):
is a solid hook. The same way Sir mix a
Lot was promoting body positivity with Baby Got Back while
still making it abundantly clear that he was horny as hell.
These ladies were all about getting freaky, but wrapping it
up left. I was literally slapping a condom on her face.
She was a walking billboard for safe sex and then
rapping about erect and soft penises. Speaking of billboards, this
(29:48):
song hit number six on the Billboard Hot one hundred
and number two on the Billboard Hot R and B
hip Hop Songs Chart. How did this ship make it
on the radio? It's so penisy, but thank god it did. So.
How did the condom culture come about? Well, here's how
Chili recalled it in a twenty seventeen teen Vogue interview quote,
we were on our way to the studio one day
(30:09):
and a condom and safety pin weround the dresser, and
when left I came outside, t Bows and I were
waiting for her in the car. She had pinned the
condom to her pants. From that day, it became part
of our signature style. It wasn't a joke. It was
(30:32):
serious messaging, wrapped in such a way that TLC could
actually get young, sexually active listeners to listen, said Chili
in the same interview quote. Some parents thought we were
telling their kids to have sex, but we were making
a fashion statement to make it easier to talk about sex.
As left I told the Los Angeles Times, in nineteen
(30:54):
ninety two quote, by making it a fashion statement, we're
doing something more important, making a social statement. Kids listen
to performers, and we have a duty to give them
certain critical information. We want something eyecatching, so when kids
see the condoms, they ask why do we wear condoms?
And talk about condoms? That brings up the issue of
safe sex. The point is to make condoms something kids
(31:17):
aren't afraid of or ashamed of. In that same twenty
seventeen teen Vogue interview, t BOS specifically addressed HIV, saying quote,
during that time, so many people were getting diagnosed with HIV.
People were talking about it, but not really talking about it.
As role models, we knew we needed to start the conversation.
(31:39):
TLC would pop up on talk shows to explain their
messaging and continue wearing condoms in the videos for their
next two singles, Baby Baby Baby and What About Your Friends,
both of which would hit the top ten. In two
For one scene to the Baby Baby Baby video, they
plastered the side of a dorm building with posters boasting
the slogan protection is the priority. The summer of safe
sex continue. The trio would later write specifically about HIV
(32:03):
and AIDS and their massive nineteen ninety five number one
hit Waterfalls, TLC and Salt and Peppa did something inconceivable
in nineteen ninety two. They made music that stressed the
importance of safe sex, but their PSA pop made it
seem cool and fun. Another pop artist would take a
different approach to discussions around sex and the AIDS crisis,
(32:25):
a much bolder, in your face approach. In nineteen ninety two,
Madonna was already pop's reigning queen of subversion, but in
the fall of that year, she would embark on her
most provocative shocking venture yet. The day after she dropped
her dance driven fifth studio album, Erotica, she would bring
sex to the table, specifically the coffee table, releasing a glossy, racy,
(32:50):
nudity filled photobook simply titled Sex The World was Shook
it Up. Next after the Break, we look back at
(33:17):
the most controversial moment in Madonna's career and what money
consider her most important, plus the story of how an
artist affected by AIDS left a lasting impression on the
band YouTube. It was October nineteen ninety two. Madonna was
(33:47):
not only the biggest pop star in the world, but
also it's most controversial, having blurred the lines between sex
and religion and gender roles, and turned a spotlight on
interracial relationships and queer relationships. But that month she would
cross the line for many, releasing her provocative coffee table
book Sex, a collection of erotic photography and softcore pornography
(34:12):
that depicted the singer and her clique in various positions,
states of undress, and stages of ecstasy. Along for the
ride actress Isabella Rossellini, rapper Vanilla Ice, her lover at
the time, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano,
actor Udo Kier, and socialite Tatiana von Furstenberg. Homosexuality and
(34:36):
sado masochism were major themes to shoot the book. Madonna
enlisted fashion photographers Stephen Mizell and Fabian Baron, who spearheaded
the relaunch of Andy Warhol's Interview in nineteen ninety. For inspiration,
they turned to the work of Gay Bardan, Helmut Newton,
and Robert Maplethorpe, known for his heavy use of queer
(34:57):
s and m imagery. The singer wrote the words, casting
herself as dominatrix and sex fiend. Mistress Dieta, a character
inspired by nineteen thirties film actress Dieta Parlow. If the
endeavor was audacious and risky, it proved more than any
other modern art book that Sex sells, to the tune
(35:18):
of more than one point five million copies worldwide. Sex
sold out, and it became the best and fastest selling
coffee table book ever. Madonna's goal was simple. Of course,
(35:39):
she wanted to shock the world that was her Raisin detra,
but like Salt and Peppa and TLC, she also wanted
people to break the silence and talk about sex, to
stop seeing it as of her boating topic. As she asserted, quote,
sexual repression is responsible for a lot of bad behavior,
(36:00):
she sighed, and all my work, my thing has always
been not to be ashamed of who you are, your body,
your physicality, your desires, your sexual fantasies. The reason there
is bigotry and sexism and racism and homophobia is fear.
People are afraid of their own feelings, afraid of the unknown.
(36:21):
And I am saying don't be afraid. Like Salt and
Peppa and TLC, Madonna knew sex was killing people, but
she also insisted that not talking about sex was also
killing people. Talking about safe sex could save them. To
drive that point home, the book, which was ring bound
with metal covers, came packaged in a zipped milar bag.
(36:43):
The sealed bag was meant to evoke a condom wrapper
Madonna's Clever and Sexy Little PSA. In celebration of the
release of the book, the HMV Music Store in New
York City hosted a special Madonna lookalike contest and set
up a booth where people could pay a dollar a
minute to paw through the book. The proceeds went to LIFEbeat,
a music industry organization founded in nineteen ninety two to
(37:06):
help fund aid's education research and prevention. Sex was released
a day after Madonna's fifth album, Erotica, but for many,
the breuhaha over the book eclipsed the music. Her detractors
were tired of the singer's porny, antics and attention seeking
and didn't even care to hear it, and of those
(37:26):
who did take the time to listen, not everyone got it.
Produced by Shep Pettibone, who co produced her massive nineteen
ninety number one hit Vogue, and Andre Betts, who produced
her other nineteen ninety number one hit, Justify My Love
with Lenny Kravitz. The album had much more of a
house and hip hop vibe than her previous efforts. The
record peaked at number two on the US Billboard two
(37:47):
hundred album chart, becoming her first studio album since her
nineteen eighty three debut not to top the chart. None
of its singles hit number one. Madonna was thirty fourth
time some declared her career, but for many, namely queer men,
(38:10):
Erotica as a nineties touchstone and a pop music touchsdone.
Sal Sinquamani is a filmmaker, the co founder of Slant magazine,
and a writer whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard,
and The Village Voice. He falls into the camp of
music lovers who would argue that while Erotica isn't Madonna's
best album, it may bee her most important, partly because
(38:31):
she refused to back down on something she considered critical
frank conversations about sex and AIDS, says Sinquamani. The more
people push back on it, the more she wanted to
put it out there, as she wanted to be no
holds barred, like, just completely free, not thinking about the consequences.
Because she didn't have any you know, there were no
(38:52):
you know. She was going to be successful no matter
what in her mind. In nineteen ninety two, when sex
had become scary, when many were equating sex with aid
and death, Madonna forced her audience to confront it. Her
music had always been fueled by sex, most pop music was,
but the lego virgin singer stripped back the artifice and
made her carnal desires crystal clear. She had been crucified
(39:14):
for that. But if there were ever a time to
drill down on sex, she felt like this was it.
Too many queer people were living their lives in secrecy,
too many of them were dying, and she knew she
had the power to get people to pay attention. Yes,
Erotica contains songs about sex. The title track, in which
Madonna embraces her Dita alter ego, is total dam pop.
(39:38):
As the pre chorus goes, give it up, Do as
I say, give it up and let me have my way.
I'll give you love, I'll hit you like a trunk.
I'll give you love. I'll teach you how to Oh.
Where Life Begins is basically six minutes of innuendo for
Conelincus Welcome to our last episode Kids, all bets are off. However,
(40:01):
where Life Begins also contains these lines, are you still hungry?
Aren't you glad you came? I'm glad you brought your raincoat.
I think it's beginning to rain A nod to safe sex,
safe sex, but sexy the thing is for all its naughtiness.
Erotica is mostly about the aftermath of sex, the repercussions
(40:22):
of sex, belonging, frustration, fear, heartache, and self destruction that
comes after sex. See tracks like Bye Bye Baby, Waiting
and Bad Girl. And then there is In This Life
About in which Madonna tackles the AIDS crisis head on,
specifically remembering two loved ones she lost to AIDS. She
(40:42):
was already an AIDS activist at the time, having spoken
and written about the disease with the release of her
nineteen eighty nine album Like a Prayer, but this was
her first work that addressed AIDS explicitly. She wrote the
track about the deaths of her close gay friend Martin
Burgogne and gay mentor Christopher Flynn. The song captures that
rare Madonna moment when she drops the veil and bears
(41:04):
her soul, revealing her pain and anger over not only
her personal loss, but also homophobia and the inaptitude America
had displayed in dealing with the disease. Why should he
be treated differently? Shouldn't matter who you choose to love?
She sings then later because now you're gone, and I
have to ask myself what for People pass by? And
(41:26):
I wonder who's next, who determines who knows best? Is
there a lesson I'm supposed to learn in this case?
Ignorance is not bliss. That last line echoes the lyrics
of George Michael's nineteen ninety two Brad Houghton Dan's cut.
Do you really want to know when he sings? Because
what you don't know can really hurt you, It can
kill you. Baby. Sanquamani was a young teenager when Erotica
(41:50):
came out. He was drawn to it and listened to
it NonStop. He was still figuring things out, but tracks
like in This Life spoke to him. At that age.
I sort of knew which she was talking about, and
I knew that it was about me, and so I
think that's why, you know, young queer kids in my
generation really sort of resonated with her so strongly. Because
(42:11):
she was talking to us and we knew that, but
we couldn't say that, and we couldn't talk to our
friends or family about it. But here was this woman
talking to us about it directly, and it really felt
like there was a connection there. If you've listened to
the album, it really sort of helped you understand why
she was so passionate about that issue and why she
was fighting for that issue. And then years later we
find out, you know, that she was going to Mexico
(42:34):
to try to get experimental drugs and do all this
stuff to try to save her friends. You know, it
wasn't even about saving the world. She just wanted to
save her friends who were dying. And it's really Madonna
singing about about her loss. In nineteen ninety two, queer
people felt like Madonna, who was already an icon and
so many of their minds, was finally speaking to them directly.
(42:54):
Why is it so hard to love one another? She
asked on another Erotica song, Why is it so hard?
Her remake of Fever, with its line Everybody's Got the
Fever could induce chills. Whether it was intentional or not.
The AIDS subtext was there Madonna at a peak of
her career, you know, really coming out and being vocal
(43:16):
about it and talking about not being ashamed, and talking
about safe sex and putting these things out in the open.
I think really shaped my understanding of sexuality and safe sex.
All of the impact that AIDS had on how we
connect with people, how we have sex with people, how
we feel about ourselves. All of that is encompassed in
(43:38):
these songs that are seemingly not about AIDS, but it
just it's nineteen ninety two, and it's at the peak
of the deaths and the peak of the publicity and
fear mongering and teaching kids like me and health class
that we're going to die. Literally, as SINGLEMANI reached his
twenties and then his dirties, as he came out and
(44:01):
came to better understand AIDS and the history of the
struggle for LGBTQ rights, erotica took on a deeper significance.
I think its legacy is just that it reflects the
fear of the time period. At that time, things that
were happening with you know, the repression of people's sexuality,
(44:21):
the fear of the homophobia. All of that was rooted
in fear of AIDS, and I think in that respect
the album is I think, if not the first, one
of the first full pieces full albums that really is
a reflection of the AIDS era. Stirred by personal loss,
the biggest pop star in the world put pen to
(44:42):
page to express her grief, confusion, and frustration through some
she Wasn't alone. You Two, the biggest rock band in
(45:02):
the world in nineteen ninety two, would also release a
song to touch on the complexity and tragedy of AIDS.
Their track one remains one of the group's most beloved.
While frontman Bano preferred to keep its meaning ambiguous, allowing
the song to connect the listeners navigating a variety of struggles,
he has said his admiration and friendship with queer HIV
(45:23):
positive artist and activist David Voynerovitch at least partly inspired it.
When he began writing the lyrics, he envisioned a difficult
conversation someone like Voynarovitch might have with their family, Esbano
(45:50):
recalls in his twenty twenty two memoir Surrender, he improvised
a lyric about a son telling his religious father that
he was gay, much like Madonna's In This Life the
song delivers no real resolution. Bono writes, I don't think
we're all one. We can be one, but I don't
think we have to see things the same way for
that to be so, and anarchic thought. We're one, but
(46:13):
we're not the same. We get to carry each other,
not that we've got to, just that we get to
no answer, No nineteen eighties. We are the world idealism.
Life had become more complicated in the nineties, but one
does call for more empathy, a deeper understanding. The choice
(46:35):
is yours. How much you wish to carry, give up,
keep trying, or come to peace with it. Red Hot
co founder John Carlin introduced You To to Voynarovich. He'd
written an essay for a catalog for one of Voynarovitch's exhibitions,
and after You Two recorded a song for the first
(46:56):
Red Hot compilation album, Red Hot and Blue, Carlin sent
its members the catalog is a thank you gift. They
became collectors of his work. When it was time for
You Two to release one in February nineteen ninety two,
Carlin helped them commission Voynarovich's photograph untitled Buffalo, as the
cover of the single Voynarovitch had created the black and
(47:17):
white piece depicting a herd of buffalo falling over a
cliff in nineteen eighty eight when he was diagnosed. The
image is stark and startling, chaotic and tragic. The animals
plummet to their deaths. You want to save them, but
feel helpless. For many affected by AIDS during that period,
the metaphor was clear. Carlin wrote the blurb on the
(47:38):
back of the one single and arranged for its proceeds
to go to AMPHAR, the Foundation for aid's Research. One
version of its video, directed by Mark Pellington, who directed
Pearl Jam's Jeremy video and the rud Hunt and Dance
documentary showcased slow motion footage of buffalo inspired by Voynarovich's image.
Another version, filmed by Anton Korbyn, featured the band in drag,
(47:59):
but Bo thought it reinforced stereotypes that everyone suffering from
AIDS was gay. The ultimate version was simpler Bono smoking
in a nightclub. As John Carlin, the man who brought
you two and the Artist together tells it, the last
time Voyennarovich ever left his apartment was to see a
U two concert at the Metal Lands in New Jersey.
At that point, Vuynarovich had aids and was very close
(48:22):
to dying. He had been estranged from his family, having
run away from home like so many LGBTQ people in
that era. Carlin wanted to reconcile him with his brother
and sister, so he arranged an outing. I knew that
they could not turn down tickets to see You two
and go backstage at the Metal Lands, So David came
(48:44):
to the concert in a wheelchair, his boyfriend Tom Rathenbard
pushing And one of the most moving moments was Bono
on stage stops right before he sings the song one
and said something to the effect of, you know, we're
just pop artists, but there's a great artist in our
(49:05):
next And they put the spotlight on David sitting there
in his wheelchair and his father and sister behind him,
and say, you know, this is a truly great artist,
and it was just an amazing moment. Voynerovich died just
months after One was released, in July nineteen ninety two.
He was thirty seven. You Two would anonymously pay off
(49:29):
his medical bills so that his estate didn't have to
have a fire cell of his work. Since then, Bano
has become one of music's most prominent HIV and AIDS activists.
Others would die. In ninety two, again AIDS related illnesses
where the leading caused death from end between the ages
of twenty five and forty four. That year. Artist whose
(49:50):
lives were claimed by AIDS and ninety two included Peter Allen,
Tina Chow, Paul Jabara, Larry Levan, and Arthur Russell. There
were many more. This story doesn't have the happiest ending.
(50:31):
I wish it did. Studies show a significant spike in
the number of people infected with HIV and dying of
AIDS in the nineteen nineties. Between nineteen ninety six and
two thousand and one, more than three million people were
infected every year. The number of AIDS related deaths increased
throughout the nineteen nineties and reached a peak in two
(50:52):
thousand and four and two thousand and five, when in
both years close to two million people died. But wow,
have we come along way. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported in twenty twenty one that HIV incidents
decreased by seventy three percent from the highest number of
infections one hundred and thirty thousand, four hundred in nineteen
(51:13):
eighty four and eighty five to thirty four thousand, eight
hundred and twenty nineteen. Thanks to anti retroviral therapy, people
with HIV and AIDS today can expect to live long lives,
and we have countless activists, including musicians, to thank for that.
(51:34):
By nineteen ninety two, Elton John had lost his friend
Freddie Mercury, whom he visited in his dying days, and
another friend, Ryan White, a teenager who was infected with
HIV by a blood transfusion and who died in nineteen
ninety just before his high school graduation. In October nineteen
ninety two, the same month Madonna's In This Life would
(51:56):
appear on her album Erotica, John would release a single
inspired by his loss, told from the point of view
of a dying man reuniting with his estranged father. John's track,
the last song from his nineteen ninety two album The One,
was the first single he released to benefit the Elton
John AIDS Foundation, the nonprofit organization he founded that fall
(52:20):
to support education, prevention, treatment, and services to people living
with HIV and AIDS. The Elton John Aids Foundation is
the second largest HIV related funder of LGBTQ plus populations
and the fifth largest HIV related funder overall. Since nineteen
ninety two, it is funded more than three thousand projects
(52:40):
in over ninety countries and raised more than five hundred
and twenty five million dollars for HIV AIDS grants globally.
For red Hot co founder John Carlin, nineteen ninety two
was bittersweet, a time of great laws, but also a
time of great change and great hope. I think in
around nineteen ninety two and doing all these read out projects,
(53:02):
I realized that, you know, artists have become the moral
voice of our culture. And they weren't like heathenists. They
weren't people who were like contrary subversive forces. In some
weird way, the politicians and the business people became reprehensible.
(53:26):
They were the people you couldn't trust for guiding us
through society, and somehow it became artists, you know, Bono,
George Michael, for all their complexity as human beings, they
have become our moral guide. In nineteen ninety two, MTV
would air its first episode of the Real World, kickstarting
(53:49):
the modern reality TV movement and initiating the network's gradual
move away from music videos. Music television would never be
the same, but the music itself hit deep in nineteen
ninety two. It felt massive, resounding, monumental, grunge, g funk,
new age, hip hop, top shelf, R and B line dancing,
(54:11):
same sex, lust and love, artist protesting against police brutality
and child abuse, artist protesting four LGBTQ rights and the
fight to end AIDS. It was a time of shattered records,
shattered hearts, and shattered expectations. Maybe we only fully understand
(54:36):
how wild, shocking, and absolutely fabulous nineteen ninety two was
now some thirty years later. Music a reflection of our culture, yes,
as John Carlin puts it, the moral voice of our
culture so often. Yes, a way to affect change and
shift our culture. Yes, and here's hoping it continues to
(54:58):
as we sold her on, because music has been all
those things forever. But oh my god, was it extra
special in nineteen ninety two. Where Were You in ninety
(55:52):
two was a production of iHeartRadio. The executive producers are
Noel Brown and Jordan run Tag. The show was researched,
written and hosted by me Jason Laffier with editing and
sound design by Michael Alder June. If you like what
you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
(56:13):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Where Were You in ninety two is a production of iHeartRadio.
It reflects the fear of the time period, the repression
of people's sexuality, the homophobia, all of that was rooted
in fear of AIDS. In that respect, the album is
one of the first full albums that really is a
(00:22):
reflection of the AIDS era. Welcome to Where Are You
in ninety two, a podcast in which I Your host
Jason Lamfier look back at the major hits, one hit wonders,
shocking news stories, and irresistible scandals that shaped what might
be the wildest, most eclectic, most controversial twelve months of
(00:46):
music ever this week. After Queen singer Freddie Murcury's death
in the fall of nineteen ninety one, musicians began confronting
the AIDS crisis head on. Madonna, Elton, John You Two
and Salton Pepper wrote songs that addressed the disease. R
and B newcomer's TLC appeared on talk shows with condoms
(01:07):
emblazoned on their flashy attire. Meanwhile, the compilation album Red
Pot and Dance, featuring three exclusive tracks from George Michael,
set out to raise awareness about safe sex, raise funds
for AIDS charities and change the narrative around LGBTQ rights.
But as a nineteen ninety two New York Times article declared,
(01:29):
tackling AIDS was a creative and ethical minefield for pop stars.
In this episode, we looked at the various ways they
navigated it. It was November nineteen ninety one. Freddie Mercury
had not performed live with Queen in five years. The
group's last show with him at Nabworth Park in England
(01:52):
had drawn an audience of more than one hundred and
twenty thousand adoring fans, but he was too weak and
in too much pain to take the stage ever again.
Mercury had just returned from Switzerland and had been living
as a recluse at Garden Lodge in London. Speculation that
he was dying was rampant. Images of him looking pale
and gaunt had been splashed all over the tabloids and papers.
(02:15):
He had him revealed that he had AIDS to the
public or even to his parents, but the press and
paparassi lingered outside the wall surrounding his property. They knew
something was wrong. He would spend most of the day
in bed, sometimes drifting through his home and garden. He
was emaciated and losing his eyesight and could barely walk.
He had stopped taking the medication that had been keeping
(02:37):
him alive. A few select visitors were invited to see him.
Less than two weeks later, he had lost his sight
and was living off fluids. On Friday, November twenty second,
Mercury asked to see Queen's manager, Jim Beach, who came
to his home and met with him in his bedroom.
Hours later, Beach emerged saying Mercury was ready to tell
(02:59):
the world the truth. At midnight, his team released an
official statement on behalf of the singer, in addition to
disclosing that he had tested positive and now had aids.
The statement read quote, I hope that everyone will join
with my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight
against this terrible disease. Two days later, on Sunday, November
(03:23):
twenty fourth, nineteen ninety one, Mercury died. He was forty five.
A few weeks later, Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen's most beloved track,
was rereleased. It would soar to number one on the
UK singles charts. It's second time hitting number one in
(03:46):
the UK and stay there for five weeks. All the
proceeds from the rerelease, which totaled around one million pounds,
were donated to the Terence Higgins Trust, the UK's leading
HIV and AIDS charity. The song is the UK's third
biggest selling single of all time and the most streamed
song of the twentieth century. The remaining members of Queen
(04:10):
knew they had to do something. Before his death, Freddie
Mercury had faded from the public eye. The most recent
published images of him were tragic and exploitative, signaling his
impending death. The band wanted to celebrate his life, the
Freddie they knew and loved, as guitarist Brian May sat
at the time. Giving their frontman and friend a proper
(04:32):
send off was not only what they felt fans needed,
but also the closure they needed. Mercury became the first
high profile person to die of an AIDE related illness
in the UK, but this disease was much bigger than him.
AIDS related deaths were on the rise. By January nineteen
ninety two, almost four hundred and fifty thousand AIDS cases
(04:55):
had been reported to the Global Program on AIDS of
the World Health Organization, but the estimated number of adult
cases was one point five million, tens of thousands were dying.
In nineteen ninety two, HIV infection became the leading cause
of death for men between the ages of twenty five
and forty four. By nineteen ninety four, it would become
(05:19):
the leading cause of death among all Americans between the
ages of twenty five and forty four. The Freddie Mercury
(05:39):
Tribute Concert took place on April twentieth, nineteen ninety two,
at London's Wembley Stadium, where Mercury had delivered his dynamic
performance at the iconic benefit event Live Aid in nineteen
eighty five. As Queen's songwriter and drummer Roger Taylor said
on the eve of the concert, quote, Obviously, losing Freddy
has brought at home to us in a big way
(06:02):
and many other people that I know. As time goes on,
it becomes more of a threat. The threat is growing,
I think, and I don't think the awareness is growing.
So this seems like, especially for us, a good time
to do this. In addition to Queen, the show's performers
included Elton John, George Michael, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Robert
(06:23):
Plant of led Zeppelin, Roger Daltrey of The Who, Guns N' Roses,
Metallica Seal Deaf Leopard, Lisa Stansfield You Two Vias Satellite,
and Eliza Minelli. Actress and longtime AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor
delivered an AIDS prevention speech. Clips of Mercury interacting with
fans were played after her speech. The concerts sets ranged
(06:47):
from the truly wild to the truly iconic. Elton John
and Axel Rose led Queen's remaining members in an impassioned
rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, a song that was very much
back in the Zega stue to the original version's appearance
in a now legendary headbanging scene and the comedy Wayne's World.
George Michael's take on Somebody to Love is astonishing. It's
(07:09):
no wonder that when the cover was officially released a
year later, it bolted to the top of the UK
singles chart. And then, for God's sake, please go watch
and rewatch because you will need to. David Bowie and
Annie Lennox's performance of under Pressure, originally a Queen Bowie duet,
decked out in an enormous black hooped tool dress with
(07:32):
a silver necklace, lamy top, sporting the most fabulously exaggerated
raccoon eyes, her voice shattering the stratosphere. Lennox manages to
do the unthinkable and sort of outshine Bowie, though he
still absolutely slays in a mint green suit with his
token velvety groon. The pair closes the number locked in
(07:55):
a desperate, melodramatic embrace that truly honors the rock for
hybrid songwriting. Freddie Mercury perfected. They knew they'd nailed it,
as Lennox recalled and Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne's twenty
sixteen books Somebody to Love The Life, Death, and Legacy
of Freddie Mercury quote, the performance was electrical and totally
(08:18):
on point. It was one of the high points of
my life and mine. I divied my life into before
seeing Annie Lennox and David Bowie perform under pressure and
after seeing Annie Lennox and David Bowie perform under pressure
the crazy thing. Fans didn't even know who besides the
(08:41):
remaining members of Queen was performing when the concerts tickets
went on sale, Still, all seventy two thousand of them
were snatched up in just three hours. Remember this was
pre Internet. That was the power of Queen and Freddie Mercury.
The concerts profits, reportedly some twelve million pounds, helped launch
the AIDS Cherry organization Mercury Phoenix Trust. The concert was
(09:04):
also broadcast live on television and radio to seventy six
countries around the world, hitting an estimated audience of up
to one billion. After Mercury's death, many who had never
felt affected by the AIDS crisis suddenly were the remaining
(09:25):
members of Queen, and the group's fans came to better
understand what the disease was about. Some of the prejudice
surrounding AIDS would start to fade away. The Freddie Mercury
Tribute Concert was their glorious goodbye to a fallen hero.
It was also a reckoning. With his passing, they were
forced to confront the fact that they may have to
say goodbye to many more. Pop music is supposed to
(09:52):
make you feel good at its best, good and sexy,
even when it's tackling unrequited love or a romance cut short.
It's sadness connects with us, makes us feel like we're
not alone. If we two are suffering from heartache or
relationship woes. It nudges us toward healing. This suffering is universal.
But what if that sadness is deeper? What if the
(10:14):
end of the relationship is the most permanent kind? What
if the song is cloaked in the shadow of death.
A nineteen ninety two New York Times article titled the
Uneasy Alliance between AIDS and Pop pondered these questions, arguing
that pop music and AIDS were quote unquote strange bedfellows.
The piece read quote forced together. Pop and AIDS compromise
(10:38):
each other, forming a contradictory alliance between an industry that
market sex is fun and a disease that links sex
with death. How do you successfully capture the gravity of
AIDS in a three and a half minute pop song?
How do you sell it when many don't understand it
or wish to turn their backs on it, or worse,
believe those suffering from it deserve to suffer? How do
(11:01):
you capture something so dark, painful, and terrifying in a
song without looking glib or insincere or preachy? And yet,
how do you make people understand without conveying that this darkness, pain,
and terror are synonymous with the virus, because in nineteen
ninety two, AIDS was still considered fatal. The answer is
(11:23):
both complicated and not. Aid's awareness and activism and pop
was tough and risky territory, But for certain artists, the
reality of the crisis, its severity, and in some cases,
its proximity to their lives was undeniable. For them, the
choice was simple, do nothing or do something. AIDS demanded
their attention, and it demanded action. In nineteen ninety two,
(11:48):
major artists and entertainers were taking action, partly because they
felt if they didn't, who would. Politicians weren't doing enough,
nor were churches. Summer nineteen ninety two was, in a
sense the summer of safe sex, at least when it
came to the messaging. A handful of musicians were putting
out into the world hoping their fans would choose to listen.
(12:09):
One of those musicians was George Michael, who in nineteen
ninety two was in the upper echelon of pop stars.
He had performed in the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert and
devoted plenty of his time to aid's philanthropy, all while
dodging questions about his sexual orientation. Hey, I said this
ship was complicated, but he had a new idea. John
(12:34):
Carlin founded Red Hot, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting HIV
and AIDS through music and pop culture, with his friend
Lee Blake in nineteen eighty nine. Since then, the organization
has raised more than fifteen million dollars for charities like
AMPHAR and Act UP, and released some twenty music compilations,
starting with nineteen nineties Red Hot and Blue, an album
(12:56):
of reinterpretations of Cole Porter songs that featured art It's
Like You Two, David Byrne, Katie lang In, Shande O'Connor.
In nineteen ninety two, Carlin had lost his job at
his Manhattan law firm. He had taken on Red Hot
as a pro bono client of the firm, and while
he says he was able to carry out all his responsibilities,
it wasn't happy about his work with the group. Says Carlin.
(13:19):
I was basically kicked on the street around that time,
and I didn't quite know what I was going to do.
And then one day, out of the blue, I got
a call from someone who worked very closely with George
Michael me Andy Stevens, and Andy said George is a
(13:42):
big fan of Red Hot and Blue. He'd like to
donate a song to your next album, and I'm thinking
to myself, we don't have a next album. Carlin was
at an impass it as great as Red Hot Blue
was that it cost me my job. It was exhausting.
It wasn't exactly how I imagine my life at the moment.
(14:06):
But in nineteen ninety two, one thing that you could
not do was turned down the gift of the George
Michael saw. George Michael essentially kicked off what became a series,
which wasn't something that we had in mind. The other
thing that's really important for people to understand about George
(14:26):
Michael in nineteen ninety two was he wasn't out so
about George Michael being famous and openly queer in nineteen
ninety two was dangerous, especially given the close association between
aids and gay men at the time. As the second
episode of this podcast made clear, virtually no well known
musicians were openly queer in nineteen eighty two. Katie Lang,
(14:49):
who came out that year, was one of the few
if a closeted pop superstar was willing to put his
reputation on the line and lend Carlin's project the gravitas
it needed. Carlin thought he should probably take the risk two.
After all, this was an international crisis that had showed
no signs of slowing down. George was a member of
(15:10):
the gay community. The gay community was being ravaged. I
think he had a boyfriend who was HIV positive at
the time. Nineteen ninety two was the worst year in
the world for gay people. Nineteen ninety two is the
year where so many people died, and because the retrovirals
hadn't come into play, so so many people living with
(15:35):
AIDS just crashed in nineteen ninety two. If the Coal
Porter Covers compilation Red Hot and Blue targeted an affluent,
urban queer mail audience what was initially thought of as
a chief demographic affected by HIV and AIDS, it's follow
up a turned to another audience. This something lived where
(15:55):
George was helpful was who's at risk now? It was
the young club kids, and it's much harder to tell
young hormonal club kids to practice safe or sex. These
are the people going out getting busy. Didn't necessarily get
(16:18):
the first message. Red Hot's second compilation was Red Hot
and Dance, which consisted mostly of remix dands and pop
tracks from the likes of Madonna, Seal, Crystal Waters, PM Don,
Lisa Stansfield and Slide the Family Stone featuring cover by
Keith Pairing. It was anchored by three new exclusive songs,
(16:41):
the George Michael donated to Red Hot, the top ten
Nuvo disco cut, Too Funky, Do You Really Want to Know,
and Happy, all of which he recorded for the follow
up to was acclaimed nineteen ninety album Listen Without Prejudice
Volume one. Too Funky was Michael's final single for his
contract with Sony Music before he took legal action to
get out of it, claiming the label's lack of support
(17:03):
for rud Hotten Dance was one of the reasons he
wanted to cut ties with it. Dude was not fucking around. Slick, buoyant,
and seductive, Red Hotten Dance could be considered an antidote
to the melancholy and tragedy of the AIDS crisis. It
suggested that change could come not only through research and activism,
(17:23):
but through unity through bodies, black, brown, white, queer, trans
straight coming together. It was about liberation, leaving the shadows
and living life out in the open, on the dance floor,
in the bedroom. But it was also about facing the
truth if in too funky. Michael sang I Gotta get
(17:43):
inside of You. His next track on Red Hotten Dance,
Do You Really Want to Know, included the lyrics I
used to say it, but it's no longer true because
what you don't know can really hurt you. It can
kill you, baby. And then later the world is full
of lovers after night and week after week, trusting to
luck and their pockets full of rubbers. The message was clear,
(18:06):
sucks was inevitable. Safety was essential To drive that message home,
Red Hot and Dance was paired with a street poster
campaign photographed by Bigwig Lensman, Stephen Mazelle, Stephen Klein, and
Bruce Webber, featuring queer and straight couples and intimate poses.
The posters boasted the slogan safe sucks as hot sex.
(18:29):
Red Hot also collaborated with MTV on a special that
aired around the world, directed by Mark Pellington, whose nineteen
ninety two video for Pearl Jams Jeremy would win four VMA's.
The documentary, also titled Red Hot and Dance, included interviews
with young people affected by HIV and AIDS, medical professionals
and celebrities like RuPaul, Cindy Lauper and Salt and Pepperkids
(18:52):
is sexually transmitted disease. So if you want to protect people,
you have to talk about set. How we sold the
Red Hot and Dance TV special to MTV was basically
going in and saying, with all due respect, this whole
channel is about selling sex to under h teenagers. It's like,
(19:14):
this is why you exist. Red Hot and Dance. The
special put condom use and Queerness front and center nineteen
ninety two is really like a transition near a tipping
point around using condoms. There was a lot of work
to make that part of people's behavior. The musicians involved
(19:37):
in the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert and Red Hot were
among a new wave of entertainers advocating for safe sex
and LGBTQ rights. It's changing behavior and changing the narrative,
and I think that's the way you have to work
at pop culture and propaganda. So there were a lot
of people in the early nineties doing both of the
(20:00):
those things and they had a huge impact. Those things
had to be done, and Red Hot was just a
little piece of that. It was part of a chorus
of people saying, this makes no sense. You know, we're
going to change the culture. Up next, after the break,
(20:27):
we look at the other major artists who confronted the
AIDS crisis in nineteen eighty two, including Salt and Pepper, Elton, John, TLC,
You Two, and Madonna. It was the summer of nineteen
(20:49):
ninety two, the summer musicians were turning their attention to
safe sex and the AIDS crisis. MTV aired Red Hot
and Dance, a special to coincide with the release of
an album of the same name, assembled by the not
for profit Red Hot Organization. The record was a collection
of George Michael songs and remixed dance tracks to raise
(21:09):
money for AIDS awareness and charities. Also that summer, ABC
broadcast in a New Light, a Call to Action in
the War against AIDS, a two hour AIDS awareness special
introduced by Elizabeth Taylor and featuring performances and cameos and
the likes of Anita Baker, share Clint Black, Reba McIntyre,
and Salt and Pepper set to aid's imagery. The network
(21:32):
donated its net advertising proceeds from the special to AIDS education,
prevention and support services. It was a significant move for
a big foreign network. When it came to HIV and
AIDS awareness. In nineteen eighty two, Salton Peppa were doing
the work. In fact, they were one of the first
high profile acts to put the cause to music. In
(21:53):
August nineteen ninety one, the trio had released Let's Talk
About Sex. Okay. Yeah, it was clearly intended to drop
some jaws and seals and records, but the song was
also essentially a safe sex campaign. In their minds and
in the minds of many AIDS activists, people were afraid
to discuss sex, which was a major hurdle in combating
the disease. Says rud Hot co founder John Carlin, I
(22:16):
have a good friend Kendall Thomas. Early AIDS activists never
a backt up, and he says something which has always
stayed with these how come when people talk about the
history of AIDS, people don't talk about sex. AIDS is
also spread through intravenous drug users sharing needles, but the
most common mode of exposure is through sex. Not placing
(22:40):
sex at the heart of the conversation about HIV and
AIDS was basically ignoring the real issue. Solom Pepper weren't
here for that. The hip hop trio had already pushed
the envelope with their nineteen eighty six far from subtle
single push It, But Let's talk about sex. They achieved
a rare feat. They made a song about safe sex
and gentially about HIV and AIDS. There was not only
(23:03):
bold and uncomfortable enough to make listeners pay attention, but
also smart, funny, at times, pretty sexy, and not overly preachy.
Check these lyrics. But anyway, ready or not, here he
comes and like a dumb son of a gun. Oops,
he forgot the condoms. Oh well, you say, what the hell?
It's chill. I won't get God, I'm on the pill
(23:23):
until the sores start to puff and spore. He gave
it to you, and now it's yours. Now. There is
some scary ass high school health class shit, but also facts.
So much hip hop at the time was objectifying women,
but these ladies were taken the genre by the balls
(23:45):
and taking real talk into your homes and cars and clubs.
They sounded tough and confident, like they had agency over
their mouths and bodies. They were the safe sex sages
all swagger and SaaS and wisdom. As Soul aka Cheryl
James told Rolling Stone in nineteen ninety four, quote, the
song was not about sex. The song was about communication
(24:08):
and talking about a subject that nobody wants to talk about.
So just from the gate, for me, it was brilliant,
said Peppa aka Sandra Denton. Quote. It wasn't a dirty song.
It was an enlightenment song. The tracks sticky chorus goes,
let's talk about sex, baby, Let's talk about you and me.
Let's talk about all the good things and the bad
(24:30):
things that maybe. The video features couples kissing and embracing,
and in one version of it, as the rappers get
to the line and the bad things that may be
and the last minute of the song, the camera cuts
to a skeleton sporting a necklace that reads and big
black letters AIDS with a red circle around it. Over
the skeleton's mouth is a piece of yellow tape bearing
(24:51):
the word censored. The image is actually a little chilling,
like SMPS take on the nineteen eighty seven Silence equals
death slogan and poster with the pink trying which the
AIDS coalition to unleash power or act up would use
as this defining image and their activist campaign against the epidemic.
(25:14):
ABC newscaster Peter Jennings took notice after overhearing his daughter
playing Let's Talk About Sex. He gave the lyrics a
closer listen and really dug its message. In February nineteen
ninety two, he enlisted Salt and Peppa for Growing Up
in the Age of AIDS, a TV special he was hosting,
asking them to rerecord the track as Let's Talk About AIDS.
(25:36):
The retooled version addressed AIDS and the ignorance and stigma
surrounding it more directly than any mainstream pop or hip
hop artist had before. Sample lyrics, I got some news
for you, so listen please, It's not a black, white,
or gay disease. Then later to the unconcerned and uninformed,
you think you can't get it, well you're wrong. Don't dismiss,
(25:58):
disc or blacklist the topic. That ain't going to stop
it now. If you go about it right, you just
might save your life. Don't be uptight. Come join the fight.
As Peppa told Yahoo Entertainment in twenty twenty one, quote
at the time, it felt like a sense of obligation,
but when you listen to the lyrics, the awareness. We
(26:18):
were ahead of our time advocating for this message at
that time. For him to change let's talk about sex
to let's talk about AIDS, it was a no brainer
for us to how to get that message out. Salt
added quote. One of the things that I really love
about that particular moment is that people were afraid to
talk about it at that time. It was a very unpopular,
(26:40):
unspoken thing. We took it head on and we remade
the song, and we became advocates for AIDS and HIV awareness.
I think that's a huge part of our history something
to celebrate. Salt and Peppa weren't the only hip hop
trio taking on save sex at that point. Another would
make it an integral part of their branding and esthetic.
The female threesome of Tan t Bos Watkins, Rozanda Chili
(27:04):
Thomas and Lisa left I Lopez, better known as TLC,
sprang up at the beginning of nineteen ninety two, and
by the middle of that year they'd blown up, becoming
one of the most successful new acts of the year
and eventually one of the most successful acts of the
nineties period. You could draw a line from SMP to TLC.
(27:37):
SNP formed in Queens, New York in nineteen eighty five.
TLC formed in Atlanta in nineteen ninety when its members
were in their early twenties, but they'd studied Salm Peppa
and had taken a page from their book, bringing a
similar strut in silliness to their music and visuals. They
had a very clear identity from the get go, coming
off like the antithesis on the scantily clad psultry women
(28:00):
populating so many hip hop videos at the time. They
dressed like their male counterparts, but with less self seriousness
and more whimsy baggy jeans, oversized shirts, boxer shorts, and
flashy colors. Their vibe was upbeat, frisky, self assured. If
you want to know what so much of the early
nineties were about, at least the good times, just take
(28:20):
a look at the cover of their nineteen ninety two
debut album, Oh On the TLC tip Joyous. In the
video for the LP's lead single, Ain't Too Proud to
beg the group channeled that whimsy, positive energy, and wild
style into a good cause. If pinning condoms to their
clothes for their entree into the world was pretty whack
(28:41):
Lisa left eye. Lopez putting one over her left eye
was just extra. But when your rhymes and flow are
so thoroughly enjoyable as hers were, you can get away
with looking like some planned parenthood pirate. Take the songs
hook for example, Yo, if I need it in the
morning or the middle of the night, I ain't too
proud to BEG. If the lovin is strong and he
(29:02):
got it going on and I ain't too proud to
BEG two inches or a yard rock hard, or if
it's saggin, I ain't too proud to BEG. So it
ain't like I'm bragging. Just joined the pattiwagon because I
ain't too proud to BEG. I ain't too proud to BEG. Okay,
I know it's weird when I recite rap lyrics, but
as many of you have noticed, we can't play the
songs on this podcast anyway. You have to admit that
(29:24):
is a solid hook. The same way Sir mix a
Lot was promoting body positivity with Baby Got Back while
still making it abundantly clear that he was horny as hell.
These ladies were all about getting freaky, but wrapping it
up left. I was literally slapping a condom on her face.
She was a walking billboard for safe sex and then
rapping about erect and soft penises. Speaking of billboards, this
(29:48):
song hit number six on the Billboard Hot one hundred
and number two on the Billboard Hot R and B
hip Hop Songs Chart. How did this ship make it
on the radio? It's so penisy, but thank god it did. So.
How did the condom culture come about? Well, here's how
Chili recalled it in a twenty seventeen teen Vogue interview quote,
we were on our way to the studio one day
(30:09):
and a condom and safety pin weround the dresser, and
when left I came outside, t Bows and I were
waiting for her in the car. She had pinned the
condom to her pants. From that day, it became part
of our signature style. It wasn't a joke. It was
(30:32):
serious messaging, wrapped in such a way that TLC could
actually get young, sexually active listeners to listen, said Chili
in the same interview quote. Some parents thought we were
telling their kids to have sex, but we were making
a fashion statement to make it easier to talk about sex.
As left I told the Los Angeles Times, in nineteen
(30:54):
ninety two quote, by making it a fashion statement, we're
doing something more important, making a social statement. Kids listen
to performers, and we have a duty to give them
certain critical information. We want something eyecatching, so when kids
see the condoms, they ask why do we wear condoms?
And talk about condoms? That brings up the issue of
safe sex. The point is to make condoms something kids
(31:17):
aren't afraid of or ashamed of. In that same twenty
seventeen teen Vogue interview, t BOS specifically addressed HIV, saying quote,
during that time, so many people were getting diagnosed with HIV.
People were talking about it, but not really talking about it.
As role models, we knew we needed to start the conversation.
(31:39):
TLC would pop up on talk shows to explain their
messaging and continue wearing condoms in the videos for their
next two singles, Baby Baby Baby and What About Your Friends,
both of which would hit the top ten. In two
For one scene to the Baby Baby Baby video, they
plastered the side of a dorm building with posters boasting
the slogan protection is the priority. The summer of safe
sex continue. The trio would later write specifically about HIV
(32:03):
and AIDS and their massive nineteen ninety five number one
hit Waterfalls, TLC and Salt and Peppa did something inconceivable
in nineteen ninety two. They made music that stressed the
importance of safe sex, but their PSA pop made it
seem cool and fun. Another pop artist would take a
different approach to discussions around sex and the AIDS crisis,
(32:25):
a much bolder, in your face approach. In nineteen ninety two,
Madonna was already pop's reigning queen of subversion, but in
the fall of that year, she would embark on her
most provocative shocking venture yet. The day after she dropped
her dance driven fifth studio album, Erotica, she would bring
sex to the table, specifically the coffee table, releasing a glossy, racy,
(32:50):
nudity filled photobook simply titled Sex The World was Shook
it Up. Next after the Break, we look back at
(33:17):
the most controversial moment in Madonna's career and what money
consider her most important, plus the story of how an
artist affected by AIDS left a lasting impression on the
band YouTube. It was October nineteen ninety two. Madonna was
(33:47):
not only the biggest pop star in the world, but
also it's most controversial, having blurred the lines between sex
and religion and gender roles, and turned a spotlight on
interracial relationships and queer relationships. But that month she would
cross the line for many, releasing her provocative coffee table
book Sex, a collection of erotic photography and softcore pornography
(34:12):
that depicted the singer and her clique in various positions,
states of undress, and stages of ecstasy. Along for the
ride actress Isabella Rossellini, rapper Vanilla Ice, her lover at
the time, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano,
actor Udo Kier, and socialite Tatiana von Furstenberg. Homosexuality and
(34:36):
sado masochism were major themes to shoot the book. Madonna
enlisted fashion photographers Stephen Mizell and Fabian Baron, who spearheaded
the relaunch of Andy Warhol's Interview in nineteen ninety. For inspiration,
they turned to the work of Gay Bardan, Helmut Newton,
and Robert Maplethorpe, known for his heavy use of queer
(34:57):
s and m imagery. The singer wrote the words, casting
herself as dominatrix and sex fiend. Mistress Dieta, a character
inspired by nineteen thirties film actress Dieta Parlow. If the
endeavor was audacious and risky, it proved more than any
other modern art book that Sex sells, to the tune
(35:18):
of more than one point five million copies worldwide. Sex
sold out, and it became the best and fastest selling
coffee table book ever. Madonna's goal was simple. Of course,
(35:39):
she wanted to shock the world that was her Raisin detra,
but like Salt and Peppa and TLC, she also wanted
people to break the silence and talk about sex, to
stop seeing it as of her boating topic. As she asserted, quote,
sexual repression is responsible for a lot of bad behavior,
(36:00):
she sighed, and all my work, my thing has always
been not to be ashamed of who you are, your body,
your physicality, your desires, your sexual fantasies. The reason there
is bigotry and sexism and racism and homophobia is fear.
People are afraid of their own feelings, afraid of the unknown.
(36:21):
And I am saying don't be afraid. Like Salt and
Peppa and TLC, Madonna knew sex was killing people, but
she also insisted that not talking about sex was also
killing people. Talking about safe sex could save them. To
drive that point home, the book, which was ring bound
with metal covers, came packaged in a zipped milar bag.
(36:43):
The sealed bag was meant to evoke a condom wrapper
Madonna's Clever and Sexy Little PSA. In celebration of the
release of the book, the HMV Music Store in New
York City hosted a special Madonna lookalike contest and set
up a booth where people could pay a dollar a
minute to paw through the book. The proceeds went to LIFEbeat,
a music industry organization founded in nineteen ninety two to
(37:06):
help fund aid's education research and prevention. Sex was released
a day after Madonna's fifth album, Erotica, but for many,
the breuhaha over the book eclipsed the music. Her detractors
were tired of the singer's porny, antics and attention seeking
and didn't even care to hear it, and of those
(37:26):
who did take the time to listen, not everyone got it.
Produced by Shep Pettibone, who co produced her massive nineteen
ninety number one hit Vogue, and Andre Betts, who produced
her other nineteen ninety number one hit, Justify My Love
with Lenny Kravitz. The album had much more of a
house and hip hop vibe than her previous efforts. The
record peaked at number two on the US Billboard two
(37:47):
hundred album chart, becoming her first studio album since her
nineteen eighty three debut not to top the chart. None
of its singles hit number one. Madonna was thirty fourth
time some declared her career, but for many, namely queer men,
(38:10):
Erotica as a nineties touchstone and a pop music touchsdone.
Sal Sinquamani is a filmmaker, the co founder of Slant magazine,
and a writer whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard,
and The Village Voice. He falls into the camp of
music lovers who would argue that while Erotica isn't Madonna's
best album, it may bee her most important, partly because
(38:31):
she refused to back down on something she considered critical
frank conversations about sex and AIDS, says Sinquamani. The more
people push back on it, the more she wanted to
put it out there, as she wanted to be no
holds barred, like, just completely free, not thinking about the consequences.
Because she didn't have any you know, there were no
(38:52):
you know. She was going to be successful no matter
what in her mind. In nineteen ninety two, when sex
had become scary, when many were equating sex with aid
and death, Madonna forced her audience to confront it. Her
music had always been fueled by sex, most pop music was,
but the lego virgin singer stripped back the artifice and
made her carnal desires crystal clear. She had been crucified
(39:14):
for that. But if there were ever a time to
drill down on sex, she felt like this was it.
Too many queer people were living their lives in secrecy,
too many of them were dying, and she knew she
had the power to get people to pay attention. Yes,
Erotica contains songs about sex. The title track, in which
Madonna embraces her Dita alter ego, is total dam pop.
(39:38):
As the pre chorus goes, give it up, Do as
I say, give it up and let me have my way.
I'll give you love, I'll hit you like a trunk.
I'll give you love. I'll teach you how to Oh.
Where Life Begins is basically six minutes of innuendo for
Conelincus Welcome to our last episode Kids, all bets are off. However,
(40:01):
where Life Begins also contains these lines, are you still hungry?
Aren't you glad you came? I'm glad you brought your raincoat.
I think it's beginning to rain A nod to safe sex,
safe sex, but sexy the thing is for all its naughtiness.
Erotica is mostly about the aftermath of sex, the repercussions
(40:22):
of sex, belonging, frustration, fear, heartache, and self destruction that
comes after sex. See tracks like Bye Bye Baby, Waiting
and Bad Girl. And then there is In This Life
About in which Madonna tackles the AIDS crisis head on,
specifically remembering two loved ones she lost to AIDS. She
(40:42):
was already an AIDS activist at the time, having spoken
and written about the disease with the release of her
nineteen eighty nine album Like a Prayer, but this was
her first work that addressed AIDS explicitly. She wrote the
track about the deaths of her close gay friend Martin
Burgogne and gay mentor Christopher Flynn. The song captures that
rare Madonna moment when she drops the veil and bears
(41:04):
her soul, revealing her pain and anger over not only
her personal loss, but also homophobia and the inaptitude America
had displayed in dealing with the disease. Why should he
be treated differently? Shouldn't matter who you choose to love?
She sings then later because now you're gone, and I
have to ask myself what for People pass by? And
(41:26):
I wonder who's next, who determines who knows best? Is
there a lesson I'm supposed to learn in this case?
Ignorance is not bliss. That last line echoes the lyrics
of George Michael's nineteen ninety two Brad Houghton Dan's cut.
Do you really want to know when he sings? Because
what you don't know can really hurt you, It can
kill you. Baby. Sanquamani was a young teenager when Erotica
(41:50):
came out. He was drawn to it and listened to
it NonStop. He was still figuring things out, but tracks
like in This Life spoke to him. At that age.
I sort of knew which she was talking about, and
I knew that it was about me, and so I
think that's why, you know, young queer kids in my
generation really sort of resonated with her so strongly. Because
(42:11):
she was talking to us and we knew that, but
we couldn't say that, and we couldn't talk to our
friends or family about it. But here was this woman
talking to us about it directly, and it really felt
like there was a connection there. If you've listened to
the album, it really sort of helped you understand why
she was so passionate about that issue and why she
was fighting for that issue. And then years later we
find out, you know, that she was going to Mexico
(42:34):
to try to get experimental drugs and do all this
stuff to try to save her friends. You know, it
wasn't even about saving the world. She just wanted to
save her friends who were dying. And it's really Madonna
singing about about her loss. In nineteen ninety two, queer
people felt like Madonna, who was already an icon and
so many of their minds, was finally speaking to them directly.
(42:54):
Why is it so hard to love one another? She
asked on another Erotica song, Why is it so hard?
Her remake of Fever, with its line Everybody's Got the
Fever could induce chills. Whether it was intentional or not.
The AIDS subtext was there Madonna at a peak of
her career, you know, really coming out and being vocal
(43:16):
about it and talking about not being ashamed, and talking
about safe sex and putting these things out in the open.
I think really shaped my understanding of sexuality and safe sex.
All of the impact that AIDS had on how we
connect with people, how we have sex with people, how
we feel about ourselves. All of that is encompassed in
(43:38):
these songs that are seemingly not about AIDS, but it
just it's nineteen ninety two, and it's at the peak
of the deaths and the peak of the publicity and
fear mongering and teaching kids like me and health class
that we're going to die. Literally, as SINGLEMANI reached his
twenties and then his dirties, as he came out and
(44:01):
came to better understand AIDS and the history of the
struggle for LGBTQ rights, erotica took on a deeper significance.
I think its legacy is just that it reflects the
fear of the time period. At that time, things that
were happening with you know, the repression of people's sexuality,
(44:21):
the fear of the homophobia. All of that was rooted
in fear of AIDS, and I think in that respect
the album is I think, if not the first, one
of the first full pieces full albums that really is
a reflection of the AIDS era. Stirred by personal loss,
the biggest pop star in the world put pen to
(44:42):
page to express her grief, confusion, and frustration through some
she Wasn't alone. You Two, the biggest rock band in
(45:02):
the world in nineteen ninety two, would also release a
song to touch on the complexity and tragedy of AIDS.
Their track one remains one of the group's most beloved.
While frontman Bano preferred to keep its meaning ambiguous, allowing
the song to connect the listeners navigating a variety of struggles,
he has said his admiration and friendship with queer HIV
(45:23):
positive artist and activist David Voynerovitch at least partly inspired it.
When he began writing the lyrics, he envisioned a difficult
conversation someone like Voynarovitch might have with their family, Esbano
(45:50):
recalls in his twenty twenty two memoir Surrender, he improvised
a lyric about a son telling his religious father that
he was gay, much like Madonna's In This Life the
song delivers no real resolution. Bono writes, I don't think
we're all one. We can be one, but I don't
think we have to see things the same way for
that to be so, and anarchic thought. We're one, but
(46:13):
we're not the same. We get to carry each other,
not that we've got to, just that we get to
no answer, No nineteen eighties. We are the world idealism.
Life had become more complicated in the nineties, but one
does call for more empathy, a deeper understanding. The choice
(46:35):
is yours. How much you wish to carry, give up,
keep trying, or come to peace with it. Red Hot
co founder John Carlin introduced You To to Voynarovich. He'd
written an essay for a catalog for one of Voynarovitch's exhibitions,
and after You Two recorded a song for the first
(46:56):
Red Hot compilation album, Red Hot and Blue, Carlin sent
its members the catalog is a thank you gift. They
became collectors of his work. When it was time for
You Two to release one in February nineteen ninety two,
Carlin helped them commission Voynarovich's photograph untitled Buffalo, as the
cover of the single Voynarovitch had created the black and
(47:17):
white piece depicting a herd of buffalo falling over a
cliff in nineteen eighty eight when he was diagnosed. The
image is stark and startling, chaotic and tragic. The animals
plummet to their deaths. You want to save them, but
feel helpless. For many affected by AIDS during that period,
the metaphor was clear. Carlin wrote the blurb on the
(47:38):
back of the one single and arranged for its proceeds
to go to AMPHAR, the Foundation for aid's Research. One
version of its video, directed by Mark Pellington, who directed
Pearl Jam's Jeremy video and the rud Hunt and Dance
documentary showcased slow motion footage of buffalo inspired by Voynarovich's image.
Another version, filmed by Anton Korbyn, featured the band in drag,
(47:59):
but Bo thought it reinforced stereotypes that everyone suffering from
AIDS was gay. The ultimate version was simpler Bono smoking
in a nightclub. As John Carlin, the man who brought
you two and the Artist together tells it, the last
time Voyennarovich ever left his apartment was to see a
U two concert at the Metal Lands in New Jersey.
At that point, Vuynarovich had aids and was very close
(48:22):
to dying. He had been estranged from his family, having
run away from home like so many LGBTQ people in
that era. Carlin wanted to reconcile him with his brother
and sister, so he arranged an outing. I knew that
they could not turn down tickets to see You two
and go backstage at the Metal Lands, So David came
(48:44):
to the concert in a wheelchair, his boyfriend Tom Rathenbard
pushing And one of the most moving moments was Bono
on stage stops right before he sings the song one
and said something to the effect of, you know, we're
just pop artists, but there's a great artist in our
(49:05):
next And they put the spotlight on David sitting there
in his wheelchair and his father and sister behind him,
and say, you know, this is a truly great artist,
and it was just an amazing moment. Voynerovich died just
months after One was released, in July nineteen ninety two.
He was thirty seven. You Two would anonymously pay off
(49:29):
his medical bills so that his estate didn't have to
have a fire cell of his work. Since then, Bano
has become one of music's most prominent HIV and AIDS activists.
Others would die. In ninety two, again AIDS related illnesses
where the leading caused death from end between the ages
of twenty five and forty four. That year. Artist whose
(49:50):
lives were claimed by AIDS and ninety two included Peter Allen,
Tina Chow, Paul Jabara, Larry Levan, and Arthur Russell. There
were many more. This story doesn't have the happiest ending.
(50:31):
I wish it did. Studies show a significant spike in
the number of people infected with HIV and dying of
AIDS in the nineteen nineties. Between nineteen ninety six and
two thousand and one, more than three million people were
infected every year. The number of AIDS related deaths increased
throughout the nineteen nineties and reached a peak in two
(50:52):
thousand and four and two thousand and five, when in
both years close to two million people died. But wow,
have we come along way. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported in twenty twenty one that HIV incidents
decreased by seventy three percent from the highest number of
infections one hundred and thirty thousand, four hundred in nineteen
(51:13):
eighty four and eighty five to thirty four thousand, eight
hundred and twenty nineteen. Thanks to anti retroviral therapy, people
with HIV and AIDS today can expect to live long lives,
and we have countless activists, including musicians, to thank for that.
(51:34):
By nineteen ninety two, Elton John had lost his friend
Freddie Mercury, whom he visited in his dying days, and
another friend, Ryan White, a teenager who was infected with
HIV by a blood transfusion and who died in nineteen
ninety just before his high school graduation. In October nineteen
ninety two, the same month Madonna's In This Life would
(51:56):
appear on her album Erotica, John would release a single
inspired by his loss, told from the point of view
of a dying man reuniting with his estranged father. John's track,
the last song from his nineteen ninety two album The One,
was the first single he released to benefit the Elton
John AIDS Foundation, the nonprofit organization he founded that fall
(52:20):
to support education, prevention, treatment, and services to people living
with HIV and AIDS. The Elton John Aids Foundation is
the second largest HIV related funder of LGBTQ plus populations
and the fifth largest HIV related funder overall. Since nineteen
ninety two, it is funded more than three thousand projects
(52:40):
in over ninety countries and raised more than five hundred
and twenty five million dollars for HIV AIDS grants globally.
For red Hot co founder John Carlin, nineteen ninety two
was bittersweet, a time of great laws, but also a
time of great change and great hope. I think in
around nineteen ninety two and doing all these read out projects,
(53:02):
I realized that, you know, artists have become the moral
voice of our culture. And they weren't like heathenists. They
weren't people who were like contrary subversive forces. In some
weird way, the politicians and the business people became reprehensible.
(53:26):
They were the people you couldn't trust for guiding us
through society, and somehow it became artists, you know, Bono,
George Michael, for all their complexity as human beings, they
have become our moral guide. In nineteen ninety two, MTV
would air its first episode of the Real World, kickstarting
(53:49):
the modern reality TV movement and initiating the network's gradual
move away from music videos. Music television would never be
the same, but the music itself hit deep in nineteen
ninety two. It felt massive, resounding, monumental, grunge, g funk,
new age, hip hop, top shelf, R and B line dancing,
(54:11):
same sex, lust and love, artist protesting against police brutality
and child abuse, artist protesting four LGBTQ rights and the
fight to end AIDS. It was a time of shattered records,
shattered hearts, and shattered expectations. Maybe we only fully understand
(54:36):
how wild, shocking, and absolutely fabulous nineteen ninety two was
now some thirty years later. Music a reflection of our culture, yes,
as John Carlin puts it, the moral voice of our
culture so often. Yes, a way to affect change and
shift our culture. Yes, and here's hoping it continues to
(54:58):
as we sold her on, because music has been all
those things forever. But oh my god, was it extra
special in nineteen ninety two. Where Were You in ninety
(55:52):
two was a production of iHeartRadio. The executive producers are
Noel Brown and Jordan run Tag. The show was researched,
written and hosted by me Jason Laffier with editing and
sound design by Michael Alder June. If you like what
you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
(56:13):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Host
Jason Lamphier
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