SAN DIEGO, CA — It’s a dirty shame.She thought it was a tribute. He thought it was just another kind of female trouble.
Now big beautiful blues diva Candye Kane and cult film diva director John Waters find themselves feeling a little demented thanks to a song that Kane hoped would grace her next CD and honoring one of her favorite queer directors — but which he insists she hasn’t earned the right to record.
As Pecker director Waters explained it to the Baltimore Sun, the matter is simple: “She never asked… permission. And you don’t get permission by writing new lyrics and changing the whole thing.”
Not unfamiliar with the process of asking permission, and certainly not a cry-baby, Waters pointed out to the press that he “spent two years getting the rights to the songs on A Date with John Waters. I know what you have to go through. She has to, too.”
Kane, for her part, has done plenty of desperate living during her buxom and bountiful career. Whether posing for Hustler, appearing in busty beauty videos, or belting out the blues with a full body passion, she’s worked her abundant ass off in the pursue of her art, always remaining an admirer of drag queen actress Divine and the mondo trasho director who made her famous.
During her years as a blues singer, Kane has recorded songs by Bob Dylan, Carole King, Isaac Hayes, Led Zeppelin, and Willie Dixon. While visiting Amsterdam, she recorded her “tribute” version of Female Trouble, with Ana Popovic, intending to include it in her upcoming Guitar’d and Feathered CD. According to Kane, she was sure it would be “a perfectly suited, trashy match” for Waters. She then sent him a copy of the CD via certified mail and contacted his agents to find out where to send the checks.
“I couldn’t wait to get home and send the songs to Mr. Waters personally, as I hoped for his blessing. I never dreamed that by worshipping someone and wanting to pay them tribute, this would happen to me,” she confessed to her friends and fans via email.
“This” included what Kane describes as a “cease and desist letter.”
Not unaware of the fact that she was not following “normal procedure,” the self-professed “huge fan” had hoped that the quality of her work, the number of friends who had appeared in Waters’ productions, and the fact she had been sending CDs to his home since 1994, meant she could approach this case differently.
As explained in her email, Kane contacted Bob Harvey, former bass player for Jefferson Airplane and writer of the song “Black Velvet Soul, which ultimately inspired “Female Trouble.” When Harvey heard her plight, he “graciously gave his immediate permission to record the song. He wanted John Waters to know that he had specifically granted me permission when Waters would not.”
As Kane sees is, she “could have kept “Female Trouble” on the CD and pursued the normal channels of paying all mechanical royalties,” but given the way the “black drag queen trapped in a white woman’s body” feels right now, she’d just as soon not. Meanwhile, she wonders, “Drag queens worldwide perform my material, so why wouldn’t John Waters embrace me and my colorful music?”
It’s just a dirty shame.
Kane, who still describes herself as “somebody who loved him, loved Divine, and loved their work,” hopes that her fans and supporters will encourage Waters to change his mind by writing to him at John Waters, c/o Atomic Books, 1100 W. 36th Street, Baltimore MD, 21211.
Guitar’d and Feathered — without the disputed song — will be released on April 22nd on the RUF label.
