Summer Gold: Village People, 'Sleazy'

And once again, muggins gets egg on his/her face when trying to predict the hit sound of late '79, but who could possibly blame muggins!? 'Y.M.C.A' had been a huge hit for the Village people (number one no less) in November '78, and 'In the Navy' only got to number 9 but that was mid-'79. 'Sleazy', eh? Well, why not. It's sure to go a long way.

It died a death (the Village People were actually only to have one more hit in Australia, with 'Can't Stop the Music' in June 1980; still, the success of that movie in this country, one of the territories where it was a surprise hit I gather, probably huge in Flanders, shows that the Village People still had currency at this time). Possibly one reason for the flagging interest was the departure of main guy Victor Willis, who left at the end of '79, but on the other hand, how many members of the Village People can you, or could you ever name? You're more likely to go 'um, Construction Worker, Indian, um, Salvation Army guy? Businessman? WAF? Traffic Cone?'

As it happens, 'Sleazy' was sung by Construction Worker, David 'Scar' Hodo, I think his only go at a single A-side (but I stand to be corrected and also to not give a loose root). The song is a double bummer, firstly because it is possibly the first time the facade cracks in terms of 'well, guys, we sing about being macho or in the navy or at the YMCA, but it's not just fun and games, we do these things with a sexual mindset' (not just that of course - a homosexual mindset). But perhaps worse than that, I'm not sure, it's hard to take on the mentality of 1979 pop fan/person in the street, it's about being sleazy but if you didn't know what 'sleazy' meant you'd have a bit of trouble figuring it out from the song.



Unless I'm the naive one and there is actually a definition of 'sleazy' which involves playing loud music and I mean REALLY LOUD.

Looking back you (I) have to assume that things like 'Sleazy' are the VP and their handlers trying to address criticisms of the disco scene as shallow and all about studio trickery (this song appears on a double album of live and studio material called Live and Sleazy) by showing that the Village People could do it onstage, loud and mean if need be. It wasn't a hit, in any case, and unlike many tracks on Summer Gold boy oh boy it really did not deserve to be one.