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Poor Billy Squier

Fritzo

Fritzo

Lifer
I was going through my album collection while cleaning my basement this morning.*

*kids- albums were these large black discs made of vinyl, and they had small grooves on them so when a needle was dragged across them, they would make sounds!

I found an original copy of Billy Squire's "Don't Say No". MAN the album rocked. He's a very under-rated guitar player. He was actually pretty famous for the first part of the 80's, and really making a name for himself. He was right up there with acts like Def Leppard and Rush at the time.

But then, due to some REALLY bad management and direction, he made this video in the mid-80's which ruined his career:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvl2aqIyNg&feature=related

All of his fans looked at MTV (which actually played MUSIC VIDEOS 24 HRS at the time!) and said "WTF---pink prancing...HE'S A HOMO!!!"

This single video sent him from playing arenas to playing rib-offs. Damn shame.
 
What the hell! I have the Don't Say No album on CD and used to have and a couple others on vinyl. I had no idea he was a poof!
 
I was actually up at a music festival in Milwaukee this past June and after suffering through as much country (well, minus the absurdly hot chicks, but that is a subject for another post), me and my buddy decided to break off from the group and see if we can find something a little more rocking. We ended up walking around for a bit before we heard some badass solo's wailing in the background and ended up stumbling on this little back lot stage with Billy Squire rocking out hard. We only caught the last two songs, but I shit you not, he ended with 20 minute rendition of "Everybody wants you". Freaking awesome.
 
I'm starting to feel old, I kinda recall seeing Billy open for Queen back in 82. This was before the pink and preening video destroyed him.
 
umbrella39 said:
LOL. Billy acting gay ruined his career but Freddie acting gay way OK. Odd world we live in.
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Lol, exactly. When I saw Queen with Squier, Freddie was wearing a feather boa during that tour, but that was ok. Two years later, Billys wearing pink and dancing and dies.
 
this strikes me as a pretty typical 80's video.

are you guys saying there were rock acts during the 80's that DIDN'T look like complete homos?
 
SpunkyJones said:
Lol, exactly. When I saw Queen with Squier, Freddie was wearing a feather boa during that tour, but that was ok. Two years later, Billys wearing pink and dancing and dies.
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But it was obvious to everyone from the get go that Freddie was gay which is a different story. Same with Elton John, even though he made his mark in an era where gay people where looked down upon it didn't matter because he was obviously gay...yet very talented.

Whether Billy Squier was/is gay is irrelevant since he was never seen as gay from the beginning. Think of what would have happened to Judas Priest if Rob Halford had come out of the closet in the 80s?? The band would have died immediately.
 
brblx said:
this strikes me as a pretty typical 80's video.

are you guys saying there were rock acts during the 80's that DIDN'T look like complete homos?
Click to expand...

KInd of ironic that the Heavy Metal Rockers got all the chicks yet their clothes and videos always had some homo-over-tones to them.
 
Ronstang said:
But it was obvious to everyone from the get go that Freddie was gay which is a different story. Same with Elton John, even though he made his mark in an era where gay people where looked down upon it didn't matter because he was obviously gay...yet very talented.

Whether Billy Squier was/is gay is irrelevant since he was never seen as gay from the beginning. Think of what would have happened to Judas Priest if Rob Halford had come out of the closet in the 80s?? The band would have died immediately.
Click to expand...


you're using a guy who wears gay BDSM biker clothes and carries whips as your 'straight' example?
 
Ronstang said:
But it was obvious to everyone from the get go that Freddie was gay which is a different story. Same with Elton John, even though he made his mark in an era where gay people where looked down upon it didn't matter because he was obviously gay...yet very talented.

Whether Billy Squier was/is gay is irrelevant since he was never seen as gay from the beginning. Think of what would have happened to Judas Priest if Rob Halford had come out of the closet in the 80s?? The band would have died immediately.
Click to expand...

Everyone I knew in the music scene in the 80's knew Halford was as gay as a bucket full of rainbows. No one cared. We were all musicians, the dregs of society to begin with. I'm sure the mullethead's in Nebraska would care, but we didn't.
 
Freddie Mercury had stage presence. Billy Squier just looked like an idiot. The guy clearly cannot dance, so trying to do so in a video like that makes him look stupid. You've gotta play to your strengths.
 
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ktehmok said:
Everyone I knew in the music scene in the 80's knew Halford was as gay as a bucket full of rainbows. No one cared. We were all musicians, the dregs of society to begin with. I'm sure the mullethead's in Nebraska would care, but we didn't.
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Maybe people in the music industry knew he was a poof but the average metalhead on the street didn't and those are the same crowd that you would catch beating up a gay guy for being gay.
 
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