Artie Bressan Jr. - "Gay USA" and Soundtrack recorded by Raven's Head Communications

"Gay USA" is an incredible documentary by Artie Bressan Jr. recording the SF, LA, and NYC gay pride parades of 1977 and it's available on Vimeo Vimeo. It's totally amazing because it combines numerous interviews with parade participants and viewers, together with tons of beautiful footage of the parades and then various intersperesed gay folk music songs. JD Doyle talks about the soundtrack here and records that the fantastic soundtrack was released by a small gay/queer record label called Raven's Head that was put together by Steve O'Neill and Cass Brayton. The site from JD Doyle also includes this totally incredible interview with Artie Bressan Jr. I'm so impressed with Artie Bressan and with the musicians here and also with Raven's Head Communications. I love all of this. Some of the musicians are Paul Dubois, Tommy Talley and Conan (Fred Dunham). Paul passed away from AIDS and I think Tommy too. Conan/Fred Dunham is still alive. I'm got in touch with Cass Brayton about Ravens Head Communications. I'm not sure what became of Steve O'Neill but haven't been able to find anything recent.

So much guile-less-ness and earnestness in these folks. Part of that is the gay tribal/communal vibe of SF in the 70's and part of it is who the filmmakers choose to include in the film. Artie Bressan was an enormously earnest idealistic person and listening to him talk about his films and intentions (and listening to people who worked with him) really makes that clear. So many folks in the interviews in this film who just seem like really intriguing and sweet folks.  Regarding "I Love A Man" by Paul Dubois, you can find more from JD Doyle's site here, including a full recording of many of the songs in a long interview with Artie Bressan where he talks about the music

Here is a wonderful talk from GLBT Historical Society about GAY USA, with one of the panel speakers being Jenni Olson speaking, who is just so great

Here is a great talk by Jenni Olson with Robert Adams who was in other movies from Artie Bressan. They are such great speakers here.

Here is the site of THE BRESSAN PROJECT which is preserving Artie Bressans work

In this 1977 issue of the SF Gay event magazine Kalendar, there is a great review of Gay USA as well as an account of a showing of the movie (with interviews with audience members) and also an ad for the film.

The recording of the song starts around 16:00 hereI was really struck by "I Love A Man" too; really beautiful lyrics and voice and harmonies.I was so struck by the music in this film that I reached out to an amazing Faerie/Sister of Perpetual Indulgence in SF called Cass Brayton, who is playright, who co-ran a small gay record company in the 1980's (Raven's Head Communications) that released the songs from Gay USA on a cassette (would love to find a copy!). He let me know that he has the old cassettes in storage. It would be super neat if the GLBT Historical Society could digitize them.I was also really wondering about Paul Dubois.I found his obit here and he sounds like a truly remarkable person. I also found this ad for a fundraiser for him when he was battling AIDS and I reached out to one of his friends, who is mentioned in the ad, and we had a Zoom call to chat about Paul's life and performance and participation in the SF theater/performance community and his music

I realize that the lyrics may probably not be recorded anywhere, so I'm writing them down here.

"I Love A Man" - Paul Dubois (1951-1993)
I love a man,
Who is just tender enough,
Who's sometime slightly rough when we make love,
We know each other's needs and try to be there,
The sun rises in the sky when we're together,
Like blue through thick and thin in stormy weather,
I like him, I respect him, he's a man,
He is like a dancer, He is a silk scarf in the wind,
He comes to me in grace, my arms are open,
Sometimes for hours not a word is spoken,
Just good old-fashioned touching with affection,
Oh sometimes people look in our direction,
With not a word to say, in quiet dismay,I think that they're giving their approval,
Our time, is like a flower, when I'm with him, all in bloom,
He walks into the room, my heart starts beatin',
I memorize the way he has of greetin' me,
The powerful embrace of two men longin',
To holder each other till the new day dawnin',
It is real to me and more of a challenge than a bore,
To keep our manly separate souls together.

"Anthem" -Tommy Talley
People together, people as one,
All people stand, take your lives in your hands,
Freedom for all soon shall be won,
Soon shall be won,
Gays all together, joined hand in hand,
All of you stand, take your lives in your hands,
Woman with woman, man with man,
Gay with the straight folks,
The old with the young,
All people stand, take your lives in your hands,
Freedom for all soon shall be won,
The dark skinned and the light skinned
All not just some,
All people stand, take your lives in your hands,
Freedom for all soon shall be won,
From seacoast to seacoast,
All over the land,
All people stand, take your lives in your hands,
A curtain of people, hand in hand,
People together, people as one,
All people stand, take your lives in your hands,
Freedom for all soon shall be won,
Soon shall be won,
Soon shall be won.

I believe that the Tommy Talley who wrote music for GAY USA may likely be Thomas Franklin Talley, who lived and grew up in Oakland ---- 5 Oct 1945 to 28 Jun 1993

In Arthur Bressan's interview about the music for Gay USA, he talks about how effortlessly he worked with Tommy Talley to have the music, and its lyrics, match the film and it's visuals. His copyrights for "Anthem" and "Saying Yes" are viewable here from this Library of Congress Record. "Anthem" and "Saying Yes" are dated 30th of August 1977. In a September 28th, 1983 article in the San Francisco Examiner about Placido Domingo singing at the SF Opera, a Tommy Talley is mentioned as an employee of the opera (telling a story about Placido Domingo's shoes being resoled frantically during the performance to be ready for Act II).

Additional Singers from the Gay USA Soundtrack:

Paul Hayden Dubois 21 Jan 1951 - 18 Mar 1993 Bay Area Reporter OBIT

Willow Wray 5 Oct 1950 to 5-31-2014 http://www.ngwmusic.com/Willow.html

Ellen Robinson ( I love her songs about Lesbian love on this soundtrack!) https://www.ellenrobinson.com

Marjie Orton (her name is misspelled in various sources all over the place so she's a bit hard to find) ---- her song is super great too! http://marjieorton.com/bio.html