Transgender Rock & Roll! Part One: Beginnings, 1955-1970

By Aleisha Michelle Emerson

“You’ve got your mother in a whirl,

Cause she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl…”

– David Bowie, “Rebel Rebel”

Rock’n’roll.

As much an attitude as an art form, it is defined as much by what it isn’t as what it is. It has been the scourge of parents for decades, teen rebellion wrapped up neatly into three chords. The more shocking it was, the better. And what could be more shocking than not being able to tell the boys from the girls?

Since its beginning Rock music has thrived on a sense of ambiguity. Artists such as Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Chuck Berry, while obviously not gender-benders in any way, did have a certain flamboyance that was not found in the general public. Whether through their manner of dress, mannerisms, or sheer outrageousness many of the early Rock’n’Roll musicians used this to their advantage by simultaneously alienating parents and attracting teenaged fans. And while the 1950s were definitely not ready for a transgendered performer, the attitudes expressed then very much set a groundwork for things to come.

The early 1960s saw the British Pop invasion, and many of the bands who crossed the Altantic into North America would be pioneers in blurring the lines of gender in Rock Music. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Who all played roles of varying magnitudes in bringing transgenderism into the mainstream of pop music. The Beatles inspired hysteria in their fans, and outrage in parents while sporting haircuts which were definitely not the standard for men in 1963. Their flowing mop-tops, though tame by today’s standards, were often decried as being utterly feminine, and were the target of ridicule by some of the more ‘macho’ elements of society.

And while they did not create a real sense of trans-ness in their image (in fact their clean cut suits were the model of what a proper young man should wear) they did reinforce the fact that testing the limits of ambiguity was a sure-fire way to gain the attention of both the press and fans.

In 1966 The Who unleashed upon an unsuspecting public one of the earliest overtly transgendered Rock songs. The angst-ridden subject matter of their previous singles would not have given any indication of what songwriter Pete Townsend had planned for his next work, the somewhat tongue-in-cheek I’m A Boy (full lyrics here). The song, released as a single A-side, told the story of a young lad who was forced into living as a girl by his mother and sisters. The character sings “I’m a boy / but my Ma doesn’t get it / I’m a boy / but if I say I am I get it…” and goes on to explain the various threats to his manhood that he is subjected to. If the choice of subject matter seems odd, it was even more surprising that the song became a minor hit, and was included in the band’s live show for some time. Townsend’s motivation for writing the song may be explained by a somewhat cryptic comment he made during an interview in Playboy over 25 years later, “I want people to think of me as a woman, because I am as much a woman as a man.”

In 1970 the world received perhaps the first bonafide transgendered rock’n’roll anthem. It was that year that The Kinks released their album Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-go-round. A concept album about the world of rock music, it featured an unlikely heroine, Lola, who among other things was a transvestite. Based upon a real life experience of a friend of composer Ray Davies, Lola became a rock radio staple, and a major hit for the band (full lyrics here ). Whether the song was a hit because of, or despite its provocative lyrics, it is clear that there is no ambiguity in the meaning of lyrics such as “I’m not the world’s most masculine man / but I know what I am / and I’m glad I’m a man / and so is Lola”.

While The Kinks were reaping their success from a song with an obvious TG theme, a young man was preparing to hit the music business with a blitz of gender-bending that would leave Rock’n’Roll forever changed. Born David Robert Jones, he later changed his name to avoid confusion with Davey Jones from The Monkees. His name, David Bowie.

Next: The 1970s, David Bowie, and Glam Rock.

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Tags: featured, History, music, Transgender

Category: Music