Tracey Thorn on Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy"

You might remember that earlier this month I raved about Tracey Thorn's new CD, "Out of the Woods." Well, when I found out arjanwrites was requesting fan questions to pose to Ms. Thorn, I just had to sumbmit my a question of my own and, lo and behold, it's been asked! Better yet, it's been anwered!

From arjanwrites (my q in orange):

Questions from Andres, Brian and Gabriel: Even if "A-Z" does not necessarily have an overt gay theme, some of the lyrics do have some resonance in comparison to Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy." Did you see "A-Z" as mirroring that seminal '80's song? What was the inspiration for that song and what are your feelings about gay rights in general. How do you feel about the gay community embracing you?

Tracey Thorn: "A-Z" was inspired by, and is in part an act of homage to the great "Smalltown Boy" (as an interesting footnote to my answer above, when i first heard Jimmy Somerville, i thought he was a woman, so there you go). I read an article in the paper about bullying of gay teenagers in schools, and how prevalent it is, and how it is a leading cause of teenage suicide, which is sad and dispiriting. It makes me feel enormous sympathy and warmth towards anyone who has the misfortune to be any kind of outsider at school. Kids can be such lumpen idiots.

I've always been kind of embraced by the gay community and I am very proud to be so - I feel very welcomed and understood by gay fans, in a way that i sometimes don't feel understood by the more heterosexually-oriented-male-dominated rock community, for instance. It s a cliche in some ways, but it is about a basic and shared understanding that Dusty Springfield is more important than Bobby Gillespie.

For the full Q&A: Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Next up on Arjan's "Ask the Artist" series: Andy Bell of Erasure, ask your questions now.

By the way, congrats to arjanwrites on his profile in The Advocate.