Womn n rck

REWRITING ROCK HISTORY PART II

ROCK’N’ROLL TO ROCK

¡ Rock band in modern form with Beach Boys

¡ New Songwriting Possibilities

¡ New Sound Possibilities

¡ Notion of Auteur

¡ Album as the result of band’s vision

¡ Recording as Construction

“IN MY ROOM”

There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to

In my room, in my room

In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears

In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming

Lie awake and pray

Do my crying and my sighing

Laugh at yesterday

TRACY MCMULLEN:

¡ Here is the point I wish to underscore: white women or people of color are not necessarily “rare” participants in a given activity. They are not seen because of the ways gender and race narratives inflect stories told about that particular field. (And when they are not seen they cannot be role models for others to follow and the field does become dominated by the now “naturalized” white men.) Specifically, in the cultural imaginary of rock history (as in so many other fields) origin stories will find the white male body.

ALL FEMALE ROCK BANDS: NOT SO RARE

¡ In 1963, they become the first all female band to sign to a major record label

¡ Did not release an album

Goldie & the Gingerbreads

FANNY

¡ June and Jean Millington

¡ Begin as Svelts

¡ Sign to Warner in 1969 and become Fanny

¡ June on Lead Guitar

¡ Jean on Bass

¡ Alice de Buhr on Drums

¡ Nickey Barclay on Keyboards

¡ First all female band signed to a major label to release a full length album

FANNY - “CHARITY BALL” (1971)

0:00 – 0:27

0:28 – 1:00

1:58

2:20

¡ Introduction ¡ Texture builds

¡ Backing vocals interject “ooh”

¡ Guitar solo

¡ Piano solo

DEMISE OF FANNY

¡ Faced persistent sexism and racism, as Filipino women in rock

¡ Jean Millington to Playboy: "We'll pose nude when Hugh Hefner poses for the centerfold with a hard-on. Let them show Mick Jagger's cock first or somebody cute.”

¡ Split in 1975

¡ June Millington founds Institute for the Musical Arts

They are not seen because of the ways gender and race narratives inflect stories told about that particular field. (And when they are not seen they cannot be role models for others to follow and the field does become dominated by the now “naturalized” white men.) - McMullen

ROCK CRITICISM

¡ Crawdaddy (1966) and Rolling Stone (1967)

¡ Reviews give rock music serious, intellectual consideration and analysis

TEEN IDOL MAGAZINES

¡ Rock criticism positions pop and teen idols as fluff – unsubstantial, basic, fabricated

¡ Pop considered ”less than,” not for the serious music listener

ROBERT CHRISTGAU ON THE MONKEES

¡ “The Monkees began, if you'll remember, as poor vocalists and no musicians at all, but now, as a note on the album proclaims, they are Doing It Themselves. This means they are venturing live performances. I saw them at Forest Hills, and they stank. That crisp studio sound was weak and ragged on stage, and their Act was unbelievably corny. The kids screamed, of course, but the stadium was far from full, and the one lonely rush at the stage quickly stymied by a bored and overstaffed security force. Good signs.”

ROBERT CHRISTGAU - 1968

“The first big hit was Janis Joplin of Big Brother and The Holding Company, a good old girl from Port Arthur, Texas, who may be the best rock singer since Ray Charles--that means since the beginning, brother--with a voice that is two-thirds Bessie Smith and one-third Kitty Wells, and fantastic stage presence. Her left nipple erect under her knit pants suit, looking hard enough to put out your eye as she rocked and stomped and threatened any moment to break the microphone, or swallow it.”

MUSIC CRITICISM AND WOMEN

¡ Female musicians tend to be looked at first, listened to second

¡ Appearance and biography given as much, if not more, consideration than the music

¡ This is a practice not applied to male rock musicians

¡ Marketing can also be problematic

HEART

¡ Ann and Nancy Wilson

¡ Lead Singer and Guitarist

¡ Songwriters

¡ Mushroom Records

¡ Dreamboat Annie (1975)

HEART

DREAMBOAT ANNIE (1975)

“It was only our first time”

Rock Criticism Creates Rock/Pop Hierarchy:

Rock = Authentic = Masculine

Pop = Inauthentic = Feminine

ELECTRIC GUITAR AS PHALLIC SYMBOL

GUITAR MAGAZINES

ROCK PERFORMANCE

¡ Electric guitar as phallic symbol

¡ Codes Electric Guitar as male

¡ Barrier for women who wish to learn

¡ Vocals

¡ Screamed, rough, and shouted vocal timbres

¡ Physical and emotional displays that signify power and strength

Specifically, in the cultural imaginary of rock history (as in so many other fields) origin stories will find the white male body.

JANIS JOPLIN

¡ Comes to San Francisco in the mid 1960s

¡ Vocal style modelled after blues singers

¡ Joins Big Brother and the Holding Co.

¡ Influenced by emotion of Otis Redding

¡ Conveys emotional extremes in performances

JOPLIN’S ATTIRE

JANIS JOPLIN (1943-1970)

Album titles are italicized:

¡ Big Brother and the Holding Company

¡ Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967)

¡ Cheap Thrills (1968)

¡ The Kozmic Blues Band

¡ I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again, Mama (1969)

¡ Full Tilt Boogie – Pearl (1970)

LED ZEPPELIN

¡ Jimmy Page – Guitar

¡ Robert Plant – Vocals

¡ John Paul Jones – Bass/Keyboards/Mandolin

¡ John Bonham – Drums

“I really just wanted to get to San Francisco and join up. I had so much empathy with the commentary in America at the time of Vietnam. I just wanted to be with Jack Casady [of Jefferson Airplane] and with Janis Joplin.” – Robert Plant

TRACY MCMULLEN:

¡ Of their concert at the University of Iowa Memorial Union on January 15, critic William Seavey writes, “Robert Plant is the Janis Joplin of the group, a blues belter par excellence.” By summer (as the album went to number 10 on the Billboard Top 200 list), many more critics were making this comparison. According to one, “[Plant] comes across with the funky finesse of a male Janis Joplin.”

JOPLIN’S INFLUENCE ON PLANT

1. Joplin's “whooooooooooa…whoa-ah, who-ah, who-ah- wa-ah”

a. “Combination of the Two” b. “You Shook Me” – Plant

2. The Scream a. “Ball and Chain” b. “I Can’t Quit You”

3. The rapid repetition of syllables and words a. “Magic of Love” b. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”

ORIGIN STORIES

¡ Joplin was a clear influence on Plant, and likely at a point, Plant would influence Joplin

¡ Both were also clearly influenced by the blues, R&B and soul

BUT

¡ Plant gets credited as the father of hard rock/heavy metal vocals – loud, aggressive, distorted vocals

THE PROBLEM WITH ORIGIN STORIES

Certainly the heavy rocking of Led Zeppelin, propelled as much by John Bonham's drumming as Page's “murderous riffs,” was a new sound when it appeared in 1969. But upon listening to the heavy metal rock vocal sound—is not it more apt that Joplin was the shift? If anyone, it was Joplin who combined the gravelly timbre and overextension of the voice of the blues shouters with a “rock” energy that established the template for so many vocalists to follow. Despite rock origin stories that state otherwise, one cannot trace the innovative heavy metal rock vocals to Plant because he sounds like Joplin. (McMullen)

ROCK IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

¡ "Exaggerating the vocal style and expressive palette of blues singers such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, (Robert) Plant created the sound that has defined much hard rock and heavy metal singing: a high range, an abundance of distortion, loud volume and emotional excess” – Susan Fast for Encyclopedia Britannica

ROCK IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

¡ Origin stories limit the scope of the history that is told

¡ Shaped by categorical thinking – rock is white and male

¡ Joplin limited to “female rocker”, a rule breaker or trailblazer for other women

¡ Cited on Wikipedia and websites such as About.com as an influence on other women like Chrissie Hynde and Heart

¡ Her central role is limited to trailblazer, her larger contributions ignored

“BARRACUDA” (1977)

You lying so low in the weeds

I bet you gonna ambush me

You'd have me down, down, down on my knees

Now wouldn't you, Barracuda? Oh

uVivid imagery

uGalloping guitar riff

uTremelo

uBelted vocal

NANCY WILSON:

“I play a lot of electric as well and I played a lot more in the '80s, but acoustic has always been my signature that I brought to the band. Beyond electric sound, it’s been an acoustic sound that’s not funky, but more aggressive that helps define the initial Heart signature sound.”