David Pevsner is an actor and writer (with some modeling on the side). His first songs found their way into
the international hit show "Naked Boys Singing", and he has continued to write witty, raucous ditties about
the gay experience, though anyone with an open mind can appreciate the humor. Two one man musicals
later ("To Bitter and Back" and "Musical Comedy Whore"), it was time to record his favorites and share them.
Most come out of his own real life experience:
1) "The Perky Little Porn Star": The first song I ever wrote. I had fantasized about being a gay porn star, but
I knew Jewish guilt and the voice of my mother would make that a difficult career choice. This guy singing the
song finds his way around that.
2) “Merry Ex-Mas”: The holidays are the worst time to break up, and the revenge can be loud and anything but
merry.
3) “Straight Guy”: Sometimes you flirt with the wrong guy, but you succeed. Here’s what's going on in his head.
4) “What’s It Like To Be You”: A song born out of the many hours I sat in “The Big Cup” in NYC (akin to
“Central Perk” on “Friends”) mooning over boys who never looked at me.
5) “The Best Part”: The Gaiety Theater was a male burlesque house in NYC that everyone patronized to watch
male strippers dance, from clothed to buck naked. No surprise, I fantasized being one of them even though I
was skinny and reserved. With a tip of the hat to “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” from “Gypsy”, here’s what could
have happened had I ventured backstage for some guidance.
6) “The Book of Lust”: I kept a book that had the names of everyone I ever slept with. Now that book is a song.
Some of it’s true, some of it’s not, and it’s epic and kinda lengthy, but that’s just the kind of slut I was.
Note: I did not sleep with Mr. Cruise, but I think it makes for a fun lyric. So sue me…I mean, don’t.
7) “Pain in the Butt”: My favorite song that I ever wrote. I’ll leave it at that.
8) “Ballad”: Not long after I had started writing songs, I went to a concert featuring Amanda McBroom and Ann
Hampton Callaway, and hearing all the beautiful songs they wrote, I came home devastated. After writing song
after dirty gay song, I didn’t think I was capable of creating material like they did. I poured a scotch, went out on
my balcony, and stayed up all night writing a ballad about a guy who can’t write a ballad. I think it’s sweet.
9) “The Naked Maid”: Yup, I was one. When folks ask me what it was like, I pretty much just tell them that this
lyric says it all. Another song that made it into “Naked Boys Singing”.
10) “Shoot Me”: I was with a friend at “The Lure”, this great downtown leather bar in NYC. It was 1:30 in the
morning on a weekend, and there was an older guy hunched over the bar in full leather, nursing a drink, and
looking absolutely miserable. t said to my friend that if he came across me sitting at that bar at that age
looking that unhappy, please…”Shoot me or call me a cab.” Not fair of me to judge, I know, maybe he was just
having a bad day...but a country song was born, so whatever. :)
11) “Accoutrements”: I was on tour with “Fiddler on the Roof” and we were in New Orleans for Halloween.
Everyone was dressing up, which I hated to do, but with my full beard and bulked up body, I secretly wanted
to experience leather and fetish. I found a “specialty” shop and the owner and his slave showed me everything
in the shop. I spent gazillions of dollars, and my attraction for leather was cemented. Were the shop keeps as
colorful as the guys in this song? Not quite, but they gave me an education on all things kinky. And now it’s a
song and Jim J. Bullock is my slave.
12) “The Gay Old Times”: We have been through so much, my generation, so much that has brought crazy wild
happy times, but also such sadness and death and shame. But through it all, we have always looked to
each other for support and laughter, and that will always get us through. Always.
13) “I Gotta Give It Up To Love”: I wrote a film script that had a “love montage”, and over it, I wanted a song that
sounded like a gay Partridge Family song. I don’t write pop music, so I went to my friend Michael Skloff,
who co-wrote the “Friends” theme “I’ll Be There For You”. The man knows his way around a hook. I’m so
grateful that he took this on…and goddamnit, it sounds like a gay Partridge Family song, complete with
Shirley Jones-esque backups.
Find David on Facebook, Twitter (@DavidPevsner), Instagram (dpevs), and Tumblr (http://realguyla.tumblr.com)
