"The song's been in the closet for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out," said Nelson. "I'm just opening the door."And talk about a telling moment: Nelson piggybacked on an Oscar hopeful about gay cowboys, got the approval of his out manager, recorded the track exclusively for the online music store iTunes and announced it on Howard Stern's satellite radio show.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Willie Nelson's Valentine To Gay Cowboys
Talk about savvy timing. Willie Nelson released a cover of "Cowboys Are Secretly, Frequently Fond Of Each Other" on Valentine's Day. The song is 25 years old and Nelson recorded it last year for iTunes. But waiting for Valentine's Day and the Brokeback Mountain phenomenon inspired a wave of press coverage around the world. It hasn't helped the song much yet -- it's at Number 67 on the iTunes chart -- but Nelson was funny about it.
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5 comments:
Momma don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys - takes on a whole new meaning, don't it?
Anything to get Willie a hit. He deserves it.
Seems kind of cheap to me after doing a song for Brokeback etc. But harmless I guess.
I'd seen that story everywhere, but you have an interesting take on it: the gay manager, the digital only track, iTunes, Stern on satellite radio -- that is a pretty crazy, new mix of cutting edge media around this song. In fact, the release of a single would have received virtually no press five years ago, but now thanks to iPods it seems hip.
Not a very clever song, frankly.
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