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I'm With the Band

Dusty and Lesley, Up In A Tree

By Tim Murphy

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD



LESLEY GORE

Besides being two icons from the Sixties with bigger than life images and voices, the two have more in common than you might think:

(1) Both recorded that classic of female liberation, 'You Don't Own Me' (Lesley did a song called 'The Look of Love', but it wasn't the same one Dusty recorded...).

(2) Both came from fairly modest backgrounds.

(3) Both were known to write songs (in Dusty's case, she even played guitar as well, but this was before her rise as a superstar), but did not achieve great fame with any of their own material. Lesley DID release two albums of her own material in the Seventies, but to little mainstream notice.

(4) Both spent much of the Seventies in obscurity, only to commence a comeback in the Eighties.

(5) Both objected to playing in South Africa before it was 'fashionable' to be so principled.

(6) Both had rather glamorous high maintenance looks which, nevertheless, had 'drag queen' written all over them (and, in Dusty's case, she confessed it - back then, even!). In their spare time, such excesses were not in evidence.

(7) Both had a considerable lesbian following, and Dusty's career may have suffered because of the awareness of media with way too much time and immaturity of this fact.

(8) Both were known to wear sensible shoes, and have more in common with Joan Jett and Klaus Nomi than just the fact that those artists ALSO covered 'You Don't Own Me' (isn't it rich? isn't it queer?).

(9) Both had to war with the images available to women at the time, and managed to subvert them while still carrying on careers. Code, irony, double-entendre - all devices we queers know too well...

(10) Both, to some extent, transcended the 'colour barrier', as it were (Dusty frequently filled in on shows for some member of the Vandellas, while Lesley actually had a #1 R&B hit with "It's My Party").

Of course, while it is hardly REGRETTABLE that Lesley is still alive, that is one major area of difference. It is significant to note that Lesley wrote an obituary for Dusty, and was one of the few to mention the queer angle in a non-exploitative (or, conversely, a non-oh-my-god-we've-got-to-say-it-but-let's-be-brief way) fashion.

Rest in peace, Dusty - and rock on, Lesley!

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