A Bachelor Gay

Album: The Maid of the Mountains (1917)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • When he introduced this song on his regular BBC Radio programme The Music Goes Round in February 2015, Desmond Carrington stressed that when it was written, the word gay did not have the same connotations it did nearly a century later.

    "A Bachelor Gay" was composed by James W. Tate in 1916, and written by F. Clifford Harris and Valentine; the sheet music was published by Francis, Day & Hunter of London in 1917. Tate may have been a happy man but he was neither gay nor a bachelor. Twice married he died suddenly in 1922 aged only 46. The Valentine alluded to here was Archibald Thomas Pechey, a regular collaborator of Tate.
  • "A Bachelor Gay" was one of his popular baritone songs; it was used in the musical The Maid Of The Mountains and was also recorded by Stanley Holloway; the Holloway recording was released as a single on the Pye label in November 1960 as the B-side of "The Lily Of Laguna." >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets

Curt Kirkwood of Meat PuppetsSongwriter Interviews

The (Meat)puppetmaster takes us through songs like "Lake Of Fire" and "Backwater," and talks about performing with Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.

Paul Stanley of Kiss, Soul Station

Paul Stanley of Kiss, Soul StationSongwriter Interviews

Paul Stanley on his soul music project, the Kiss songs with the biggest soul influence, and the non-make-up era of the band.

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Keith Reid of Procol Harum

Keith Reid of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

As Procol Harum's lyricist, Keith wrote the words to "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." We delve into that song and find out how you can form a band when you don't sing or play an instrument.

Bible Lyrics

Bible LyricsMusic Quiz

Rockers, rappers and pop stars have been known to quote the Bible in their songs. See if you match the artist to the biblical lyric.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.