Ethyl Eichenberger - "Jocasta (Boy Crazy)" or "She Married Her Son"
I don't do camp. I certainly don't do drag. Maybe it was childhood trauma brought on by the comedy stylings of Dick Emery and Danny la Rue. I also never had the stomach for gay counterculture, a fact I attribute to a lifelong loathing of the music of Abba. All that tacky kitsch makes me shudder. Give me Gore Vidal any day.

The late Ethyl Eichelberger wasn't your usual drag act. He may have worn ludicrous frocks and pantomime dame makeup - always a rather misogynistic stance, I've always thought, but now's not the time for that - but his true love was classical theatre. He once joked that the main reason he got into drag was for a chance to play Medea.

"Jocasta (Boy Crazy)" or "She Married Her Son" tells the story of Jocasta, mother and wife of Oedipus. Starting as a soliloquy, two thirds of the way through it turns into an amazing Alvaro-esque song, with Ethyl accompanying himself on accordion. There's no sense of reserve here; it's an overblown piece of burlesque. I think the reason this works is because Eichelberger is so clearly not mocking his subject. I'd normally chop this down and just give you the second part, but I think it really needs to be heard as a whole. Tell me what you think.

Ethyl Eichenberger - "Jocasta (Boy Crazy)" or "She Married Her Son"
(alternate download)