Top Ten Records I Would Exile To A Desert Island
By Tim Murphy
Having once compiled a list of records I would bring along with me to a desert island, if I
had room for a stereo and a really long extension cord after I packed the lifeboat, flares and
food, it only struck me as right to compile a list of the selections I would send ahead of me
and then not show up...
1. The collected works of Britney Spears, past, present and future (since they would all sound
the same, I think counting them as one is justified)
2. Low's "The Curtain Hits The Cast". (Revisionist history alert! Originally, I wrote that this
was boring. Now, I'd only say it's boring in relation to other stuff, so, if I had to send one away,
this would be it)
3. Aqua's two albums (again, alteration - they just suck, okay, and not in a good way).
4. Prince's "Crystal Ball". Too much filler, as could only be expected in a 4-CD set.
5. Just about everything Lou Reed has done since "Berlin".
6. Hole's "Celebrity Skin" (as proof I'm either nice or cowardly, my original notes suggested
this was dull enough to kill Kurt again. I withdraw that remark, though you may note that I had
to say it again to do so and question my sincerity...as well you might...).
7. Any randomly selected Celine Dion album in English (I happen to like her in French).
8. Your choice of Spice Girls material.
9. The collected, largely identical works of the hideous Canadian band Platinum Blonde.
10. The Attractions' "Mad About The Wrong Boy" (clearly, the cautionary examples of The Rumour, The Spiders From Mars and even Spliff were not heeded - stick to your backup gig, boys...)
This was one of the tamer questions Joan Jett was asked in the Seventies when she was part of the all-female, teenaged band the Runaways. Her response, and that of her fellow Runaways, was not likely to be printed verbatim at the time ('fuck off' - she has since given a more articulate response in such sources as Angry Women In Rock, Volume 1), but it does bring up an interesting line of thought.
Does a guitar feel different under female flesh, and is that a bad thing?
Obviously, some people (mostly men, though troubled souls like Juliana Hatfield and Chrissie Hynde have bought in as well) think so, failing and/or choosing to ignore the social pressures, influences, etc. that lead to that discomfort or 'itchiness'.
Herstory militates against them to some extent, though this brings up more assumptions in terms of evaluating the impact/influence of female musicians.
When a woman picks up a guitar, or gets known as a guitarist, the inevitable: 'Why are there no female Jimi Hendrixes?" question surfaces. Exactly how many maleJimi Hendrixes are there? Speaking for myself, I've never wanted to play like him - it's not an approach I aspire to, though I can appreciate the technique. Maybe (blasphemy!) not everyone looks up to that somewhat overrated figure. Perhaps, at the risk of quoting Chrissie Hynde, given her disparaging remarks about women musicians/technicians/etc.: "being an adequate rhythm guitarist is all I want to do."
But enough of this diatribe - suffice it to say that while guitar may feel different under female flesh, both through some distinct inner nature that I might not appreciate or be able to prove the existence of and due to social conditions, a lot of women in history have expressed that difference and that inner nature through music - and this is just a partial reckoning to show that women have been 'rocking' as long, if not longer, than the men.
I must confess I imposed a few restrictions on myself. I decided to be fairly mainstream; to choose musicians only up until the 1970s (after that point, some of the trail blazing had been done, and much of what followed was further incursions and protecting territory); and (this is perhaps the most contentious) not to choose keyboardists, since that instrument is one women have been 'permitted' to play, even in rock bands, for some time - it's not as controversial or unusual.
From a historical point of view, it is interesting to note that, in paintings dating back some four or five hundred years, one can find depictions of women playing guitars and mandolins, and, in fact, I've seen more of them than of men with instruments. Of course, this reflects the reality of men as painteres and women as the painted, so it may not be that surprising, and it might also reveal that playing an instrument for 'fun' or 'in the home' was viewed as something girls could do to pass the time they could not devote to careers. It is probable that there were few professional women musicians at the time, due to the realities of female economic/social power in those days (for a little more on this paradox that faced even female children born in affluence, I recommend Virginia Woolf'sA Room of One's Own.
There were composers, like Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179), but she was a nun, which, despite its repressive elements, was a good profession for a woman with intellectual ambitions in her time (she certainly would not have learned to read and write without that environment) and thus perhaps not typical.
The trail grows cold for the mainstream until the early Twentieth Century, at least in terms of well-known names (at least for me it does - it is more than likely that I have just not heard of other individuals).
For all that people claim that genres like country or the blues are oppressive to women, the folky, collaborative nature of these musical styles allowed more room for women to assert themselves. In fact, as Angela Davis reveals in her excellent work Blues Legacies and Feminism, the majority of best-selling blues records in the 20s and 30s were by women of colour. It is true that most of them were 'just' singers, but people like Big Mama Thornton (who played harmonica and drums) and Memphis Minnie (who not only played guitar but rigged up an improvised 'electric' model very early on) were not unusual. Some years later, continuing on that religious paradox (be silent in the church, but be its backbone and do most of the work), Sister Rosetta Tharpe took to playing electric guitar in a rock style in her gospel numbers.
As to country and folk, individuals like Elizabeth Cotten and The Carter Family proved that women had a big contribution to make; in fact, Cotten is credited with inventing a style of fingerpicking used to this day, and the Carter Family, in their way, were one of the first pop-country outfits, and boasted the lead stylings of Mother Maybelle to boot (it is sad that the number of female lead guitarists in country has not swollen immeasurably (according to Rosie Flores in Rockrgrl #31, she herself was the only female lead guitarist/lead singer she oculd think of in the genre), but not surprising, given the boys' club that keeps reasserting itself).
In the Fifties, rockabilly and rock 'n' roll were not entirely untouched by women's art, if not terribly high-profile at times. Cordell Jackson (who was also a label owner, running Moon Records to release particularly demented rockabilly material, as well as her own rockin' stuff, which she produced), Bonnie Guitar (who was a producer as well as a guitar player), Mary Ford (perhaps not 'rock', but heer work with Les Paul was technically innovative, and I have seen footage of her playing guitar along with her well-known husband) and Wanda Jackson were all out there, holding their own as instrumentalists, singers and writers.
When the Sixties hit, a little more freedom and visibility could be sensed. the Duchess played rhythm guitar with her half-brother Bo Diddley. Carole Kaye played bass with Motown and the Beach Boys. Honey Lantree played drums with the British outfit Honeycombs, as did Jan Errico with the Vejtables, and, of course, Maureen Tucker with the Velvet Underground. Suzi Quatro, later to be a famous bassist/singer in the 70s, had an all-girl band with her sisters called the Pleasure Seekers at this time too, and June and Jean Millington had their first group by then as well (they were later to form Fanny, one of the first female instrumental outfits to achieve fame, if not huge sales). And then, of course, there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads, who sadly never took off in their native America, and were more famous for spinning off Genya Ravan, later to become one of the first famous female producers, and several members who went into Isis, a lesbian funk outfit of the early Seventies. And, of course, there's Joni Mitchell.
The Seventies had Fanny; The Runaways; members of the Adverts, X-Ray Spex,Bush Tetras and Cramps; Nancy Wilson from Heart; the list could go on and on, and only got longer in the Eighties...
Maybe guitars feel different under female flesh - but it doesn't stop them from playing, does it? Grow up, guys...realize different may not be bad.
