[khchris(original)]

YOKO ONO.

Gosh, I'm surprised ALL of you girls left out Yoko Ono, especially with Thurston being such a huge fan and being on the tribute remix.

[Daycare Nation]

Mariah Carey.

[HaydenAsche]

Aretha Franklin is amazing.

[terminal pharmacy]

Originally Posted by AssBlaster

Basically. I still think it's pretty racist that I'm the only one that's mentioned a Black performer so far. I get the feeling that people here only listen to white people.

wow wondeful generalisation, we are all kkk members

[val-holla-ing]

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

wow wondeful generalisation, we are all kkk members

that explains a lot.

[blots]

I saw Cat Power last year and she made it through a full set. Though she was really apologetic about anything she did. It was just her and a piano or a guitar, and she kind of sat facing sideways most of the show, but it was actually really good. A strange contrast seeing her at Coachella this year with a whole rhythm section... Does she actually miss most of her shows? It seems like more of a myth, but I guess she did just cancel this tour.

[porkmarras]

I hear Catpower has a big problem with vodka.When she palyed The Royal Festival Hall in London with Patti smith,apparently La Smith gave her a bottle before the show and they have found her underneath the table in her dressing room,completely off her face just minutes before the show.Poor lass........

[porkmarras]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

hanging out with patti smith and shitfaced? my kind of girl.

Not me obviously.My friend's boyfriend does roading for bands who happen to play there and she goes along to help out sometimes.That explains the gossip

[porkmarras]

Originally Posted by AssBlaster

When I hung out with Chan, she seemed to prefer Whiskey.

From what i have heard she is not that choosy when it comes to the contents of the bottle Assblaster

[porkmarras]

Originally Posted by AssBlaster

Heh. All I know is, when I hung with her, she drank whiskey after whiskey (on the rocks).

I'll settle for that answer then.I'm not bothered either way so to speak

[HaydenAsche]

Originally Posted by AssBlaster

Yoko Ono is more like a rock footnote. She won't be well listened to fifty years from now.

EVERYONE knows who Aretha Franklin is.

You must spread some blah blah blah Assblaster.

[thewall91]

The fact is that when mentioning "rock greats" everyone on this board (besides me) has listed exclusively white people.
What other conclusion would you draw from that?

possibly that there aren't a whole lot of black female rock or punk artists. period. calling aretha franklin "rock" is a real stretch. please, name some other black female artists that "rock." i seem to remember a bald black woman in some english band Skunk Anansie but having never heard the music i can't say how much they rock, only that it's the only true example of a black female rock artist i can think of.

jimi hendrix rocks. however, he is not female.

[val-holla-ing]

Originally Posted by thewall91

possibly that there aren't a whole lot of black female rock or punk artists. period. calling aretha franklin "rock" is a real stretch. please, name some other black female artists that "rock." i seem to remember a bald black woman in some english band Skunk Anansie but having never heard the music i can't say how much they rock, only that it's the only true example of a black female rock artist i can think of.

jimi hendrix rocks. however, he is not female.

if calling aretha franklin rock is a stretch, then the same must be said about chuck berry.

[thewall91]

How is calling Aretha Franklin "rock" wrong?

i didn't call it wrong - i called it a stretch. the fact is, when i want to "rock," i'm a lot more likely to put on something a lot more guitar based. if this were the most important woman in soul thread, you would have to call people racist for not including as many white women, because the fact is there are more black women who sing soul and r&b than white women. you were making a generalization that people are racist because you were the lone, blind, open-minded person to name a black woman. please, PLEASE, name some more!!

and call me whatever you want for not calling her rock. i'm not saying she can't rock, because i'm sure she can, but when you say the words rock, she is, most definitely, not the first person who comes to mind. that's my position and i'm sticking to it.

[val-holla-ing]

Originally Posted by thewall91

i didn't call it wrong - i called it a stretch. the fact is, when i want to "rock," i'm a lot more likely to put on something a lot more guitar based. if this were the most important woman in soul thread, you would have to call people racist for not including as many white women, because the fact is there are more black women who sing soul and r&b than white women. you were making a generalization that people are racist because you were the lone, blind, open-minded person to name a black woman. please, PLEASE, name some more!!

and call me whatever you want for not calling her rock. i'm not saying she can't rock, because i'm sure she can, but when you say the words rock, she is, most definitely, not the first person who comes to mind. that's my position and i'm sticking to it.

you're right. there are more black women doing soul than white women. but that doesn't mean it's a far stretch to say that a white woman may be important to soul or r&b.

as for black women in rock:
'ninja' of the go! team
tina turner
tracy chapman
skin from skunk anasie
lisa from the bellrays
lovetta pippen from his name is alive
cindy blackmon (from lenny kravitz band)
sheila e.
kathy foster from the thermals/all girl summer fun band
poly strene from x-ray specs

your argument is stupid, man.

[terminal pharmacy]

Originally Posted by AssBlaster

It's not a stretch at all. When people define rock, they do it by the textbook, and according to the text book, the woman is rock.

omg there is a rock text book, does it give you theory in writing a rock song

intro 8
verse 16
chorus 16
verse 12
verse 12
chorus 16
verse 12
bridge 8
chorus 16
outro 8

and who wrote the text book on rock

[val-holla-ing]

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

and who wrote the text book on rock

me. duh.

[thewall91]

your argument is stupid, man.

thank you for naming some black female musical recording artists. as to how many of them could be listed as "the most important females in rock history," i will give you tina turner. however, anyone's accidental omission of tina from this thread is more of a reflection of her "importance" to them than a symbol of their overt racism. that is more my point than on philosophizing about who is and is not rock.

but since you started it, here are some of my theories.

i did not know poly styrene was black. I apologize for my lack of punk knowledge on this matter.

sheila e can bang some drums but i doubt you're going to see her booked at
any rock club at any time in the future or past.

and tracey chapman is straight-up folk (though very good folk.)

cindy blackmon (from lenny kravitz band)? did you have to google that or is she really of high musical importance to you? that's like picking a backup singer to any solo act. sorry, but if she was that musically important, she'd be in a "band." it's not "lenny kravitz and his awesome band," it's lenny kravitz, who i'm sure has a rotating roster of musicians that play with him when he feels like it.


the song "black cat" by janet jackson, although it has a high suck factor, is heavily guitar-based and is a very rock dance song. i would still never call janet jackson a rock act; i would call her a dance act. genres exist for a reason. some artists can cross genres, but most artists still belong to one primary genre. call me a genrist, but not a racist.

[Rob Instigator]

Joni Mitchell never ROCKED
aretha franklin never ROCKED
hell, most of the women mentioned were not ROCK women.
PJ Harvey is great but she has a long way to go to get to Kim. Janice Joplin rocked for like a week before she choked on her own barf. her music makes me sick.

kim gordon stands heads and shoulders above all.

grace slick had like two good records in her. she gets shot down for WE BUILT THIS CITY alone.


Karen Carpenter was not a rocker either. she never rocked.
Patti Smith was rcking for like a week compared to Kim Gordon. she was a poet who used rock music to her advantage, not a rocker who wanted to blast forth the rock a la kim gordon.

[Rob Instigator]

Tina Turner was also not rock. she was a soul singer, a GREAT soul singer, but not rock.

Kim Gordon showed the women after her to fucking strap that guitar on and fucking ROCK

ani difranco is a folk singer.

if we go by influence, magnitude, years rocking, quality of the rock, etc., KIM GORDON WINS HANDS DOWN