LISTEN: The first gay British rock song offers a peek at cruising in the ’60s
“Is That A Ship I Hear,” though its B-side featured quite the fruity surprise.“Do You Come Here Often?” starts with two minutes of inoffensive instrumentation, led by a jazzy organ, until a conversation between two men begins.
It doesn’t take long to understand why this throwaway track is remembered as Britain’s “first explicitly gay rock song.” Listen below (starting around 2:20).The dialogue sounds lifted from a discussion between two bitchy queens in the bathroom at any British gay spot from the era.
There’s an air of horniness throughout the exchange, which takes place whilst cruising.Though LGBTQ+ folks likely picked up on the context, the words were vague enough to confuse any heterosexual listener who made it that far. “Do you come here often,” one man starts. “Only when the pirate ships go off air,” the other replies.Soon, they’re sh*t talking each other’s looks (“Well, I see pajama styled shirts are in, then.”) and making eyes with potential hookups. “Wow, these two coming now.
What do you think,” one says. “Mmm… mine’s alright, but I don’t like the look of yours,” the other retorts.Their farewell ends, of course, with a reference to Piccadilly Circus, known as the “centre of gay London” (and overall debauchery) in the ’50s and ’60s. “I’ll see you down the ‘Dilly,” the first man says.
