Hey Ellen, looking forward very much to your series on Women in music. And the other topics you touch on are so important, especially the plight of artists. I believe art is humans' highest calling, yet the lack of appreciation and support for artists goes back a long, long way. Interesting how many of these big topics intersect.
Re. the post on 30 greatest rock singers: it was looking like a good list but was ruined for me by the placement of Stevie Nicks at #1. She would not even be on my list. Meanwhile, I would have included Floor Jansen, Doro Pesch, Simone Simons, Tatiana Schmayluk and Keiko Terada. Jansen gets my nod for greatest vocalist of the modern era, female OR male.
There have been plenty of "best of" lists but there is always room for another one if it brings a fresh perspective. Not enough good writing about women who play instruments or do technical stuff and production. Glad to see you are thinking about that as well.
Thanks for your ongoing support, Charles, and for introducing me and others to a range of female musicians of note in your Zapato's Jam stack, many of which I was not aware.
I have to agree that music-making is an existential need and one of the highest callings. It bears thinking about ways in which we can support and protect artists to enable them to produce their best work, or even to engage in artistic production at all. Voices of the working class and the poor are disappearing from most artistic pursuits, which to me is an absolute travesty. Also channels for those who persist in getting their work out that doesn't require them to go into debt in terms of time and money (while others benefit by getting almost free product).
Muchas gracias for the names of the artists you would add to the list. I'm still figuring out who I will cover or profile, so they'll go on my master list.
It looks like whoever did that list should have called it “My 30 favorite books on female fronted” bands. Of course that brings into play what sort of criteria is being used to judge. Also what type of music is the voice being used for. It was interesting to see Joan and Lita both in the list. I worked with The Runaways very early in my career and maintained contact with them afterwards. Not sure I would put them on the list and pretty sure they wouldn’t hate me for saying that. I spent two hours in the middle of the night once talking politics with The Cranberries. Not sure I would put her on the list either but am ok with it. Some of the others I suspect are on because of notoriety. To each their own. My list would be different.
I’ll be watching your postings. Along with performance opportunities I’m trying to give my students insight into the culture. They teach me a lot as I don’t follow much new stuff today but the posts about Spotify, and your latest about musicians in physical duress gave me pause. I don’t use Spotify. I always feel a loss when a musician I worked with passes, but I need to focus more on potential strategies to assist if possible. Thank you.
Curious who might be in your top 10, if you're willing to share. (No pressure.) I do have Joan, Lita, and Cherie on my list of women to potentially cover, but not Dolores O'Riordan as I haven't found any suitable source materials.
Understand your focus with the students. I feel it's important to encourage them as I think they (and we) are part of the solution in changing the culture. Young people bring a new attitude about what's possible and how things should work, and they bring energy and enthusiasm. Artists getting ill and dying is a whole other topic and I think kids are more clued into that kind of thing happening than many adults because so much of that gets shared on social media. I will keep in mind that potential strategies for mutual support among musicians would be helpful.
Su-Metal (Suzaka Nakamoto) I put her in as a hat tip to some of my students who showed me Japanese Anime. Video below is not necessarily representative of Baby Metal's music but is fun
Really interesting list! Thanks for giving this some thought and finding links.
Three I didn't know (Angela, Su-Metal, Noora) and enjoyed learning about them and listening. I can see why you work out to Noora and Battle Beast!
I've heard Floor but not this song. She's amazing.
I have Janis, the Wilson sisters, Pat, Tina, Debbie, and Annie on my list, but unfortunately Annie has no autobiography or biography that I trust (with an inside view) so I may not be able to cover her. She seems like a lovely person!
I've decided to only cover women in the US and UK where I understand the cultures and to some extent the music industry in each, since I'll be looking at these women within context. Maybe going forward I'll change my mind, but that's the plan at the moment. But I've put everyone on my master list.
About Debbie Harry, I had to laugh reading Ted Gioia's note "Debbie Harry says she does all her 'flirting' in Home Depot" and the replies like "Which Home Depot?" -- https://substack.com/@tedgioia/note/c-84601041
Debbie's autobiography was really good. But first up -- Janis!
Thanks, Ellen, for the name-drop and appreciation! It's fun to see and experience so many of the 'Stack "rookies" hopping aboard to begin their new writing journeys! I try to keep an eye on Notes to spot some newbies to invite to guest on Tune Tag (the perfect way to get to know someone, musically)!
I, too, look forward to your WIM series! Keep on keepin' on!🎵
Thanks for the encouragement with the women in rock series, and for your very warm welcome when I started this stack. I blame you for me still being here, when I intended to stop after my reunion!!!
You've been a fantastic writer on substack (and consistently a pleasure to interact with and share music). The women in rock series sounds both ambitious and fascinating. I have no doubt that you will have interesting things to say, and look forward to reading it.
I will also say that there shouldn't be any embarrassment in starting a substack with a lot of energy and then realizing that it's too much to keep up that schedule consistently. Your posts always give the impression that you are enjoying the process of researching and writing them, and I would encourage you that it makes sense that there will be periods when you are doing that more or less -- and that's healthy.
Thanks for those very kind words, Nick, and also for that advice about lulls in posting.
I do greatly enjoy it, but there are times when my sense of direction or my motivation lags and I get mad at substack and curse and drag my feet. But having been a writer most of my career, this is nothing new for me. Although I enjoy writing, I don't always find it easy. Some days it feels like pulling teeth.
It's been a real pleasure for me to interact with you too. You bring a unique and very thoughtful perspective that I appreciate, especially your knowledge of so much music and your ability to see connections between songs that most of us don't see. That's quite a gift.
That is very kind of you to say. One of the very nice things for me about finding this group of music writers on substack is realizing that I have something interesting to contribute even though many people have listened to much more music than I have.
It is, perhaps, a cliche, but I am happy to have the experience that you don't need to know everything to know enough to be able to have an interesting perspective.
Hey Ellen, looking forward very much to your series on Women in music. And the other topics you touch on are so important, especially the plight of artists. I believe art is humans' highest calling, yet the lack of appreciation and support for artists goes back a long, long way. Interesting how many of these big topics intersect.
Re. the post on 30 greatest rock singers: it was looking like a good list but was ruined for me by the placement of Stevie Nicks at #1. She would not even be on my list. Meanwhile, I would have included Floor Jansen, Doro Pesch, Simone Simons, Tatiana Schmayluk and Keiko Terada. Jansen gets my nod for greatest vocalist of the modern era, female OR male.
There have been plenty of "best of" lists but there is always room for another one if it brings a fresh perspective. Not enough good writing about women who play instruments or do technical stuff and production. Glad to see you are thinking about that as well.
Thanks for your ongoing support, Charles, and for introducing me and others to a range of female musicians of note in your Zapato's Jam stack, many of which I was not aware.
I have to agree that music-making is an existential need and one of the highest callings. It bears thinking about ways in which we can support and protect artists to enable them to produce their best work, or even to engage in artistic production at all. Voices of the working class and the poor are disappearing from most artistic pursuits, which to me is an absolute travesty. Also channels for those who persist in getting their work out that doesn't require them to go into debt in terms of time and money (while others benefit by getting almost free product).
Muchas gracias for the names of the artists you would add to the list. I'm still figuring out who I will cover or profile, so they'll go on my master list.
It looks like whoever did that list should have called it “My 30 favorite books on female fronted” bands. Of course that brings into play what sort of criteria is being used to judge. Also what type of music is the voice being used for. It was interesting to see Joan and Lita both in the list. I worked with The Runaways very early in my career and maintained contact with them afterwards. Not sure I would put them on the list and pretty sure they wouldn’t hate me for saying that. I spent two hours in the middle of the night once talking politics with The Cranberries. Not sure I would put her on the list either but am ok with it. Some of the others I suspect are on because of notoriety. To each their own. My list would be different.
I’ll be watching your postings. Along with performance opportunities I’m trying to give my students insight into the culture. They teach me a lot as I don’t follow much new stuff today but the posts about Spotify, and your latest about musicians in physical duress gave me pause. I don’t use Spotify. I always feel a loss when a musician I worked with passes, but I need to focus more on potential strategies to assist if possible. Thank you.
My 30 favorite female fronted bands. Stupid spell check.
Curious who might be in your top 10, if you're willing to share. (No pressure.) I do have Joan, Lita, and Cherie on my list of women to potentially cover, but not Dolores O'Riordan as I haven't found any suitable source materials.
Understand your focus with the students. I feel it's important to encourage them as I think they (and we) are part of the solution in changing the culture. Young people bring a new attitude about what's possible and how things should work, and they bring energy and enthusiasm. Artists getting ill and dying is a whole other topic and I think kids are more clued into that kind of thing happening than many adults because so much of that gets shared on social media. I will keep in mind that potential strategies for mutual support among musicians would be helpful.
Sure. I’ll mull it today and respond to you. I want to think about it and not just give you the last 10 I listened to.
Well that turned out to be difficult. I decided to make this a top 10 of women I've actually seen perform. In no particular order
Janis Joplin...Obvious pioneer
Ann Wilson...on the list for the song "Alone" if nothing else...although
https://youtu.be/OI2sojuvnrY?si=TpwAW3OK6-8Er3yS
Pat Benatar...opera turned rock with great catalog
Tina Turner...Nuff said
Angela Gossow...OG of women performing this genre. Band is great with both Amott brothers on guitar
https://youtu.be/KgMUmXHAdAM?si=9_fAjOt64fIVKor5
Floor Jansen...
https://youtu.be/47e_961OQWE?si=-ShTMEynifN-9mt2
Su-Metal (Suzaka Nakamoto) I put her in as a hat tip to some of my students who showed me Japanese Anime. Video below is not necessarily representative of Baby Metal's music but is fun
https://youtu.be/KG_fqkyJ-wo?si=t5AZVT2jzgjlnE9S
Debby Harry...pioneer in that genre
Noora Louhimo Battle Beast...great hard rock singer with powerful voice. She provides much of my workout music
https://youtu.be/on1eV1nNsBk?si=tO0Gd4FzxrVVvIKm
Annie Lennox...great singer and a better person
There could be many others but this is today's list.
Really interesting list! Thanks for giving this some thought and finding links.
Three I didn't know (Angela, Su-Metal, Noora) and enjoyed learning about them and listening. I can see why you work out to Noora and Battle Beast!
I've heard Floor but not this song. She's amazing.
I have Janis, the Wilson sisters, Pat, Tina, Debbie, and Annie on my list, but unfortunately Annie has no autobiography or biography that I trust (with an inside view) so I may not be able to cover her. She seems like a lovely person!
I've decided to only cover women in the US and UK where I understand the cultures and to some extent the music industry in each, since I'll be looking at these women within context. Maybe going forward I'll change my mind, but that's the plan at the moment. But I've put everyone on my master list.
About Debbie Harry, I had to laugh reading Ted Gioia's note "Debbie Harry says she does all her 'flirting' in Home Depot" and the replies like "Which Home Depot?" -- https://substack.com/@tedgioia/note/c-84601041
Debbie's autobiography was really good. But first up -- Janis!
If you don’t use some criteria to narrow scope the task becomes daunting. Even using my “seeing them live” criteria it was hard.
Thanks, Ellen, for the name-drop and appreciation! It's fun to see and experience so many of the 'Stack "rookies" hopping aboard to begin their new writing journeys! I try to keep an eye on Notes to spot some newbies to invite to guest on Tune Tag (the perfect way to get to know someone, musically)!
I, too, look forward to your WIM series! Keep on keepin' on!🎵
Thanks for the encouragement with the women in rock series, and for your very warm welcome when I started this stack. I blame you for me still being here, when I intended to stop after my reunion!!!
Golly.....then, best pull up a chair, and as Sheriff Andy Taylor would say, "Set a spell!"
As Opie would say, "Now, Pa!"
You've been a fantastic writer on substack (and consistently a pleasure to interact with and share music). The women in rock series sounds both ambitious and fascinating. I have no doubt that you will have interesting things to say, and look forward to reading it.
I will also say that there shouldn't be any embarrassment in starting a substack with a lot of energy and then realizing that it's too much to keep up that schedule consistently. Your posts always give the impression that you are enjoying the process of researching and writing them, and I would encourage you that it makes sense that there will be periods when you are doing that more or less -- and that's healthy.
Thanks for those very kind words, Nick, and also for that advice about lulls in posting.
I do greatly enjoy it, but there are times when my sense of direction or my motivation lags and I get mad at substack and curse and drag my feet. But having been a writer most of my career, this is nothing new for me. Although I enjoy writing, I don't always find it easy. Some days it feels like pulling teeth.
It's been a real pleasure for me to interact with you too. You bring a unique and very thoughtful perspective that I appreciate, especially your knowledge of so much music and your ability to see connections between songs that most of us don't see. That's quite a gift.
That is very kind of you to say. One of the very nice things for me about finding this group of music writers on substack is realizing that I have something interesting to contribute even though many people have listened to much more music than I have.
It is, perhaps, a cliche, but I am happy to have the experience that you don't need to know everything to know enough to be able to have an interesting perspective.
Exactly!
Don't forget Marion Keisker at Sun Records!
Thanks for that. I didn't know about her! I've added her to my list.