69: Lavender Country // Lavender Country
Lavender Country
Lavender Country
1973, Gay Community Social Services of Seattle Inc.
Thereâs an anecdote Patrick Haggerty tells in the little zine that comes with the 2014 Paradise of Bachelors reissue of Lavender Country that always makes me tear up. Haggerty was raised one of ten children on a tenant dairy farm in northern Washington in the 1950s. It was obvious to Haggertyâs father from a young age that his boy was gay and, perhaps surprisingly given the times, he was quietly accepting of it. By the time Haggerty was in high school, he enjoyed cross-dressing, and he decided to try out for the head cheerleader position at his school.
Dolled up for his tryout in glitter and âa big lipstick smileâ the future singer, in a perfectly teenage moment, dodges his father (whoâd come by the school to pick him up)ânot because it occurred to Haggerty that his father would be embarrassed by him, but because he was embarrassed to be seen with a dad âwith cow crap all over his jeans, his snaggle tooth, his four-day beard and his beat up old fedora hat.â After the tryout, they talked in his fatherâs car:
He said, âListen to me. I donât have time to change my clothes just to run up to the high school to go and pick you up. Iâm a dairy farmerâthese are the clothes that I wear. Iâm proud of what I do. I donât have to change my clothes; I donât have a reason to change my clothes. Now, were you proud of yourself up on that stage with all that glitter and lipstick?â
I said, âWell, I think Iâm gonna win.â
He said, âYeah, I think youâre gonna win too, but thatâs not what I asked you. I asked you if you were proud of yourself.â
I said, âUh⊠er⊠well⊠um.â
He said, âListen, when you leave this valley and go to the University of Washington Drama School, like you say youâre gonna do, who are you gonna run around with at night?â
And I said, âI donât know.â
He said, âI think you do know. And itâs not gonna be that McLaughlin girl Iâve been trying to get you to date.â
At this point I am slinking to the bottom of my seat. I know full well exactly what heâs talking aboutâpretending like I donât. My father says to meâmy father is ill; heâs like a year and a half away from the grave, and he knows it, and so do Iâand he says, âYou know, Iâm not gonna be here when youâre a full grown man.â
I said, âYeah, Dad, I know that.â
He said, âWell, Iâm gonna tell you something right now, and I want you to remember it.â
I said, âOkay, Dad, what?â
And he said, âWhoever you run around with at the University of Washington Drama School when Iâm gone, donât sneak. Because if you spend your life sneaking, it means you think youâre doing the wrong thing. And if you think youâre doing the wrong thing, youâll ruin your immortal soul. So whoever you run around with, donât sneak, and be proud of it. Do you hear me?â
And I said, â⊠Yes, Dad.â
Haggerty, who passed away in 2022 just one year shy of the 50th anniversary of his Lavender Countryâs self-titled debut, grew up to be a skinny little guy, but one who didnât sneak around anybody. Like a lot of lefty artists of the â60s and â70s, he believed sincerely that absurdity, surrealism, and satire were forces that could reveal the contradictions of systems of oppression, and thereby cause them to collapse. But he also believed shared appreciation for weirdo art was as important to the unity of a movement as a shared politics or philosophy. Lavender Countryâs songs are intended to be sung at protests, a pink answer to oddball folkie anthems like Country Joeâs âI Feel Like Iâm Fixinâ to Die Ragâ and Phil Ochsâ âLove Me Iâm a Liberal.â In 1973, a group of people singing a song like âCryinâ These Cocksucking Tearsâ was a message to the singers and the straight world alike: there are more people who can relate to this out there than you ever thought. I donât think that message would be lost at a protest in 2023 either.
Lavender Country was a feeling listeners could take home with their copy of the record, even if that home was a place where it didnât seem like there were any gays or long-hairs for miles. It was originally pressed in an edition of 1000, and the copies were moved hand to hand and via ads in alternative weeklies and the like over the next few years. It was eventually rediscovered in the late â90s, and CMT has even highlighted its historical significance as âthe first openly gay country recordââthough I imagine its gleeful vulgarity would present a tougher pill for the network to swallow than its queerness.
Taken purely on its musical merits, Iâd recommend Lavender Country to anyone with a fondness for folk or country. By his mid-20s Haggerty already had the reedy but relaxing voice of a sentient rocking chair, and he leads his homespun band through a collection of fetching songs, like sweetly horny opener âCome Out Singingâ and high-lonesome gender protest duet âStraight White Patterns.â Itâs âI Canât Shake the Stranger Out of Youâ that rises above the rest, a should-be country standard reminiscent of The Flatlanders. Haggerty weaves a braid of cocksure boasts and compliments (âI can hit the sack like an aristocrat / If youâll let me be your tricky box of Cracker Jackâsâ; âYouâre hotter than the popcorn dancing in the panâ), but itâs all raging against the closing of a doorâthe same old fiddle dance with a lover who wonât ever truly open up.