Girl Poison: Self- Administered

I'm putting this here separately because I really don't like what I'm saying here, and I don't want it to poison my other page.


New topic: Girl Singers

I have to admit to a terrible, terrible, terrible, x5 prejudice that I have..so ironic, so self-emoliating. I do not know the answer at all to this horrible paradox that somehow became quite manifest in my day's otherwise rather pleasant music. Here it is:

I DO NOT LIKE GIRL ROCK SINGERS. Rock and Girls don't go together, really.

Ok. Why is this awful?

• I am a singer
• I wish I was a better instrumentalist, but I know, my forte, my gift, is singing
• My favorite type of music is rock , and not soft rock: the psychedelic blues, punk metal, hard-core sorta rock, maybe with a lot of electric glam thrown in
• There are very few to show me the way
• My voice can bend a blues, jazz note like a mother, but is that what is needed in rock????????? In blues and jazz it seems so staid and predictable. But I am glad my voice has become deep, has resonance..but. Maybe I should start smoking again.....
• Who do I want to imitate? Whose vocals do I find admirable? All guys.
• Jim Morrison. John Lennon and his primal scream.Vadim and  Gleb. Iggy. Bowie. Marc Bolan. Oh! SLY Stone!.how could I have possibly forgotten the cockiest vocal ever. John Lydon. Joe Strummer. Lemmy. Ray Davies. Frank Black. Jimi. Robert Plant. Kurt Cobain. (I think one of the seriously overlooked things about the greatness of Nirvana is the richness, the thickness, in Kurt's vocals..I've only recently become aware of this).Morrisey(Hah, machismo!). ...All sing crazy. Why Cahn't I be you?

Sly's "If You Want Me To Stay": forget the RHCP's (not even close vocally, Antony, even if it is funky on bass, but glad you appreciate and brought it back). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3t9htxbIAc

• Ok. Decent girl singers (what, am I kidding?) 1) Janis Joplin (but as much as I love her my limit to her pain is 2 songs long--damn, what a messed up chick, you can hear it in every bend, in every note. I honestly don't want to sound like that. 2) Laura Nyro--incredibly gifted songwriter--knew her strong points. 3) Patti Smith, but somehow over the top? Don't know how to explain this--she doesn't quite get the balance right. 4) Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders..sometimes I think she's closer to my goal--never showoff, but she doesn't take many chances, either. "It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate"-- 5) The girl on "Great Gig in the Sky"--if only I sounded black (she's not) all my problems would be solved 6) Amy Winehouse and all the great, bluesy girl groups-- I hear you, but you're not really rock--maybe in attitude but I do not want the wall o' sound. Stevie Nicks--I can imitate you pretty good. Sounds like an imitation....your men's earlier band was better. Even though the singer thought he couldn't sing. 7) Billie Holliday--damn, how can I translate that to rock? 8) New girl: Adele-- your best songs are thumping . The rest? Good voice, I'm going to bed. Maybe you belong with the 60's .

I know I'm really out on a ledge here, overstating my case.Of course they are all good singers. Nothing personal. Or actually it's all personal. I hear something different in my head, somewhere. Something that defies gender.

We females do have a tendency to go cheap and easy on the saccharin, the kitteny. I think something makes us too aware of our bodies onstage--how we look more than how we sound. It's trained. I was shown by my son this poor little British girl who's in a Glee-like group, Tina Barrett. (Actually, she's around 32 which makes this even sadder because she quite looks 13 in this video.) She's vamping and traipsing around ineffectively in this red sequined gown, looking like she's playing dress-up in her mother's clothes, trying to simultaneously channel Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" and Madonna's "Material Girl". Sadly she's also a decent singer, but is Failing Miserably, because apparently she doesn't even get the mild irony in both those pieces. There is nothing more bloody horrible (to borrow a friend's favorite swear) than self-conscious sexuality. Exactly what I want to avoid in my secret vision. I was going to post this monstrosity here, but I can't bear seeing it, and I don't want that kind of traffic.

Sometimes it's just the limited subject matter..do all girls have to sing about failed love as a major topic? Tear jerkers in girl rock date all the way back to "Leader of the Pack". And Chrissie (and Janis) even goes for the dysfunctional, co-dependent bad love. Is this a corporate rock directed thing? Is it the inherent sexist thing in rock, can't work with a girl? I don't really care. So depressing to think about. And if they play guitar, it's usually singer-songwriter variety--ok, sleater-kinney, sonic youth, breeders, pixies--I feel your eyes on my back...gotta make an exception for Kim Gordon's "Gigantic". Rocks. And "Kool Thing" too. I know, lotsa punk girl bands...but I'm looking for consistent cream. Maybe I'm too hetero. Maybe I'm too old to sing crazy. Even Robert Plant has tamed down.

Maybe I'm finally old enough to get it right.

99.7 percent of what I listen to is sung by men. Self-loathing? Maybe wrong, but true. My whole life I've always wanted to be in the boys' clubs. And it's not all based on pitch: love Neil Young and Robert Plant, hate Getty Lee and Rush. What is wrong with me? Maybe girls just sound psycho when they go too intense. Bet I could google this and find people who say the same thing--tell me that i'm not saying out loud what other people think. Most girl singer musicians are of the sweet, quirky singer-songwriter, near-folkie tradition. Even Best Coast is sweet with boys' rock instruments. Not to mention that on RS "100 best guitarists"--how many were girls? Three I think, and two barely qualify as rock: Joni Mitchell (folk/jazz) and Bonnie Raitt (Southern blues), and those seemed sorta tokeny? Joni is an extraordinary, unusual guitarist. Just not rock.

All of this is exactly why my latest has no vocal, or rather, why it had a Riot Grrl vocal that I erased because it sounded phony. That plus it has no guitar lead, because I've been too lazy to make one up. Or stick diligently with the ones I've tried. Not my best feature.

Who was that girl in Romeo Void? "I might like you better if we slept together...never say never!" Forgot how good this was.  Hot sax.  Hot lyrics. Hot atmosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePIImGMjn_8  sorry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x0fPZrPV3M
I want to thread the needle.

Meanwhile, I'm still thinking............?



Yeah, and here's what I'm thinking.  What a load of tripe.  Who am I to judge others' visions.  This is all fear based.  Play music.  Be a musician, by whatever means possible.  Jesus.

 I'm leaving it all,with strikethroughs, to remind myself how not to be--it's as hard as a Christian (or punk) trying not to break the rules governing "Judge not....."

Antidote:her.  Ten Thousand guys must be in love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5keHbjN2Gc


Oh, and...one more on this.  James Williamson, you are It.  Why is the rhythm on "Gimme Danger"  so tight and hard for me to master?  Maybe I'm a perfectionist, but you are It.

Laura Nyro: "Stoned Soul Picnic"--she wrote it--music and lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwSNbC9zK-w  sorry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1CfSgsvqJE

Another good exception.  Zemfira.  Growing to like her a lot.  voice and words.  Oh, and musical choices.

Dec 17, 2013:

Finding and remembering some great girl singers--The Girl from Portishead--my new love.  My old love:  Siouxsie Sioux from the Banshees---AGAGAGAsome!!    Forgotten love:  Bjork.  Old love I should have met earlier:  Liz Fraser.  All so good.

Май 21:   Земфира.
March 11:  Two reasons to be proud of my gender as artists:
Joni Mitchell.  Bjork.