I'm offering him an alternative.
No, I don't want to fuck, but you could always fuck yourself, you know.
This track is followed up by the other one that stands out. It's a grainy, live recording. The women sing in slow-moving choir style, acappella, the following lyrics:
Fuck You, fuck all like you
And fuck all you like, too
So direct, so brazen. Much like Ani DiFranco's "Untouchable Face," this song is a release of pent-up frustration and anger at the injustice of sexism, with the ironical twist of using a musical style not known for aggressive lyrics and politics.
These bands could be transported ahead thirty years and no one would blink an eye. The fact that they were doing what they did and singing what they sang back in the early 70's is even more impressive. The music is creative and nuanced, for all their inexperience at the time. The lyrics are powerful and speak to me, a woman born fifteen (or more) years to late to have any first-hand experience with the kind of sexism and powerlessness that they were fighting.
Prior to listening to this recording, my experience with womyn's music from that era came from folk pop singers like <insert your favorite Olivia Records artist here>. While the womyn-centered lyrics gave me some connection with the music, the genre left me empty and wanting something more. As much as I like trad folk and old time music, deep down I'm a rocker at heart. Womyn's music from the 60's and 70's couldn't speak to me musically like the rock and roll of the male bands, but neither did the content of the male-centered women-objectifying rock and roll speak to me. Discovering the Chicago and New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Bands is like finding my home. I suspect that there are many other bands like these two and I only need to keep looking before I will find them.
Article comments
1 - Barbara Roberts
I was a medical resident at Yale New Haven hospital in the early 70's and the official "doc" of the Women's Liberation Rock Band. They played at the first national pro-choice demonstration in Washington, DC in November 1971 at the invitation of the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition which I helped found. I'm still a feminist after all these years and remember the NHWLRB fondly.
Barbara Roberts, MD