FOF #1769 – Screamin’ Rachael, Queen of House
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Since the origins of house music in Chicago in the early 80s, Screaming Rachael Cain has been its most vocal champion. And throughout the 90s, Rachael was a big part of the famed Club Kid scene in New York City, where many gay icons got their start.
Today Screamin’ Rachael joins us along with her protogé Jorge Cruz to take a look at the legacy of house music and her remarkable life.
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Comments
Thanks for a great show guys. My club years were in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s as well. Here is a list of the clubs I went to back then:
1. 12 West – this is one of the first house music clubs. It was popular because the DJs produced their own dance music which could only be heard “In House”, thus the name house music. I saw Phyllis Diller here and she was a huge gay icon at the time. The gay clubs had a king of exclusive version of house music at the time and had trouble keeping the straight people out. The way the gay clubs dealt with this was to create membership only clubs.
2. The Saint – this was a membership only club. The house music was extreme in terms of volume and bass. The drug use and sex was also extreme. I saw Grace Jones perform here and she entered the dance floor on a motorcycle.
3. Studio 54 – this club was mostly for celebrities and not so much for house music lovers. I went once but I was very disappointed with the music and the mixed crowd.
AIDS closed down most of the gay clubs in the early 80’s and then they reopened in the late 80’s and 90’s.
3. The Tunnel – This club was one of the first to divide the club into gay and straight sections. The house music was not the main draw here but it was one of the first to have both a gay party and a straight party on the same night.
4. Limelight – this of course was the epicenter of house music and club life at the time. This club was unique in that it was a former church so it had lots of rooms to do all kinds of nasty things in. This club also did a gay party and a straight party in the same night – Friday. The straight entrance was the front one and the gay entrance was the side one. You needed a “Fag Tag” to enter the gay party. There were 2 separate dance floors and 2 DJs. The gay crowd could go to the straight party but the straight party was not allowed into the gay party. The house music was more mainstream by this time and the DJs were like celebrities. Each DJ had their own mixes and many of us would follow the DJs around from club to club.
5. Palladium – not really a gay club but had mostly gay nights. This club was spectacular in that the lights were on elevators that could lift the lights almost 3 stories high and then back down again. The house music was the best around and all the clebrity DJs played here.
6. Roxy – a former roller skating rink that was an all gay dance club on Saturdays with one gay roller skating night. This was the largest club I was ever in and the sound system was amazing. Roxy never really closed at 4 AM, it just stopped serving alcohol and gave you free juice and snacks. The lines were enormous and the entrance fee was high so going to Roxy was an all night party with the best house music you could find anywhere.
Monday (The Glitch Mob Remix) from Flatlands (Remixes) by Nalepa
Buy it through FOF’s iTunes link.
Heard it recently in an ad for Privoy, the premium amateur gay porn site (don’t ask what website I was surfing). Now, I have a whole Glitch Mob playlist on my iPhone. The best house / electronic music ever.
loved the show! so many great stories!