It seems almost too right that I'd have to start this entry with a nod to my grandparents, because what I really want to write about is what comes before us, on whose shoulders we stand, and what inspires us. [Sweet CHRIST, I hate when I have this much to say because I have to get it all down in one fell swoop or I know I won't have the right words the next day, or I won't have the same fire. I don't like to write unless there's something I HAVE to write.] So, let's get into it. Strap in.
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Alright. BFF Molly and I have been BFFs for a length of time that is now closer to 2 decades than it is to 1 decade. You can surely imagine how many mixes have been exchanged. We have our own styles of mix-making. I won't write to Molly's approach, but mine is usually pretty wordy. I once sent Molly a set of mixes with "liner notes"-- like, 5 or 6 pages explaining why I included each song and what she could take from it. Sometimes it would include some music history-- God only knows what I wrote when I included songs from Sam Cooke or Jeff Buckley. I'm fairly certain that Molly didn't read everything that I'd include, but I LOVED writing those notes. I threw together 3 mixes for her over this past Thanksgiving, but didn't have time to write any notes, or even fuck around with the song order for each one. [There's a scene in High Fidelity, both film and movie, that discusses the construction of a mix tape. The order is key. I'm a firm believer.] I made copies of each mix for myself and have listened to them over the past few days, and sat down tonight to write the liner notes. I haven't written anything longer than a few paragraphs in quite a while, and I was getting the itch, so I thought that liner notes would be a good starting point to get my swagger back. The first mix I was chronicling is called "MKD's Ladyfierce Mix". I include that information so that you might get deeper insight into how much fucking FUN I have with this stuff. Here's how the liner notes started:
1. You Drive Me Wild (The Runaways)-- The thing about most Runaway songs that really gets me is how confident the lyrics are, despite being written by 15/16/17-year-old girls, decades ago. It's my understanding that they were the first girl group to be so overt and aggressive with their sexuality, when historically female ensembles had been good-girls or just total jailbait. The lyrics here, in "I Love Playing With Fire", and in "Cherry Bomb" are so self-assured, self-actualized, that even if it sends a somewhat irresponsible message to really young women, I don't care because it's genuinely refreshing.
2. The Wild One (Suzi Quatro)-- If nothing else, Suzi Q is from Detroit. Word.
3. Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song) (Fiona Apple)-- I love how Fi-Fi writes her lyrics. Kayne West interviewed her right when this album came out for Interview Magazine [they shared a producer right around that time, Jon Brion], and I will never forget reading that Kayne literally told her that her "vocabulary was so ill".
4. Tell Him (The Exciters)
5. Rock N Roll (The Runaways)-- This is the original version of that song: http://www.youtube.com/
6. River Deep, Mountain High (Ike and Tina Turner)
7. Lollipop (Squeak E. Clean & Desert Eagles Remix) (The Chordettes)-- You can hear that drum sample I mentioned at the :40 mark. It's from Tone Loc's Wild Thing. Check it: http://www.youtube.com/
8. The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget (The Raindrops)-- I didn't know this UNTIL RIGHT NOW, but The Raindrops were not an African-American girl group like The Crystals or The Ronnettes, but rather the name that Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry used for their own songs. They were married, and were 2 of the biggest songwriters in the Brill Building. As soon as you read a bit about Ellie Greenwich, you're going to be like, "Fuh REAL!?" because she's responsible for some of the most delightful pop music. Check it: http://en.wikipedia.org/
9. I Love Playin' With Fire (The Runaways)
10. I Drove All Night (Cyndi Lauper)-- I'm uneasy that Celine Dion covered this song. Uneasy.
11. Here's to Us (Halestorm)-- Is it too much to ask that I sit at a bar surrounded by campaign teammates and we randomly start singing this in unison?
12. He's A Rebel (The Crystals)-- Another example of me being blown away by pop music...Darlene Love sang the lead vocal on this, and according to her Wiki page, she sang back-up on some of my favorite songs
I've been a fan of Darlene Love for a while, for several reasons, but visiting her Wiki page and then her AMG page [wait a sec, are you not aware of AMG? Right that wrong, friend, and right it quick.], really drove home how amazing and criminally underrated she is. CRIMINALLY. I knew she had sung back-up for Sam Cooke, another of my favorites, and I wanted to know which songs she'd touched. Looking at her credits, I noticed that she had worked on some of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' albums, too. Alright, to say that I "noticed" it doesn't cover what really happened. I read those credits with the same emotional reaction that Allie had in The Notebook when she read the first of the 365 letters that Noah had sent her-- tearful delight, incredulity, regret at not having read those words before, etc. I was on tilt, for sure.
And then I thought a little further. Everything I know about Joan Jett-- which is not nearly enough-- indicates to me that OF COURSE she'd have Darlene Love sing back-up. I LOVE Joan Jett. I hella, hella love her. I started listening to The Runaways after seeing the eponymous film last winter, and it really turned into something. It made me get back in touch with the inner riot grrrl, and exploring female artists that I'd overlooked. The overall ethos she expresses-- making noise, not apologizing, being your own advocate-- was the perfect companion to a seismic shift in my own sensibilities that started last spring. Then, a few weeks ago, I was in DC [for BFF Katie's wedding!] and I made an all-too-brief visit to the National Museum for Women in the Arts to see a special exhibit called Women Who Rock. I wasn't sure what to expect, but on the real, I am grateful that I went on a Monday at midday because I was the only person in the entire exhibit, and it allowed me to really feel it. The exhibit includes clothing, instruments, and random memorabilia from a ton of incredible women in music. Check it. And I saw things that took my breath away. Truly. (I described the experience on Facebook thusly:
Attention, residents of Washington, DC and the surrounding communities. If you don't take the opportunity to check out the Women Who Rock exhibit at the National Museum for Women in the Arts, please punch yourself in the face. I saw handwritten lyrics to "Cherry Bomb", a pair of Patti Smith's boots, Kate Pearson's wig, the dress Cyndi wore on the cover of She's So Unusual, one of Cher's Bob Mack
ie creations, an original issue of Bikini Kill, Kim Deal's bass, Madge's J-PG gold conical bustier, and I was sobbing for pretty much the entire time I was in the exhibit because HOLY SHIT IT'S JOAN JETT'S LEATHER JACKET WITH A PIN THAT SAYS "PRO FUCKING CHOICE" AND I JUST CANNOT HANDLE THIS EXCUSE ME WHILE I REMOVE MY GLASSES AND WEEP INTO MY JACKET SLEEVE AND CAN I JUST SET UP A COT AND HANG HERE UNTIL THE EXHIBIT CLOSES AND AREYOUFUCKINGKIDDINGMEHOWISONE
Seriously, sobbing uncontrollably. [Oh, that's Nicks, Summer, Faithfull, E., Ronstadt, Benatar, Sioux, and Harry, respectively.) My interest in/obsession with Joan Jett and female musicians only intensified after visiting the exhibit, so seeing this connection between her and Darlene Love was pure magic to me. I couldn't help but think that maybe they're pals in real life. Maybe they've performed together.
So, I pushed it a little further and found this.
And I lost my shit once again. To cite another John Cusack film, it's like the universe keeps revealing these women to me. [That's from Serendipity.] (The tough thing, for me, about finding these little gems is that I get deposited onto some ecstatic plane of emotion, and can never seem to find anyone who can meet me on it! ATL Laura and my friend Sara gave worthy attempts, but they really had to be there, y'know, in my head to fully understand. It would probably help if more of my friends were prone to manic or hypermanic episodes. Whatevs. My friend KB gave it a shot but, again, she had to be there.) It doesn't seem like nearly enough people in my life are familiar with Darlene Love. It is ridiculous because NO ONE has a voice like hers. She belongs in the same vocal stratosphere with Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Freddie Mercury, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, etc. Aside from her own hits, she sang back-up for some true, true legends, and a lot of it was uncredited. I cannot even imagine how much of her voice is out in the ether. (Speaking of back-up, Joan Jett sang on Peaches' "Boys Wanna Be Her", which gives me delight beyond measure.) She was there for arguably the most important time in pop music, when Phil Spector was producing his Wall of Sound.
Anyway, I posted the above video on Facebook, hoping beyond hope that I'd find some kindreds. No dice. Is it possible that not everyone is knocked out by these powerhouse women? Why do I feel like more of the exception that the rule?
I think about the women who costumes and paraphernalia I saw at the NAMWA exhibit, and I'm just floored. (Granted, there were some exceptions. In addition to an explanation about rape threats on an Tumblr comment thread, I'll also need an explanation for why Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera get to share ranks with Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt. Sure, Brit has given us some fun shit to dance to, and some of my favorite car-singing moments were thanks to Xtina, but what barriers did they break? What risks did they take? Some current-day female singers might end up really accomplishing something beyond mere hooks and records sales-- truly, I'm optimistic about a few-- but riot grrls they are surely not.) Time and time again, these women blazed a trail. They made noise when everyone and everything was telling them to keep quiet. And in the process, they created some of the most indelible moments in popular culture and a soundtrack to our lives. [Quick question: how badly do you want to listen to "Edge of Seventeen" right now? Or maybe "Love Me Like a Man?" So badly, right?!] A few weeks ago, a friend was bitching on FB about being tired and unmotivated, and I just unleashed. We just don't have time. This girl has a ton of potential, and I cannot sit idly by as she wastes it. What if Aretha had been like, "Meh, y'know what, I think I'm just gonna marry well and hang it up"? What if Cyndi Lauper was like, "Eh, I'll probably just wear jeans and a t-shirt. I don't want to be too weird"? No. Fuck that. This is what I wrote to my friend:
"Think of all of the women who came before you, who didn't even have the option of professional everjetting*, who were relegated to hearth and home, forced to bear the responsibilities of a family instead of pursuing a career or chasing a quixotic dream in a faraway city. We stand on the shoulders of generations of silent, bored women, generations of untapped potential and missed opportunities. You have the opportunities that our foremothers couldn't have imagined, so don't fuck around and waste those hard-won chances that lie at your feet. You would be cheating yourself out of adventure and success, cheating the world out of your awesomeness, and spitting in the faces of those who came before you. I wouldn't relay these words to every woman; I'm relaying them to YOU because I believe you are exceptional. Wake up, get your ass in gear, and don't rest until you kick some ass today."
(*Everjetting is sort of an inside joke. It relates to an alias I assigned to myself when I feel like I'm living up to my potential and kicking serious ass.) I was a bit histrionic that morning, and I'd had some strong coffee, too, but I'll be damned if I wasn't being completely honest. We truly stand on the shoulders who came before us. Thank CHRIST I haven't had to blaze any trails! It would not go well. They've been blazed, for sure. It's our job to make sure they remain that way, that we're guardians of our progress, that we don't take everything for granted, that we keep at it and speak up and make sure that we reach back at every turn to pull the next woman up. I look at my niece and think of the friends she'll make, and my hope for her and those girls is that they be governed by grace and guts, not by bullshit. If I can have a hand in that, then I can die happy.
I am lucky that I work in a field where I have ready access to strong, accomplished women, rife with grace and guts. I'm addicted to them. My quite amorphous professional ambition is to get good women elected. Everywhere I turn, I see new examples of women being abused, ignored, or marginalized. It's like technology has given society new and fun ways to be shitty to women. Some of my favorite female writers have been vocal about the harassment they get from internet trolls, and it goes so far beyond ridiculous. Honestly, can someone explain to me the psychosis required for someone to send a rape threat to a feminist blogger? I sure as fuck don't understand it. Is there some reptilian corner of the male brain that drives one to violence in response to a call for gender equality? I just...ugh. So, instead of just complaining, my response is to work towards getting more women elected to public office. I could go into greater detail about the logic that connects "women are up Shit Creek" to "I need to work in politics", but now is not the time. Here are some things that keep me motivated:
1. Professional or collegiate football, and the related hysteria, commercialism, and mindfuckery
2. The Kardashians
3. Any of the Real Housewives [except maybe Caroline Manzo]
4. The sheer number of women I know who changed their name upon getting married [yeah, yeah, it's traditional, but FOR FUCK'S SAKE, that tradition is based on flagrant and archaic patriarchy]
And then there are the things that keep me inspired:
1. A strong female voice, musical or otherwise
2. Women who can shred
3. Men who get it
4. Women who get it-- OK, so here I was going to include a link to something that Amy Poehler once said, but I couldn't find just one, so suffice it to say that Amy Poehler gets it.
5. My mom-- we're not always aligned politically, we're not always aligned about what I should be doing professionally, but she approaches everything with circumspection and kindness, and thus sets a good example for me (a judgy bitch).
I'm between campaigns right now, so I don't know what's next. My career in politics hasn't been easy, and I'm grateful for that. I'm getting psyched for a new challenge. I know that whatever I do next will involve smart, motivated people for whom the phrase "fire in the belly" is entirely apt. I might never get to meet my favorite female icons, but I have gotten to meet some of their political counterparts. Legislative rock stars, if you will. Daydream: Secretary Clinton runs for POTUS in '16, I get to work on her campaign, and the entire living roster of the Women Who Rock exhibit all offer themselves as campaign surrogates, and I get to kick it with Dolly Parton and Kathleen Hanna. And when I say "kick it with", I mean "shit my pants and hide in a janitor's closet so that I don't embarrass myself in front of". I'd pull it together in the end though. It's a part of everjetting.
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Here's to DLove and Joan Jett, to the women who refuse to shut up and who dare to play with fire.
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