Last July, we directed a few (well, quite a lot of) well-chosen words towards JJJ, its listeners and various other parties over the dearth of songs by female artists in their Hottest 100.
On the premise that it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, I would like to draw your attention to this Facebook group.
Happy voting. My Hottest 25 (in no particular order) were as follows:
Pat Benatar – We Belong
Fleetwood Mac – Sisters of the Moon
Fleetwood Mac – Storms
Do Re Mi – Man Overboard
Falling Joys – Lock It
Falling Joys – Natural Scene
The Waifs – Bridal Train
Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now
Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Mendocino
Kate & Anna MCGarrigle – Kiss & Say Goodbye
Alannis Morrisette – You Oughta Know
Janis Ian – At 17
Janis Ian – When The Party’s Over
Johnette Napolitano (with Concrete Blonde) – Joey
Johnette Napolitano (with Concrete Blonde) – Dance Along The Edge
Johnette Napolitano (with Pretty & Twisted) – Ride
Isis – Treat Yourself Gently
Heart – Magic Man
Suzanne Vega – Luka
Carly Simon – It Was So Easy
Joan Armatrading – Drop The Pilot
Carole King – Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Indigo Girls – Closer To Fine
Kate Miller-Heidke – Caught In The Crowd
Nina Simone “Mississippi goddam”.
Don’t get much hotter than that one. But Nina should have about 5 songs in there.
That is, if it’s the top 100 female songs of all time.
In no particular order:
Wrecking Ball (Feat. Neil Young) – Emmylou Harris
The Magdalene Laundries – Joni Mitchell
The Man With The Child In His Eyes – Kate Bush
Words – Missing Persons
Wednesday’s Child – Emiliana Torrini
Pretty Dress – Rosie Thomas
You Belong To Me – Carly Simon
Breathe me – Sia
The Sweetest Taboo – Sade
I Can’t Make You Love Me – Bonnie Raitt
Sara – Fleetwood Mac
Shame – The Motels
Thank U – Alanis Morissette
Building A Mystery – Sarah McLachlan
Why – Annie Lennox
Slave To The Rhythm – Grace Jones
Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
Road To Somewhere – Goldfrapp
Mirrorball – Everything But The Girl
Mercy – Duffy
I Don’t Want To Wait – Paula Cole
I Can’t Make You You Love Be – Butterfly Boucher
Winter – Tori Amos
Goddammit (or, perhaps, Goddessdammit), I just realised I used up my full quota of 25 votes and overlooked all of the versions of Angel Of The Morning (including one by Nina Simone, joe2).
If you’re going to have Fleetwood Mac songs in there, you better have McVie’s “Songbird”.
Ten in random order
Piece of My Heart: Janis Joplin
Heart of Glass: Blondie
Running Up That Hill: Kate Bush
Both Sides Now: Joni Mitchell
Feeling Good: Nina Simone
Standing In the Way of Control: Gossip
Celebrity Skin: Hole
Because The Night: Patti Smith
Landslide: Stevie Nicks
R.E.S.P.E.C.T: Aretha Franklin
Some more Australian acts:
Gargoyle – Lighthouse Keepers
Standing on Wires – Do Re Mi
I Scare Myself – Renee Geyer
No Word from China – Pel Mel
All Apologies – Sarah Blasko
Soul Eater – Clouds
International:
Cry Me a River- Julie London
I’m Hip – Blossom Dearie
Sheela Na Gig – Pj Harvey
Talk of the Town – The Pretenders
Hanging on the Telephone — Blondie
Since I fell for you – Dinah Washington
Time (the Revelator) – Gillian Welch
You Send Me — Aretha Franklin
Woodstock – Joni Mitchell
Horses – Patti Smith
Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack
Back to Life – Soul to Soul
Crazy in Love – Beyonce
Because The Night – Patti Smith (co-written with the Boss)
L.E.S. Artistes – Santi White (A.K.A. Santigold)
Come in from the cold – Joni Mitchell
Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush
So Far Away – Carole King
Sleeping Satellite – Tasmin Archer
Poetry man – Phoebe Snow
PJ Harvey – The Dancer
PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me
Tanita Tikaram – Valentine Heart
Bjork – Hyperballad
Beth Orton – She Cries Your Name
Portishead – All Mine
Kate Nash – Foundations
Tori Amos – Silent All These Years
The Breeders – Cannonball
Cat Power – Crossbones Style
Widdershins (Juliet Ward) – Demon
Lighthouse Keepers (Juliet Ward) – Ode To Nothing
Do Re Mi (Deborah Conway) – Adultery
Plums (Caroline Kennedy) – Find This Anywhere
Flicker (Gina Hearnden) – Winter’s Gone
Splinter (Suzie Higgie) – Strange Parade
Deadstar (Caroline Kennedy) – She Loves She
Splendid (Angie Hart) – Come Clean
Sally Seltmann – Cheer Me Up Thank You
Melanie Oxley – Blood Oranges
Clouds (Jodi Phillis) – Say It
XL Capris (Joanna Piggott) – World War III
Single Gun Theory (Jacqui Hunt) – For A Million Miles
Genevieve Maynard – Steer Clear
Tinpan Orange(Emily Lubitz) – La la la
Blackeyed Susans(Kathy Wemyss) – Who’s That By The Window
O/S Acts
This Mortal Coil(Elizabeth Fraser) – Song To The Siren
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs(Karen O) – Maps
Belly(Tanya Donnelly) – Now They’ll Sleep
Kate Bush – Rocket’s Tale
slightly off the main road…
Linda Thompson, “Ballad of Easy Rider”
Robyn Archer, “Benares Song,” “Ballad of the Pirates”
Joan Morris, “Humphrey Bogart”
Sinead O’Connor, “The Foggy Dew” (w/ the Chieftains) and “Some Day My Prince Will Come” (w/ Hal Willner)
[actually, pretty much all of Sinead O'Connor's first record should make the cut, IMHO it's close to a perfect debut album]
Suzanne Vega, “Stay Awake”
Liza Minnelli, “Auf Wiedersehen Mein Herr”
Sally Timms of the Mekons deserves more credit. “Club Mekon” is pretty great.
I could fill it with just a handful of my favourites, but for variety heres a smattering of my rather weird tastes.
Suspended in Gaffa, Kate Bush
Hieronymous, The Clouds
Down by the water, PJ Harvey
Strange little girl, Tori Amos
Joey, Concrete Blonde
Hobo humpin slobo babe, Whale
Song to the siren, Cocteau Twins
Ice cream, Sara McLauchlin
Santiago, Loreena McKennitt
Time after Time, Cindy lauper
Dog days, Florence and the machine
Precilla, Bats for lashes
Bizzare love triange, Frente
And dream of sheep, Happy Rhodes
Gush forth my tears (a cappela), Miranda sex garden
Slave To The Rhythm, Grace Jones
Thats about all I can think of while Im away from my CD stack, Im sure more will spring to mind a little later.
Hot? Are we talking sex? ABsolutely, then, without a doubt, not even a close second, Lucinda Williams, “Right in Time” from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush
Heavy Cross – The Gossip (Beth Ditto)
Babooshka – Kate Bush
I feel the Earth move under my feet – Carole King
Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
In no particular order:
Portishead – Sour Times
Propellerheads featuring Miss Shirley Bassey – History Repeating
Janis Joplin – Try (Just a little bit harder)
Dusty Springfield – In the Middle of Nowhere
Concrete Blonde – God Is a Bullet
I’m sure there are more if I sat down and went through my CDs.
Idlaviv – you win an internet. I may quibble here and there (why not Rihanna instead of Sara and no list is complete without Johnette Napolitanos “I’m Up Here” and Neko Case “Maybe Sparrow”) but I salute you!
Seconded
Son of a Preacher Man & Crazy in Love
Should have had
Marlena Shaw – Woman of the Ghetto
Camille O’Sullivan – Look Mummy, No Hands
With respect to everyone else’s selections, you can’t make a serious list like this without it being dominated by soul sistas.
Aretha Franklin – “Respect”
Billie Holiday – “Love For Sale”
Sade – “Kiss of Life”
Lauryn Hill – “Ex-factor”
Fontella Bass – “Rescue Me”
Martha and the Vandellas – “Heatwave”
Nina Simone – “I Shall Be Released”
Shirley Brown – “Woman to Woman”
Alicia Keys – “If I Ain’t Got You”
Massive Attack – “Unfinished Sympathy”
Staples Singers – “Let’s Do It Again”
Rufus & Chaka Khan – “Sweet Thing”
… and I’m out.
hottest … of all time?
These lists have no Mae West, no Sophie Tucker, no Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt ….. was it Jane Birkin who ‘sang’ j’taime?
Skye sings so much great stuff on the Morcheeba records “Big Calm” and “Who Can You Trust?” it’s hard to pick just a few of hers. What a voice.
Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses deserves more credit: how about “Dizzy” and “Santa Claus” by her?
Liz Phair, “Support System,” “6-foot-one” and the song (forget the name) that starts “I was flying into Chicago at night…”
Joni Mitchell “In France They Kiss On Main Street”. Why yes they do, Ms. Mitchell!
Seems like something by Sleater-Kinney should make the cut, but I have trouble remembering their titles.
And I think Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” deserves a nod.
And of course if you wanted to you could fill the whole list just with Sade.
Juliette Gréco – Sous le ciel de Paris
Laurie Anderson – Language Is a Virus
Judee Sill – Jesus Was A Cross Maker
Julie Tippetts (Driscoll) – Now If You Remember
Kate Bush – Big Sky
Grace Slick – Somebody To Love
Peggy Lee – Don’t Smoke in Bed
Candi Staton “Young Hearts Run Free” and “Its not easy letting go”
Sandy Denny “Who Knows where the Time goes” and “It suits me well”
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
Kate Bush – This Woman’s Work
Bjork – Bachelorette
Bjork – Human Behaviour
Fiona Apple – Fast as You Can
Dusty Springfield – Son of a Preacher Man
Martha and the Vandellas – Dancin’ in the Streets
Mouth Music – Seainn O
Do-Re-Mi – Adultery
Nina Simone – Pirate Jenny
Dido – Thank You
Renee Geyer – Say You Love Me
Julie London – Cry Me a River
Patsy Cline – Crazy
Alison Krauss – Down to the River to Pray
kd lang – Constant Craving
Stevie Nicks – Gold Dust Woman
Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mack – Landslide
Hole – Celebrity Skin
Shakira – Wherever, Whenever
Edith Piaf – Je ne Regrette Rien (sp?)
Cyndi Lauper – True Colours
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll
The Pretenders – Don’t Get Me Wrong
Bobby Gentry – Ode to Billie Joe
Ooh and I was going to drop this one into the car crash thread: Warm Leatherette!
Niko – Chelsea Girls.
I’ll think of some more later
“Hot? Are we talking sex?”
Will@12, I would say yes, but also.
No Cat Power yet?!
In that case;
Cat Power; Lived in Bars (especially the live on Jools Holland version)
A few more:
Jenny Morris: Street of Love
Billie Holliday: Strange Fruit
Tracy Chapman: Talking ‘Bout a Revolution
Anna Russell: Almost anything, but here’s a bit if you don’t know her.
Quick question – could this list include songs from bands with female members in the background? You know – bands like the Pixies (“Monkey Gone to Heaven”), Pulp (“Something Changed”), and last but not least, early to mid New Order? After all, Gilliam Gilbert was an integral part of the band. There’s so many songs to choose from, but if I would have to choose one, I’d opt for “Your Silent Face”.
And this list needs more Cocteau Twins. Put me down for “Heaven or Las Vegas” and “Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops”.
I’ll echo Chookie with Tracy Chapman nomination.
Also, Helen Reddy’s Angie Baby.
Tracey Chapman – Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution
Suzanne Vega – Tom’s Diner
Sarah Mclachlan – backdoor man
Ani DiFranco – Little Plastic Castle
Indigo Girls – Closer to Fine
Hildegard von Bingen – Nunc aperuit nobis
Toni Childs – walk and talk like angels
Alanis Morissette – you learn
Paula Cole – Where Have All the Cowboys Gone
Sinead O’Connor – black boys on moends
Natalie Merchant – I May Know The Word
Sheryl Crow – a change would do you good
Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance
I’m all for female-dominated groups being allowed, so I’m voting:
Siouxsie and The Banshees – Israel, Dear Prudence
Here’s a sort of a side question just to turn up the nerd-quotient of the conversation. (Actually it’s sort of the same question as the original post, just asked from a strange angle.)
Assuming we can speak of a specifically female canon in songwriting and performance (and it seems plausible to think that in a certain way we can), are there touchstones or Big Statements or ‘masterpieces’ that are consciously done with deliberate grandeur of scope and ambition, the way that you could point to say “Stairway to Heaven” or “Voodoo Child” or “Sympathy for the Devil” in the male canon? And they wouldn’t necessarily have to have the same qualities; maybe they don’t strut or strike pompous poses the way a male guitar-god would express it, maybe they work their effects differently. But what sort of works would they be, and what sort of qualities would we say help identify them? Would there be something aesthetically elementally “female” about them that we could point to?
For instance off the top of my head one could name Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” (which has been in the air around here lately) as a sort of anthem or tour de force. Or maybe Courtney Love’s “Doll Parts” for its emotional grand-opera, though it lacks formal large ambition. But that’s the question — maybe things like “large” wouldn’t be a part of it, maybe it’s something totally different. (For instance I think Joni Mitchell is at her best when she goes small, whereas the Big Statement aura of a thing like Shadows and Light doesn’t strike me nearly as much.)
Any suggestions? I don’t really mean “what’s your favorite song” but what would qualify as this sort of thing, and why? Ladies, what’s your “Stairway to Heaven”? And what makes it that way to you?
Sadly, only a few suggestions have rawked. Time to fix that.
The Runaways – Cherry Bomb
The Donnas – Take It Off
Doro (with Warlock) – All We Are
Sleater Kinney – Entertain
Sahara Hotnights – All Right, All Right
The Riplets – Love You Rock’n'Roll
Abbey May – Hawaiian Disease
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation
7 Year Bitch – M.I.A
L7 – Wargasm
Shonen Knife – Pretty Little Baka Guy
Magic Dirt – Bring Me The Head Of…
Peaches – Boys Wanna Be Her
Whale – Hobo Slobo Humpin’ Babe
Rock on! \m/
Mine is the Sandy Denny song I mentioned above JPZ. It has been covered many times, there’s lovely one by Nina Simone. Sandy wrote it when she was 22, it was the first song she ever wrote, but it seems like something someone would write at the very end of their career. Considering how young Sandy was when she died it has a kind of premonitory shiver about it, so I guess rather than my Stairway to Heaven it is my A Change is Gonna Come.
jpz, in my nerd estimation, top of my head:
O, Superman – Laurie Anderson
Horses – Patti Smith (ok, an album, but hey it was 1975)
Blue – Joni Mitchell (bum another album)
Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting
Unique voices, musically significant.
Doll Parts I don’t think has held up very well (Malibu, however…)
The answer I reckon is largely no – the touchstones aren’t there in the same way. Female access to the big marketing machines of the music industry was largely restricted on the basis of sex appeal to males, horrifying tales of exploitation (The Runaways), or 60s girl group rehashes (Go Gos). Even the whole nascent Riot Grrl grunge offshoot quickly turned to exploitation. It is no surprise that Johnette Napolitano and Joni Mitchell show up so often above.
The real answer is unravelling the puzzle of Yoko Ono. Crazy brave or just nuts?
Pink–Who Knew.
I’ve just discovered PJ Harvey – the entire album of Stories from the city, Stories from the sea.
Also Patti Smith – Horses
Marianne Faithful – Broken English
Dusty Springfield – Preacher Man
…
Joni Mitchell – All of Hissing Summer Lawns and most of Hejira
Aimee Mann – The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist
Anjani – Blue Alert
Mary Lorsen and Saint Low – Serenade
Antje Duvekot – Long Way
Maura O’Connell – The Shades of Gloria
Caitlin Carey – Sorry
Shawn Colvin – Sunny Came Home
Sharon Robinson – Invisible Tattoo
Patty Griffin – Florida
Patty Larkin – St Augustine
Robyn Dunn – Of All The Men
Dar Williams – End of the Summer
Kris Delmhorst – The Birds of Belfast
Sam Philips – All Night
Eliza Gilkyson – The Party’s Over
Lucy Kaplansky – Love Song/New York
Sandy Denny – Late November, John The Gun (just for starters)
Neko Case – Margaret vs Pauline
The Roches – The Married Men
Kate and Anna McGarrigle – Talk To Me of Mendicino
Jennifer Warnes – The Well
Kathryn Williams – Tell the Truth As If It Were Lies
Natalie Merchant – Motherland
No Joan Baez?! I’ll nominate ‘Silver Dagger’, the first track from her first album.
Oh, I forgot – Susan Enan – Skin, Bone and Silicone.
Speak Easy, June Tabor and Robbie Burns (from the grave)
Yes, June Tabor and Eddie Reader of course.
I’ll be up all night if I don’t stop now…
Martha and the Vandellas – Heatwave
It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls
Norah Jones – Come Away with Me
Norah Jones – Turn Me On
Labelle – Lady Marmalade
Tina Turner – Nutbush (any age sans Ike)
C. Amphlett+Divinyls – I Touch Myself
Koko Taylor – Wang Dang Doodle
Sam Brown – Stop
Joplin – Take a Little Piece of My Heart
Pink – Bad Influence
Lady Day- Anything
Etta James – At Last
Bessie Smith – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Up Above My Head (YouTube avaialable – check it)
How far back are we going?
Vera Lynn: White Cliffs of Dover
Gracie Fields: Thing-Ummy-Bob(Thats Going To Win The War)
No Joan Baez apart from Silver Dagger, Abacus? Surely we’d have to include “We Shall Overcome” as sung at the 1963 March on Washington.
Odetta: Santy Anno or O, Freedom if you want to be serious
Miriam Makeba: N’Kosi Sikeleli Africa
B-52s: Love Shack (if songs written and sung by both men and women count)
Bangles: Going Down to Liverpool or Walk Like an Egyptian
Julie Brown: The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun and Earth Girls are Easy
Dresden Dolls – Girl Anachronism
Big Brother and the Holding Company – Summertime
I’m just now listening to Tampa Red – the blues is not particularly chick-friendly (even with female singers). “It’s a Low Down Shame” has an uncovered meat tinge, I’m afraid, but it cooks.
Chookie, with due respect I must admit a dread aversion to ‘We Shall Overcome’. Too reminiscent of Kumbaya, christian youth camps and general earnestness. But Baez’s ‘East Virginia’ and ‘John Riley’ resonate unencumbered by my personal history.
Maria Farandouri singing Seven Songs Of Lorca (all of them). Hard to find, but truly wonderful.
From the collection ‘A Harvest, a Shepherd, a Bride: Village Music of Bulgaria’ – The Smolyan Folk Ensemble `Molih ta, majcho i molih’.
A lateral suggestion: Jacqueline Du Pre’s first recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto. IMO up there with the hottest.
Patsy Cline – “Crazy”
K.D.Lang – “Surrender”, and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the Winter Olympics
Anna Netrebko – “Song to the Moon” Dvorak
Billie Holiday – “Love For Sale”
I’ll dance around the Mae West/Sophie Tucker/Marlene Dietrich conundrum by sticking to the current century.
Frida Hyvonen, “You Never Get Me Right”
Frida Hyvonen, “Djuna”
Frida Hyvonen, “Jesus Was a Crossmaker” (Judee Sill cover – props to Eric Sykes)
Edith Frost, “Lucky Charm”
Edith Frost, “Playmate”
Edith Frost, “Larger Than Life”
Jenny Wilson, “Like a Fading Rainbow”
Laura Veirs, “Up the River”
Gillian Welch, “Look at Miss Ohio”
Gillian Welch, “Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor”
New Buffalo, “City and Sea (Lady Nameless)”
Amy Winehouse, “Rehab”
Amy Winehouse, “Wake Up Alone”
Joanna Newsom, “Inflammatory Writ”
Beth Rowley, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
Cat Power, “Could We”
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, “Sea Song”
Sleater-Kinney, “Oh!”
St Vincent, “Just The Same But Brand New”
tUnE-YaRdS, “Sunlight”
Paula Frazer, “No Other”
Paula Frazer & Tarnation, “Shadows”
Plus anything I missed while scanning through my MP3 collection because it weren’t there.
Think (Aretha Franklin)
That makes it 3 different songs mentioned for Aretha.
Chookie@43: we’re going back as far as you want to. Abbess Von Bingen died in 1179 and the composition I refer to was written around 1150.
will @ 48
goodonu for remembering to put Amy Winehouse in, certainly one of the best voices in the last 20 years…imho
What nothing Arabic? What about Majida El Roumi ‘Kalimat’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVsCXyoZsm0&feature=related
or a Fairuz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFL5Lvg2rpo&feature=related
Fascinated, can we put in Renee Fleming singing Song to the Moon as well? I like Netrebko as well, but Fleming… sigh. I would like to include a rendition of “Down by the Sally Gardens” too, maybe Orla Fallon?
Abacus, I’ve heard the recording of Baez singing it on the day and am not too keen on it as a performance — but in terms of music that sums up a place, time and aspiration, I think we have to include it. The song itself has an amazing history.
Sorry Moz; I had missed the Abbess in your list.
Chookie
Yes for Renee. It is a show stopper thats for sure… The Netrebko video is ‘very European’.
Thanks to ‘Ute Man’. I have a JB voucher that I will now use on your recommendations.
Also like to add to my list:
Unison – Björk
Twist In My Sobriety – Tanita Tikaram
Goodbye – The Sundays
Know Who You Are At Every Age – Cocteau Twins
Up to the Mountain (MLK Song) – Patty Griffin
Yes, Twist In My Sobriety was a greaat song. I wonder what happened to her? It’s hard to keep track of all the great singers.
2 suggestions:
.
Backlash Blues – Nina Simone
Rock N Roll N*gger – Patti Smith
And everything else by them as well.
I’m sorry. I’m going to have to hold off my list until I finish listening to Joanna Newsome’s new (triple!) albumn.
It must be just me, but everytime I listen to Joanna Newsome it’s akin to nails scratching on blackboards. All the critics rave about her, so I want to know what I’m missing.
Gillian Welch – Revelator
Heart – Crazy on you
Joan as Police Woman – I Defy
Joan Armatrading – Love and Affection
Mary J Blige – No More Drama
Sarah Blasko – Always on this line
PJ Harvey – C’mon Billy
Sophie B Hawkins – Damn I wish I was your lover
Skunk Anansie – Hedonism (Just because you feel good)
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that there’s no love here for Missy Higgins.
Missy Higgins – “Where I stood”
Hmmm,
I forgot Patsy Cline’s cover of “Crazy”
Wanda Jackons cover of “Let’s have a party”
Jackie DeShannon – “Put a little love in your heart”
And hey Idlaviv, you’re welcome. Remember the Ute Man code of music purchasing: If the artist is dead, go the torrent instead.
Lily Allen – Not Fair
The bestest vid!
Gladys Knight–Didn’t You Know You’d have To Cry Sometime?
Ann Peebles–Feel Like Breakin’ Up Somebody’s Home
Dianna Ross–Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Aretha (and sisters!)– Bridge Over Troubled Water, Until You Come back To Me
Sandy Denny–Listen
Elizabeth Fraser/Cocteau Twins–Road,River and Rail, Iceblink Luck
Meshell Ndegeocello–Make Me Wanna Holler
Alison Krauss–Oh Atlanta
Joni Mitchell – A Case of You.
I just about weep whenever I hear this. The dulcimer, combined with her voice, is so poignant.
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want To Have Fund
Johnette Napolitano (w/Concrete Blonde) – Joey
Johnette Napolitano (w/Concrete Blonde) – Little Conversations
Johnette Napolitano (w/Concrete Blonde) – Bloodletting
Tori Amos – Precious Things
Tori Amos – Silent All These Years
Tori Amos – A Sorta Fairytale
*Deborah Conway – She Prefers Fire
Veruca Salt – Seether
Veruca Salt – Shutterbug
Nina Gordon – Superstar
Patti Smith – Because the Night
Patti Smith – My Madrigal
Sarah McLachlan – Possession
Sarah McLachlan – I Will Not Forget You
Joni Mitchell – A Case of You
Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi
Skin (w/ Skunk Anansie) – Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)
K’s Choice – Not An Addict
Shirley Manson (w/ Garbage) – #1 Crush
*Angie Hart (w/ Frente) – What’s Come Over Me
*Paradise Motel – Calling You
Sh*tlist – L7
Wargasm – L7
* = AUstralian artists
And also :
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
Joan Jett – I Love Rock n Roll
Sam Brown “Stop”
Melanie Safka “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”
No love for Kirstie MacColl? Anyone?
– In These Shoes
– Free World
– They don’t know about us (covered by Tracey Ullman in the ’80′s!)
…and countless backing vocals over the years (Smiths, Billy Bragg, Talking Heads, etc.). Sigh. Really miss her music. There was always a lovely wry undercurrent to everything she did.
Hardly ‘of all time’, but ‘of this week’ perhaps:
Sleater Kinney – Jumpers
Gillian Welch – Revelator, I Dream A Highway
Neko Case – Star Witness
Atlas Sound – Quick Canal
Maria Callas – Ave Maria
Mazzy Star – Look On Down From The Bridge
The Jezabels – Hurt Me
adrian @ 60: “It must be just me, but everytime I listen to Joanna Newsome it’s akin to nails scratching on blackboards. “
No, it is not just you
The world’s greatest performance by a female singer, but done in “negative space,” as it were. If you’ve never seen this famous routine before, now you can, through the miracle of a series of tubes! (I don’t want to give it away too much…)
Koko Taylor – Wang Dang Doodle
Sadly missed.
I tend to listen to great songs until I’m over them. But these ones have more staying power than most for me.
Madonna – Holiday
Madonna – Jump
Transvision Vamp – I don’t care
Eurogliders – We will together
Eurythmics – Here comes the rain
Tina Turner – What’s love got to do with it?
Jenny Morris – Break in the weather
Big Pig – Breakaway
Juice Newton – Queen of hearts
Kim Carnes – Betty Davis eyes
The Pips (without Gladys Knight) was fuckin’ brillant.
The problem with so many entries above is a complete absence of show, don’t tell.
Now this is the bomb (cluster Mk 190, urban areas, use of)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYSbUOoq4Vg (including the best small but perfectly formed piano solo ever)
And now the lay down misère
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXlaOsNBDkk
I defy anyone to top those two as the perfect ying and yang of classic western female pop energy.
Though these two were a pretty good albeit thoroughly mismatched pair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xjkxYaUD9E
As were these two too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vKMDryqt4
Another pair of ill matched cards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc2JTQZ_nfQ – ignore the ludicrous spoken intro and indifferent singing and just drown in her smokey insolent eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAItdxMHeBU – she’s also got the devil in her eyes. And her brillant voice only got better.
Final deal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6i4Ro0h7bo – male rockers of her vintage sound and look pale by comparison.
Oh yes and
OK, perhaps a trifle uncouth sign off. Maybe this will send you off to dreamland instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6pTdzt7BiI – the English electronica Athena.
And oh yes and Shirley Manson in the first Garbage album.
“This is what he pays me for, I’ll show you how it’s done” is one of the most chilling lines in contemporary pop music. And delivered perfectly by Ms Manson.
The “And oh yes” bit would make more sense once the moderator on duty releases my previous comment from captivity. It only has 22 links.
I thought people might be interested in this remix
*splutter*
Thanks for the “…and the Pips” japerz.
Chuck #71, I knew I’d use up my 25 votes before I remembered someone who absolutely had to be on the list. Drat!
I knew I’d use up my 25 votes
.
What are you? Irish? You need to get over the Falling Joys:
.
Belly – “Stay”
Merry Clayton Gimme Shelter
Adrien #82 – half Irish on my best estimate, or perhaps 43.75 percent after the French 12.5 percent is taken into account. The uncertainty arises from the fact that some of my ancestors jumped the fence into the neighbouring paddock.
I’ll add my cool music list to your cool music list I:
Massive Attack: Unfinished Sympathy
Massive Attack: Protection
Massive Attack: Teardrop
Portishead: The Rip
Portishead: Small
Portishead: Roads
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Maps
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Warrior
Ruby: The Whole is Equal to the Sum of its Parts
Santigold: L.E.S.Artists
Mama Kin: Tore My Heart Out
MIA: Paper Planes
Mazzy Star: Fade Into You
Regina Spektor: Field Below
Moloko: The Time is Now
Cold Cold Night: The White Stripes (Meg sang this one)
Ghosts: Laura Marling
Bjork: Human Behaviour
Emiliana Torrini: Jungle Drum
Lily Allen: The Fear
Also: Anyone singing “Fever” they way it’s supposed to be sung.
You still haven’t nominated anything by Enya, Edith Piaf or Nana Mouskouri. Let’s get a bit multicultural guys.
I spotted Edith Piaf uplist a ways, Russ, and I’m not convinced the other two had much to offer.
Couldnae let this one go by without making a contribution…
So many great songs and performers *already listed* and repeated, so no point listing again (esp. my top 3 – Chrissie Hynde, Joni Mitchell & Patti Smith etc)
So just a few additions to ‘all time list’ of songs, and specifically those written by women:
‘You Don’t Know Me’ – Cindy Walker – best versions by Ray Charles & Willie Nelson
‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ and ‘I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down’ – Ann Peebles
‘Ring of Fire’ – June Carter & Merle Kilgore
‘Don’t Come Home a Drinking, with Loving on Your Mind’ & ‘One’s On the Way’ – Loretta Lynn
‘I Will Always Love You’ – Dolly Parton, the Whitney Houston version has to get a guernsey in the expanded list just for being one of the biggest recording hitz ever, extra syrupy string arrangements and all.
In the list of links @ 77
Rather than “ignore the ludicrous spoken intro and indifferent singing and just drown in her smokey insolent eyes”, here is a live recording of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, by Australia’s now mostly forgotten Queen of the Blues – Wendy Saddington…. close your eyes and drown in her smokey, insolent voice:
Couple more not previously listed:
I’m Every Women – Chaka Khan
)
Superstar – Karen Carpenter
Batonga – Angelique Kidjo
Boys in Town – Chrissie Amphlett (“musta been desperate, mutsa been pretty low” – “get me out of here” pretty well sums up life in Oz for many women esp. in the 70′s
Raining Pleasure – Jill Birt/Triffids
Why’d ya do it – Marianne Faithfull
hhm, best stop now….
Oh, and a big mention for Carole King’s entire career – singer and songwriter – I remember attending (how could one forget) a suburban ‘baby shower’ where a roomful of well sloshed mums sung in unison the entire ‘Tapestry’ album from first note to the end. Yowzas!
re: jpz @ 31 – songwriting is one huge thang, but performing (even the most banal or self-defeating content) is another kettle of…..can’t recall too many male performances that top this prime piece of female virtuosic performance insanity (even Robert Plant). (def worth watchin’ thru til end):
I’d forgotten Wendy Saddington, jo. Jesus, she was great live. I’m pretty sure I remember seeing her fronting “Chain” at the Elder Sound Shell (gone now), and it was grand.
Thank God someone mentioned Liz Phair (the song is ‘Stratford-on-Guy’ if you’re still monitoring this thread – best song on the album IMHO). A lot of my favourites have already been mentioned, but I’ll put my 25 up anyway – no particular order:
Julie London – Cry Me a River
Portishead – Sour Times
Liz Phair – Divorce Song (and of course Stratford-on-Guy, though that does bring the total to 26)
Sonic Youth – Kool Thing
Cocteau Twins – Pearly Dewdrops Drop
Joni Mitchell – All I Want
Bughouse – V For Vendetta
Lucinda Williams – Changed the Locks
Fern Kinney – Together We Are Beautiful
Noosha Fox – S-S-Single Bed
The Stylistics – You’ll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart
Blondie – Picture This
Aretha Franklin – I Say a Little Prayer
Linda Thompson – Withered and Died
The Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
Kirsty MacColl – Free World
Anita Ward – Ring My Bell
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
Tina Turner (with Ike) – River Deep, Mountain High
Me’shell Ndegeocello – Who Is He and What is He to You
Mazzy Star – Halah
Garbage – Queer
Elastica – Connection
Gloria Gaynor – I will Survive
Throwing Muses – Counting Backwards
It’s a bit all over the place, but every one of these songs has done something for me. You could easily throw another half a dozen Burt Bacharach songs in there too.
Big, big props to Aussiesmurf for the mention of Frente – ‘Shape’ is a very underrated album.
Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good and Willin’. And the Pointer Sisters singing Slow Hand.
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
B(if)tek – Machines Work
Beth Orton – Devil Song
Bjork – Hyperballad
Bjork – Bachelorette
Blondie – Atomic
Clare Torry – The Great Gig in the Sky
Goldfrapp – Hairy Trees
Goldfrapp – Deer Stop
Joanna Newsom – En Gallop
Lamb – Gorecki
L7 – Shitlist
Le Tigre – Deceptacon
Life Without Buildings – PS Exclusive
Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
Moloko – Where Is the What If the What Is in Why?
Peaches – Boys Wanna Be Her
Portishead – Roads
Sleater-Kinney – Night Light
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Warrior
Noone has mentioned Sister Janet Mead yet?
Correct, St Furious! Well spotted.
Also:
Lamb – Gold (I particularly love the bit where everything is somehow mixed into the background – the engineer must’ve used full cut on all the tone controls, or something.)
Laura Nyro’s early songs like And When I Die and Sweet Blindness are pieces of hottest all-time perfection.
some cheating:
Meredith Monk – Dolmen Music
Carla Bley – Escalator Over the Hill
Pauline Oliveros – Bye Bye Butterfly
Lisa Lim – The Navigator
Ellen Fullman – Fluctuations
Let’s not forget the incredible Annabella of Bow Wow Wow. Who can resist songs like “See Jungle! See Jungle!” and “W.O.R.K.” I ask’ee?
Also second the vote for L. Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” (and much of her other stuff from that era, including a spectacular take on Zevon’s hilarious “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”). It doesn’t diminish her blazing aura to note that she was working with musicians of almost supernaturally exquisite good taste.
Rats, moderated — probably due to using a ridiculous moniker.
Meantime, let’s not forget “la sumptuosa” Cait O’Riordan for her totally lovely version of “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day”. (w/ the Pogues)
And I think the utterly courageous force of weirdness that is known in this dimension as Yoko Ono deserves some sort of special jury prize for “Don’t Worry Kyoko”.
Also, owing to unusual circumstances, can Klaus Nomi be considered an honorary girl?
I see someone has already name checked Goldfrapp’s “Hairy Trees”. As a reminder of why it’s worth checking out.
And also:
A lovely aide-mémoire about classic seedy London decadence – artfully recycled for the nexr century. A move that’s very London now.
Which leaves me at this hour, listening to Mazzy Star’s older, smarter, funnier and sexier sister:
http://attmp3.com/music/dirty-kat_72fcf7.html
And also:
bttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHiMDB19Dyc
There you go guys. Even if you’re short and with a big funny nose, just present a dame with an handcrafted artwork about and for her* and she is like ‘ow you say – un petit choufleur in your hands.
* Correspondence about whether Serge really wanted initials BB to sing it first will be cheerfully entered into.
*big sigh*
My last comment’s link should read:
*big shrug*
And one last one before I retire to party with Little Nemo In Slumberlnad,
“Just be glad to feel”
The results are now in.
25 of my favourites
Mary Margaret O’Hara “You Will Be Loved Again”
Elkie Brooks ” Love Potion No. 9″
Michelle Phillips “The Aching Kind”
Maggie Bell “I Saw Him Standing There”
Wendy Waldman “Pirate Ships”
Aretha Franklin “Day Dreaming”
Judy Collins “Farewell to Tarwathie”
Fairport Convention “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” (Sandy Denny)
Linda Thompson “Telling Me Lies”
Meshell Ndegeocello “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)”
Dusty Springfield “Make it With You”
Ike & Tina Turner “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (Tina)
Valerie Carter “Wild Child”
Rosanne Cash “Seven Year Ache”
Lucinda Williams “I Just Wanted to See You So Bad”
Bonnie Raitt “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy”
Geoff & Maria Muldaur “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” (Maria)
Kathi McDonald “Heartbreak Hotel”
The Pretenders “Show Me” (Chrissie Hynde)
Dalbello “She Pretends” (Lisa Dalbello)
Jane Siberry & K.D. Lang “Calling All Angels”
Marshall Chapman “Midnight Chauffeur”
Madeleine Peyroux “Walkin’ After Midnight”
Cassandra Wilson “Tupelo Honey”
The Savage Rose “Granny’s Grave” (Annisette Hansen)