Steven Grossman

Steven Grossman (1951-1991), a Californian, has the distinction of being the first artist to make an album dealing with openly gay subject matter to be released on a major label. The album was "Caravan Tonight" (1974) and included Eric 'Duelling Banjos' Weissberg in the musicians line up. It was produced by Bobby Flax & Lanny Lambert, the writers of the Stories' Another Love, which was presented yesterday. The album's style was similar to those made by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, etc, at the time. It only sold around 15,000 copies, which was sad. It contained some lovely songs though.

I chose to share a poignant song from this album, called "Out". The lyrics are inspired, especially for the period that the song came out: the first verse deals with the singer coming out to his mother, the second involves the same with his father and the final verse is meant for his little brother. Here's how it goes:

Brother, hey little brother, tell me what you gonna do

If everything that has happened to me someday happens to you

Will you try to grin and bear it, will you hate yourself inside

Or will you walk with me in the sunshine cause there's really nothing to hide.

Cause there are all kinds of people who happen to be this way

And there's really nothing wrong with being any way that you want to

Nothing wrong with being - you know it's OK - nothing wrong with being gay.

The sound is not perfect, but it's the only video that I could find:

He broke up with his lover, Chris Bergman, around 1977, which led him to a decade of sex and drugs. He cleaned-up in the mid 80s and on Xmas 1986 he met the love of his life, Jimmy Price. Months later, Jimmy was diagnosed with AIDS and soon after Steven was too. But not until Jimmy's death in 1990, did Grossman develop full-blown AIDS. He died the following year, not yet 40...