GAYLETTER

In 1981, gay porn was closing in on a specifically American brand of ubiquity. There were 20,000 adult bookstores and 800 sex cinemas in the States alone, and while print pornography was still king, home VCRs had begun to gain traction and producers were starting to shoot films straight to video. The aesthetic style of underground art films of the previous decade had been largely abandoned for an approach more comparable to gay porn’s straight counterpart, boiling down to a simple rule of thumb: the more explicit, the better.

In that same year John Coletti, the owner of prominent gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles, approached well-established musician Patrick Cowley to compose soundtracks for his films. Cowley, a renowned producer that transplanted to San Francisco from New York in 1971, had been the brains behind a number of disco hits of the mid to late 70’s, including several for megastar Sylvester and an epic 16-minute remix of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” (which still totally holds up today, in case you were curious). He also put out an anthemic pro-gay song fittingly named “Menergy” and became a pioneer for the Hi-NRG genre, putting out a series of disco singles that became the backdrop for an entire generation of bell bottomed gays.

Cowley eagerly accepted the gig at Fox, and before long his synthesizers and modified guitars were providing the backdrop for several steamy flicks, including School Daze and Muscle Up. The soundtracks for these two films, filled with evocative synth melodies and searingly slow motion techno, are the focus of a recently released compilation album. Assembled by San Francisco imprint Dark Entries, School Daze is an 11-song time capsule, a glimpse into a singularly X-rated corner of gay history as well as into a disco auteur’s masterful, diverse archive.

After working with Coletti, Cowley went on to release Mind Warp in 1982. A murky collection of electro and disco, the album ended up being his final record. Cowley died of AIDS the following year in a time before the disease even had a name, an abrupt end to a young, prolific talent. Nevertheless, his legacy lives on as one of the most visionary and influential producers in the history of electronic music, in league with Giorgio Moroder and Isao Tomita, two of his biggest influences. In honor of his memory, all proceeds from School Daze are being donated to Project Open Hand and the AIDS Housing Alliance.

Watching gay porn today, most of which is either bereft of music altogether or soundtracked by some truly terrible background music, it’s bizarre to think about something as stark, nuanced, and measured as Cowley’s music being used to soundtrack some good, old fashioned guy-on-guy fucking. It’s no surprise, however, to learn that Cowley drew from his experiences in San Francisco bathhouses in the 1970s to craft this music: it pulses with a slow-burn heartbeat that is often just as somber as it is sensuous, as intimate as it is alien.

School Daze can be previewed and purchased on the Dark Entries website. Below, check out a video for the track ‘Nightcrawler,’ featuring clips from some gloriously early 80’s porn from Fox Studio, Youtube-approved bulges and all…