"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other" (1981) is a song by

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 ...

country musician

Ned Sublette Ned Sublette (born 1951 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American composer, musician, record producer, musicologist, historian, and author. Sublette studied Spanish Classical Guitar with Hector Garcia at the University of New Mexico and with Emilio Puj ...

, whose music, according to Howard Cohen, features a "

lilting Lilting is a form of traditional singing common in the Goidelic speaking areas of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann. It goes under many names, and is sometimes referred to as ''diddling'' (generally in England and Scotland), ''mouth music' ...

West Texas

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the w ...

(3/4 time at about 60–90 beats per minute) feel".Cohen, Howard (5 March 2006)
&p_product=MH&p_theme=realcities2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_site=miamii&s_trackval=MH&s_dispstring=Fond%20memories%20ride%20in%20on%20the%20%27Brokeback%27%20craze%20AND%20&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=%28Fond%20memories%20ride%20in%20on%20the%20%27Brokeback%27%20craze%29&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=50&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B, E&p_text_date-0=before%2005/04/2012&xcal_useweights=no "Fond memories ride in on the 'Brokeback' craze"
'' Miami Herald''. Miami Herald Media Co. Retrieved 7 March 2006. It is, according to

Gene Tyranny Robert Nathan Sheff (January 1, 1945 – December 12, 2020), known professionally as "Blue" Gene Tyranny, was an American avant-garde composer and pianist. "His memorable pseudonym, coined during his brief stint with Iggy and the Stooges, was de ...

, "the famous gay cowboy song".Tyranny, "Blue" Gene. " Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly/ in 'Life is a Killer', ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

''. ''Life is a Killer''.Rovi Corp. Retrieved 11 October 2006. The

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

satirize the stereotypes associated with cowboys and

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 ...

men, such as in the lyrics relating

western wear Western wear is a category of men's and women's clothing which derives its unique style from the clothes worn in the 19th century Wild West. It ranges from accurate historical reproductions of American frontier clothing, to the stylized garment ...

to the

leather subculture Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that pa ...

with the line: "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" Country musician

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

(iTunes single 14 February 2006) is the first LGBT-themed mainstream country song by a major artist.Tarradell, Mario (14 February 2006)., ''The Dallas Morning News''. The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2006. The song has been recorded and released by Sublette (GPS: ''Life is a Killer'' 1982), Canadian alternative country band Lost Dakotas (

Cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...

: ''Sun Machine'', 1993), and

queercore Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifical ...

band

Pansy Division Pansy Division is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, United States, in 1991 by singer-songwriter Jon Ginoli and bassist Chris Freeman. Conceived as the first openly gay rock band featuring predominantly gay musicians, P ...

(Lookout: ''Pile Up'' 1995).

Original version

Sublette stated that the song is based on his experiences growing up in

Portales, New Mexico Portales is a city in and the county seat of Roosevelt County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 12,280 at the 2010 census. Portales is located near the larger city of Clovis, and Cannon Air Force Base, a major contributor to the ...

:365Gay.com Newscenter Staff (14 February 2006)., '' 365gay.com''. 365GayMedia Inc. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2006. "I sat down at the piano and ... remembered what it felt like to feel different as a teenager, and the culture at that time, and I started to put those two things together and the song wrote itself". The song was written during the ''

Urban Cowboy ''Urban Cowboy'' is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger). The film's success was credited for spur ...

'' fad while living with his wife in Manhattan next to a gay country bar on

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher S ...

called Boots and Saddles. He explains, "Gay life in 1981 was very vibrant in those days. It was part of the culture of the city and cowboy imagery is a part of gay iconography." He wrote the song with Nelson's voice in mind: "I was at the beginning of my songwriting career ... and used to like writing songs for my favorite voices. I've been a Willie fan since the '60s." In 2006, Ann Northrop of ''

Gay USA ''Gay USA'' is a weekly one-hour news program "...devoted to in-depth coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues"Nahmod, David Alexander (23 March 2006)
"The Ballad of Rick & Andy"
, ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

''. Benro Enterprises, Inc. Retrieved 7 May 2007. "The song aims to show Mr. Nelson's support for gays, particularly to conservative country-music fans", and suggests that, in addition to other causes, he supports gay rights.Mayhew, Malcolm (February 2006)., ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''. FindArticles. Archived from the original on 19 May 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2007.

Willie Nelson's version

Nelson received a tape of the song from

Saturday Night Live Band The Saturday Night Live Band (referred to in the closing credits as The Live Band) is the house band of the NBC television program '' Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Role on ''Saturday Night Live'' The band consists of mostly jazz, R&B, a ...

bassist Tony Garnier after performing on the showNeu, Clayton (1 March 2006)
"Brokeback Balladeer: Willie Nelson talks to Time about his gay cowboy song"
, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. Retrieved 7 March 2006. in the mid to late 1980s. According to Sublette, "Willie took it from there" though Nelson recently found that demo in a drawer among a stack of his own while recording unreleased songs for iTunes at his Spicewood, Texas, home studio.Reuters (15 February 2006)., ''MP3.com''. CBS Interactive Inc. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2007. Mentions "home studio". Nelson says, "I thought it was the funniest goddamn song I'd ever heard. I had it on the bus for 20 years, and people would come in and I'd play it. When ''

Brokeback Mountain ''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by ...

'' come out, it just seemed like a good time to kick it out of the closet". There were plans to release the song on a future album(14 February 2006)., ''CMT.com''. Country Music Television, Inc. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2006. and filming for the video featuring Broken Lizard Comedy TroupeNASHVILLE, Tenn., 14 February 2006
"Howard Stern Debuts Willie Nelson's Gay Cowboy Homage 'Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond Of Each Other)' on Valentine's Day"
, ''PRNewswire''. PR Newswire Association. Retrieved 6 April 2006. occurred at Dallas' gay cowboy bar, the Round Up Saloon (in Oak Lawn), in February 2006. Nelson's publicist describes the release of the song, which debuted on

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, '' The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terr ...

's satellite radio show:

Since everyone is talking about the acclaimed film ''
Brokeback Mountain ''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by ...
'' and its Academy Award nominations,
Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...
seemed like the right time to let
he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
be heard.

Nelson appeared on the movie's soundtrack with the traditional "He Was a Friend of Mine", which made the US charts at number 54.(15 February 2006
"Nelson releases gay cowboy song"
, BBC News. Retrieved 10 May 2006. Nelson himself described the release in a prepared statement to ''The Dallas Morning News'': "The song's been in

the closet ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...

for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door." The song's release was encouraged by the coming out of his friend and tour manager of thirty years, David Anderson, two years prior. Says Anderson:

This song obviously has special meaning to me in more ways than one. I want people to know more than anything—gay, straight, whatever—just how cool Willie is and ... his way of thinking, his tolerance, everything about him.

Reception

Nelson's version of the song is his highest charting solo single since his 1984 duet with

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...

"To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (number 5), debuting at number 52 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, which Nelson last appeared on with the Toby Keith duet "Beer for My Horses".Hope, Clover (23 February 2006)
"No Budging Beyoncé From Hot 100 No. 1"
, ''Billboard.com''. Prometheus Global Media. See als
"Nelson Unveils 'Gay Cowboy' Valentine"
. Retrieved 8 May 2007. The song was also well received by critics.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Stephen M. Deusner rated the song four out of four stars despite calling it "even more of a stunt than his reggae album" (2005's '' Countryman''). Saying that the song sounds written by Nelson, and that his performance raises the piece above the level of a cheap gag, he felt that it adds "a whole new level of complexity to the outlaw mythology Willie helped to cultivate in the 70s."Deusner, Stephen M. (2 February 2006)., ''

''. Pitchfork Media Inc. Archived from the original on 10 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2006. Nelson also says that he has received very few negative reactions:

Every now and then somebody might get a little offended. It's got bad language in it, so I just don't do it in my shows. Anybody wants to hear it can hear it on iTunes. But you know people are listenin' to it, likin' it. Every now and then somebody don't like it, but that's okay. Similar to years ago, when the hippie thing come out and I started growin' my hair and puttin' the earring in, I got a little flak here and there.

However, some sources speculate about the potential success and reception of the song. Nelson explains that he didn't think "it took a lot of balls to put the song out", saying, "first of all, I didn't think anybody would play it. I didn't think it would get on the air, but sure enough it did", though not on country stations: "Oh no, they're not gonna play it". WXBX, a country station in Johnson City, Tennessee, devoted one morning show to a listener discussion of Nelson's release, concluding that "the audience was disappointed in elson and, as Nelson thought, that they "probably wouldn't be interested in much airplay".Gerome, John (Associated Press)., ''

PlanetOut.com PlanetOut, Inc. is an online media company or entertainment company exclusively targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) demographic. Originally founded as an early internet-based media company by Tom Reilly in 1995, it operat ...

'' (later at ''

Gay.com Gay.com was a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site was a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site featured LGBT-related news and features. As of September ...

''). PlanetOut Inc. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2006, reaccessed 6 June 2009. (Short version at (3 March 2006). croll to bottom ''Washington Blade''. A Window Media. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2007.) PlanetOut offered the opinion that Nelson's fan base is secure and broad enough (including "hippies, rednecks and outlaws young and old") to take risks with LGBT-themed songs and soundtracks, while the WXBX station manager pointed out that Nelson has not been a mainstream country star for a while. Nelson's broad audience, and part of the appeal of the song, may be that "Willie speaks his mind about any subject ... That's one of those things that has made him so endearing to so many generations of fans". The song has been described variously as "

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

",17 February 2006
"Willie Nelson releases homage to gay cowboys"
MSNBC/Associated Press. Retrieved 6 April 2006. "straight-faced", and "pointedly poignant". Sublette, as expected, approved of Nelson's performance and its potential impact, saying,

It's supposed to be funny, that's what gets people's attention, but to get people to listen to it a second time ouhave to have something going on, and Willie beautifully brought out the tenderness there ... t'snice to have a funny song out there—it is challenging people to laugh. Everybody is so angry now.

Sublette speculated about the song's reception:

Willie's smart. We talked about recording it in the '90s but we needed some kind of context. It wouldn't make sense to just put this on some normal Willie album ... The movie provided the context. I don't know if the public is any more or less ready than they were but I think the media is more ready.

The song was featured in a ''

Boondocks The boondocks is an American expression from the Tagalog (Filipino) word ''bundók'' ("mountain"). It originally referred to a remote rural area, but now, is often applied to an out-of-the-way area considered backward and unsophisticated by c ...

'' comic strip on 27 and 28 February and mentioned until March 2006.The Boondocks Comic Strip, February 27, 2006
", ''GoComics.com''. Universal Uclick. Retrieved 10 June 2012. According to Sublette, "the Monday and Tuesday strip consisted of my lyrics and dramatizing listeners' response to my lyrics. What a compliment!" The reception of Nelson's song may be compared to that of Garth Brooks' 1992

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

" We Shall Be Free". The song's line, "when we're free to love anyone we choose" caused some radio stations to refuse to play the song, contributing to its peak at number 12 on ''Billboard''s country singles chart and marking the end of Brooks' string of top ten hits. Nelson's song has been lumped together with contemporaneous LGBT-friendly country releases: his and Emmylou Harris's appearance on the ''Brokeback Mountain'' soundtrack and the

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

's song " Travelin' Thru" appearing on the ''Transamerica'' soundtrack, for which she received an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

nomination. When the song appeared as the penultimate track on Nelson's 2009 compilation '' Lost Highway'', it was followed by a previously unreleased version of Willie singing

Ben Hayslip Ben Hayslip (born March 11, 1970 in Evans, Georgia) is an American country music songwriter. Early life Hayslip first attended Valdosta High School in Valdosta GA where he was a freshman quarterback for the 1984 State and National champion Val ...

's "Ain't Goin' Down on Brokeback Mountain", which includes the lyric "that shit ain't right."

Sources

External links

*Gerome, John (3 March 2006)., ''

Chron.com The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...

''/AP. Archived from the original on 23 March 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2006. ;Viewing: * Previous link removed. Dead link. ;Listening: *Nelson
"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)"

Lost Highway Records Universal Music Group Nashville is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. Some of the labels in this group include MCA Nashville Records, Mercury Nashville Records, Lost Highway Records, Capitol Records Nashville and EMI Records Nas ...

. Retrieved 10 May 2006. *Pansy Division: . Retrieved 10 June 2012. *20 February 200
Stream
PlanetOut.com: This Way Out. Retrieved 10 May 2006. ;Lyrics:

, ''LyricsOnDemand.com''. Retrieved 13 June 2012. {{authority control Songs about cowboys and cowgirls 1981 songs 2006 singles LGBT-related songs Lost Highway Records singles Pansy Division songs Willie Nelson songs