Are a Drag

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Are a Drag
Cover album by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Released	18 May 1999
Recorded	?
Genre	Punk rock
Length	25:58
Label	Fat Wreck Chords FAT-586
Producer	Ryan Greene & Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes chronology
Have a Ball (1997) Are a Drag (1999) Turn Japanese (2001)

Are a Drag is the second album by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, released in 1999 on the Fat Wreck Chords independent record label.

The album is made up mainly of show tunes. The album's title alludes to the fact that most of the songs on the album feature vocalist Spike Slawson singing songs that were originally performed by female characters in their original stage shows/movies (with the exception of the Phantom's part in "Phantom of the Opera", Richard O'Brien's female-sounding falsetto in "Science Fiction," and "Rainbow Connection"). The album's cover features the members of the band dressed up, in drag, as five of those female characters: Usherette Trixie ("Science Fiction/Double Feature"), Annie Mudge ("Tomorrow"), Dorothy Gale ("Over the Rainbow"), Sandy Dumbrowski ("It's Raining on Prom Night"), and Dr. Frank-N-Furter ("Science Fiction/Double Feature").

Like many other Gimme Gimmes albums, Are a Drag contains many elements of mash-up - more specifically, musical allusions to punk or power-pop songs in their covers, which are rarely "punk" or "power-pop" or "proto-punk." The intro to the song "My Favorite Things" quotes "Generator", by Bad Religion, and at the end of "Tomorrow", Fat Mike can be heard singing "Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird" - a lyric from "Surrender" by Cheap Trick.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Over The Rainbow" (Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, from The Wizard of Oz)
2. "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, from Evita)
3. "Science Fiction Double Feature" (Richard O'Brien, from The Rocky Horror Show)
4. "Summertime" (George Gershwin, from Porgy and Bess)
5. "My Favorite Things" (Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers, from The Sound of Music)
6. "Rainbow Connection" (Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, from The Muppet Movie)
7. "Phantom of the Opera" (Andrew Lloyd Webber, from The Phantom of the Opera)
8. "I Sing the Body Electric" (Stephen Margoshes and Jacques Levy, from Fame)
9. "It's Raining on Prom Night" (Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, from Grease)
10. "Tomorrow" (Charles Strouse, from Annie)
11. "What I Did for Love" (Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban, from A Chorus Line)
12. "Cabaret" (Fred Ebb and John Kander, from Cabaret)

v • d • e Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Spike Slawson · "Fat" Mike Burkett · Chris Shiflett · Joey Cape · Dave Raun Brian Baker · Scott Shiflett · Eric Melvin Studio albums Have a Ball · Are a Drag · Blow in the Wind · Take a Break · Love Their Country · Have Another Ball Live and compilation albums Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah EPs Turn Japanese Related articles Fat Wreck Chords · Lagwagon (Joey Cape, Dave Raun) · NOFX (Fat Mike, Eric Melvin) · Foo Fighters (Chris Shiflett) · Swingin' Utters (Spike Slawson) · No Use for a Name (Chris Shiflett)