ROCK Sex: "Exile On GRRL Street", Or How THE STONES Can Tribute Riot Grrrls Tributing Them!

Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger (1978)
ROCK Sex says, "Imagine THE ROLLING STONES honoring women who have honored them!"

Take a walk on the wild side with the Video Playlist below!

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F O R E P L A Y
Or, 'I Bet You're Papa Don't Know You Can Bite Like That'


THE ROLLING STONES went into tax exile in 1971 to avoid England's insane tariff fees. The resulting double-album EXILE ON MAIN STREET (1972) has a sloppy grace to it, recorded by shifting members with bad habits in the basement of a French villa. That shambling excess and ruined glory parade had a huge impact on bands from Glam to Punk, from New York Dolls and Patti Smith to Husker Du and Sonic Youth.

Keith Richards had a surprise signature hit from it with his 'stud on the run' anthem, "Happy".

THE ROLLING STONES -"Happy" (1972)



That song is the obvious blueprint for John Cougar's boneheaded "I Need A Lover". But it also triggered this scorching riposte.

Liz Phair felt like an outcast in a male-driven Chicago music scene. Her 1993 debut album EXILE IN GUYVILLE leveled the playing field, routinely voted as the best Indie album of the year. Before her, Pussy Galore had done a cassette-only remake of Exile On Main Street in their trademark 'rip it up and fall apart' Punk style. But Liz's album was a song-by-song response of original songs.

Her response to "Happy" is a scalpel stripping away stupid male bullshit. After years of 'personal freedom' songs by selfish guys who just treat women like groupies, this song killed all that flat dead with a cold stare and a wounded heart. And it has a great riff, too!

LIZ PHAIR -"Fuck And Run" (1993)

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C O I T U S
Or, 'Have You Seen Your Daughter, Baby, Stepping Out Of The Shadows?'

My fantasy is that THE STONES should cock a snook at their own studboy stance in their finest androgyne tradition and record a cover album of female rockers' songs influenced by them.

Here's a video set-list of songs they should do.


Presenting

E X I L E
O N
G R R R L
S T R E E T !

- - - - S I D E / O N E - - - -


BETTY DAVIS -"They Say I'm Different" (1974)


IKE & TINA TURNER -"Baby Get It On" (1974)


THE RUNAWAYS -"Hollywood" (1977)


SUZI QUATRO -"Tear Me Apart" (1978)


PATTI SMITH -"25th Floor" (live 1978)


CANDY SLICE (Gilda Radner) -"Gimme Mick" (1979)


(This one begs for a duet of Mick and Marianne playing the two parts...)
MARIANNE FAITHFULL -"Why'd Ya Do It?" (1979)



- - - - S I D E / T W O - - - -

HEART -"Even It Up" (1980)


(In the spirit of "Miss You"...)
GRACE JONES -"Pull Up To The Bumper" (1981)


(In the spirit of "Shattered"...)
BUSH TETRAS -"Too Many Creeps" (1982)


THE PANDORAS -"Want Need Love" (1984)


THE STAPLE SINGERS -"City In The Sky" (1974)


EURYTHMICS -"I Need A Man" (1988)


(This was Liz's response to "Loving Cup" from EXILE ON MAIN STREET...)
LIZ PHAIR -"Mesmerizing" (1993)


PJ HARVEY -"Rid Of Me" (1994, live 2001)



- - - - S I D E / T H R E E - - - -

(In the spirit of "Dead Flowers"...)
HOLE -"Doll Parts" (1994)


ELASTICA -"Never Here" (1995)


MARSHA HUNT -"Baby John" (1973)


THE HEADCOATEES -"Punk Girl" (1997)


(For the title alone...)
TRACY BONHAM -"You Can't Always Not Get What You Don't Want" (2000)


BOSS HOGG -"Whiteout" (2000)


GARBAGE -"Cherry Lips" (2002)



- - - - S I D E / F O U R - - - -

THE KILLS -"Cat Claw" (2002)


(Just for the genderfunk chorus "Boy, you're such a stupid bitch and girl, you're just a no-good dick" alone...)
YEAH YEAH YEAHS -"Black Tongue" (2003)


(In the spirit of "Wild Horses"...)
GILLIAN WELCH + David Rawlings -"Look At Miss Ohio" (2004)


THORNETTA DAVIS -"The Deal" (1996)


LUCINDA WILLIAMS -"Atonement" (2003)


JULIETTE LEWIS & THE LICKS -"Hot Kiss" (2006)


PEACHES + Joan Jett -"You Love It" (2006)


THE ALABAMA SHAKES -"I Ain't The Same" (2012)

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A F T E R G L O W

Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall
C'mon, Mick and Keith, it's a win-win.

You bring all their audiences into yours, stay hip, honor those who honored you, get them some really deserved royalties, put some perverse verve back into your image, don't strain for any new songs, and inspire a lot more young women out there. It's all good!


Ah well, this awesome album will probably never happen. You can't always get what you want.

I know, it's only ROCK Sex, but I can fantasize! (Yes, I do!)



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

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

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

• THE RUNAWAYS, And Why Women Of Rock Are Essential!


• THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!

• Rolling Stones > The Clash > Garbage

• "Jumpin' Jack Flash" - The Rolling Stones > Ananda Shankar

• "Use Me" - Bill Withers > Grace
• "PHYSICAL GRAFFITI" - Led Zeppelin > Branford Marsalis > Rolling Stones


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

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ROCK Sex: Love and Let Love! -Bessie Smith, Rita Chao, Nancy Sit, Tina Turner

The ROCK Sex Blog says Love and Let Love!

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"All You Need Is Love" meant empathy, intimacy, support, selflessness, and spiritual solidarity.

These are the tonics to alienation, segregation, hostility, selfishness, and existential emptiness.

(Note: Two of the videos are censored on YouTube because of prude hecklers. They're fine, I should know because I made all three of them.)

BESSIE SMITH -"You've Got To Give Me Some" (1928)



The expression of love is a sacred act and a spiritual pact.

It may be fleeting, may be only a cherished moment, or perhaps as deep as life is long. But the selfless act of giving of ourselves for another's benefit lifts us into the better angels of our nature. Hate only degrades and destroys. Love nourishes the individual soul and the human species. Without it, we will not survive.

RITA CHAO & The Quests/ NANCY SIT -"Hanky Panky" (1967)



Love is love and Hate ain't; it can't be legislated, leveled, or lynched. Let no one put it asunder.

These are my tributes to love; its stirrings, its courtship, its consumation, its playful dynamics and trusts, its gameplaying, its limitless range.

TINA TURNER -"Whole Lotta Love" (1975)



Love is the antidote to all harm; it is the pulsebeat of the human race.




-all videos created by Funk'n'Roll
© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "Walk On the Wild Side" - Genderblenders/ Enders/ Transcenders!

• "Whole Lotta Love" - Muddy Waters > Led Zeppelin > Funkadelic > Tina Turner


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

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ROCK Sex: "Whole Lotta Love" - Muddy Waters > Led Zeppelin > Funkadelic > Tina Turner

ROCK Sex is an inclusive club where no one is denied.

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In life, there's not just one angle, and there's not just two in opposition.

That limitation is simply that... a limit of imagination. The big picture is only subjective and best seen from many angles. Every perspective is valuable because it opens up new possibility, which 'only' and 'either/or' are blind to.

Upshot: there is no Either/Or... there is only "And Also".

Here's a sterling example of each creator enriching creativity by bringing something more to the previous.

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Blues was response music. It responded to life with common feelings, and it was responded to by other folks bringing their own feel. Since culture is creativity and commonality, every voice is valid and every face is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how you look, it's in how you feel. If you feel it, you are it. Blues is simply human feeling felt by other humans.

Essentially, you vamp, others amp. You put it out there, another takes it farther.

Muddy Waters started this particular cultural relay with his recording of Willie Dixon's song.

MUDDY WATERS -"You Need Love" (1962)



The Small Faces, led by Blues wailer Steve Marriott, expanded it texturally in their cover:

SMALL FACES -"You Need Loving" (1966)



Jimmie Page in turn wedded a crucially memorable original riff with Robert Plant's loose interpolation of those previous recordings to create their band's breakthrough hit. Like a childbirth, the combination of two things creates a new third thing of its own.

LED ZEPPELIN -"Whole Lotta Love" (1969)


If someone's impulse is to separate people's validity by how they look instead of how they sound, well, that prejudgement names itself.

Funkadelic aimed to eliminate all barriers of outlook and sound, and guitarist Eddie Hazel re-amped Zeppelin's new chord vamp into further territories with the intro song for their debut:

FUNKADELIC -"Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?" (1970)



Going her own way from Ike, Tina Turner deepened her Rock'n'Soul repertoire with this sexy grind on Zeppelin's song:

TINA TURNER -"Whole Lotta Love" (1975) *

* (I made this video. YouTube hecklers censor it, not because of its PG-rated sensuality, but for its diversity of human love.
Censors always miss the point.)


Lawyers will sue, separatists will divide, but those limits aside what is always missed is the real point: culture is a creative hand-off without boundaries. Give credit to individual creators? Of course. But limit creators from responding to life and each other? Never.

That doesn't protect creators, it kills creativity itself. True culture is about live and let live. And a whole lotta love.



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "I'm A Man" - Bo Diddley > Muddy Waters > Spencer Davis > Chicago > Devo

• "When the Levee Breaks!" - Memphis Minnie > Led Zeppelin

• "For What It's Worth": - Buffalo Springfield > Led Zeppelin > Public Enemy

• "PHYSICAL GRAFFITI" - Led Zeppelin > Branford Marsalis > Rolling Stones


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

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Cool Betty Davis Tribute: THE SOUL OF JOHN BLACK

Here's THE SOUL OF JOHN BLACK, the working name of musician John Bigham. This catchy funker swaggers like Al Green in the mood to sing Parliament's "All Your Goodies Are Gone" or Funkadelic's "I Got a Thing".

This is reportedly a tribute to the ultimate Funk hellion, BETTY DAVIS, who deserves all the love she can get.

THE SOUL OF JOHN BLACK -"Betty Jean" (2009)


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Here's Betty herself. Put your seatbelts on and hold on!

BETTY DAVIS -"Nasty Gal" (1975)



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

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

• ROCK Orgy: "F.U.N.K." by Betty Davis


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

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