On Donna Summer’s Death and the Meaning of Love

donna summer

By Scott Creney

Well fuck it, if nobody else is going to mention it (and so far I’ve only checked P4K and Rolling Stone, but it looks like they aren’t), then I’ll say it. In 1983, Ms. Summer, knowing she had a large gay following, began cracking, “It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” onstage. When subsequently questioned about gay rights, she [allegedly - Ed] responded, “I’ve seen the evil homosexuality come out of you people … AIDS is your sin”. She then [allegedly - Ed] went on to say, “Now don’t get me wrong; God loves you. But not the way you are now”.

Her comments have never kept me from enjoying some of the music she made (although as a former caterer, I have a deep and profound contempt for ‘Last Dance’). It revolutionized music, and not just ‘pop’. And if she couldn’t have done it without Giorgio, well he couldn’t have done it without her. The music he made without Donna Summer isn’t any better than the music Donna Summer made without him.

It isn’t nice to speak ill of the dead, but Donna didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Yeah, that Giorgio Moroder stuff is incredible. And respect is due to anyone who can make it out of Dorchester, Massachusetts and play a role in transforming popular music, but that was some hateful, nasty shit Donna Summer said [allegedly - Ed]. I’m not glad she’s dead, or anything like that, but I think people should be remembered for everything they were, whether we loved their music or not.

Donna Summer’s faith in God was so strong that it allowed her to  [allegedly - Ed] feel comfortable judging the actions of others and to condemn them as evil. That deserves to be thought about. There are a lot of people I know out there who are posting public tributes to her on Facebook who a week ago dismissed the entire state of North Carolina as a collection of homophobic assholes for voting to outlaw gay marriage. This doesn’t make these Facebook people hypocrites, any more than Donna Summer’s [alleged - Ed] comments made her evil. It just reminds us that people are complicated, that life is messy and painful, and we all stumble through it as best as we can, full of contradictions.

It’s important to remember that no one ever lived a life without hurting someone else, but every person is capable of growing and learning from their mistakes. When we ignore those mistakes, when we try to sweep them under the rug and pretend they never happened, we do a disservice to the power we all hold within us – the capacity to improve ourselves. We can do better. All of us. Even Donna Summer eventually apologized for what she [allegedly - Ed] said (it was through a publicist, but hey, you do what you can).

This is the electronic ‘Sister Ray’. It’s fucking brilliant. It’s one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded. I hope that in her next life, all Donna Summer ever feels is love. I hope that all of us feel it, including myself.

Related posts: Song of the day – 302: Donna Summer

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 10:55 am. It is filed under Scott Creney and tagged with , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

7 Responses to “On Donna Summer’s Death and the Meaning of Love”

  1. Princess Stomper says:
    May 18, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    Nobody else mentioned it because it didn’t happen. Like the bit about Mariah Carey wishing she could be skinny like those starving children in Africa, it’s just something someone made up that caught hold.

    In a letter to ACT UP (the AIDS campaign group), Summer described it as a “terrible misunderstanding. I was unknowingly protected by those around me from the bad press and hate letters… If I have caused you pain, forgive me.”

    She told The Advocate that “a couple of the people I write with are gay, and they have been ever since I met them. What people want to do with their bodies is their personal preference.”

    P4K and Rolling Stone probably didn’t bring up the anti-gay slurs because
    she sued the last magazine that alleged she’d made the comments for libel to the tune of $50 million and settled out of court.

  2. Everett True says:
    May 18, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    There’s an interesting article about this very subject in The Advocate here.

  3. Scott Creney says:
    May 18, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    Here’s a link to the original article in The Advocate.

    http://www.donna-tribute.com/articles/80/advocate2.htm

    I mean, I wasn’t there so who ultimately who knows what she did or didn’t say. But this isn’t an urban legend we’re talking about. To believe she didn’t say this is to believe that a writer for the Village Voice made the whole thing up. Summer’s initial response was to issue a statement ‘apologizing for any misunderstanding’. That’s not nearly the same thing as a denial, or claiming she never said it. As near as I can tell, it wasn’t until 1989, six years later, that she began insisting she never said it in the first place. Here’s a link to that article.

    http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2012/05/17/exclusive-donna-summer-denies-making-antigay-remarks-hurt-her

    Here’s a quote from that 1989 article:

    “Eight years ago, I made a reference to AIDS. What I supposedly said I did not say, and my reference to AIDS was really an innocent reference.

    “At the time, I thought AIDS was a herpes pimple, like you get on your mouth. I certainly didn’t have any idea what it really was and certainly if I had, in my heart I would not wish AIDS on anyone.”

    So she didn’t say what she said, but the reference she made to AIDS in that thing she didn’t say was an innocent reference, even though she never said it in the first place? But had she known what AIDS was, she wouldn’t have wished AIDS on anyone, even though she didn’t? That’s a hell of a denial.

    I’d like to know more about this lawsuit.

  4. Erika says:
    May 19, 2012 at 1:27 am

    Wow. This sure brings up a lot of stuff. Musicians. Humans. Church. Drugs. Someone on the Advocate thread said she made the comments in a “cocaine blackout” so she doesn’t remember. She was possibly mixing religion with alcohol and cocaine?

    I don’t know what her private life was like but if a religious sect got a hold of her, AND she was doing drugs, who knows what kind of spaghetti that made of her mind. Most pop/rock/disco musicians were/are not college-educated intellectuals who choose words carefully before they speak.

    I wish it was otherwise – I wish the people we looked up to and admire were really reasonable AND spiritually powerful AND able to transcend the pettiness and fear-mongering of institutions like the church.

    Can you imagine how the church might have reacted to Donna Summer being a “gay icon”? How they might have made her feel?

    In the above paragraph, I almost wrote “Jan Terri” – because she’s also a “gay icon” on her own level, and has been pretty open with her fans about the pressure she was getting from her church to stop making music altogether. So glad she ultimately stood up for her art and against the pressure of the church. And no, this kind of thing is never done with “LOVE”. It’s power-mongering behavior. It’s brainwashing and group think and if that doesn’t work, it’s being psychologically bullied by your own community.

    As far as cocaine and alcohol – they can, and do, turn anyone into an asshole. Mix it with religion? Wow.

    I’m not saying don’t hold people accountable for their words and actions – but that it’s a complicated dynamic with all kinds of heavy stuff, cultural, personal, spiritual, chemical – feeding in.

    I do agree about the answer though: Love.

  5. Why you are secretly as prejudiced as Donna Summer | Reinspired says:
    May 19, 2012 at 6:33 am

    [...] said but decided against it. The woman was dead, her voice silenced forever. Inevitably, though, Scott Creney took her to task on the issue over on Collapse Board. Don’t get involved, don’t step in … too late. “But someone is wrong on the [...]

  6. Wallace Wylie says:
    May 19, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    There’s one thing wrong with this article… Giorgio Moroder solo albums are actually great. “From Here To Eternity” is a masterpiece.

  7. Scott Creney says:
    May 21, 2012 at 12:40 am

    Totally agree with you, Wallace. But I tried to choose my words carefully. Didn’t say solo Giorgio wasn’t great–just not as great as ‘I Feel Love’.

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