It wasn’t about what we thought. It was about the young people.

June 21, 2017 5:05 AM

When the Village People released their hit in 1978, the American branch of the Christian-centric organisation YMCA threatened to sue them. About 40 years later, the Australian YMCA has decided to embrace the song - partnering with Boy George to record a cover for their new youth-focused initiative Why Not? - highlighting marriage equality, youth unemployment, and mental health.
posted by divabat (31 comments total)

Somewhat of a piece with this, weird internet audio guy Neil Cicierega did an amazing mash-up of Y.M.C.A. on his most recent album, Mouth Sounds. Despite the album being full of Neil's usual brand of dadaist audio trolling, this particular track (T.I.M.E.) basically steps back and lets the vocals of the original step outside their upbeat backing track and into a completely different context.

It is really worth listening to.
posted by tocts at 5:17 AM on June 21, 2017 [18 favorites]

My first question would be, if it's a mental health initiative, why not partner with a musician who hasn't been convicted of violent assault and false imprisonment.

Also if it's a "youth-focused initiative," why not find a musician who's been popular during the current century.
posted by Umami Dearest at 5:17 AM on June 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

Umami Dearest: Boy George is currently a judge on The Voice Australia.
posted by divabat at 5:26 AM on June 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

(I can't really speak for the assault allegations, just pointing out his current Australian popularity)
posted by divabat at 5:26 AM on June 21, 2017 [6 favorites]

YMCA was recently the subject of one of Christian James Hand's breakdowns, when he takes apart a song to examine the individual tracks. There is more going on musically in the original song than you might give it credit for.

Listen on soundcloud (may contain more than your daily allowance of annoying radio DJ voices)
posted by AndrewStephens at 5:38 AM on June 21, 2017 [5 favorites]

Also if it's a "youth-focused initiative," why not find a musician who's been popular during the current century.

When you have a chance to revisit the "How Much is That Doggie In The Window" of the 1970's, you run with it
posted by thelonius at 5:41 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can only assume that the Navy will be next.
posted by jonmc at 5:51 AM on June 21, 2017 [19 favorites]

I feel as if I've lived a life entire.
posted by pracowity at 6:03 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Perhaps the YMCA has changed over the years. The ones I see are a rather complicated yuppie affairs, offering everything for the suburban white family, and really rather small in social engagement.
posted by kadmilos at 6:37 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

the American branch of the Christian-centric organisation YMCA threatened to sue them

On one hand, I'm not surprised? But on the other hand, I strongly recall seeing (as a kid in the early '80s) television ads for the local Cincinnati-area YMCA/YWCA branches where the Village People's song was used in the commercial. Long before I understood the gay subtext (surface text?) of the song, I remember thinking that it was just a jingle for the neighborhood rec center. So I'm guessing that YMCA must have relented and eventually embraced the song as such.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:46 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

You might not see everything. I worked for a YWCA that from the outside looked like a boutique health club in a gentrified neighborhood, but also ran a four building 60 unit transitional housing program for homeless families. I currently work part time at a YMCA that is one of the largest providers of low cost childcare in the city, I'm not sure many fitness members are even aware of the social service arm of the Y.
posted by Malla at 6:52 AM on June 21, 2017 [28 favorites]

I think YMCAs vary a lot by location. I've been a member more or less since I was a kid and the programs/social engagement/diversity/attachment to the "C" in YMCA tends to vary by location. When I first joined my current Y in the early 2000s, for example, it refused to go under the umbrella of the regional YMCA because said regional YMCA would not offer family memberships for same sex couples. Most of the Ys I've been a member of have had some degree of programming for low income families in general and low income kids particularly. But if you want a super activist-y, socially engaged orgnization, you're probably looking for the YWCA, whose actual current tagline is Eliminating Racism. Empowering Women.
posted by thivaia at 6:55 AM on June 21, 2017 [12 favorites]

True, thivaia, the YW is much more focused and progressive.
posted by Malla at 6:58 AM on June 21, 2017

I actually did stay at a YMCA for a few weeks in the mid-nineties, in Tulsa, which is the only Y that I can remember having rooms to rent. I had a temporary job in the city, and it was by far the cheapest option available to me. (Well, some of the motels on the edge of the city may have been cheaper, but they were really skeevy.) They rented to men only, and I got the vague impression that one of the other floors was the one to stay on if you really wanted to hang out with all the boys. Generally, everyone was quite nice.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:00 AM on June 21, 2017 [6 favorites]

I volunteered there doing filing 2 summers in the mid 80s; their pamphlets stated that they adhered to a judeo-christian ethic.
posted by brujita at 7:22 AM on June 21, 2017

Huh. That's a great cover regardless of how you feel about Boy George. FYI: a LOT of Y's rent rooms. They're really more than a gym. They're community outreach.

Besides, it was all just a misunderstanding. http://popdirt.com/boy-george-discusses-trial-on-weekend-update/70543/
posted by xammerboy at 7:24 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

.... but it's also a little about what you thought, right?
posted by Paul Slade at 7:40 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

offering everything for the suburban white family
Tell us more about how the YMCAs you've "seen" are only open to white people.
posted by mikoroshi at 8:29 AM on June 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

There is more going on musically in the original song than you might give it credit for

Everything about YMCA is genius, the groove, the horns, and the outrageous double entendre.
posted by bhnyc at 8:45 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

When that curtain dropped to reveal all the people in the background, I TOTALLY expected them to immediately bust out the traditional Y-M-C-A arm motions (albeit with a modern hipster insouciance), and was vastly disappointed when that did not occur.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 8:53 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's the backstory about the YMCA's original claim against the Village People (which was about trademark infringement, not the gay overtones of the song). They settled amicably out of court, and now “We at the YMCA celebrate the song,” said media relations manager Leah Pouw back in 2008, “It’s a positive statement about the YMCA and what we offer to people all around the world.”
posted by beagle at 9:09 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

For the record, you actually can't do whatever you feel at the YMCA.
posted by mhum at 9:25 AM on June 21, 2017 [15 favorites]

The location of the old McBurney YMCA on 23rd street, the one featured in the Village People video, also housed students at my old college on a couple of its floors. There were also a certain number of rooms made available to house some of the cities homeless people. Unfortunately some of those people ended up having serious mental health issues and incidents involving students getting robbed and assaulted were quite frequent. There were also a few sexual assaults that happened too. It had a pretty bad reputation and eventually closed down and moved to a much nicer building on 14th street minus the lodgings.
posted by cazoo at 9:31 AM on June 21, 2017

Boy George was on The Voice UK last season and his finalist, the talented Cody Frost, had a duet with him (as per the show format) which seemed like 5% Cody and 95% BG, which is not per format, so that was weird.

(YMCA is a song which takes me right back, in a feel-good way, to the late 1970s and being about 8 or 9. If you asked me for two more songs off the top of my head to make a three-song radio set I would immediately say We Are Family by Sister Sledge and Cool Change by Little River Band.

Plus, of course, there was that episode of Married with Children.)
posted by maxwelton at 9:35 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

That was indeed an awesome breakdown AndrewStephens, but holey-moley did those hosts sound like such jerks...
posted by bitteroldman at 9:45 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

The location of the old McBurney YMCA on 23rd street, the one featured in the Village People video, also housed students at my old college on a couple of its floors. There were also a certain number of rooms made available to house some of the cities homeless people. Unfortunately some of those people ended up having serious mental health issues and incidents involving students getting robbed and assaulted were quite frequent. There were also a few sexual assaults that happened too. It had a pretty bad reputation and eventually closed down and moved to a much nicer building on 14th street minus the lodgings.

Yes - I have a friend who was put up there for a brief period of time during that period of time and liked to tell people, "Yes, it was THAT YMCA and no it was NOT FUN to stay at the YMCA."
posted by lagomorphius at 11:30 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I will take any and every opportunity to point out that the horn arrangement for the Village People song is absolutely brilliant.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:52 PM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

> Perhaps the YMCA has changed over the years. The ones I see are a rather complicated yuppie affairs, offering everything for the suburban white family, and really rather small in social engagement

As Zoidburg said: why not both?

My white suburban family does our thing there -- we can swim or lift weights or take karate lessons -- and it's got financial aid, is one of the locations for free lunches over the summer, has cheap childcare (beforecare, aftercare, and camp during school vacations), has outings for adults with disabilities, etc etc etc, not just for other white suburban families (many white suburban families need free meals, too) but for suburban people of all types.

Urban people are also welcome, but we're in the Seattle area and the urban / suburban divide is complicated.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:04 PM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Speaking from personal experience, the YMCA has great homeless/transitional housing (in some areas) and had a bangin' summer day camp for low income kids that I went to for years.
posted by Tiny Bungalow at 9:23 PM on June 21, 2017

I was a huge Village People fan in the late '70s (I was 14 when "Y.M.C.A." came out) and had absolutely no clue about the blatant gay text. We saw them at the local mall. My family went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1978 and seeing the Village People was the highlight for me.

My Village People phase was bright and brief; they lost me with 1979's Live and Sleazy. I switched to The Knack since I'd become a big Beatles fan in the meantime ("My Sharona" came out in 1979).

The first album I bought with my own money was Barry Manilow Live. (I am straight.)
posted by kirkaracha at 10:36 AM on June 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Everything about YMCA is genius, the groove, the horns, and the outrageous double entendre.

It may be the greatest pop song ever and I mean that seriously. And as evidence I submit the fact that it's the only song about gay crusing that nearly every living American, whatever their feelings about same-sex love, has sung at least once in their lives.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:09 PM on June 22, 2017 [3 favorites]