80's Flashback

Klaus Nomi, Total Eclipse, 1981. Openly gay German-born opera singer cum East Village avante-gardist Klaus Nomi totally owned the music documentary Urgh! A Music War with this performance. I was reminded of this after JMG reader BStewart23 mentioned the liner notes on Man Parrish's first album (mentioned here on Tuesday), as Nomi also contributed vocals to that release. He was also famed for his strange takes on pop classics such as Lou Christie's Lightning Strikes and Leslie Gore's You Don't Own Me, which Rush Limbaugh mockingly plays these days to introduce his "gay community update" segments. Nomi died of AIDS in 1983, becoming one of the first celebrities to succumb to the disease.