Yoko Ono: Avant Savant

One of the most controversial figures in rock history, Yoko Ono was an acquired taste for those willing to go with her past the edge of musical experimentalism. Unfairly maligned as the woman who broke up the Beatles, she is a classically trained musician and was one of New York’s most cutting edge artists before the Fab Four even cut a record. Born in Tokyo in 1933, she moved to New York in 1953 and attended Sarah Lawrence, but even then had trouble finding a form to fit into; her poetry was criticized for being too long, her short stories too short. Then she was befriended by avant-garde composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage.

Soon, Yoko was making a splash with her originality in post-Beatnik Greenwich Village, going places even Andy Warhol hadn’t dared with her films of 365 nude derrieres, her performance art (inviting people to cut her clothes off her), and her bizarre collages and constructions. Called the “High Priestess of the Happening,” she enthralled visitors to her loft with such art installations as tossing dried peas at the audience while whirling her long hair. Yoko Ono had an ability to shock, endless imagination, and a way of attracting publicity that P.T. Barnum himself would’ve envied!

When John Lennon climbed the ladder on that fateful day to peer at the artful affirmation Yoko created in her piece “Yes,” rock history was made. Their collaborations—The Plastic Ono Band, Bed-Ins, Love-Ins, Peace-Ins, and son Sean Lennon—have created a legacy that continues to fascinate a world that has finally grudgingly accepted and respected this bona fide original. Yoko’s singing style— howling and shrieking in a dissonant barrage—has been a major influence on the B52s and a generation of riot grrl bands.

Now Yoko Ono and her talented son, Sean, tour together and work on behalf of causes they are committed to—the environment, peace, and Tibet. Ono, whose sweet speaking voice belies the steely strength underneath that has enabled her to endure for so long, explains her sheroic journey in the preface she contributed to Gillian G. Gaar’s excellent book on women in music, She’s a Rebel. In it, she relates her pain at her father’s discouragement of her dream of becoming a composer, doubting her “aptitude” because of her gender. “‘Women may not be good creators of music, but they’re good at interpreting music’ was what he said.” Happy that times have changed, she points to the valiant efforts made by “women artists who kept making music despite overwhelming odds till finally the music industry had to realize that women were there to stay.”

In retrospect, Yoko Ono was breaking real musical ground when others were cranking out bubble gum pop and imitating—who else—The Beatles. Yoko’s feminism gets lost in the shuffle of the attention to her as an iconoclast.

She was an enormous influence on awakening John’s interest in the women’s movement, and together they attended the international feminist conference in June of 1973 and together wrote songs inspired by the women’s movement, including “Woman is the Nigger of the World.” Much of Yoko’s musical output in the seventies was on the theme of feminism; her song “Sisters O Sisters” is one of her finest works, a reggae-rhythm number. Yoko’s sheroism lies in her intense idealism and her commitment to making this a better world.

“I’m a Witch. I’m a Bitch. I don’t care what you say.”

— Yoko Ono in 1973

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Peggy Jones: Lady Bo

A woman who followed her own star and in so doing shattered several music stereotypes, Peggy Jones had music in her soul from the beginning; a dancer in her toddler years, she had performed in Carnegie Hall by the age of nine. As a youngster, the New Yorker was intrigued by the ukelele and moved onto the guitar. It never occurred to her that it would seem unusual for a woman to play guitar in the forties. “Little did I know that a female playing any instrument was like a new thing. I was breaking a lot of barriers.”

By the age of seventeen, she was producing and cutting singles such as “Honey Bunny Baby/Why Do I Love You?” and “Everybody’s Talking/I’m Gonna Love My Way.” In the late fifties, she and her friends and future husband Bobby Bakersfield formed The Jewels, a band made up of men and women, which was very unusual for the time; even more unique, the band included both black and white members. The Jewels got a lot of flack for their disregard for gender and racial boundaries, but they persisted in performing to enthusiastic audiences. Jones recalls fighting past the objections, “I just hung in there because this is what I wanted to do, and I had a real strong constitution as to the way I thought I should go about it.”

Peggy’s singular instrumentation is one of the components of Bo Diddley’s successful albums and national tours throughout the fifties and sixties. Diddley, famous for his signature rhythm, saw Jones walking down the street with her guitar one day, and, ever the savvy showman, recognized that having a pretty girl playing guitar in his band would be a very good thing for ticket and record sales. Peggy was ushered into the world of professional musicianship full-time with Diddley’s touring band. She learned a great deal, perfecting her guitar playing to the point where Diddley himself was a bit threatened by her hot licks. She also saw the hardships of the road and experienced firsthand the color line that existed even for music stars. When they hit the South in the hearses they toured in, the band often had to stay in nonwhite hotels and had to use separate bathrooms for “coloreds.” They even figured out a way to cook in the car when they couldn’t find a restaurant that would serve black people.

However, Jones wasn’t content with just backup and liner note credits and took a hiatus from the nonstop Bo Diddley road show. She again wrote her own material and performed with The Jewels again. In the late sixties, she formed her own band and went out on the road. Peggy Jones was a true pioneer for women in music. Because of her, the idea of a woman playing guitar—or any instrument in a band—became much more acceptable.

“I don’t think I went in with any attitude that ‘Oh, oh, I’m a girl, they’re not going to like my playing.’ So probably that might have been my savior, because I just went in as a musician and expected to be accepted as a musician.”

— Peggy Jones

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Big Mama Thornton: “Stronger Than Dirt”

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton checked out for good when the New Wave washed onto the music scene, dying of heart and liver failure in 1984. After fifty-seven years of hard living and a good deal of hard drinking, she was a mere shadow of herself in her last year, weighing only ninety-seven pounds. At the height of her careers, Thornton held center stage singing, drumming, and blowing harmonica with rhythm n’ blues luminaries Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Eddie Vinson, and Janis Joplin.

Her most remembered contribution to music history will always be the song “Hound Dog,” a number one hit in 1953 written especially for her by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was as much her appearance as her blues style that influenced the writing of “Hound Dog.” “We wanted her to growl it,” Stoller later told Rolling Stone. Three years later, Elvis Presley covered Big Mama’s tune and took her signature song for his own. Like so many other black blues stars, she wasn’t mainstream enough; by 1957, her star had fallen so low she was dropped by her record label. And, like many other blues stars of the day, she was inadequately compensated for her work; although her incredible, soul-ripping rendition of “Hound Dog” sold two million copies, Big Mama received only one royalty check for $500.

Unstoppable, however, she hit the road, jamming with fellow blues masters, amazing audiences across America. Big Mama’s success came from her powerful presence on stage. She had begun performing publicly in the forties as an Atlanta teen where she danced in variety shows and in Sammy Green’s Hot Harlem Review. Thornton’s own musical heroes were Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, whom she always held as great inspirations for her decision to pursue music as a career. Thornton was a completely self-taught musician who learned through watching, “I never had no one teach me nothing. I taught myself to sing and to blow the harmonica and even to play drums, by watching other people.”

James Brown, Otis Redding, the Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin helped create a resurgence of interest in the blues in the sixties. Janis covered “Ball and Chain,” making that a huge hit to millions of fans who never knew Thornton’s version. In a sad repetition of history, the royalties to Big Mama’s “Ball and Chain” were contracted to her record company, meaning she didn’t get a dime from the sales of Joplin’s cover of the tune. However, because of the popularization, artists like Big Mama began to enjoy a crossover audience, and the spotlight they had previously been denied by a record-buying public producers believed preferred black music sanitized by singers such as Presley.

With a new interest in the real thing, Big Mama started performing at blues festivals around the world, resulting in classic recordings such as “Big Mama in Europe,” and “Stronger than Dirt,” where she was backed by Muddy Waters, James Cotton, and Otis Spann. “Stronger than Dirt” featured Thornton’s interpretations of Wilson Pickett’s “Funky Broadway” and Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” Big Mama’s final albums were “Sassy Mama!” and “Jail,” a live album recorded in prisons. In 1980, Thornton, Sippie Wallace, and Koko Taylor headlined at the unforgettable “Blues Is a Woman” show at the Newport Jazz Festival. Although Big Mama barely made enough money to live on through her music, her contribution to blues was enormous. She died penniless and alone in
a Los Angeles boardinghouse, decimated by drink and disappointed by her ill-treatment from the music industry. But she received tremendous respect from her peers and influences dozens of musicians, even to this day.

“At what point did rhythm n’ blues start becoming rock and roll? When the white kids started to dance to it.”

— Ruth Brown

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

The Mabel Dodge Salon

Anybody who was anybody in the intellectual and art worlds of the early twentieth century hung out at Mabel’s salon, among them: D.H. Lawrence, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Andrew Dassburg, Georgia O’Keefe, Leon Gaspard, Ansel Adams, and Robinson Jeffers. Beginning in New York’s Greenwich Village after a stint in a Medici villa in Florence, Mabel Dodge worked for her vision of a “New World Plan” to bring the world’s greatest thinkers, writers, artists, musicians, and social reformers together to whet each other’s minds and create a second renaissance. Lois Palken Rudnick, a historian specializing in this era, says this about Mabel, “When she came back to the States, she landed in New York City amidst America’s first great social and political revolution. She became one of the rebels of Greenwich Village and was involved with the Armory Show, the first show of post- impressionist art to come to the States. She supported anarchists and socialists and their projects, like Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger…She was an artist of life.”

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media

MILEY CYRUS: A GIRL WHO CAN’T BE TAMED

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miley_Cyrus

Miley Cyrus was originally born Destiny Hope, but her parents would always call her “Smiley,” which would later evolve into Miley. Her desire to be an actress began early as she sat on the side and watched her father Billy Ray Cyrus perform on the TV series Doc, and it wasn’t long until she soon wanted to be in front of the camera and not on the side. When Miley finally started her acting career, it wasn’t as easy as most people think. It was actually filled with rejection, more than she could count at times. However, Miley kept stepping up to the plate to try again. Finally, she landed the role as Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel show of the same name. Very quickly, she became a teen idol and household name. Since her television series on Disney, she has become a successful musician with three number one albums and has starred in a few feature films, such as The Last Song.

“When life puts you in a tough situation, don’t say ‘Why me,’ say ‘Try me.’ ”

—Miley Cyrus

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

TAYLOR SWIFT: COUNTRY STAR TURNED POP SENSATION

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift

Taylor Swift is one of America’s most famous singers and songwriters. However, before all the glam and fame, she spent her childhood in Reading, Pennsylvania as a simple girl singing at county fairs and local events. Yet, the simple life did not fit a girl with such a big voice. Her parents quickly recognized their daughter’s talent and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to help pursue her music career. After an amazing performance at the Bluebird Café in Nashville when she was fourteen, she landed her first record deal with Borchetta’s Big Records. Soon after her record deal, she released her single “Tim McGraw,” and it quickly became a chart-topping country music hit. The single also appeared on her debut album, which sold around five million copies. At the time of writing, she has nine successful albums and has won many awards, including Grammy Awards for Best Album and Best Video, the Billboard Music Award for Woman of the Year, and so many more.

“Words can break someone into a million of pieces, but they can also put them back together. I hope you use yours for good.”

—Taylor Swift

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

BEYONCE KNOWLES-CARTER: FLAWLESS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonc%C3%A9

Born in 1981 in Houston, Texas, in 1990 Beyonce joined the all-girl R&B group Girl’s Tyme, which after a few false starts under various names became Destiny’s Child in 1996. After success with several chart-topping Destiny’s Child singles, she recorded a solo album released in 2003 and has never looked back. She married hip hop artist Jay-Z in 2008; they later had a daughter named

Blue Ivy, and as of 2017, they are currently expecting twins. She has performed twice at the Super Bowl and sang the national anthem at President Obama’s second inauguration. In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Beyonce said that she thought of herself as “a modern-day feminist”. She also sampled “We should all be feminists” from a TEDx talk in 2013 by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her song “Flawless” of that year, although she has critics who feel her racy performances are not supportive of women’s empowerment.

Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Beyonce and her husband have donated millions to it, as well as contributing to the Ban Bossy campaign,
which seeks to encourage leadership in girls via social and other media. She has also included the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner in the video for the song “Freedom” holding pictures of their unjustly murdered sons. In April 2016 Beyonce released a visual album called Lemonade as an HBO special. In it, she showed the strength found in communities of African-American women as well as in women as a whole. Lemonade debuted at number one, making Beyonce the only artist in history to have all of her first six studio albums reach the top of Billboard’s album charts.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

ANI DIFRANCO: RIGHTEOUS BABE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ani_DiFranco

Ani DiFranco has achieved incredible success entirely on her terms without the benefit of a record label by touring, working hard at her distinctive music. A folk punk phenom, DiFranco writes about her own life, offering strength, honesty, and courage to other women—who have responded in droves. Adored by thousands of devoted fans, DiFranco is slightly uncomfortable with being idolized as a role model of female empowerment, writing about it in her “I’m No Hero.” Living on her own by the age of fifteen, the guitarist-songwriter who, in her own words has “indie cred” as a “stompy-booted, butch, folk-singer chick,” remembers the irritation of walking into music stores and having the clerk assume she was there to pick something up for her boyfriend. She’s gladdened to see these same music stores now packed with teenage girls inspired by the success and long-overdue acceptance of women in rock. “I don’t feel like the superhero that sometimes I’m made out to be, but I guess I do feel responsible to other young women, and I do feel fortunate.”

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

PATTI SMITH: HARD ROCKING WOMAN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Smith

A poet who also makes music, Patti Smith has more in common with Jim Morrison than she does with Courtney Love. Like Morrison, Patti Smith was a Romantic, steeped in Byronic passion, Baudelaire’s dark beauty, and Rilke’s angel-haunted obsessions who lived in a world of grand imaginings far from her working-class Jersey. Self- schooled and self-styled, the former factory worker found New York in the late ‘60s to be the perfect canvas for her artistic ambitions. She also found a soulmate in photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who turned their friendship into art with his now-famous monotints. Patti read poetry at Max’s Kansas City to audiences of glittery night creatures like Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgewick and her boyfriend Sam Shepard, and hosts of hookers and actresses, in a coked-up atmosphere somewhere between William Blake’s Hell and an uber-noir Berlin nightclub. She started by accompanying her ripping poems on a toy piano and graduated to a full band where she astonished everyone with her singing. Her song “Because the Night” became a Top 40 hit and made her a rock star. Then in 1978, she fell off stage one night, shattering her neck.

Soon after, she pulled one of the greatest disappearing acts of music history when she moved to Detroit to raise two children and run a household with her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, the guitarist for MC5. The deaths of both Robert Mapplethorpe and Fred Smith moved Patti to music again. Her album Gone Again and sold-out tour established Patti as a survivor. She still reads poetry at her shows, to rapt audiences who understand her as she screams out, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.”

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE: THE MOUTH THAT ROARED

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Etheridge

Melissa is beloved for the great music she makes, but she achieved eternal sheroism with her album “Yes I Am,” a public coming-out and celebration of her lesbianism. An ebullient spirit who can sing, play killer guitar, and write hit songs by the droves, Melissa Etheridge hails from Kansas; and at thirty-six, she embraced shared motherhood of her child with her partner of ten years, film maker Julie Cypher. Melissa’s personal shero is Janis Joplin, and she hopes to portray the Texas rock legend on film one day. Etheridge, who has enjoyed the changing tide for women in the music industry, delights in the success of musicians she respects: Edie Brickell, Tracy Chapman, Toni Childs, Natalie Merchant, Michelle Shocked, and the Indigo Girls, all who sell records by the millions. Even a few years ago, Etheridge remembers that rock radio jocks claimed they could only play one woman a day or risk losing their male listeners. “All of a sudden the whole lid was blown off…people were coming to our concerts, and they were requesting our songs on the radio, and radio changed. That’s the way America works. The public ultimately says, ‘This what we want.’ The world was ready for strong women’s inspired music.” And Melissa Etheridge was at the forefront of the revolution!

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.