Ron Romanovsky and Paul Phillips
Imagine if the Indigo Girls 1) shifted their focus to more comedy/satire and 2) were guys, and you'd pretty much have Romanovsky and Phillips. According to http://www.turtlecreek.org/Links3.html, the acoustic guitar folk/pop duo started in 1982 playing at the Gay Comedy Open Mike Night at the Valencia Rosa Cafe in San Francisco. You can see pictures of them and their album covers on this site: http://www.gayweb.com/404/home.html
Their songs are sometimes sweet, sometimes wry, and skewer both straight homophobes and uptight, closeted gay people in equal measure
And I don't understand all those classified ads
Filled with desires that I've never had
"Straight-looking Marine seeks straight cop to please..."
How straight do they look when they're down on their knees?
It's a taste that I've never been able to savor
This preoccupation with sexist behavior
To this
breeder boy, R&P are about
being proud of who you are with
no compromise and
no apology. Though definitely written by and for
gay people, their themes of love, loss, friendship, and telling
The Man to go to hell have universal appeal, and if you are into
acoustic music, their melodies will sound very
pretty to your ear. I find myself singing their songs in the shower sometimes and getting
funny looks from my
housemates when I emerge. One of my favorite R&P songs is Hymn, which sounds exactly like a
church hymn until you notice lyrics like:
...but the latest word from Rome is not
a loving one at all.
If Jesus walked on Earth today
I think he'd be appalled.
Romanovsky and Phillips have their own record label, called Fresh Fruit Records. And they've released the following albums:
- 1984 I Thought You'd Be Taller!
- 1986 Trouble in Paradise
- 1988 Emotional Rollercoaster
- 1991 Be Political, Not Polite
- 1992 Hopeful Romantic
- 1994 Hopeful Ramantic
- 1995 Let's Flaunt It!
- 1994 Brave Boys: The Best Of & More
- 1995 This Way Out: The R&P Interview