Great stuff uao. I have to thank you for having Sinead O'Connor on this list. Although not on the album you note, Nothing Compares 2 U is one of the finest songs ever written.
Tracy Chapman could only be less than a diva in this crazy frantic world, as her writing and singing is so reflective of our culture. Her performance on Austin City Limits a while back was jaw dropping.
Wanda really did rock harder than most of the guys at the time. Let's Have a Party is white hot rock and roll that only the killer could have approached.
She opened for Elvis in the mid fifities and by all accounts more than held her own. She still performs, though she does mostly country standards these days.
it was the first Ani record i bought (beause i heard "Coming Up" on the radio and thougtht..."whoa...what the hell is that?!!".... powerful and somehow pretty at the same time.
OK, two more then I'm done, but justifications first: to wit, seeing as how you broke your "rock only" rule pretty much before the code was even dry, I don't see why you shouldn't include a couple of brilliant jazz composers with both rock connections and mammaries.
Sorry, Reggie, I for one am not with you. I liked Macy's first few singles, but not only did the full album fall short of her potential, she's proceeded to rewrite diminishing versions of that album for the remainder of her career...not to mention become a mumbling, perma-stoned award show parody of herself. Even her voice has kind of outlived its charm, in my opinion.
Equally fantastic is that everyone brings a different take to this. I happen to love female-fronted power pop groups.
For example:
* Fastbacks - one of the great pop groups of ever that still fly under the radar. A so-so track from them is usually a power pop gem by any standard
* L7 - Straight-ahead kick ass rock 'n roll
* Veruca Salt
* Dance Hall Crashers
* Distillers - They reach peaks that Hole can only dream of
That said, I'm glad you included Courtney Love, and very interesting take on the reading of the suicide note!
18 year olds who boast of loving Tesla and call themselves a pundit on politics and life aren't allowed to sit at the grownups table until they've listened to Koko Taylor in a Far East countryside dive when there's nobody left but the bargirl, you, and a bottle of Jim Beam, and not an English speaking soul for miles.
And then writes about it.
You know who's horrible? Tesla. Iron Maiden is for adolescent dupes, too.
Gotta live life before you can be a pundit, kid. But I admire your moxy.
;-)
41 -
Sister Ray
Nov 04, 2005 at 8:13 pm
Thank you, thank you , thank you for recognizing Nico's vocal on "All Tomorrow's Parties." It is magic.
The banana album could make a second appearance on this list, to honor Moe Tucker's drumming on "Heroin."
42 -
Sister Ray
Nov 04, 2005 at 8:13 pm
Thank you, thank you , thank you for recognizing Nico's vocal on "All Tomorrow's Parties." It is magic.
The banana album could make a second appearance on this list, to honor Moe Tucker's drumming on "Heroin."
43 -
Bennett
Nov 04, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Yo, Ryan Clark Holiday. You post articles here on BC, yet you have the bad taste (and lack of any class or grace) to not only drop in with a stupid snyde comment, without anything to back it up, but then you SPAM the comment?!?!?!?!
You are one piss poor example of Blogcritics, sonny boy.
ryan, the bad taste you exibited was comment spamming. If your musical tastes, or opinions on the relative merit of a particular artist or group differ from those of uao, let's hear 'em.
The one line attack, and then spam, does not a blogcritic make. You can do better than that.
I'd say Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart) have to be here as well as Stevie Nicks. We can do without Madonna for sure. She was never rock just a punk with a badge (disco as it were).
John did not meet Yoko tied up in a bag on a stage.
He met her at an art gallery, where she was having a fairly prestigious (beautiful people like the Beatles came) exhibition of her own art, in 1966.
Lennon found her exhibition, which was minimalist in a John Cage sense, intelligent and inspiring. He frequently recounted the tale in interviews.
Musically, you have to understand what she's doing. Which means forgetting all the hype of decades about breaking up Beatles, being unlistenable, bags, et. al.
It's performance art in one sense, and the albums were accompanied by films that were in the tradition of Warhol's early 60's films. "Fly" is a movie of a fly crawling on a naked woman's body. (Warhol's "Shadow Climbing The Empire State Building" was several hours of the title event)
Musically, Ono's voice was used as a 5th instrument, an abstract. She never tried to be a "singer" until years later.
In this sense, she was freed from all convention that shackles all singers. It left her to explore all manner of expression. "Don't Worry Kyoko" really is anguished, as she's singing to her estranged daughter. "Mind Train" really is sinister and frightening. "Aos", which features Ornette Coleman and is free-jazz in the purest sense is brilliant; Ono turns an uncharacteristically sex-kitteny vocal into a sudden, freaky nightmare, as does Coleman. "Mind Holes" is a lush, echoed, mysterious acoustic number with Eric Clapton's strangest playing while Yoko's voice is quite un-abrasive and gentle, yet there's an unsettling edge to it too.
The B52's "Rock Lobster" is based on a Yoko Ono-like construction, and the B52's have frequently championed her.
Many trip-hop and electronica songs have directly sampled her or adopted elements of her vocals, a remix "Walking On Thin Ice" was a surprise #1 Dance/Club hit in 2003, over two decades after it came out.
As a woman and a person, I'll just say that Lennon loved her and that's good enough for me. She's given much to charity, she's an interesting interview, she's never done me any harm.
She's often at odds with the Beatle estates over various issues (as is Courtney Love with Nirvana), but that's just hard-ball business. Men don't like it when women are good at it. If it turned out that Ringo was the hard-assed negotiator of the Beatles, we'd probably never even hear of it.
As for Breaking Up the Beatles, I say the following:
a) they broke up (and two of them have died) get over it
b) What about Linda? And Harrison's wife was getting cozy with Clapton at that time. And didn't Ringo get a divorce? Let's just blame women for Breaking Up the Breatles. But that wouldn't be chivilrous in a piece dedicated to women. Plus it's wrong.
c) The Beatles broke up the Beatles!! Lennon was the only one who didn't walk; Ringo quietly quit for a week, Harrison walked out one stormy day, and McCartney announced it with his first solo album. The main reason was they wanted to do their own music, and didn't much agree with each other about what that music should be.
Her influence as a woman in rock on purely musical terms? Big.
All her albums are very patchy, but the best stuff is good. You just have to understand it.
But like I said in the piece, Yoko Ono is one of the most misunderstood women in history.
I stand corrected. I have always heard that story of Yoko in the bag. I did a little checking and John did indeed meet her at John Dunbar's gallery. She did not speak to him, but instead handed him a card that said "Breathe." No wonder John liked her.
what about HEART
They wrote their own music, which was true hard rock and roll
they didn't shy away from being sexy or beautiful because that was what they were
They were talented musicians (until the 80's)
who were great at what they did.
Barracuda, Magic Man and especially Crazy On You are some of the greatest rock songs of the seventies
Yeah, but their 80s and 90s songs took away any respect they had from their earlier songs.
63 -
RogerMDillon
Nov 08, 2005 at 1:21 am
Very good list, but here are my minor quibbles.
I would mention Michelle Shocked with the women from the late '80s.
Hole would have been nothing without Kurt. She apes his vocal style and he must have helped with the lyrics. Look at the follow-ups.
Pretenders "Brass in Pocket" almost sounds like apop song next to "Tattooed Love Boys" and "Precious". Not many people, let alone a woman, were heard saying "Fuck off" in a song released by a major label.
Of the ones left out, I would nominate Joan Osborne. Songs like "Spiderweb" and "Right Hand Man" rock the house.
Bennett, I wonder why you brought up "Nothing Compares..." when it is written by Prince.
No great shock with Ryan's comments, showing that his musical knowledge equals his political. He only proves the axiom that a stopped clock is correct twice a day with his apprecation of Maiden. What a laugh that he actually thinks someone other than Abortion Grande is going to use the link in his comment.
Pink isn't "rock" (I made one exception for Madonna). And to qualify as one of the greatest, you need to be around for a while; if you emerged in the 00's, you haven't been around long enough to prove yourself yet. (Neko Case is fairly recent, and Part II has more from her generation).
But thanks for the thoughts reggie. I'm always interested to hear who people feel aredeserving.
She broke for other female artist in the mid 90's. She has gazzillion grammies. Broke records. Biggest selling debut album by a female artist. Her songs became anthems. You Oughta Know, Uninvited, Hand in my Pocket, Hands clean. Top contemporary female artist of our time.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Luke
The vocalist from nightwish, and the vocalist from arch enemy
27 - Bennett
Great stuff uao. I have to thank you for having Sinead O'Connor on this list. Although not on the album you note, Nothing Compares 2 U is one of the finest songs ever written.
Tracy Chapman could only be less than a diva in this crazy frantic world, as her writing and singing is so reflective of our culture. Her performance on Austin City Limits a while back was jaw dropping.
Great stuff, again.
28 - Zach
Wanda Jackson, absolutely. Just primal stuff. She rocked harder than most of the men at the time.
29 - Sean
Wanda really did rock harder than most of the guys at the time. Let's Have a Party is white hot rock and roll that only the killer could have approached.
She opened for Elvis in the mid fifities and by all accounts more than held her own. She still performs, though she does mostly country standards these days.
30 - Jayelle
I love Sinead with all my heart! Neko Case, too.
But I agree with those who think Stevie Nicks should have been included.
31 - Al Barger
SINEAD!!!!
No Macy Gray?!? "Gimme All Your Lovin' or I Will Kill You" Think she won't?
Also, the lack of Rickie Lee Jones may earn you time in a re-education camp. "Last Chance Texaco" would be a likely choice.
With Joni Mitchell, there are of course lots of good choices, but let's get a plug in for the most excellent and underappreciated "The Jungle Line."
32 - gonzo marx
Ani DiFranco - "Not a Pretty Girl"
if you don't know it..for shame..buy it, love it..as Important as Dylan, and a better guitar player
no Heart?...not my fave...but INfluential for sure..
Tori Amos...Kate Bush....no?
just some Thoughts...but definately, listen to yer gonzo..get yerself some Ani DiFranco
nuff said?
Excelsior!
33 - Mark Saleski
gotta second gonzo here on Not A Pretty Girl.
it was the first Ani record i bought (beause i heard "Coming Up" on the radio and thougtht..."whoa...what the hell is that?!!".... powerful and somehow pretty at the same time.
34 - godoggo
OK, two more then I'm done, but justifications first: to wit, seeing as how you broke your "rock only" rule pretty much before the code was even dry, I don't see why you shouldn't include a couple of brilliant jazz composers with both rock connections and mammaries.
Carla Bley and Annette Peacock
35 - uao
Fine suggestions from all concerned.
I will post a part II this weekend, which will draw from the names suggested above as well as some surprises of my own.
Thanks for helping out; there's a lot of worthy names to mull over...
36 - reggie
Oh yeah, Macy Gray needs to be there.
She deserves to be at least in the top 15.
who's with me? (else)
37 - Zach
Sorry, Reggie, I for one am not with you. I liked Macy's first few singles, but not only did the full album fall short of her potential, she's proceeded to rewrite diminishing versions of that album for the remainder of her career...not to mention become a mumbling, perma-stoned award show parody of herself. Even her voice has kind of outlived its charm, in my opinion.
38 - Eric Berlin
Fantastic piece, uao.
Equally fantastic is that everyone brings a different take to this. I happen to love female-fronted power pop groups.
For example:
* Fastbacks - one of the great pop groups of ever that still fly under the radar. A so-so track from them is usually a power pop gem by any standard
* L7 - Straight-ahead kick ass rock 'n roll
* Veruca Salt
* Dance Hall Crashers
* Distillers - They reach peaks that Hole can only dream of
That said, I'm glad you included Courtney Love, and very interesting take on the reading of the suicide note!
39 - ryan
Every single band/musician listed in your article IS HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE.
RyanClarkHoliday.com
40 - uao
18 year olds who boast of loving Tesla and call themselves a pundit on politics and life aren't allowed to sit at the grownups table until they've listened to Koko Taylor in a Far East countryside dive when there's nobody left but the bargirl, you, and a bottle of Jim Beam, and not an English speaking soul for miles.
And then writes about it.
You know who's horrible? Tesla. Iron Maiden is for adolescent dupes, too.
Gotta live life before you can be a pundit, kid. But I admire your moxy.
;-)
41 - Sister Ray
Thank you, thank you , thank you for recognizing Nico's vocal on "All Tomorrow's Parties." It is magic.
The banana album could make a second appearance on this list, to honor Moe Tucker's drumming on "Heroin."
42 - Sister Ray
Thank you, thank you , thank you for recognizing Nico's vocal on "All Tomorrow's Parties." It is magic.
The banana album could make a second appearance on this list, to honor Moe Tucker's drumming on "Heroin."
43 - Bennett
Yo, Ryan Clark Holiday. You post articles here on BC, yet you have the bad taste (and lack of any class or grace) to not only drop in with a stupid snyde comment, without anything to back it up, but then you SPAM the comment?!?!?!?!
You are one piss poor example of Blogcritics, sonny boy.
44 - ryan
Iron Maiden contributed the dual axe attack---
Yoko Ono...BROKE UP THE FUCKING BEATLES.
Yeah, I'm the one with horrible taste.
45 - godoggo
Another Engrish teacher, perchance, uao?
46 - Bennett
ryan, the bad taste you exibited was comment spamming. If your musical tastes, or opinions on the relative merit of a particular artist or group differ from those of uao, let's hear 'em.
The one line attack, and then spam, does not a blogcritic make. You can do better than that.
47 - uao
Sshh! godoggo! Don't blow my cover in front of the kid!
Nice trick with the "r" though; you know what you're saying...
;-)
48 - godoggo
It's not original
49 - Victor Lana
I'd say Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart) have to be here as well as Stevie Nicks. We can do without Madonna for sure. She was never rock just a punk with a badge (disco as it were).
50 - godoggo
...actually where I was it was more like Enguhleeshü.
51 - me
Shirley Manson from Garbage!!
52 - Jon Thompson
My nominations are Aimee Mann, Beth Orton, and Martha Wainwright.
53 - Mat Brewster
Lucinda Williams
54 - Victor Lana
Oh, yeah, and Yoko Ono?
Yoko's vocals and music are like a cross between nails on a blackboard and a screwdriver driven into the brain.
Remember, John met her after he saw her on stage tied up inside a sack. At least she couldn't be heard in there.
55 - Scott Butki
Great list but I'd agree Garbage, Sarah Mclachlan, Ani DiFranco and the Distillers
also belong on that list.
Five years ago I would have said Aimee Mann belongs on there but I don't think she has evolved much since then. Same with Hole.
I listened repeatedly to a Sinead compilation over the weekend and think she has the best voice around of all currently working female singers.
56 - uao
Victor Lana (and ryan, too)--
John did not meet Yoko tied up in a bag on a stage.
He met her at an art gallery, where she was having a fairly prestigious (beautiful people like the Beatles came) exhibition of her own art, in 1966.
Lennon found her exhibition, which was minimalist in a John Cage sense, intelligent and inspiring. He frequently recounted the tale in interviews.
Musically, you have to understand what she's doing. Which means forgetting all the hype of decades about breaking up Beatles, being unlistenable, bags, et. al.
It's performance art in one sense, and the albums were accompanied by films that were in the tradition of Warhol's early 60's films. "Fly" is a movie of a fly crawling on a naked woman's body. (Warhol's "Shadow Climbing The Empire State Building" was several hours of the title event)
Musically, Ono's voice was used as a 5th instrument, an abstract. She never tried to be a "singer" until years later.
In this sense, she was freed from all convention that shackles all singers. It left her to explore all manner of expression. "Don't Worry Kyoko" really is anguished, as she's singing to her estranged daughter. "Mind Train" really is sinister and frightening. "Aos", which features Ornette Coleman and is free-jazz in the purest sense is brilliant; Ono turns an uncharacteristically sex-kitteny vocal into a sudden, freaky nightmare, as does Coleman. "Mind Holes" is a lush, echoed, mysterious acoustic number with Eric Clapton's strangest playing while Yoko's voice is quite un-abrasive and gentle, yet there's an unsettling edge to it too.
The B52's "Rock Lobster" is based on a Yoko Ono-like construction, and the B52's have frequently championed her.
Many trip-hop and electronica songs have directly sampled her or adopted elements of her vocals, a remix "Walking On Thin Ice" was a surprise #1 Dance/Club hit in 2003, over two decades after it came out.
As a woman and a person, I'll just say that Lennon loved her and that's good enough for me. She's given much to charity, she's an interesting interview, she's never done me any harm.
She's often at odds with the Beatle estates over various issues (as is Courtney Love with Nirvana), but that's just hard-ball business. Men don't like it when women are good at it. If it turned out that Ringo was the hard-assed negotiator of the Beatles, we'd probably never even hear of it.
As for Breaking Up the Beatles, I say the following:
a) they broke up (and two of them have died) get over it
b) What about Linda? And Harrison's wife was getting cozy with Clapton at that time. And didn't Ringo get a divorce? Let's just blame women for Breaking Up the Breatles. But that wouldn't be chivilrous in a piece dedicated to women. Plus it's wrong.
c) The Beatles broke up the Beatles!! Lennon was the only one who didn't walk; Ringo quietly quit for a week, Harrison walked out one stormy day, and McCartney announced it with his first solo album. The main reason was they wanted to do their own music, and didn't much agree with each other about what that music should be.
Her influence as a woman in rock on purely musical terms? Big.
All her albums are very patchy, but the best stuff is good. You just have to understand it.
But like I said in the piece, Yoko Ono is one of the most misunderstood women in history.
57 - uao
I'd also be very surprised if Sinead O'Conner doesn't own a Yoko album or two.
58 - uao
O'Connor. Me and my typing.
59 - Victor Lana
Uao,
I stand corrected. I have always heard that story of Yoko in the bag. I did a little checking and John did indeed meet her at John Dunbar's gallery. She did not speak to him, but instead handed him a card that said "Breathe." No wonder John liked her.
60 - Scott Butki
Too bad her voice didn't match her creativity.
61 - Cassandra
what about HEART
They wrote their own music, which was true hard rock and roll
they didn't shy away from being sexy or beautiful because that was what they were
They were talented musicians (until the 80's)
who were great at what they did.
Barracuda, Magic Man and especially Crazy On You are some of the greatest rock songs of the seventies
62 - Scott Butki
Yeah, but their 80s and 90s songs took away any respect they had from their earlier songs.
63 - RogerMDillon
Very good list, but here are my minor quibbles.
I would mention Michelle Shocked with the women from the late '80s.
Hole would have been nothing without Kurt. She apes his vocal style and he must have helped with the lyrics. Look at the follow-ups.
Pretenders "Brass in Pocket" almost sounds like apop song next to "Tattooed Love Boys" and "Precious". Not many people, let alone a woman, were heard saying "Fuck off" in a song released by a major label.
Of the ones left out, I would nominate Joan Osborne. Songs like "Spiderweb" and "Right Hand Man" rock the house.
Bennett, I wonder why you brought up "Nothing Compares..." when it is written by Prince.
No great shock with Ryan's comments, showing that his musical knowledge equals his political. He only proves the axiom that a stopped clock is correct twice a day with his apprecation of Maiden. What a laugh that he actually thinks someone other than Abortion Grande is going to use the link in his comment.
64 - chaztempest
What no `Slits'!!!!!!?????
Saw them in '78 (pre label album)
Buy: john peel's lp or the later reggae
What no `the Raincoats' (Kurt Cobain's fave...)
Saw them in '79
Buy: `Lost in the supermarket'
65 - Eric Berlin
If you're gonna go Slits, Chaz, how about upping the ante with The Gits and 7 Year Bitch?
66 - Scott Butki
What about Sonic Youth and Kate Bush?
67 - uao
It just dawned on me that I never did mention this, and anyone reading this in archive should know:
This post was followed by its sequel, and many of the names suggested above were included.
Top 50 Women In Rock, Part II: The Best of the Rest?
68 - randy
Definitely agree that Rickie Lee Jones belongs on the list. Depending upon one's definition of "rock", I would add Thea Gilmore and Shawn Colvin,
69 - C. C. C. C. Anderson
Too many dudes on this post, criminy! Sleater Kinney totally rocks but their new shit is all political so forget that.
70 - uao
"dudes?"
71 - reggie
Madonna, Yoko, Tracy, Phair, Tina, Abba and Gloria.
Emabarrased to say i haven't heard much about the others..i try to listen to people from around the time i was born, the late 80s onwards.
Where is Amy lee?
There's practically no-one from the 00s in your list and i'd say she is by far the most qualified.
72 - reggie
OMG!!!
What about pink?!?!
73 - uao
Pink isn't "rock" (I made one exception for Madonna). And to qualify as one of the greatest, you need to be around for a while; if you emerged in the 00's, you haven't been around long enough to prove yourself yet. (Neko Case is fairly recent, and Part II has more from her generation).
But thanks for the thoughts reggie. I'm always interested to hear who people feel aredeserving.
74 - alex
Alanis Morissette!
She broke for other female artist in the mid 90's. She has gazzillion grammies. Broke records. Biggest selling debut album by a female artist. Her songs became anthems. You Oughta Know, Uninvited, Hand in my Pocket, Hands clean. Top contemporary female artist of our time.
75 - uao
Alanis wasn't forgotten, she made it into Part 2 of this article, at #32. (The numbers aren't really "rankings")
I agree, she was one of the most important female voices in music of her generation.