Man Enough to be a Woman - Jayne County

 

Of course, I've been familiar with Wayne/Jayne since the 70's due to their inclusion in any rock zine that covered the NY scene. County's outrageousness far outstripped any'n'everyone else, including gender-benders like Bowie, Jobriath, Reed and anyone else that you can think of. Being on the outskirts of "normal" society their entire life, including growing up in a small, southern town, means that County has wild tales to tale and is, frankly, lucky to still be alive!

Considering the hell that I received as an outcast in a northern Indiana town in the 60's and 70's just by having slightly long hair and being a pacifist, it is fairly incredible that Wayne (at the time) was able to dress up like a female and was fairly openly gay and only received mild harassment. Apparently, it helped that there were a couple gays that were even more flamboyant as well as the fact that some of the jocks came on to Wayne.

The British Invasion gave a soundtrack to Wayne's life - a fanaticism that never faded (they have pretty great taste) - and that alone was enough to be an outcast in the 60's in the South, but combined with their outrageousness, again, I am amazed. After getting a job in nearby Atlanta, County discovers drag queens and life is once again changed.

There are innumerable stories as she becomes part of the gay scene in town, but things change, as they do, and she decided she wanted to go to San Francisco and decided the easiest and cheapest way was to go to NYC and look for a ride, but once she got to town, she realized that she liked it and fairly quickly became part of the underground there. Of course, it helped that she met Leee Black Childers early on and he introduced her to everyone and soon she and Leee were sharing a room with Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis, among others!

The Theater of the Ridiculous was certainly influential - David Bowie especially took plenty of ideas from this - but I've got to say that it all sounds a bit too ridiculous for me, personally. But, that is what got Wayne their initial recognition in town, which, of course, morphed into their musical career. Wayne even became part of the Main Man stable for a while, but while MM coughed up money, apartments and shows, no recording was ever done. Not sure why, as the material was so overly extreme that it never could have crossed over to any kind of mainstream, even to the level that Bowie's glam stuff did. County was sure that Bowie was jealous but I don't think that there was any kind of competition there.

Eventually, County got a band in England, started recording and touring and making more "serious" music. Oddly, they mention songs about religion and how they still respected their extremely conservative church they grew up in and basically says they do not believe in evolution! Wild! Lots of stories of playing, touring, recording, traveling, picking up boys and more (even working into a transsexual whorehouse!), as well as talking frankly about the fact that they never did the full operation, even though that was definitely reported in some papers. Plenty of psychotic relationships and jealousies and breakdowns - possible at least partially due to hormones.

County eventually settles down to an extent - at least offstage - and seems to have come to peace with themselves, even if they didn't achieve everything they had hoped to (again, very relatable!). 

A rollickin' read and a first hand account of the gay/transsexual scenes in the 60's and 70's from around the world!