It’s Mothers Day everybody!
What, you forgot?
Quick, grab your cell and
give that sweet woman a call before you break her heart!
In honor of the women who
fed us, cleaned us, and put up with our adolescent bullshit for the past (in my
case) 25 years, this week I’m writing about the ladies who’ve rocked through
the ages.
Since the beginning there has
been a struggle for women to find a niche in rock n roll. Record labels jumped
on young good looking southern boys like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and even Buddy Holly because they
turned responsible young women into raving lunatics who would spend any amount
of money to own their records and go to their shows.
This trend carried over
into the sixties when mobs of teenaged girl damn near assaulted bands like The Monkees and those other nice young boys
in suits, in some cases nearly tearing them apart.
(I just want to point
out, if guys acted that way they’d get pepper-sprayed or arrested)
Since it was the 50s and
early 60s a time before… well we’ll get to that… record execs knew female
singers wouldn’t get any love from the boys if they sounded like they could
hang.
Even a song about hooking
up with the local bad boy, i.e. The Shangri Las’ 1964 hit Leader of the Pack, got
wussed up to the point that the freaking Chipmonks covered it! (Too
be fair that might be a fan vid, but
my point still stands.)
Strong women Like Aretha Franklin and Etta James were already
making a statement in the realm of R&B, but for some reason people didn’t
like the idea of a white girl showing some spine.
Thankfully, as the 60s
progressed, and musicians began to take control of their art, a few women were
able to break the mold and become outspoken musicians in their own right. Folkies
like Joan Baez, Mary
Travers from Peter Paul
and Mary and Mama Cass from the Mamas and the Papas might
put you to sleep, but they challenged the idea that girls had to be cute and
empty headed to make music… oh yeah they also set the stage for one of the
coolest chicks in history. (Also Mama Cass may or may not have OD’d on a
sandwich)
Janis Joplin’s career may
not have been long, but if you don’t know at lest a couple of her songs you
probably died before 1968. Not a prolific writer herself, Janis had a knack for
grooving on other peopls material in a way nobody could see coming. Her
rendition of Piece of my
Heart, with Big Brother and the Holding Company is one of the best rock
songs ever, period. And her rendition of Summertime still brings
tears to my eyes.
The Psychedelic
Era was good to female rockers, (Jefferson Airplane is
still raking in the dough brought in by hallucinogenics and funny lights) but
oddly enough as the 70s dragged on and male musicians began to look more and
more like women themselves, the taboo against female rockers re-solidified.
Enter Ann and
Nancy Wilson, just a couple of sisters from the Pacific Northwest who liked Led
Zeppelin and contained in their pinky fingers the chops to blow away most of
the tired old rockers of their day.
Heart’s debut, Dreamboat Annie, could
have earned them a place in rock history on it’s own, but the sisters and their
band chugged, paddled and sometimes baled out their little dreamboat through
over a dozen albums all the way to The Rock n Roll hall of fame earlier this
year. Good on ya girls!
While Heart
brought us songs about going Crazy On You and sharp toothed fish they
never quite matched the visceral ferocity of The Runaways.
I’m not linking
any videos or adding pictures because I cannot advocate the exploitation of children, but this
band was too important to leave off the list.
“Why?” you ask.
Because in the
Mid 70s jailbait Joan Jett and Lita Ford both played in this band. Here’s some
of Joan’s later work.
And here’s Lita singing
with Ozzy Osborne.
I’d honestly
love to go on, I have a whole bit about Patti Smith and Debbie Harry and the
whole New York Punk scene. And I’d love to give a shout out to awesome
alternative rockers like Kim Deal (The Pixies, The Breeders) and Kim
Gordon (Sonic Youth),
but I didn’t start writing until late and I’d like to get it out before it’s
not Mothers Day anymore.
I would
however, like to end with a shout out to a newer female group that got on my
radar recently. If you haven’t heard Deap Vally yet, check
them out. These girls sound like a hot mess, and they are at the top of my list
of bands to see live.
So Happy
Mothers day everybody, and if you still haven’t called yours, jeez dude, get on
that!
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