Village People in Standoff Over 'Y.M.C.A.' Being a Queer Anthem
It is beginning to be like something out of "The Real Housewives of Greenwich Village."
That is the fight developing between two of the Village People — lead singer Victor Willis and ex-member David Hodo, who was the Construction Worker during the group's heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Last week Willis claimed on Facebook that "The song is not really a gay anthem... this must stop because it is damaging to the song." Hodo was quick to disagree.
"Willis explained that when he wrote 'Y.M.C.A.' he had no idea it was seen as 'a hang out for gays,'" according to the music website msdwn.com. He explained, "I wrote 'Y.M.C.A.' about things I knew about the Y in urban areas like San Francisco — swimming, basketball, track, and affordable food and rooms. When I say, 'hang out with all the boys,' it simply referred to 1970s Black slang for men hanging out together for sports, gambling, or whatever. There's nothing gay about that." He added, "So, if 'Y.M.C.A.' is considered a gay anthem because some YMCAs were once used for illicit activity, that assumption is completely misguided."
What's more problematic is that Willis claims calling it so is "harmful" to the song, a statement that borders on the homophobic. He is even going as far as to have his wife, a lawyer of the most litigious type, threatening a law suit to anyone who claims it is, as if calling it "a gay anthem" is some sort of defamation.
Perhaps Victor should educate his wife about the group's beginnings, which started when gay French record producer Jacques Morali came up with an idea in 1978 of having recognizable Greenwich Village types he saw on the streets and in the West Side bars be assembled as the personnel of a new a music group. They weren't out of a Western town from some John Ford movie, but Greenwich Village in 1976, which was (along with San Francisco's Castro Street) an epicenter of queer culture at the time.
Nor did Morali pick individuals based on their talents; he picked men who fit archetypes of American masculinity. Morali mined that sensibility, and the Village People — a cheeky in-joke of a group if there ever was one — was born. Their big hit "Y.M.C.A.," in which the group says "you can hang out with all the boys," followed. While Willis claims otherwise, the genesis of that line is said to have come when one of the group's members, Randy Jones, repeatedly took Morali along to the Y.M.C.A. in Chelsea, just up 7th Avenue from the Village, where the producer delighted in seeing many gay porn stars working out in the gym. And there's the music video itself...
That Willis and some of the group's personnel are straight has never been in question. But also what shouldn't be in question is the group's bona fide gay roots. When they became overnight sensations in the late 1970s, only to all but vanish in a few years, they were seen as something of an inside joke with songs and an act filled with queer Easter eggs that went over the heads of straight audiences who danced to their songs as they toured the world — before they culturally dumped disco by symbolically making public displays of disco record burning, that is, most famously at a DJ-inspired stunt at Chicago's Comisky Park in July, 1979 that developed into a full-scale riot. Steve Dahl, the DJ, later claimed his hatred of disco had nothing to do with gay culture. Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh, who attended the promotion, wrote at the time, "Your most paranoid fantasy about where the ethnic cleansing of the rock radio could ultimately lead... White males, eighteen to thirty-four are the most likely to see Disco as the product of homosexuals, blacks and Latins, and therefore they're the most likely to respond to appeals to wipe out such threats to their security." In and of itself, that suggests a knee-jerk response to the fact that disco culture came from the Black and gay subcultures, something that needed to be symbolically eradicated with such public displays.
Not that Willis wants to deny the gay influences on the group — in fact, he appears to welcome that queer culture wants to keep "Y.M.C.A." as an anthem. He just doesn't want it labeled as a "gay anthem" to the world. In some ways, he appears caught in the conundrum as to whether or not he can wash the gay right out of the song.
What initiated the latest debate is the song's reappearance in 2020 as part of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, where it was routinely played along with another of the group's biggest hits, "Macho Man." When Willis received numerous complaints from his fans about its usage by Trump, he asked it not be used, but couldn't deny its legal use because the Trump campaign had purchased it. This year, the Trump campaign returned to using it, making it a centerpiece at rallies where Trump often danced along. This renewed interest put the song back on the charts, where it topped Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales for two weeks in a row after nearly half a century, and put money into Willis' pocket.
This past week Willis went on Fox News to give his blessing to the President-elect's use of his song. "I decided to allow the president-elect's continued use of 'Y.M.C.A.' because he seems to genuinely, genuinely like the song and so many other artists were stopping him from using their music," Willis told "Fox & Friends First" on Thursday after years of asking Trump to stop using the song. During the recent campaign, he supported Kamala Harris.
"So I decided to contact BMI [Broadcast Music, Inc.] and told them not to terminate his political use license because he seemed to be bringing so much joy to the American people with his use of Y.M.C.A."
According to Willis, the song "is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect's continued use of the song."
Willis, though, continues to inflame the controversy with his claims the song isn't a gay anthem, and that his wife, the lawyer, plans on suing anyone who says that it is after the first of the year. Billboard quotes Willis, who says calling the song a "gay anthem" is "completely misguided" and "damaging to the song." While he says he doesn't mind if "gays think of the song as their anthem," it isn't one.
He wrote on Facebook: "This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout, and since one of the writers [Jacques Morali] was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people," Willis wrote. "To that I say, once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not ... such notion is based solely on the song's lyrics alluding to [illicit] activity for which it does not."
Not so fast says David Hodo, who was the Construction Worker in the band from 1978-1982, then for a second stint when the group came back together, 1987 — 2013. For the record, he was not a member of the band when they recorded their first album, called "Village People," that introduced a propulsive and very macho sound performed by personnel dressed on the album cover as familiar macho archetypes: A Cowboy, a Construction Worker, a Policeman, a Leatherman/Biker, a G.I., and an Indian. The four tracks on their first album featured Willis's booming baritone in songs named for four gay meccas: "San Francisco (You Got Me)," "In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)," "Fire Island," and "Village People." On the brief (22 minute) album, Willis sings with a back-up band called Gypsy Lane.
The group was inspired when Morali followed Felipe Rose, dressed in an Indian costume, to the West Side bar The Anvil, where he performed as a dancer. When he was joined by another man dressed as a cowboy, Morali got the idea of the band, an idea born in a queer 1970s New York after hours (the clubs immortalized in William Friedkin's "Cruisin,'" (also released in 1980). The album was so successful that Willis, Morali and Belolo realized they had to get an actual together. To find the personnel, they took out an ad in a music trade magazine which read: "Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache."
Hodo answered the ad and was recruited to join the group and stayed with them during their peak period of popularity. Hodo was not the original Construction Worker; that was Mark Mussler, who appeared with the group when they were on "American Bandstand," where they sang "San Francisco." At that time Alex Briley (began as an athlete, but then took on a soldier persona) was hand-picked by Willis, while Mark Mussler (original Construction Worker), Dave Forrest (original Cowboy), Lee Mouton (original Leatherman), and Peter Whitehead (one of the group's early songwriters) rounded out the group.
Watch the video of "Y.M.C.A."
Adding to not-so-subtle gay subtext to the song was that when it came to filming the "Y.M.C.A." video, amongst the locations the group used to were the West Side docks (a notorious queer cruising area), and outside the Ramrod, one of the city's leading leather bars. Whether Willis knew the implications of these locations, he didn't mention it at the time or even later.
Over the weekend Hodo took issue with Willis's complaints in posts to Facebook, reports Stereogum. First, he cited Jacques Morali's crucial role in forming the group's aesthetic and subtexts. "Morali was gay, he died of AIDS in 1991, and he assembled the Village People to represent flamboyant gay fantasy characters.
"According to Hodo," the Stereogum article continues, "Morali was expressly inspired to write the song by interactions with gay porn stars who worked out at the YMCA. Hodo also disputes Willis' take that 'YMCA' has endured because of great songwriting and not the accompanying dance, developed on American Bandstand."
Hodo wrote on Facebook and on X: "Just to be clear, there would be no YMCA song without Jacques Morali. He came up with the hook, as he did with all the VP music, after Randy Jones took him to a YMCA and introduced him to several gay porn stars who worked out there. It's only slightly nauseating to hear Willis speak as though he were a Stephen Sondheim. YMCA would have disappeared from the charts for good had it not been for the fact that the kids from American Bandstand came up with the arm movements. That silly little dance is why this song has endured, not the 'brilliant' song writing."
A catty response from Willis followed. "Well, well, well, what have we here. David Hodo comes out his hole to comment on me and my writing partner Jacques Morali. First of all David, Jacques hated you and you know it. So I wouldn't put much stock in whatever you have to say about me and Jacques. Therefore, back in your hole before I crush you again, you replacement (non-original) Village People member who has lied for years that you're an original. The original construction worker is Mark Mussler (RIP) and don't you forget it."
He added: "Looks like we got a macho man over here!"
Willis has actually been at war with Hodo for years, and in another dishy Facebook post in 2020 he blamed Hodo for the demise of the group. "This scene with David Hodo's terrible voice single handedly ended Village People in 1980. Worst scene and worst voice ever in a motion picture. Over the top and fabulous? Believe it or not, David Hodo thought he could take my place in Village People as lead singer, lol..."
The video he posts as proof is Hodo singing "I Love You to Death" from the group's disastrous foray into movies, "Can't Stop the Music," released in 1980, just as the Disco bubble burst. No one went to see the film that not only featured the Village People but Caitlyn Jenner, coming off Olympic stardom, as the film's male romantic lead. In 1980, "Can't Stop the Music" had the distinction of having inspired John J.B. Wilson to invent the Golden Raspberry Awards when he saw the film on a double-bill with "Xanadu." In 1981 the film received seven nominations, including one for Jenner as Worst Actor. He lost to Neil Diamond ("The Jazz Singer"), but "Can't Stop the Music" did win the big prize — Worst Picture, as well as Worst Screenplay.