Live songs and interviews on substack this past week with women rockers - Patti Smith, Neko Case & Rickie Lee Jones, and June Millington of Fanny

Women in Rock series

What a great week when we get to hear or hear from some of our iconic women rockers — all here on substack.

Of course I’m taking notes, but you can just sit back and enjoy and be inspired.

I’ve shared links and what I consider to be the highlights and some favorite quotes below.

Plus, I’m now going to start highlighting opportunities to help musicians given the sorry state of the industry. It’s downright shocking. You’ll see these set apart from the main text in bold print.

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye do some live tunes

It’s like having a Patti Smith Group acoustic performance in your living room — although Patti seems to do all her broadcasts from her bedroom in her New York City apartment.

Long-time amigo Lenny seems to pop in from the hinterlands when she needs accompaniment, and they hit up their favorite soul food eatery in Harlem (where she got fried catfish, grits, and collard greens and he got pork chops).

In case you don’t know, Lenny Kaye has been collaborating with Patti as a guitarist and songwriter from 1971, including as an ongoing member of the Patti Smith Group and in her more recent band since 1995. He has also had quite an impressive career as a performer, composer, producer, and radio host in addition to his work with her.

On April 1st they performed three songs from Patti’s bedroom, available here:

• “Wing” by Patti from Gone Again (1996)

• “Ghost Dance” by Patti and Lenny from Easter (1978)

• “Beneath the Southern Cross” by Patti and Lenny from Gone Again (1996)

If you enjoy listening to intimate concerts like this, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco has also done one recently, which you can access here. I particularly enjoyed seeing all his guitars, banjos, and who-knows-what hanging in the background, and Jeff is also quite humorous and engaging.

Neko Case interviews Rickie Lee Jones

You get two women rockers for the price of one in this interview, although Neko for the most part sticks to the role of interviewer.

In case you’re new to the rock ’n’ roll scene, here’s Rickie Lee’s phenomenal hit “Chuck E’s in Love,” which Niko brings up early in the interview, and you can find Neko’s “Pitch or Honey” below.

Both of them have substacks — Rickie Lee writes Fish Sticks and Neko writes Entering the Lung — and I appreciate the unflinching honesty and the look inside their lives, not to mention the humor, in what they share with us.

As someone who does a lot of interviews myself, I found Neko to be adept at creating a vibe that encouraged Rickie Lee to share her experiences and talk about some topics with unexpected intimacy and depth. (Kudos to Neko, as this is far harder than it looks.)

But then Rickie Lee is a remarkably candid soul who doesn’t shy away from talking about challenges as well as the spiritual side of being an artist.

They cover some key topics, including:

• the opportunity to play characters onstage and look ugly

• Rickie Lee’s autobiography

• childhood ‘otherness’ and mean kids as an impetus to artistry

• being catapulted to stardom after performing on Saturday Night Live

• dealing with fear and embracing the love of the audience

• the role of the producer

• finding money for recording when advances have dried up.

Here are my favorite quotes (any errors mine):

“A lot of us have childhoods where we were not of our own choosing separate. ‘You’re not one of us.’ It’s a terribly difficult road. But it’s almost like the fire you have to walk on in order to be a person who is devoted to listening to the other world and poetry and music… When you’re driven away from normalcy… then you’re given a chance for the greatest thing of all. But I think it’s a hard way to go.” - Rickie Lee Jones

“I am also moved by the spirit.” - Rickie Lee Jones

“That energy of a woman saying ‘Yeah!’ and enjoying it. Like, it’s a huge deal.” - Neko Case

“Whatever the producer does when they’re separate from us, it is so difficult to describe. A really great producer is not obtrusive, and makes you feel like you did everything better than ever, and [better than] anybody else, and fills you with confidence. And maybe they can help with a song or not, but what they really are is a spirit guide.” - Rickie Lee Jones

In terms of the state of the music business, it’s also important to note that Rickie Lee was asking Neko how she finds the money for recording given that the record industry is no longer giving advances. Rickie Lee has to tour (at the age of 70) to scare up enough money for recording. Neko shared the fact that less than 1% of studio owners are women and that she is able to keep recording because she owns her own studio (in Vermont).

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A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP THE WORLD ROCKIN’

It seems crazy that someone like Rickie Lee who’s won two Grammys and been nominated eight times, including just last year for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, would have to self-finance her next album. Has it come to this for artists?

There seems to be an investment opportunity here, some kind of financing vehicle for artists like Rickie Lee who have an incredible track record.

Or, if someone is flush with cash and would be thrilled to have their name on an album in return for support — a modern-day Medici opportunity.

Or help from someone who knows how to set up a Gofundme type of vehicle to help raise the funds needed, given artists often struggle with things like that.

Rickie Lee is here on substack. Just considering the possibilities…

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This was an interview that confirmed some things I’ve been writing, like the crucible of trauma that has shaped many of our artists — and has given them invaluable experience in how to transform pain and suffering into music gold.

And for me, listening in on a conversation like this between two women rockers about their reality behind the scenes, and then seeing their creations by watching their videos and enjoying their music, feels like a real privilege.

Btw, I love how the song below completely changes halfway through. The kind of innovation we expect from the genre-defying Neko.

Songs That Saved Your Life interview with June Millington of Fanny

Jami Smith did a wonderful interview with June Millington on her WKNY radio show and also posted the show on her substack, Songs That Saved Your Life.

June is the guitarist and songwriter for one of the first all-girl rock bands, Fanny. You can find a post I wrote on Fanny here, which was part of the Todd Rundgren Creator Series (he produced their Mothers Pride album).

You might also be interested in watching a 2021 documentary called Fanny: The Right to Rock, covering the band’s early years and recent revival, which is available on various streaming services.

Beyond her time with Fanny and its predecessors, The Svelts and Wild Honey, June has not only performed and composed solo and with others, but is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in Goshen, Massachusetts, still going strong after almost 40 years.

IMA supports girls and women in music, offering a series of workshops on music-making and the music business and holding a summer residential Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for girls. One of the songs that came out of the camp, “One for Change,” is below. Cool, huh?

You can find the interview, as well as some songs of Fanny and other women rockers, in the two-hour show here.

If you just want to listen to the 35-minute interview, zoom ahead to 21:00.

Here are some highlights:

• When June had to switch from rhythm guitar to lead guitar after Fanny got signed to Reprise Records, two friends taught her to play — Lowell George of Little Feat and Skunk Baxter who would co-found Steely Dan.

• Filipinos know how to learn (June is Filipino-American, having emigrated with her family to the US from the Philippines around age 13), so to master the lead guitar she watched the greats, deconstructed their songs, and practiced relentlessly, as well as getting lessons from Lowell and Skunk.

• The critics were relentless in focusing on members of Fanny being women (“not bad for chicks”), but the guys in the music community were welcoming and supportive and audience misogyny disappeared as soon as they played.

• About criticism of the double-entendre name, the band did not know the British meaning of ‘fanny,’ but as June points out, “Steely Dan is a sex toy. C’mon!”

• She left the band because the label lost confidence and tried to force them in directions they didn’t want to go, including demanding that they wear designer clothing. Her friend Bonnie Raitt had a similar experience and was also kicked off the Warner Brothers label. Bonnie had a hard time for about 15 years, until 1989 when her Nick of Time went #1, sold five million in the US alone, and won three Grammys, including Album of the Year. (On Capitol Records. Gee, sorry about that, WB!)

• A ‘voice’ asked June who’s going to take care of all the girls coming behind. Ten years later June had vivid and ongoing dreams about it and shared them with Angela Davis, who told her to get on with it because they’ve ‘chosen’ you, spurring June to establish IMA.

• Suzi Quatro admitted to June that she was psychic and gave her a reading, telling her the ancestors wanted June to know that she was doing the right thing and they were proud of her.

• June says the songs come through her, they’re even thrown at her.

• She teaches a segment called “Foremothers” at Rock ’n’ Roll Camp, about women like Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, and Janis Joplin on whose shoulders they are all standing and who “suffered so much to bring music to us.”

• June believes that “Music is a life-saver. Music is essential.”

June comes across as down-to-earth and great fun. If I were a teenage girl, I would kill to attend her camp! Which makes me think…

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A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE A NEW GENERATION OF WOMEN ROCKERS — AND GET A TAX WRITE-OFF

If you want to contribute to the development of more women rockers and keep the pipeline flowing, there are a range of opportunities to support IMA:

• buy merch

• donate to a scholarship fund — one has been set up in the name of guitarist Chris Dixon, or you can give in your mother’s name

• sponsor a girl to attend Rock ’n’ Roll Camp — $750 covers all the expenses for one of the 5 day sessions and $1500 for one of the 10 day sessions

• volunteer your office, fundraising, carpentry, machine repair, or outdoor skills.

IMA gets the seal of approval from Bonnie Raitt, who’s on its Advisory Board along with other movers and shakers in the ‘women in music’ world.

Some iconic rock brands — Fender, Taylor, Gretsch, and others — are also lending support and cred to the next generation of women in rock at IMA.

Just look at what comes out of Rock ’n’ Roll Camp:

I’ll keep posting any substack concerts and interviews as I come across them. If you happen across any that I’ve missed, please do let me know. This is my way of both documenting them and sharing them with you.

In the meantime, keep on rockin’ on.