Disco Geography
You remember Sylvester, the cross-dressing disco diva responsible for ย“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).ย” Well, the story goes that Sylvester was scheduled to perform in Memphis in 1979. He joined his mother Letha and sister Bernadette for a family reunion in Arkansas. Then he and Bernadette decided to drive to Memphis ย“It was so dark out there in the country that you couldnย’t see your hand in front of you, and Memphis after midnight wasnย’t much brighter. Driving through the city, they thought they were the last people on earth. They made a U-turn and headed back over the Colorado River …”
The Colorado River? Joshua Gamson is the Yale-trained sociologist turned author of The Fabulous Sylvester, a new biography of the singer from Picador and the source for the above quote. Donย’t know what the sociology department at Yale teaches, but it ainย’t geography.