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15 female icons of the New Wave era: Go-Go's, JOAN JETT
from: azcentral.com
By Ed Masley
Before the Go-Go's made their way to No. 1 on Billboard's album chart with "Beauty and the Beat" in 1982, no group made up entirely of women writing their own songs and playing their own instruments had ever topped that chart. But those were revolutionary times for female artists, then playing a pivotal role in the changing of the guard that was the New Wave era.
Here's a look back at a handful of the more iconic female artists of that era, from the Go-Go's to the great Pretender, Chrissie Hynde.
Chrissie Hynde
Whether talking tough on "Tattooed Love Boys," laying out her plans for world domination on the sexy "Brass in Pocket" or turning surprisingly tender on the wistful "Kid," Hynde's vocals on that first Pretenders' album more than made good on her vow to make you notice. Even Madonna was paying attention, telling Q, the British music mag, "I thought, 'Yeah, she's got balls. It gave me courage, inspiration, to see a woman with that kind of confidence in a man's world." By the time they'd dropped their next big single three years later, a bittersweet rocker called "Back on the Chain Gang," the Pretenders had lost two key members - guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon - to drug-related deaths. But Hynde would soldier on without them, changing members frequently, which founding member Martin Chambers says has helped them keep the sound fresh through a 30-year career that's spawned such classic hits as "Brass in Pocket," "Middle of the Road" and "Show Me."
Debbie Harry
Early ads insisted "Blondie is a group." But it was kind of hard to focus on the other members of the group with Debbie Harry out front purring "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya. I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha, gitcha, gitcha." Having come up through the CBGB punk scene, Harry had to have been voted Girl Most Likely to Succeed in that class. And she did, producing four chart-topping singles in a two-year winning streak - the disco-flavored "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me," an upbeat cover of an old rocksteady song, "The Tide is High" and hip-hop's first chart-topping single, "Rapture."
Patti Smith
If Debbie Harry brought the old-school sex appeal to CBGB's gritty underworld, Patti Smith brought the brainy bohemian flavor to the party. Having made the punk explosion safe for Baudelaire and Burroughs with "Horses," one of rock and roll's most striking first acts ever, Smith enjoyed one brief flirtation with the pop charts after she co-wrote a song with Bruce Springsteen, the anthemic "Because the Night." But she's still out there raising hell, still sneering the opening line to the opening song of the album that made her a legend - "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" - at the helm of a band that still includes guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both of whom appear on "Horses."
Exene Cervenka
The queen of California punk was clearly closer to the Patti Smith side of the tracks than most, swapping vocals with bassist John Doe at the helm of X, whose classic first release "Los Angeles," brought rockabilly, cowpunk and Beat poetry together in a truly awe-inspiring slam dance. It starts with "Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not," the most impressive punk-rock imitation of an Eddie Cochran riff since the Sex Pistols called it a day, with Exene calling out some worthless man who won't pick up the phone. And she sounds even better on the Doors' "Soul Kitchen," declaring "I wouldn't want to stay here all night" with a yelp of conviction.
Poly Styrene
It wasn't long before she'd turned her back on rock and roll, forsaking punk for Krishna. But on "Germ Free Adolescents," Poly Styrene was a force of punk-rock nature, leading X-Ray Spex through such classics as "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" and "Genetic Engineering." Styrene's finest hour, though, was destined to remain the group's first single, "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!," which memorably opens with her nursery rhymelike recitation of "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think . . . " before yelping "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!"
Kate Pierson/Cindy Wilson
Few albums of the New Wave era have held up as well as the B-52's ridiculous debut. From "Planet Claire" to "Dance This Mess Around," it still sounds like it dropped in from another, much quirkier planet, wrapped in kitschy day-glo yellow. And as colorful a front man as Fred Schneider proved to be, a large part of the credit for the Athens group's eccentric camp appeal belongs to the women whose beehives inspired the band name. Check out Cindy Wilson demanding an answer to "Why don't you dance with me? I'm not no limburger" on "Dance This Mess Around" or the post-Yoko Ono approach to backing vocals on the breakthrough hit "Rock Lobster." The follow-ups were rarely more than half as good, but that first album is a masterpiece of quirky fun.
JOAN JETT
JOAN JETT was all of 16 when her all-girl jailbait group, the RUNAWAYS, kicked off their first release with "Cherry Bomb," a punk-rock classic Jett had written with Kim Fowley. But more people know her for a song she didn't write, the Arrows' B-side "I Love Rock n' Roll," which put in seven weeks at No. 1 in 1982 and was followed by more hits with covers (Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and "Crimson and Clover"). Her reputation goes beyond hit singles, though. Like Hynde, she's been an inspiration to several generations of female musicians who'd rather die than sound like Jewel.
Gaye Advert
She's been labeled the first female punk star, with Mojo magazine going so far as to suggest that as punk icons go, there was a point at which the girl was fit "to rival Johnny Rotten." But today, Gaye Advert may be best remembered as the bassist with the raccoon eyes on the Adverts' single "Gary Gilmore's Eyes," in which an eye transplant recipient must come to terms with looking at the world through eyes that once belonged to Gilmore, who'd gone on an infamous killing spree a few years earlier. There are plenty of other underrated punk-rock classics on their debut/masterpiece, "Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts," though, from "One Chord Wonders" to "Bored Teenagers."
Siouxsie Sioux
For her first act, Siouxsie Sioux took the stage at a U.K. punk club festival and led an early version of the Banshees - including Sid Vicious of Sex Pistols fame on drums; Marco Pirroni, who'd later rock the surf guitar in Adam & the Ants, on lead guitar; and bassist Steve Severin - in a set that found them butchering "The Lord's Prayer" and a Rollers song. As first shows go, it didn't promise much, but two years later, Siouxsie and the Banshees dropped a haunting post-punk masterpiece, "The Scream." Assessing their legacy 20-odd years later, The Times of London wrote that at their best, "the Banshees stand proudly alongside PiL, Gang of Four and the Fall as the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era." Not bad for a band whose biggest hit remains a cover of the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence."
The Slits
In the unlikely event that the band name wasn't quite provocative enough, the girls posed topless on the cover of their classic full-length debut, "Cut," an effort Mojo recently declared "the most sophisticated album on 1979." The punk scene never saw it coming, either, having laughed off their opening sets on career-wrecking tours with punk legends the Clash and the Buzzcocks as incompetent. By "Cut," they had become what Mojo later called "the great white hope of the post-punk avant-garde" and "the sound of the future."
The Go-Go's
Not to be mistaken for the post-punk avant-garde, the Go-Go's sounded like the most infectious slumber party soundtrack of their generation, spunky girl-group charms offset by just the slightest hint of punk. Years later, Spin looked back on their first album, "Beauty and the Beat," as a "record that broke out of the late-70s punk LA hardcore scene to define the California mystique of the 'Square Pets' era." Meanwhile, boys could have a good old-fashioned Ginger-Mary Ann debate between Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin.
Tina Weymouth
Often overshadowed by the headline-grabbing weirdo in the big suit, Tina Weymouth more than held her own in Talking Heads, from the minimalistic art-punk bass lines of their early records to the funkier approach the songs required as the band's approach evolved to looking really cool on stage. Not bad for someone learning on the job. And Tom Tom Club, the side band she and boyfriend Chris Frantz launched in 1980 during a break in the action, dropped two classic club hits, the oft-sampled "Genius of Love" and "Wordy Rappinghood."
Cyndi Lauper
It's hard to imagine Cyndi Lauper having picked a better time than 1983 to announce her arrival with "She's So Unusual," an aptly titled, six-times-platinum breakthrough. MTV, which had premiered just two years earlier, had emerged as a powerful cultural force best utilized by image-savvy entertainers. And Lauper was larger than larger-than-life â€" the quirky New Wave girl-next-door with bright orange, oddly sculpted hair and personality to spare. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," an effervescent rocker whose success was largely driven by a video that played to Lauper's assets as a colorful performer, was the first of five Top 40 singles from the album.
The Human League
You could play this synth-pop classic "Don't You Want Me," which topped the Billboard Hot 100, for an alien whose spaceship just landed and it would have a pretty good idea what you meant by "New Wave '80s" after that. And a huge part of the song's appeal is the attitude Susan Ann Sulley, then 18, brings to the conflicting dialogue between a couple who met while she was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar and now she's moving on and he's resentful. Sulley was one of two female vocalists in the Human League, the other being Joanne Catherall. Their other hits include "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" and "Human."
Annie Lennox
The sheer power and soul Lennox brought to the mix in Eurythmics proved an ideal if unlikely foil to Dave Stewart's New Wave songcraft, a chemistry that had already reached perfection by the time they topped the Billboard Hot 100 with their haunting breakthrough hit, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Subsequent hits included Top 10 hits "Here Comes the Rain Again" and "Would I Lie to You?," in addition to hard-hitting feminist anthem "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves," which found Lennox sharing the vocal spotlight with the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.
Go-Go's details: 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Indian Bend Road, Salt River Reservation. $60-$150. 480-850-7734, talkingstickresort.com. |
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