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Home | Theme Song: "Menergy"

May 1, 2009

Today's theme song is "Menergy" by Patrick Cowley, a song introduced to me by this week's broadcast of Penetration, the Andy Reynolds show on East Village Radio. (Recorded stream here). Andy is a popular DJ about town and the promoter who represents such acts as Cazwell and Bob Mould.

I'm a bit too young to remember this song when it first hit the dancefloor, but Joe was able to provide a bunch of info about the record and its producer. This amazing website is full of photos and personal reminiscences about the artist, who was one of the originators of the Hi-NRG style.

Click on the forward-arrow icon below to listen to "Menergy" by Patrick Cowley.

I can totally feel the menergy just listening to this!

In the world of gay marriage and adoption of mainstream "family values" by gay men, this track seems to come from a place long passed -- perhaps it does. I'm not sure I remember the last time I felt or saw the mania, sexual drive and dancefloor energy that this song conjures up. I suppose a lot of that mania came out of the sense of sexual outlawry of the day -- something that was physically liberating, if oppressive otherwise.

Patrick Cowley died of AIDS in 1982, when it was still called GRID. One of his most memorable legacies is the song Do You Wanna Funk, a collaboration with the artist Sylvester.

-- Aaron | Link