Generally speaking, I'm pretty good at looking at someone and identifying their gender. Those "Man or Woman?" pagents on the old Sally Jesse Raphael show? Never really fooled me. I'll admit to being initially confused by Boy George, but I was 8 so I think I get a pass. Anyway, this morning I was watching VH1 Classic's All Request Hour before leaving for work and right after Mary Jane Girls' "In My House" they played a video by the Parachute Club.
And I found myself flummoxed: was the lead singer a man or a woman. I know that the early 80's was awash in androgyny, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. Thankfully a trip to All Music and it was all cleared up - the lead singer's name is Lorraine (thankfully not Pat, or Jaime, or Leslie). The group was a Toronto pop music collective, formed by the singer and percussionist. It emerged from the Queen Street West neighborhood of clubs and art galleries that flourished during the 1980s (which would explain the whole androgyny, Crayloa box colors in the video I saw this morning). Really, I should have known better - I suffered the same horrible super boyish short hair cut in the 1980's (touted as Wash n' Wear, it was really just not a good look...very layered....flippy...).
More about Parachute Club:
- This NPR article on top gay pride pop songs (strangely, no mention of George Michael's "Father Figure")
- An article about Lorraine rewriting "Rise Up" in support of someone's political campaign (with a rather nice picture of Lorraine)
- Parachute Club's entry in the Canadian Pop Music encyclopedia
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