Magic

from the 12” single, Beggars Banquet Records, 1982



Even though this sizzling hot 12” skillfully straddles a number of musical genres, none of them are particularly known for having notable (or even memorable) lyrics, and I can honestly confess that I probably listened to this track 20 or 30 times before something about the first verse caught my attention---is he saying what I think he’s saying?! “I know where I am, I now understand just who I really am; shy, oh not no more, I’ve felt that before, but now I’m a grown-up man...joy, yes I live joy, not being a boy, I’ll be a woman…life is gonna be magic, magic from now on…” Wow, not every day somebody writes a song about being transgender, major props to Side On, a British trio that shared two members with boogie-funk crew Freeez; to be honest, even the GLBT community has a long way to go in accepting, more fully, the trans- population. This isn’t exactly the type of music that Beggar’s Banquet was known for either, so I wonder if there’s a deeper story to all this…? In any case, it’s funky as hell, being open-minded and getting down, I dig it.