Saturday, March 20, 2010

THE RUNAWAYS, And Why Women Of Rock Are Essential!


The Queens Of Noise


Today's ROCK Sex Blog is an open letter to all those young people who want to start a Rock'n'roll band. It will hip you to why women are crucial to Rock, how to spot a sexist pig writer, and finally why seeing the movie THE RUNAWAYS is essential to your health.

(Note: The whole history of women in Rock is too huge to be told here, so consider this primer Herstory as a general overview.)

I think young women should see this movie to be inspired to make Rock better. The Parties-Of-NO want you to miss it, the same way they wanted you to miss the original band in 1975. It's time to kick them where it hurts.

Let's do this!


Chapter links:
1- Destroying All The Stupid Attitudes About Women In Rock
2- Why The RUNAWAYS Film Is Essential Viewing




DESTROYING
ALL THE STUPID ATTITUDES
ABOUT WOMEN IN ROCK
,
Parts 1-7




THE RUNAWAYS were a brilliant band in the mid-'70s who did as much as anyone to open the gates for the other half of the human race to Rock freely. This is just a flat fact. BUT...they were part of a long path of Rock women from the '50s to now. This goes unacknowledged because of sexism or ignorance or often both.

The history of Rock'n'Soul is often trapped by two things: blindpsot narratives enforced by Rock critics and the segregation of Radio playlists. These limitations are theirs and we can reject them by looking at the whole picture.

There are certain outlooks critics have used for decades to shortchange women in Rock...and I'm going to destroy them for you right now.


THE STUPID ATTITUDES ABOUT WOMEN IN ROCK:

1) 'Rock has always been a man's game.'
2) 'Only men can Rock convincingly.'
3) 'Women are eye candy for conquest.'
4) 'Exclude female Rockers from your histories.'
5) 'Ignore Rock women for Pop women.'
6) 'Repeat what your grandfather said.'
7) 'Call them Women In Rock.'




1) 'ROCK HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAN'S GAME.'

Not true. Women have been a part of Rock'n'Roll since the beginning.

Firstly, this was a natural extension of their vital presence in Country, Blues, Jazz, Mambo, and all the other varied roots of Rock. Here are some examples.

-The First Family of Country music was the Carter Family, led by guitarist Mother Maybelle. When anyone like The Staple Singers sings "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", it's because of her. Her unique picking style led to the guitar becoming the lead instrument in all the musics that followed. From her we also get June Carter, Carleen Carter, and Roseanne Cash.

-Blues music only took off in the '20s because of the huge popularity of its female stars like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ethel Waters. We sing "See See Rider", "Sugar In My Bowl", "Hound Dog", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", and "When the Levee Breaks" because of them.

-During WWII, there were all-female Big Bands who toured the country while the enlisted men were away, like The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Ivy Benson & Her All-Star Girl Orchestra, and Ida Ray Hutton & Her Melodears.

-The Rhythm'n'Blues songs of the early '50s helped pave much of Rock, and female stars like Ruth Brown led the way. Ruth put Atlantic Records on the map with her big hits, and from their success we got the golden age of '60s Soul (Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin) and '70s Rock (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones) because of it.

In each case these musics were kept alive by the crucial works of women.

Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Robert Plant, Cherie Currie


Secondly, it's lazy journalism to call Elvis the King of Rock. It's supposed to tribute his social impact, which is true and unassailable, but it just makes everyone else an also-ran. In reality the dawn of Rock'n'Roll in the 1950s was a pantheon of great talents who all deserve equal credit. We appreciate men like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Ritchie Valens, and Link Wray. But there were women right along with them that are only lately getting some due credit.

These women rocked, and you need to know it to know Rock'n'Roll at all: Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin, Big Mama Thornton, Sparkle Moore, LaVern Baker, Alis Lesley, Lorrie Collins, and Joyce Green are only a few.

Social attitudes and sexist marketing may have tried to confine women soon after into making marriage cheerleader songs in Pop Girl Groups', but women who wanted to Rock were in every genre that ever followed. There were female singers, guitarists, and full bands all the way through Surf, British Invasion, Garage Rock, Psychedelia, Electronic Music, Glam, Funk, Hard Rock, Punk, New Wave, PostPunk, HipHop, Alternative Dance, Metal, Retro, Grunge, Riot Grrrl, and Electro.

They have always been here, and they always will be.



2) 'ONLY MEN CAN ROCK CONVINCINGLY.'

Please. This is sad front is known as the Scared-Little-Boy mentality.

Let's nail this for what it is. Most societies split humanity into gender, then they codify them by strength and weakness; Male=Hard=Strength, Female=Soft=Weak. Macho versus Ladylike. Thanks to Latin, entire languages are split in two with separate gender distinctions just to reinforce this fake division. The dumb end of males picks up this superiority complex and reinforces it through aggression and ego, poisoning society.

Enough, time to grow up. There is no difference. You're a soul in a body and you can do anything you want. You don't 'grow up to be a man', you grow deeper to become an adult. An adult has proper respect for the family of humanity and doesn't hold anyone back with immature ideas of why they are better than anyone else.


Now here's the deal: Rock'n'Roll in its true sense has always rejected segregation. It is the antidote to separatist deadends. It is all about inclusion and synthesis, about hybrid and mutation: combine two cool things to make a third new thing. There is no such thing as Either/Or, there is only And-Also. Now repeat.

Let's not be so foolish as to confuse expression with agression and think that this is empowerment. No one's really interested in six-foot boys who love their muscles and their ego. And no one has to spend time at the gym to be able to pull guitar strings or tap a drum. Everyone's got soul and anybody can create a melody. Rock'n'Roll is not about macho posturing, it's about personal expression. A guitar isn't a phallus, it's an arrow for the spirit.

Real Rock has always challenged gender. In the beginning, Little Richard and Alis Lesley mocked barriers of male and female style. The Beatles brought long hair in for men. David Bowie and Suzi Quatro turned sexuality inside out. Jayne County, Genesis P-Orridge, and Lynn Breedlove (Tribe 8) made gender a spectrum. Rock is liberation, not suppression.

Enough with this kid mentality. Now pick up your toys coz we're tired of tripping over them.

L7 & JOAN JETT -"Cherry Bomb" (live, 1992)




3) 'WOMEN ARE EYE CANDY FOR CONQUEST.'

Born To Be Bad


Women have been in Rock since the beginning, but who does the magazine Guitar World put on the cover?: bikini models and porn starlets fondling guitars.

This kind of moron's attitude thinks girls are meant to scream at your concert, young women are groupies, and 'whatever' for the rest.

"Rock'n'Roll" was a Blues euphemism for having sex. Sexuality is the primal pulse behind almost all Rock and Soul music. Good. That's a natural and positive thing. But there is a difference between sensual and sexist. Sensuality is essential, sexism is an evil. Sort it out.

Two of the best 45rpm's in history were Dion's "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer". But it also sums up what's wrong here. Both run around having sex but he's a stud and she's a slut. That tired hypocrisy still governs our attitudes.

We laud Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, Isaac Hayes, and Usher for the liberation of their sensuality. We should do the same for Betty Davis, Cherie Currie, Grace Jones, Courtney Love, and Peaches. Drop the double standard, what's good for the goose is good for the goddess.





4) 'EXCLUDE FEMALE ROCKERS FROM YOUR HISTORIES.'

The official Lazy-Journalist-View-Of-Women-In-Rock is this:
The Gogo's > The Bangles > The Spice Girls.

The lazy Rock-Critic-View-Of-Women-In-Rock is:
Janis Joplin > Suzi Quatro > The Runaways > Joan Jett > The Gogo's > The Bangles > Bikini Kill > Liz Phair.


These people have rarely heard of Goldie And The Gingerbreads, Fanny, or Birtha. Or think you haven't so they don't mention them. And you probably haven't because, hey, they didn't mention them.

This kind of attitude comes from blatant ignorance reinforced by a sexist music industry.

It's all about access. 45 singles were a brand new thing in the mid-'50s. You were lucky to get one chance at doing two songs at a fly-by-night label. Even luckier if it became an area hit through local radio. There were no record corporations, no radio networks, no mass distrubution to help these people. You threw your luck in the wind and sometimes it worked. This was made far harder if you had brown skin, were a woman, or other annoying aspects of real life interrupting the program. So yes, there were many women who somehow managed to get recorded against these odds but they had no support system to promote them. Some like Wanda Jackson and Lorrie Collins were lucky to guest on TV music shows, Lavern Baker had the R'n'B crowd with her back. But the rest were systematically ignored out of the scene and history.

When The Beatles exploded and reignited Rock'n'roll, it's obvious that untold thousands of boys started banging away on starter guitars. But so did girls. They didn't want to just chase the Fabs, they wanted to be them. There were myriad all-female rock combos in the mid-'60s, a lot of whom got to record at least a single, have a local hit, and go on regional tours: like The Liverbirds, The Luv'd Ones, The Pleasure Seekers (with Patti and Suzi Quatro), Patti's Groove, Dara Puspita (Indonesia), The Ace of Cups, The Feminine Complex, and She, to name only a few. But Goldie & The Gingerbreads were the first all-female band to get a record contract with a major label...for singles. That's the hitch. No LPs. Then the label failed to promote those singles, even when one of them became a career-making hit when covered by a male band ("Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", Herman's Hermits).

In 1970, the first all-female band signed to make full albums was Fanny. This is one of the most important victories in the history of women in Rock. After a couple years they were joined by Birtha. They rocked as hard, played as well, made strong albums, and wowed the tour crowds as strongly as any male band. Too often, they got treated like groupies with attitudes by other bands, road crews, and press hacks. But they had forced the door open.

FANNY -"Blind Alley" (1972)



The tide began turning because of Feminism and critical mass. Feminism took on Civil Rights' mantle as the expansion of equality and for most of the '70s was in general favor as such. Plus there were too many tough female acts coming out to ignore: Cradle, Yoko Ono, Suzi Quatro, The Runaways, Heart, and Patti Smith.

But the single most crucial catalyst for the explosion of women in Rock was Punk music. It's Do-It-Yourself attitude flung more women into Rock history than the previous two decades combined, an exponential wave crossing all genres through to the present day. They did it by creating their own access, their own labels, their own fanzines, their own undergrounds. In short, they went around the record industry.


Which is another way they get written out. Joan Jett, The Go-Go's, and The Bangles are thought of as the beginning of women in Rock in the early '80s because you saw them on MTV. It's that simple. You could finally see them so it seemed like they came out of nowhere. They were actually indie acts that had managed to crack the mainstream and get some record label support for awhile.

The upshot is that your CD compilations and Box Sets rarely include those pioneering women. Your Rock museum doesn't nominate them. Your movie reviewer steers you from THE RUNAWAYS to that cookie-cutter romance comedy. The deciders still think women are Pop divas and any Rockers are rare flukes.

Did the first two NUGGETS box sets have women in them? No, so an underground series called "Girls In the Garage" compiled 9 (!) CDs of them. Then smart, sympathetic producers in the know like Alec Palao and Lois Wilson included several of them on later NUGGETS and GIRL GROUPS box sets. Rock grrrls, rediscover history and rewrite it. Force your own access.




5) 'IGNORE ROCK WOMEN FOR POP WOMEN.'

This typical ploy just happened when the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame nominated Madonna and Abba. They're fine acts. But let's be clear; they made great Pop, but they are not Rockers. Meanwhile, it took eight tries for The Stooges to be nominated (?!!!), and Fanny and The Runaways have never even been considered. Huh.

Likewise, the mainstream media of the '90s thought of women in Rock as The Spice Girls, seemingly without having the slightest clue about the Riot Grrrl and Queercore movements. Really?


It's always been this way. Pop women are selected over Rockers. The prom queen trumps the scary artist girl. Haven't we been beaten to death with dance dolls like Madonna/Britney/Christina/Beyoncé for years, but who in the mainstream ever talks about the thousands of female Rawk groups struggling for attention on MySpace, YouTube, and Vevo? The lazy narrative of early Rock history thinks any Rockabilly women were an exception, and that women in Rock only meant Girl Groups. This specifically homogenized '60s women into a broad category of Pop music that's seen as a brief blip before The Beatles. They're relegated as polite belles decorating chapels of love, produced and manufactured by male creators. It reinforces the Female=Soft=Weak yawn. (Often the music critic's lazy formula is Pop=Soft=Female, Rock=Hard=Male.)

The sequel to this is when they group all '70s women as singer-songwriters. It's as if before The Gogo's there was only The Shirelles and then Joni Mitchell. Or Carole King, to compress them both. This Laurel Canyon mentality of women in Rock was primarily purveyed by Rolling Stone magazine and the contemporaries they hung with. Now I respected publisher Jann Wenner growing up and I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt. But damn.

Maybe a telling anecdote is this. In the mid-'60s there was a great Garage Rock single called "Boy, What'll You Do Then?" by Denise & Co. The tough young singer, Denise Kaufman, turns the usual Garage song stance around by chastizing her boyfriend for being a supressive control freak who holds her back from having wild fun. Denise then formed the all-female band The Ace Of Cups during the heyday of San Francisco psychedelia. The former boyfriend she was upbraiding was Jann Wenner. Now, again, I want to give Jann the benefit of the doubt on this. And Wenner is the prime mover behind the Hall Of Fame. So, Jann... as someone who has dedicated his life and made his fortune protecting the legacy of Rock'n'Roll, show us that you can stand behind your proud woman and nominate real Rock grrrls into the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame.

You can start with The Runaways. And then backtrack to include Goldie, Fanny, Birtha, and Suzi.

(By the way, Cherie Currie was wearing her corset and underwear onstage a decade before Madonna, but she was blasting actual Rock'n'Roll when she did it.)




6) 'REPEAT WHAT YOUR GRANDFATHER SAID.'



'When in doubt, repeat the lie you've always heard.' This attitude is basically akin to the 'Bash Yoko' mentality.

There were no Rock critics until the late '60s. There was an elitist cult of Jazz critics, but what we now think of as great Rock music was written off as 'stupid Pop music for stupid people' by the Classical and Jazz scribes in the '50s and '60s. We should give brave new counterculture magazines like Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Cream, Oz, NME, and their ilk the credit for legitimizing Rock as a valid form of artistic expression.

But the male writers were only human with the flaws of their moment. They coined offensive terms like Kraut Rock that we still use, and they still thought women were groupies until the early '80s. Even Joni, who matches the most holy Dylan move for move, got subjected to that. But then...there's how Yoko got treated.


Yoko Ono was famous before The Beatles. She was a world-reknowned conceptual artist from the Fluxus Group, with John Cage and Al Hanson (Beck's grandfather). She made experimental serial music with La Monte Young a decade before anyone heard of Reich and Glass. She was a Feminist activist before most people had ever heard of Gloria Steinem. No one had a problem with Marianne Faithfull or Anita Pallenberg because they were seen then as sexy arm charms for The Rolling Stones. But they weren't Japanese, outspoken, and marrying the critically-preferred Beatle. Like the Kraut Rock thing, many critics and fans turned post-War hate against her heritage; they resented her individuality and were threatened by her politics; and they wrote off her work having seen or heard almost none of it. Because of them this became the broad social impression of Yoko, sealed in amber.

The Lazy-Opinion-Of-Yoko is: made screech music > broke up The Beatles > feminazi. This hand-me-down hate has been repeated ad nauseum for four decades now. Just watch what some 15-year-old male goofball mis-types as a comment onto any Yoko video on YouTube. Grandfathered hatred. Well, I grew up in the South and I know a bigoted idiot when I hear one, whether it's a Fox blowhard with a chalkboard or Bigot III on his parents' computer.> So I'm calling this third gen' inbreed out.

Now let's get real. The Beatles broke up The Beatles because it was time, be grateful we had them at all. Yoko made ranges of music that included ambient dub, proto-Punk, and melodic beauty. We routinely applaud Bowie, Eno, and Pattie Smith for similar advances while ignoring what she was already doing first. She was the strongest voice for Women's Lib that ever happened in Rock music. She is the big bang of truly fearless artists like Annette Peacock, X-Ray Spex, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich, Cosey Fanni Tutti, The Au Pairs, Crass, Poison Girls, The B-52's, Jarboe, Diamanda Galas, Kathleen Hanna's riot grrrl brigade, The Boredoms, L7, Tori Amos, Shonen Knife, Cibo Matto, and Peaches. She also opened John Lennon up into what he considered to be his true self, and when someone insults her, they are insulting their idol.

Most Beatles fans are cool. Because, come on, they're Beatles fans. They love and respect Yoko for who she is and what she's done. But there are still some peripheral idjits and walk-bys who have a problem with her. To which I say, "In an age where everyone is jaded about everyone being co-opted, it's wonderful that she is still so dangerous and edgy that she still scares people like you. So suck it."

This parallel example sums up the sexist hand-me-down that gets used to this day against Rock grrrls. The idiot bigot view of women in Rock is: can't play > uh, gimme a beer. Whenever you hear this slug, let him know his balls aren't his strength by breaking them.

The double standard is sadly hilarious: Garage Rock bands are touted proudly for being amateurs with heart and maybe one good song; Unless you're female, and suddenly you have to play better than Hendrix and have made REVOLVER before you get half a grunt of notice, and still no inclusion on the compilation. Well, maybe your grandfather might remember that the men won WWII because of the planes, ships, and tanks the women built for them. She could save the planet before you were born so if she wants to play a fricking guitar, get out of the way and shut up.

THE SHE TRINITY -"Climb That Tree" (1970)





7) "CALL THEM WOMEN IN ROCK.'

Then there's the whole thing of grouping them at all.

Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde will punch you in the face before you can call them "women in R- owwww!" They want to be thought of as musicians, stand or fall. And ideally they're right.

I remember the term 'negro' being used by older relatives. It struck me as ancient and insane. 'Black' (identity) was the beginning of the social arc toward 'African-American' (citizen), and someday we'll get to words like Human or Brother and Sister or Sweetheart. This is one of those. We need to show people women have always been in every era of Rock until the commonality of it finally forces the focus only on someone's talent. I can remember when Tina Weymouth was relentlessly singled out as 'the female bass player' of Talking Heads. Now a female bass player seems like a standard requirement in most bands.








Why The RUNAWAYS Film
Is Essential Viewing



Now why did I go on about all that at length?

Because when you see any of these archaic mindsets creeping into any review of THE RUNAWAYS movie, or about your favorite band, or about your band, you can call it out for the lazy stupidity it is.

This film moved me. It spoke to a lot of emotional and cultural things that are just as relevent today as the era of the film. I saw none of that spoken to in some of the movie reviews I was seeing. Don't let them put you off. They're doing it for all of the reasons above. But they are failures at their jobs. 'To criticize' doesn't mean to rip something apart. There's a positive critique and a negative critique: A negative critique tears something up with no respect or solutions, which is useless cruelty; A positive critique respects someone's intentions while offering possible options to explore, which is helpful advice.

In particular, a useless review of THE RUNAWAYS tries dismissing it as a formula biopic. I find that self-damning. Maybe they've seen Thirteen and they're jaded to this story, or they've seen too many episodes of "Behind The Music". But what they don't speak to is that this really happened to 15-year-old girls in 1975 who were misused by all the adults around them in the record industry, the press, and the drug scene. The world treated children with a dream like they were whores. It took their great work despite all these odds and simply threw it away.

I find these adults just as guilty today of pimping an ego-star culture that promises teens everything while using them for quick profit and discarding them. Thirteen only happens because of the symptoms of that same old-boy capitalist system. That system is kept in motion by a parade of exploitative Consumer clutter designed to use youth... like fake Idol contests, bling videos, and the latest device. But this movie condemns them for that criminal neglect and exploitation. It should be no surprise that your corporate-owned paper, magazine, channel, or website didn't speak to that. It struck me that 35 years later they're still just trying to write The Runaways off and steer young girls away to heartthrob franchise films. In that sense these reviews are just cynical manipulation and ass-covering.

Underlying that are the 7 shopworn excuses for dismissing Rockgirls listed above. When you're reading a review of the film, separate out what's helpful or maliscious. If they have valid concerns about the structure of the story, or issues about missing characters and perspectives, or suggestions about how the impact could have been enhanced, that's all fair and good. But if they obviously can't wrap their head around the idea of women Rockers, broader sexuality, the social responsiblity to protect youth instead of using them, or calling out gender slavery, then flip them the bird right back.

Kristen Stewart, Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning, Cherie Currie



Here's what I think about the strengths of the film, without giving anything away:

-The soundtrack is the smartest set of choices I've heard forever in a Rock film. They kick it off right with Wanda Jackson's "Fujiyama Mama", already acknowledging the history of women in Rock, before rolling right into Suzi Quatro, the heir to '50s Rock and inspiration for young Joan Jett. From there it only gets better, with pitch-perfect choices of songs by Bowie, The Stooges, The MC5, Sex Pistols, and more, each spot-on for the scene and the vibe. This movie makes a Rock lover's heart pump just the way these songs did for the teens in the story.

-Also impressive is the cinematography of Benoit Debie, most particularly in the intense intimacy of the close-ups. The use of grain, depth-of-field, delirium, and montage bring the two lead's emotions into fuller frution. And the lushly impressionistic love scene set to The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is absolutely excellent.

-Kristen Stewart is Joan Jett. I didn't know that would be possible but she does it with such ease that it amazed me. She has the little things down, like body language, moves, vocal inflections. The singing was so exact I thought it had to be lip-synchs of Joan, but no, homegirl was doing it herself. I found Kristen's Joan to be strong, cool, sweet, sensual, anguished, and very moving.

-I've always enjoyed Dakota Fanning since I AM SAM, a film that has deep personal connection for me. She captures Cherie's toughness and vulnerability really well. (She does valiantly with the singing, but it would be tough for most to match the coolness of Cherie's basso edge.)

-The movie is mainly about Cherie, Joan, and their insane producer Kim Fowley. A fixture of the '60s and '70s LA Rock scene, Fowley is infamous for his combustible combo of music insight and manic behaviour. Michael Shannon does an startling job capturing him exactly, in appearance, style, and brutal hyperbole. I hate how he treated the band but I sure relish how well he was played.

-It's easy to think of The Runaways as twentysomethings who were punk as nails, but seeing how they really were only just teenagers, with all the goofiness, guilessness, and confusions of that age, really brought home to me how horrendous this situation could be for them. They just seem like kids getting deeper and deeper into something that can't end well. It's alarming and heartbreaking. A lot of the film's value comes from alerting you to how young stars should have a saner support system. (Nowadays young women are more fortunate with training grounds like the Institute of Musical Arts, and summer camps for teaching young girls. It should be pointed out these were created by female rockers who got abused by the music industry and put their wisdom to work for the new generations.)

-At the same time the movie reminds you of what it's like to be a teenager and have a dream in front of you that you're willing to run through fire to achieve. Their enthusiasm is contagious and reaffirms why Rock'n'Roll is a great catalyst for the soul. When Cherie flips off a chucklehead crowd that heckles her early on, I empathized as keenly as any time I've given a deserved kick to the pricks. Yeahhh!


-Another crucial dimension of this film is sexual identity and trying to express it while society selectively rewards or condemns you for it. One of the key aspects of the Glam Rock era was upending gender roles and expanding sexual preferences. The Runaways were a band with well-rounded sexual appetites. There's a contrasting facet to that here; the Rock world was all too eager to exploit their emerging sensuality like they were lucrative jailbait, but would have destroyed them for the taboo range of their true desires. At the heart of this film is a love story, a courageous one that reviewers are conspicuously silent on. Especially cowardly of them when 35 years on this is more timely than ever, with culture wars over suppressing or liberating same-sex love. Despite them, the film becomes that much more relevent in its connections to the underground gay and bi history of Rock, from Bessie Smith and Alberta Hunter to Lesley Gore to Carol MacDonald (Gingerbreads, Isis) to Fanny to Nona Hendryx to Queercore to Boyskout. It reaffirms that, though history denies them, they have always been a part of history, and that that closet is getting emptier by the day.


PEACHES And JOAN JETT -"You Love It" (2006)



To all you young women who love TWILIGHT, I say go to this movie and get inspired. After all, why just yell at The Beatles when you can become The Beatles? Or you can watch THE RUNAWAYS and become your own Runaways. Don't just moon over a goth boy, become a Goth band. The Runaways were a crucial breakthrough for women in Rock and you can be, too. Don't listen to negative people. Don't put it off until the video. See it now...big, loud, and with cool friends.


THE RUNAWAYS movie is out and you should see it.
Today.
At the theatre.



And then see this.



© Tym Stevens



See Also:

YOU DON'T OWN ME: The Uprising of the 1960s GIRL GROUPS, with Music Player

SHE'S A REBEL: Decades Of Songs Influenced By The GIRL GROUPS
, with Music Player


WOMEN OF ROCK: The 1950s, with 2 Music Players

WOMEN OF ROCK: The 1960s, with 2 Music Players


ROCK Orgy: Le Tigre's "Hot Topic" + Women Who Rock!

"Time Has Come Today" - Chambers Brothers > Angry Samoans > Ramones > Joan Jett

"Bad Reputation" - Joan Jett > Peaches


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist


Monday, March 15, 2010

ROCK Sex: "Sing A Simple Song" - Sly Stone > Jimi Hendrix > James Gang > P-Funk > Chili Peppers > Public Enemy



Today is SLY STONE's birthday. I love him like the sun in the sky.

If I said what I really feel about this guy, we'd be here all year. So let's keep it simple. SLY & THE FAMILY STONE invented Funk as you know it, and rewrote Rock, Jazz, Dance, and Rap forever afterward.

> -SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!,
with 5 Music Players

But today, let's follow how one single tune -"Sing A Simple Song"- relays that sonic baton beyond all boundaries to this very day.

_______________


S I N G
A
S I M P L E
S O N G




"Sing A Simple Song", and the album STAND after it, defined the new super heavy Funk that superceded Soul. The trademark descending "yeah yeah yeahs..." are sung by sister Rose Stone.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"Sing A Simple Song" (1968)



Here's New Orlean's finest to extend the funky vamp.

THE METERS -"Sing A Simple Song" (1969)



Here's they are again to extend the same song again into a new song with a winking title.

THE METERS -"Same Old Thing" (1969)



Now welcome the Dutch Indo sisters Bianca, Stella and Patricia Maessen, putting some sitar sting in it.

THE HEARTS OF SOUL -"Sing A Simple Song" (1969)



After having a hit covering Sly's "I Want To Take You Higher", Ike And Tina give the funky women some with this wholecloth rewrite.

IKE AND TINA TURNER -"Bold Soul Sister" (1970)



The guitar rhythm of "Sing A Simple Song" gets abstracted by JIMI HENDRIX here, and then played explicitly at the 0:30 minute mark.

BAND OF GYPSIES -"We Got To Live Together" (1970)



Here's Joe Walsh getting some more power strut out of that guitar riff (0:27).

THE JAMES GANG -"Funk #49" (1970)



Here's an ultra-Funky Reggae gloss on it.

THE MEGATONS -"Funk The Beat" (1970)



Sly's longtime running partner Billy Preston takes the title of the song and cheekily crosses it with the sentiment of Melanie's "What Have They Done To My Song, Ma".

BILLY PRESTON -"I Wrote A Simple Song" (1971)



It is the framework of this production by Sly-acolyte Norman Whitfield, a cover of Motown label-mate Edwin Starr.

THE TEMPTATIONS -"Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On" (1972)



HERBIE HANCOCK takes the guitar vamp and flies into the future of Jazz Fusion with it.

HERBIE HANCOCK + HEADHUNTERS -"Sly" (1973)



Kerrie kicks it out like the whole Family all by herself on this rockin' cover.

KERRIE BIDDELL -""Sing A Simple Song"" (1973)



George Clinton and the P-Funk mob borrow the descending "yeah yeah yeahs" for the chorus of this interstellar groover.

PARLIAMENT -"Unfunky UFO" (1975)




That Space Funk approach permeates this first HipHop cover of the original, including some uncanny impersonations of bassist Larry Graham.

WEST STREET MOB -"Sing A Simple Song" (1982)



P-Funk's Punk/Funk proteges borrow the "yeah yeah yeahs" for their chorus, too.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS -"Behind the Sun" (1986)



Another P-Funk disciple, PUBLIC ENEMY collages parts of it all the way through this protest jam. ("Sing A Simple Song" is also central to their "Party For Your Right To Fight", and is used again in several other songs.)

PUBLIC ENEMY -"Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (1990)


"Sing A Simple Song" has been sampled by over 400 artists, including Grandmaster Flash, Big Lady K, Stetsasonic, Digital Underground, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Mellow Man Ace, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Stereo MC's, TLC, Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice-T, EPMD, Arrested Development, The Pharcyde, Common, Cypress Hill, Me Phi Me, Paris, Run-DMC, Del the Funky Homosapien, Erick Sermon, KRS-One, 2Pac, MC Solaar, Soul II Soul, Björk, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Alanis Morissette, Barry Adamson, Masaki Sakamoto, DJ Shadow, The Beatnuts, Musiq Soulchild, and Snoop Dogg.


Bringing the familial full circle, here's D'Angelo, Chuck D, and Isaac Hayers covering the song with the original remixed in.

D'ANGELO, with Chuck D and Isaac Hayes -"Sing A Simple Song" (2005)



Here's Staten Island's THE BUDOS BAND with a killer remake of the song channeling Fela along the way!

THE BUDOS BAND -"Sing A Simple Song" (2005)




"I'm livin' livin' livin' life with all its ups and downs
I'm givin' givin' givin' love and smilin' at the frowns
You're in trouble when you find it's hard for you to smile
A simple song might make it better for a little while!"




© Tym Stevens



See Also:

FUNK, The True History: The 1960s, with 3 Music Players!

SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!, with 5 Music Players

Sly Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher" And Its Unending Influence!, with Music Player!

"If You Want Me To Stay" - Sly Stone > Bootsy Collins > Red Hot Chili Peppers > Prince > Nikka Costa


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist


Sunday, March 14, 2010

ROCK Sex: "APACHE", HipHop's Sacred Secret Beat! - Bongo Band > Bambaataa > EVERYONE EVER



ROCK Sex is vibing tribal.

"Apache" is one of the most sampled songs in Rap history.

But the song has a crazy 50 year history that covers Surf, Psychedelia, Electronic, Funk, and especially HipHop.

_______________

Geronimo


America was big on Westerns in the 1950s. Flush with wealth and power in the wake of WWII, it mythologized its roots in endless films and television series. The driving theme songs of these became staples in Rock'n'Roll guitar bands in the late '50s and early '60s.

"Apache" was written by brit Jerry Lordan, inspired by the 1954 film of the same name. It was first publicly performed on tour by BERT WEEDON.

BERT WEEDON -"Apache" (1960)



The UK guitar greats THE SHADOWS opened for Weedon on that tour and adapted the song to their style. The bold use of atmospheric echo and stocatto twang helped set the template for Surf music. This song is Dick Dale before Dick Dale.

THE SHADOWS -"Apache" (1960)



While that was a big splash in England, in America it was a big hit for a danish guitarist named Jorgen Ingmann. Listen to the amazing use of electronic effects throughout. Joe Meek must have been thunderstruck.

JORGEN INGMANN -"Apache" (1961)



The song was now a Rock standard; check out Los Pekenikes of Spain (1961), the inevitable response by The Ventures (1962), a vocal version by Sonny James (1962), and the fuzzrock biker-theme king Davie Allan And The Arrows (1965).


But what would happen if you crossed "Apache" with Captain Beefheart's "Dropout Boogie"? We've often wondered and now we'll know.

EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND -"Apache Dropout" (1970)



Or if you made an all-Moog electronic take?

HOT BUTTER -"Apache" (1972)



Enough people were doing variations of it that no one could have suspected the impossibly far-reaching impact of this particular Latin-Funk-Rock expansion on it.

INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND -"Apache" (1973)



But DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and other DJs in mid-'70s New York did. It was a secret weapon in their vinyl arsenal as they used its beats to pump up block parties and clubs in the dawning days of HipHop. Bambaataa would disguise the labels of his records so no one could swipe his sources. But eventually the word got out and the first Rap single to pave the path was...

SUGARHILL GANG -"Apache" (1981)


When Sugarhill Gang yells, "Hot butter popcorn", it is a shout-out to the Moog band, HOT BUTTER, (see above) and their hit "Popcorn". That toast has since become a running joke in Rap songs, from Funky Four Plus 1 to The Beastie Boys.

But nothing compared to the infinite reach of Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" itself which has become the source of 78% of the songs for the past three decades. Okay, that's not strictly true, but a massive amount of them!

Like who? Samplers include West Street Mob, Full Force, LL Cool J, 2 Live Crew, Grandmaster Flash, Bomb the Bass, MC Hammer, Neneh Cherry, Run-DMC, Dan the Automator, Young MC, C+C Music Factory, The Blow Monkeys, Tone Loc, Blur, En Vogue, Boogie Down Productions, Mick Jagger, Stereo MC's, TLC, David Bowie, The Notorious B.I.G, Beastie Boys, The Future Sound of London, Faith Evans, The Prodigy, Luscious Jackson, Moby, David Arnold, Rage Against the Machine, Amy Winehouse, The Roots, Mike Patton and X-Ecutioners, M.I.A., Guru, Raekwon, Madonna, Jay-Z and Kanye West, Panteras Negras, Willy Moon, and your cousin. To name only a few.


But, you're asking, what if The Shadows, Jorgen Ingmann, Davie Allan, and The Incredible Bongo Band all jammed together on "Apache" at Sugar Hill studios? Well, here's two members of Portishead to answer that musical question.

THE JIMI ENTLY SOUND -"Apache" (2002)



The entire Incredible Bongo Band album was remade by Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band, with Indian percussion and instruments.

Shawn Lee's INCREDIBLE TABLA BAND -"Apache" (2011)



Point out the samples when they blast out at your next party (and they will), and impress your friends!



© Tym Stevens



See Also:

"AMEN Break" - How 6 Seconds From 1969 Propels All Modern Music


"Soul Makossa" - Manu Dibango > Trovaioli > Michael Jackson

ROCK Orgy: "Genius of Love"

"Scorpio" - Dennis Coffey > Grandmaster Flash > Public Enemy> Moby

"Good Times!" - Chic > SugarHill Gang > Queen > Defunkt > Ting Tings


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist


Saturday, March 13, 2010

LADIES FIRST: "Needles and Pins" - Jackie DeShannon > The Searchers



LADIES FIRST hips you to classics that 'she did first'.

_______________


"Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk Into the Room" were first done by Jackie DeShannon.

This Kentucky singer-songwriter-guitarist is much beloved in many hip circles for her crack tunes and cool range; her rockabilly barnburner "Trouble", her pop smash with Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now", her Beat music classic "Dream Boy" (with boyfriend Jimmy Page), her counterculture anthem "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", and for writing the classic "Bette Davis Eyes".

("Needles and Pins" was written by Sony Bono with Jack Nitzsche, the great arranger and producer. "When You Walk In the Room" is by Jackie DeShannon.)


JACKIE DeSHANNON -"Needles and Pins" (1963)



THE SEARCHERS are hardly slouches either. They made their fame interpreting Jackie's two songs, but have a wealth of great ones of their own, spanning from Beat into Psychedelia. You can always count on this band for catchy guitars and shining harmonies.

THE SEARCHERS -"Needles and Pins" (1964)




Jackie's sound here was heavily influence by the guitar jangle of The Beatles, whom she was touring with.

JACKIE DeSHANNON -"When You Walk In the Room" (1963)



THE SEARCHERS -"When You Walk In the Room" (1964)



"I can hear guitars playing lovely tunes
Every time that you walk in the room
Trumpets sound, I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room"



© Tym Stevens



See Also:

-WOMEN OF ROCK: The 1960s, with 2 Music Players

THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!


LADIES FIRST: "I Can't Let Go" - Evie Sands > The Hollies

LADIES FIRST: "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" - Goldie And The Gingerbreads > Herman's Hermits

LADIES FIRST: "I Go To Sleep" - (The Kinks) > Peggy Lee > Cher > The Pretenders


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist


Friday, March 12, 2010

ROCK Sex: "Think!" - 5 Royales > James Brown > Marvin Gaye > Lyn Collins > DJ Rob Base



ROCK Sex follows a train of thought.

This is a culture relay where one song ends up very different on the other end, splicing with others through various styles.

_______________


"It takes two to make a thing go right /
It takes two to make it out of sight!"


Let's put our mental mettle to the pedal.

"Think" was first done by The "5" Royales in 1957. (The "5" was a joke because there were actually six of them.)

Typically, this Rock'n'Roll band was catagorized/segregrated as R'n'B because they were all black, but Lowman Pauling's fiery guitar leads tell the real tale. Just check out his driving and stinging leads in songs like "Say It", "Slummer The Slum", and "Messin Up". Steve Cropper of Booker T And The MGs sure did, and he credits Pauling as the main man who inspired him to take up guitar.

THE "5" ROYALES -"Think" (1957)



Another label mate of The Royales at King Records was the young James Brown. James' remake of the song completely transformed it, revving the tempo and intensifying the shuffle into a precision tap workout. This rhythmic lockstep of syncopation became the first blueprint of the Funk to come later on.

JAMES BROWN -"Think" (1960)


James' version is so definitive, it is routinely thought of as his song.


In the mid-'60s, Marvin Gaye had a run of classic duets such as "It Takes Two", with Kim Weston. Soon after, he made the best duets ever with Tammi Terrell, who was a former protege of James Brown.

MARVIN GAYE And KIM WESTON -"It Takes Two" (1966)



Never one to be left out of the action, James re-remade "Think" as a duet with new ingenue Vicki Anderson in this slinky revamp. Notice how Vicki's tough repeats of the title will anticipate the next song.

JAMES BROWN And VICKI ANDERSON -"Think" (1967)



Then things start to intersect.

James' new diva, LYN COLLINS The Female Preacher, made a different song called "Think (About It)". It takes the sentiment of the original "Think" and puts a female empowerment upgrade on it, while calling up Marvin And Kim's "It Takes Two" in the bridge.

After the 30 second intro, you'll recognize it immediately as one of the most sampled songs in HipHop history.

LYN COLLINS -"Think (About It)" (1972)



The first Rapper to sample it was Roxanne Shante, but this song a few months later stole the show on that, using whole sections of it in one of the biggest breakthrough Rap hits ever.

ROB BASE & DJ E Z ROCK -"It Takes Two" (1988)



MTV was, as was their conservative custom, skittish about Rap music in the '80s. It had barely played any black acts at all in its first two years, despite angry pressure from artists like David Bowie. They finally caved in when the monster successes of Michael Jackson and Prince forced their hand.

Though hit singles by RUN-DMC and The Beastie Boys brought Rap into the radio mainstream by 1986, more political acts like Public Enemy still scared the video network. It was the parallel outbreak of HipHop acts with intensely dancable tracks based on samples that turned the tide, such as MC Hammer, Tone Loc, and Young MC. Bending to the changing wind, in 1988 MTV alotted 30 minutes to "Yo! MTV Raps". It became the biggest hit show they had ever had.

(The other) Doctor Dré, Fab 5 Freddy, and Ed Lover

Rap became a dominant part of the mainstream for the next three decades. Nowadays every dance-pop hit by anyone is a child of that breakthrough. But as usual, synthesis and mutation is the creative path that got us here. It transcends all imposed barriers.

Think about that.

(Rock Sex, baby!)



© Tym Stevens



See Also:

FUNK, The True History: The 1960s, with 3 Music Players!

FUNK, The True History: 1970-1974, with 3 Music Players!


"Fame" - James Brown > David Bowie > James Brown

"UMBABARAUMA!" - James Brown > Jorge Ben > Imperial Teen > Soulfly

SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!, with 5 Music Players!


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist


Monday, March 8, 2010

ROCK Sex: "California Dreamin'" - The Mamas and The Papas > Eddie Hazel




ROCK Sex is going "for a walk on a winter's day".

Today, the relay hand-off of "California Dreamin'".

_______________


Here's the evergreen harmonies of The Mamas And The Papas with the original version.

THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS -"California Dreamin'" (1965)



And here's Eddie Hazel, the guitar god of Funkadelic, taking it to the cosmic church:

EDDIE HAZEL -"California Dreamin'" (1977)




© Tym Stevens



See Also:

Cool Ethereal Folk: VASHTI BUNYAN

ROCK Orgy: "American Pie"

FUNK, The True History: 1970-1974, with 3 Music Players!

BEYOND COOL: Pedro Bell, Funkadelic's visionary!


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist


Saturday, March 6, 2010

LADIES FIRST: "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" - Goldie And The Gingerbreads > Herman's Hermits



LADIES FIRST heralds classic songs that actually 'she did first'.

_______________

The first all-female rock band signed to a major record label was Goldie And The Gingerbreads in the mid-'60s.

They held their own while touring with The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Hollies, and The Kinks. But they had an uphill struggle against both a sexist industry and radio stations that thought they sounded 'too black'.

They did the original version of "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?", sounding fresh out of a Brill Building Soul recital.

GOLDIE AND THE GINGERBREADS -"Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" (1965)



Their single went weakly promoted, while this cover version by Herman's Hermits escaped those hurdles.

HERMAN'S HERMITS -"Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" (1965)


_______________


"Goldie" (Genya Zelkowitz), the singer and group leader, later became the fiery Rock'n'Soul singer Genya Ravan of Ten Wheel Drive, and producer of The Dead Boys' debut album.

TEN WHEEL DRIVE -"Tightrope" (1969)


GENYA RAVAN / THE WARRIORS soundtrack: "Love Is A Fire" (1979)



Guitarist Carol MacDonald and drummer Ginger Bianco went on to form the formidable all-female FunkRock collective Isis.

(Note: there is nothing inappropriate about the following video, YouTube are just prudes and censors. I should know, since I made all three.)

ISIS -"Do The Football" (1974)


ISIS -"April Fool" (1974)


ISIS -"Ain't No backin' Up Now" (1975), produced by Allen Toussaint




© Tym Stevens



See Also:

YOU DON'T OWN ME: The Uprising of the 1960s GIRL GROUPS, with Music Player!

SHE'S A REBEL: Decades Of Songs Influenced By The GIRL GROUPS, with Music Player!

WOMEN OF ROCK: The 1960s, with 2 Music Players!

THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!

THE RUNAWAYS, And Why Women Of Rock Are Essential!

FUNK, The True History: 1970-1974, with 3 Music Players!


The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist


Thursday, March 4, 2010

STARSTRUCK #7 Is Out Now!



STARSTRUCK #7,
in which baby Bronwyn gains psychic powers from the fish people
and becomes a cosmic nun!




STARSTRUCK, the illustrated Sci-Fi masterpiece where Riot Grrls take over the galaxy, has new pages on FACEBOOK!


> STARSTRUCK official website


We all know that the '80s renaissance of comix included WATCHMEN, DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, AMERICAN FLAGG, MIRACLEMAN, and LOVE & ROCKETS.

But easily as bold, much more ambitious, and far more funny was STARSTRUCK. Yet the acclaimed series by Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta was criminally overlooked. And let's face it... it's because it starred kickass funny women instead of terse aggro men. Now it has returned in monthly issues with expanded art and stunning color.

Time to catch up to the better revolution and support STARSTRUCK today!

> IDW Publishing



© Tym Stevens



See Also:


1.
-The Return of STARSTRUCK! Or, Riot Grrrls Conquer the Universe!,
the triumphant return of STARSTRUCK Comics
2.
-STARSTRUCK Strikes Back!,
the History of STARSTRUCK from Stage Play to Comics
3.
-The Big Bang of STARSTRUCK: The Roots and Branches of Elaine Lee & Michael Kaluta's space opera;
how it synthesized all Sci-Fi culture into something new, and predicted everything we've enjoyed since