Cyndi Lauper just came through town for the True Colors Tour (which has teamed her up at various stops with the B-52’s, Joan Jett, Regina Spektor, the Cliks, Kat DeLuna, Indigo Girls, Tegan and Sara and others) and she was also in Northern California to serve as grand marshal of the 38th annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration & Parade.

Though Lauper’s tour makes it clear that gays just wanna have fun, the beloved figure in the LGBT community got choked up on the phone the other day talking about the nature of bigotry and an erosion in civil rights.

”I look around and wonder about all the work that was accomplished and how things have been sliding back. This country is getting scary and this government is not the one that is going to make it better.“

The 55-year-old Queens native was calling from an airport and had to go, but she dropped an e-mail later to talk more about her heartfelt connection to the gay and lesbian community.

”I am a friend and family of this community. I also grew up believing that civil rights should be afforded everyone in this country, not just some,“ she wrote. ”So my partners and I created a tour called True Colors to help promote this idea through celebration, music and laughter.“

Lauper has cited her sister, Ellen, as a role model for coming out of the closet and working in the fight against HIV. The singer became even more beloved in the ’90s with songs such as ”Ballad of Cleo and Joe,“ about a drag queen, and ”Brimstone and Fire,“ a tender tale of a blossoming lesbian relationship.

And then there’s the politics of dancing: Lauper’s new album, ”Bring Ya to the Brink,“ immerses her in European dance-floor traditions. She was pretty enthused about the experience, e-mailing this about writing ”High and Mighty,“ which she collaborated on with Amsterdam’s Scumfrog (a.k.a. Jesse Houk), the DJ/producer known for his remix of ”Young Folks,“ among others (Britney, Bowie, etc.): ”He had played me a track of music he had been working on. The music was centered around a riff and then embellished and progressed from there but always returned to it. I found it very inspiring and intriguing at the same time. Because of some research I had done a few years back on a blues project I was going to do with Rick Chertoff, and Jesse’s riff song, I had an idea. I have always been struck by how early blues spoke of a lifestyle in the simplest terms. For instance, from a Muddy Waters song, ‘I’ve got $700. Don’t you mess with me.’ This tells so much about the person, how they lived and just how long that $700 will last. So I took my cue from that and wondered how blues would fit into dance without singing typically soulful. In fact, I thought maybe this dame is just spaced out and could give a damn. I started to put her together in my head, very sexy and odd. The lyrics were taken from a poem I had written about my hectic life, which is constantly being run over by a barrage of clothes, suitcases and clothing racks. I remember from time to time, being warned about my high and mighty ways. So I put the two together and started to weave a sonic character together with a catchy riff. And the music came …“

Listen to a sample of ”High and Mighty“ here.

Source: L.A. Times Music Blog