Camp Records was a
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...
based in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
in the 1960s that specialized in producing anonymous
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
-themed
novelty record
A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wit ...
s and singles, mostly sold out of the backs of
beefcake magazines
Physique magazines or beefcake magazines were magazines devoted to physique photography — that is, photographs of muscular " beefcake" men – typically young and attractive – in athletic poses, usually in revealing, minimal clothing. During ...
.
Camp Records' releases typically consisted of
parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of existing songs or musical styles, primarily revised
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
melodies with the lyrics rewritten to reflect a
camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
sensibility. The arrangements were usually simple, consisting of spare instrumentation and multiple-voice
harmonies
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
, but ranged in style from cocktail
piano bar
A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician. Piano bars can be located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usu ...
to
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny Exotica (Martin Denny album), album of the same name that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s with Americans who came of age during World War II. The term was coined by Simon Wa ...
.
The songs themselves comically portrayed the world of the American homosexual
subculture, often relying on broad
stereotypes
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
, gay
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
, and saucy
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
s for their comic effect. As an example, their single "Li'l Liza Mike" rewrote the lyrics to the popular musical standard "
Li'l Liza Jane
"Li'l Liza Jane", also known as "Little Liza Jane", "Liza Jane", and "Goodbye Liza Jane", is a song dating back at least to the 1910s. It has become a perennial standard both as a song and an instrumental in traditional jazz, folk music, and blu ...
" to tell of a man's befuddlement at the behavior of his
butch lesbian girlfriend. The song was credited to "Byrd E. Bath & the Gay Blades," which was the most common
byline
The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's ...
for the label.
Another release, "I'd Rather Fight Than Swish", was written in the rollicking style of early
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...
, and featured a swaggering,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
-style lead singer. The song's lyrics told of a
macho
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
outlaw biker
An outlaw motorcycle club is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, ...
's desires to physically assault
effeminate
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rath ...
gay men, but as the song progresses it makes clear that the biker himself is a
closeted homosexual. The song's title is a play on the then-new
Tareyton
Tareyton is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
History
Tareyton began as a variation of Herbert Tareyton cork-tipped non-filter cigarettes (whose slogan was, "There's ''somet ...
cigarette ad slogan "
Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!
"Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!" is a slogan that appeared in magazine, newspaper, and television advertisements for Tareyton cigarettes from 1963 until 1981. It was the American Tobacco Company's most visible advertising camp ...
"; the record was available in 1964.
[
] "I'd Rather Swish Than Fight" was the
B-side, featuring an effeminate counterpoint to the A-side.
Their single "Stanley the Manly Transvestite" was credited to a singer named "Rodney Dangerfield" who was not
the comic of the same name; the choices of
stage name were coincidental. (The comic Dangerfield expressed bewilderment about the record in an interview with ''
Hustler
Hustler or hustlers may also refer to:
Professions
* Hustler, an American slang word, e.g., for a:
** Con man, a practitioner of confidence tricks
** Drug dealer, seller of illegal drugs
** Male prostitute
** Pimp
** Business man, more gener ...
'' shortly before his 2004 death, stating in response to a question about "Stanley the Manly Transvestite:" "How do they start these rumors? Jesus Christ! ... I'm not singing that.") The pseudonym had previously been used in a fictional context by
Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century wit ...
and
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he bega ...
.
Camp Records released two full-length
LPs: The first, ''The Queen Is in the Closet'' consisted of ten songs, compiling some of the singles and B-sides along with others in their style. The second was called ''Mad About the Boy.'' ''Mad About the Boy'' was a
concept album consisting of a number of straightforward
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s of mainstream popular
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
torch song
A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affect ...
s in which women sing of their romantic feelings toward men; the Camp Records release simply rerecorded these songs with male vocalists without changing the song's use of
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
, resulting in love songs sung by men to men. An
open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
promoting the record in beefcake magazines explained the concept: "Gender, should not be the determining factor as to who should sing what. Many singers have all too often been frustrated by lyrics not being acceptable to them because of text."
As Camp Records' releases all date back to the early 1960s, and none were published with a copyright notice, the text and music of the songs have now passed into the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
. Under state
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
, which protects sound recordings separately, the state of California may provide some protection for the records should a claimant ever come forward.
To date, the authors remain unknown; public materials protected the anonymity of those involved with Camp Records but did hint that some of the performers were famous: "you will recognize the stylings of some very fine and well-known personalities (...) the vocal group used in this production is make up of four of the better known Hollywood T.V. and screen personalities."
See also
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
References
External links
Queer Music Heritagehas posted the complete recordings of Camp Records available as MP3s, as well as the company's cover art.
{{Authority control
American record labels
LGBT-related record labels
Outsider music