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Stunning!
I had never heard of this performer before. His name is Jackie Shane. Yes folks, this is a MAN! This is what my good friend Jason Stone wrote on his blog Get On Down With The Stepfather Of Soul:
[Along with performers like Little Richard and Sylvester], the R&B singer Jackie Shane fits within this pantheon with his androgynous performances, but unfortunately his story is not as well-known as some of the others. I haven't been able to find out much about the Toronto-based Shane, except that he had only one R&B hit, "Any Other Way," released in 1963 on Sue. Fortunately for us all, there is performance footage of Shane on YouTube, appearing on WLAC-TV's "Night Train," doing "Walking The Dog." The appearance probably came from 1964 or 1965. Johnny Jones & The King Casuals ("Soul Poppin'") are the backing band and I think that's the Hytones on background vocals and choreography. Check out this soulful performance!
All I know is that I was stunned watching this performance. One, because of the sheer soulfulness of it and two, because someone this androgynous was actually accepted enough to appear on a major television show in the friggin' 60's! Also the pairing of the strangely stiff Hytones choreography and the funky Johnny Jones band makes it all the more intriguing. (Sur)really awesome!
5 comments:
Love It! Just goes to show, if you can entertain a Black person we don't give a good hot damn what you look like! Like I told my husband, if Prince was walking around with high boots and booty pants with no talent, he'd be a hate crime waiting to happen! lol
Love the singing soulful and beautiful.
WOW!!!Jackie...go on wit ya bad self. I can't tell you how much I love this era of music. It had a novel integrity and panache that is so rarey duplicated in today's over-rated industry of perfunctory drivel. I was watching a documentary about Sam Cooke recently BUT I would loooove to see one on this dude. I admire the fact that Jackie & even Little Richard, were not afraid to be themselves, especially back then. I can also see & hear a resemblance/influence he may have had on Terrence Trent D'arby...yeah...lol...remember him? Being Canadian, D'arby may not have even heard of Jackie Shane, but his style and mannerisms do reminds me of the latter.
I love the nursery rhyme lyrics. This brother is way cool. I was wondering what his relationship was like with the other musicians, if they were cool with his androgyny and then I remembered that artists of all stripes (musicians, singers, visual artists, dancers, writers, et al) tend to be more respectful, loving and accepting human beings (generally) than the rest of the world... in my opinion. Just the same, Jackie's had some huge cojones to be so true to himself back then.
I agree, but has anyone heard of a white androgynous singer from those days? If so, please let me know..sometimes I get the feeling that all these acts still were a novelty to the white audiences still waiting to hear and see something "different". So while we applaud them being " themselves " I wonder if a performer that was not African American would receive the same type of attention....
Porkchop MC
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