Rewind: Jeffrey Sfire on “Mind Warp”

In discussion with Jeffrey Sfire on “Mind Warp” by Patrick Cowley (1982).

What was your first encounter with “Mind Warp”?

I was living in Chicago going to university and I found “Menergy” in a store and thought “obviously this is for me”. After that I found “Mind Warp”. Instantly there was a connection. I started reading about Patrick and fantasizing about gay disco life in San Francisco. I think every gay kid from my generation is obsessed with a 70’s gay fantasy. I had been hanging out in leather bars and got a tour of a closed bathhouse/disco still preserved from the 80’s. It was all perfect timing.

Why did you choose this particular album from the works of Patrick Cowley? Are there personal favourites among the songs or do you like it in its entirety?

I love it all. It’s great start to finish. It’s pretty serious and much darker which I always seem to gravitate towards. It was the first album of his I listened to which is kind of backwards because it’s his last but it always stuck out even after hearing everything else. The more I listened to it the more I saw and heard. Singing about technology (“Tech-no-logical world”) in 1981 was so interesting to me, and we’re still singing about it now 30 years later! If he only knew. Of course “Mind Warp” the song is a favorite, and the delay on that one synth in “They Came at Night” is amazing! “Goin’ Home” always intrigued me for some reason. I’d later learnt what it was really about. Read the rest of this entry »