MAN
ENOUGH TO BE A WOMAN -
JAYNE COUNTY
Jayne County was at the height of her fame during the Punk
years of 1976/77/78 though arguably this wasn't when she was at the
height of her powers. In fact, it could be argued that she's been at
the height of her powers throughout her whole life. She's a bona fide
living legend and always has been.
Man Enough To Be A Woman is the story of Jayne's life up until
1994 when this book was first published. Happily and perhaps even
miraculously, Jayne is still with us to this day and still kicking up
a fuss, raging of late against Political Correctness and the desire
of self-appointed spokespersons to ban certain names used to describe
gender types. Jayne is a lesson in being true to yourself, and an
inspiration on a par with such individualist icons as Quentin Crisp.
Jayne County is not just a star but a superstar. An Underground
superstar but a superstar nonetheless.
Born into barefoot poverty in Dallas, Georgia, even as a young child
Jayne was known as a 'sissy boy'. This was 1950s America when the
supposed greatest nation on earth was still a backwards one where the
races were segregated, religious fundamentalism held sway and
homosexuality was impossible to comprehend. After a childhood of
dressing up as Cleopatra and listening to the Beatles, Jayne left
highschool and took a job in Atlanta where after a day's work she
would walk the streets searching for something which even Jayne
herself could not articulate.
Her quest came to an end when one
evening she spied sashaying toward her what was the equivalent of a
big neon sign pointing to what was to be her future: Men wearing
make-up and sprayed hair, screaming and attracting as much attention
to themselves as possible. They were what was known as Screaming
Queens, transvestites who enjoyed nothing more than freaking people
out through outrageous behaviour and appearance. This was Jayne's
first encounter with the city's gay subculture and she was only too
willing to dive head-first (no pun intended) into it.
Come 1967, Jayne set off for New York City with the intention of
travelling on from there to San Francisco to wear some flowers in her
hair but after losing her luggage along the way she ended up in New
York with no money and only the clothes she stood up in. The only
place she knew of in the city was a gay bar called the Stonewall in
Greenwich Village so rather than Haight-Ashbury, this was where she
spent her Summer of Love.
The Stonewall was the most famous gay bar in America and in the
summer of '69 it was raided by the police, an incident that ignited
three days of rioting that became known as the Stonewall Riots, to
this day widely regarded as being the birth of Pride and gay
liberation. Jayne was there for all three days and nights, scrapping
it out with the police and joining the chants of 'Gay power! Gay
power!'.
Two months after the riots, Jayne set off for Woodstock where she
spent the whole for her not very enjoyable three days sitting in mud
and tripping on acid. The Stonewall had by this time been shut down
so on returning to New York she started frequenting Max's Kansas
City, the club headquarters of practically everyone involved in the
New York City Underground. Andy Warhol, Jim Morrison, Lou Reed,
Sylvia Miles, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick - all were regulars alongside
many of the city's local freaks and hustlers.
She became acquainted with an aspiring photographer called Leee
Childers who invited Jayne to room with him at his flat in the East
Village. Through Leee, Jayne then met Andy Warhol's Drag Queen
Superstars Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, as
featured and immortalised of course in Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild
Side. For a period - if it's possible to imagine? - all five of them
lived together in Leee's tiny flat.
Through her friendship with Jackie Curtis, Jayne was offered a part
in a stage play called Femme Fatale - named after the Velvet
Underground's song, of course - that was the catalyst for her short
career in theatre but which led to contact with Patti Smith, Andy
Warhol, Cherry Vanilla and David Bowie. It wasn't too long before
Jayne thought she might also try her hand at being a rock star.
This was just at the start of the newly emerging 'glam punk' scene in
New York when Max's Kansas City and CBGBs became the launch pad for
the Ramones, the New York Dolls, Television, Talking Heads, Patti
Smith et al. By the end of 1976, Leee Childers was managing Johnny
Thunders & The Heartbreakers who had gone over to England to
support the Sex Pistols on their ill-fated Anarchy tour. Leee
immediately called Jayne and told her to get over to England as well
because something hugely significant was occurring. It was 1977 and
Punk Rock was in full, florid bloom.
The Roxy, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen, the Adverts,
Julie Burchill, The Clash, Jordan, Derek Jarman's The Tempest, Adam
And The Ants, Siouxsie And The Banshees, the Slits, etc, etc, etc.
The British Punk Rock scene of 1977 was the perfect environment for
Jayne and her band The Electric Chairs to perform before a receptive
audience. A series of classic records followed, the biggest seller of
them all being the 7" release Eddie And Sheena.
Interviewed and reviewed regularly in the music press, Jayne and her
Electric Chairs became a staple of British Punk and a major influence
upon such people as Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive and Holly Johnson of
Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Fame and glory as we all know, however, is
a fickle thing that can be owned one moment but be gone the next
and after too many tours, too many drugs and too many boyfriend
problems, the Electric Chairs broke up and Jayne slipped away to
Berlin to submerge with the burgeoning German transvestite
Underground culture there.
After a time, Jayne returned to America and back to Atlanta to see
and make peace with her parents who she hadn't seen for over 20
years. The reunion was a happy one and a fitting way to wind the book
down on, though it ends properly with Jayne reminiscing over her past
and contemplating her old her age:
'Being a trannie got me a lot of attention but it stopped me from
really making it, from being recognised for what I had to say. I'd
like to be given my due credit for my work. I'm not bragging but I
was a pioneer in a certain way; what I and a few other people were
doing had a big impact.
The punk time was special but people came up behind me and took my
basic ideas, watered them down and made millions, while I have to go
out on the game. Good for them; I couldn't play the music industry
game, because what I was doing on stage and on records was just an
extension of what was happening in my life. It was never a gimmick or
a marketing device. I never thought about what was 'acceptable'
because that wasn't the point; I was being myself, trying to tell the
truth about the world I lived in.'
Man Enough To Be A Woman is written in a very straightforward way,
simply describing her journey through her rather interesting life.
There's no major philosophising going on but then we're talking Jayne
County here, not the Dalai Lama. There is, however, a fair bit of
bitching and a shed load of anecdotes. When describing Max's Kansas
City, for example, Jayne tells us of a certain waitress there: 'A
really trashy blonde with too much make-up and over-done hair. Always
stoned and always dropping cheeseburgers in peoples laps. Her name
was Debbie Harry.' There's also a fair few descriptions of
'liaisons' with such people as David Bowie, Rod Stewart, John Lennon,
Dee Dee Ramone, Sting and an unnamed member of a very famous Scottish
football team.
Jayne County deserves to be remembered and deserves in some way to be
immortalised. In fact, the day that a statue in her honour is erected
in Atlanta or New York (or perhaps even all forms of discrimination
wiped from the face of the earth) would be the day she would know
that her work is done. In the meantime as we hold our breath she can
be found on Facebook still being fabulous.
John Serpico
