Various Artists - Strong Love: Songs Of Gay Liberation 1972-81 [Baby Pink] [ Vinyl ]

Strong Love: Songs Of Gay Liberation 1972-81 captures a moment when honesty became radical, and music became a quiet act of defiance. This Various Artists compilation is less about fame than about bravery, tracing the earliest wave of openly gay songwriting in the years after Stonewall.

Originally released on CD in 2012, this landmark collection now arrives on vinyl for the first time, pressed on limited Baby Pink wax that feels both celebratory and resolute. Curated by Chapter Music at a time when these recordings were still largely absent from historical narratives, the set documents how pride marches, protest chants, and private reckonings slowly found their way onto record between 1972 and 1981.

The opening track, A Gay Song by London collective Everyone Involved, is widely considered the earliest recorded example of explicitly gay songwriting, gentle and fearless in equal measure. From there, the compilation moves through tender folk confessions, outsider country laments, and shadowy synth experiments, culminating in Tom Robinson’s Glad To Be Gay, whose fire and clarity would briefly crack the UK charts in 1978.

What makes Strong Love so affecting is how solitary these voices often were. Many artists self-funded tiny pressings, operating without the support networks that sustained parallel lesbian music scenes. Yet connections still flicker throughout, from Steven Grossman’s New York roots to glam and punk cross-pollinations.

This Baby Pink vinyl edition honors the vision, talent, and nerve of artists who chose truth over safety, making Strong Love an essential document of cultural courage and a deeply moving listen for collectors drawn to music with history in its grooves.