I am just catching up on the news, and I found this headline in today's Dallas Morning News (online), “Willie opens closet with 'Cowboys'.” So naturally, I was intrigued.
It appears that Willie Nelson has released a song titled, “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” (available as an iTunes exclusive, and released today).
“The song's been in the closet for 20 years,” Mr. Nelson said in a prepared statement. It was written in 1981 by Lubbock-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette.
“The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door.”
And while the song contains lyrics that could be delivered quite differently, Willie does his best to brand the song with his distinctive style.
“Cowboys” includes lyrics such as “I believe to my soul that inside every man there's the feminine” and “What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?” But Mr. Nelson delivers them deadpan, which gives the song an air of seriousness.
[…]
“Willie wants it out so we want it out,” says Kim Buie, a vice president at Lost Highway. “What this song does is give credence to something that I think a lot of people have known for a long time. Being gay is nothing new. It's gone through history, whether it's out on the plains or back in Roman times. Society puts its own standards on it, but that song makes it OK.”
Yay for Willie