Sylvester, Jeanie Tracy, and the Two Tons: Disco Magic
Craft Recordings releases a restored album of Sylvester’s epic 1979 live concert at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.
Much of the world met Sylvester in the late ’70s as the unapologetically androgynous, enigmatic performer whose brilliant falsetto beckoned a generation to “feel real” on the dance floor.
Singer Jeanie Tracy first met Sylvester around the same time, in the halls of Harvey Fuqua’s Honey Records in Oakland. “I saw this guy that walked in. But I thought it was a woman,” Tracy recalls.
“It wasn’t that he had a dress on or anything,” she continues. “It was just he had this curly hair and bracelets up to his elbows, and this kind of caftan. So we were talking, they said, ‘Jeanie, this is Sylvester,’ and I said, ‘Sylvester?! Oh, I thought you were a woman, I’m sorry.’ He goes, ‘No, honey, that’s all right.’ So that was my introduction.”
Tracy, who was raised singing gospel in Houston, and Sylvester James, Jr., who grew up singing at his Pentecostal church in Watts, hit it off instantly. “There was just something about us that we just meshed,” she says. “He says, ‘Girl, I have this blue sequin fishtail gown, and I’m going to give you that. And that was on our first meeting!”
Later, Tracy went to see Sylvester perform at the famed Elephant Walk in the Castro, backed by two bodacious singers, Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, the future Weather Girls, then known as the Two Tons O’ Fun.
“Oh, my God, it was just magic,” Tracy says. “I had never heard that kind of singing and dance music, or secular music, at all before, and it just really intrigued me.” Clearly, the sound inspired her, too, as Tracy would eventually go on to record a number of dance and house hits, including “The Power” and “Cha Cha Heels” with producing duo Rosabel.
But at the time, she was still mostly singing soul music. Yet, soon after their first meeting, Fuqua teamed Tracy on the same show bill with Sylvester and the Two Tons. The Fantasy/Honey label was preparing to release Sylvester’s Step II, which would become a huge hit thanks to disco smashes “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat).”
“Before the album was out, he was doing shows around San Francisco, and so I opened,” Tracy recalls. “He had never really heard me sing or do a show. So upon that is when he told Harvey, ‘I want her to join the group.'”
Tracy found her spot between the Two Tons, singing the melody part of the background. “As Martha was the high end, and Izora was definitely the bottom end,” Tracy says, chuckling. “And my first show was the opera house. But I hadn’t become a Ton yet.”
The group’s performance on Sunday, March 11, 1979, at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House is legendary. Sylvester had long dreamed of commanding the opera house stage, and, by all accounts, the sold-out concert that night was indeed a dream.
Though only a few thousand were present to experience it, the show was recorded for posterity and released in 1979 as Living Proof, a double-record live album that spawned a new hit for Sylvester with his moving cover of Patti Labelle’s “You Are My Friend.”
Now, thanks to the discovery of six original multi-track reels of the performance, Craft Recordings is releasing Live at the Opera House, featuring newly re-mastered audio, and, for the first time, all 13 songs from the March 11, 1979 performance.
The set — out on vinyl, CD, and digital — also includes a recording of the mid-concert ceremony where Sylvester was awarded the Key to San Francisco by a representative of Mayor Dianne Feinstein. You’ll also hear the proudly out gay artist introduce his lover from the stage.
And the singing is glorious. The concert is rendered in crisp, rich audio that sounds as vivid as if it were recorded yesterday. In addition to the fabulous music, Live at the Opera House conveys the late Sylvester’s singular personality — tart, sweet, and spicy — as well as the energy and enthusiasm of the San Francisco audience, Sylvester’s home crowd.
“There were painted dolls of both sexes,” writes biographer Joshua Gamson in the new liner notes for the live set. “There were men in leather and in boas, women in jeans and in pearls, and not a few shoulder pads. There was ass out, too. People arrived in limousines, taxis, and on motorcycles.
“For gay San Franciscans and the people who loved them, who had known Sylvester from his raucous local shows, or from the dance floor, or just from seeing him around the Castro with his broad, shy smile and his dogs, it was like your cousin had just become a movie star.”
Tracy remembers the night well, down to her wardrobe. “I was wearing a black dress that I had made, and it was handkerchief style,” she recalls “It was kind of satiny and very flowy, and some real high heels.”
The opera house was quiet when she arrived. “I went out on the stage and I looked around, you know, it was empty. And I just looked, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, what is going to happen here tonight?’ I looked at that big room and just took it all in, because I knew if I didn’t, [then] that night, I would faint.”
Tracy, of course, stayed on her feet, and sang her heart out. “It was the greatest night,” she says. “It was just mesmerizing. He was at the top of his game then, and the city loved him and he loved them back.” She went on to record and perform as a backup singer for years with Sylvester, with whom she remained lifelong friends, until his death in 1988 of AIDS-related complications.
Those early days, though, she recalls, were “just a joy. It was one of the greatest times of my life. And I always say that. Singing with those two great big women, and being sandwiched in between these great singers, and me, I’m the chosen one.” Laughing, she adds, “I always say, they were the Tons, I was the fun.”
Sylvester: Live at the Opera House is available on 3-LP/2-CD/digital from Craft Recordings. To order, visit www.found.ee/sylvester-opera.
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