Stuff You Gotta Watch: These C---sucking Tears
In 1973, Nashville wasn’t ready for Lavender Country. While Patrick Haggerty managed to sell 1,000 copies of his band’s debut LP—likely the first openly gay album in country music history—he did so through personal ads in the back pages of queer magazines, miles away from the Grand Ole Opry. Thanks to a series of reissues, reunited performances, and a wonderfully unvarnished documentary short called These C—sucking Tears, fans and critics are only now catching up.
These C—sucking Tears follows Haggerty in 2016, where he now lives in a trailer surrounded by the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest. Playing his music for small but devoted crowds, he performs at old folks’ homes in the afternoon and punk clubs at night. Dressed to the nines in lavender as he puffs on a joint, Haggerty jokingly explains how he improves the experience of watching opening bands by taking his hearing aid out.
It hasn’t always been weed and wisecracks. In the film’s most emotional scenes, Haggerty shares the disagreements he had with his conservative father, who nonetheless taught his young queer son how to be himself. Remaining staunchly dedicated to the socialist politics that drove his runs for public office following the band’s break-up, Haggerty argues that “some of the things Karl Marx said are scientific f—ing facts.” Now that he’s resumed his focus on music, the country world might finally be ready to turn lavender.
Review by Jesse Locke. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.