Willie Nelson releases an ode to gay cowboys

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The song, which became available exclusively through iTunes Tuesday, features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out."

The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981 — long before this year's Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain made gay cowboys a contemporary topic.

Sublette said he wrote the song during the Urban Cowboy craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.

Click here for the rest.

Well, it's about time. Yay, Willie!!!

When I was younger and homophobic, I laughed and lauged when I learned about the existence of gay kicker bars. It struck me as absurd, the thought of hypermasculine guys in boots, hats, and big belt buckles two stepping around the dance floor. Then, after working and living with homosexuals for years, I got over my homophobia. Then I met some gay kickers. Strangly, or perhaps not so strangely, I still get a humorous kick out of the thought of gay cowboys, although now I feel like I'm lauging with the lavender buckaroo set rather than at them. I love the challenge they present to the conventional wisdom about masculinity and down home values; I love thinking about straight kickers being totally freaked out by it all.

What a wonderful world we live in.

Here are the lyrics:

Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)

There's many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas;
There's many a young boy who feels things he don't comprehend.
Well small town don't like it when somebody falls between sexes,
No, small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelings for men.

Well I believe in my soul that inside every man there's a feminine,
And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear.
Well, a cowboy may brag about
things that he does with his women,
But the ones who brag loudest
are the ones that are most likely queer.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
What did you think those saddles and boots was about?
There's many a cowboy who don't understand
the way that he feels towards his brother,
Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out.

Ten men for each woman was the rule
way back when on the prairie,
And somehow those cowboys must have
kept themselves warm late at night.
Cowboys are famous for getting riled up about fairies,
But I'll tell you the reason a big strong man gets so uptight:

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
That's why they wear leather, and Levi's and belts buckled tight.
There's many a cowboy who don't understand
the way that he feels towards his brother;
There's many a cowboy who's more like a lady at night.

Well there's always somebody who
says what the others just whisper,
And mostly that someone's the first one to get shot down dead:
When you talk to a cowboy don't treat him like he was a sister
Don't mess with the lady that's sleepin' in each cowboy's head.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
Even though they take speed and
drive pickups and shoot their big guns;
There's many a cowboy who don't understand
the way that he feels towards his brother;
There's many a cowboy who keeps quiet about things he's done.

Yee-hah!

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