Oct 25, 2010

I blame Yvonne Elliman.

Many Voyages en Rose readers are lovers of music. I know this from reading your blogs, and from the odd bit of private correspondence with you. Me too. This lifelong love transcends format (45’s, LP’s, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD’s, MP3’s etc) and genre. From Albinoni to Zevon, preference and predispositions do not readily emerge, and a quick flip through my stacks reveals either refined broad-mindedness or borderline schizophrenia depending on your own muscial points of view.

On the whole though, songs with lyrical content are the songs I go back to. I do like stories after all.

The musical stories that drive most expertly, persistently and deeply into my thinking and feeling are the ones that women sing, expressing their experience, from their perspective, and typically in response to some generalized shortcoming or specific fuck-up doled out by a guy.

And yeah, this goes back to Yvonne Elliman. I first heard her perform on the 1970 pre-Broadway opening recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. For the sonority and range of her voice of course, such a gorgeous instrument she possessed then, and probably still today. This 8 year old didn’t have the language to describe the music, but I had all the instincts I needed to be moved by it, to be riveted in place by it

Her voice, paired with with Tim Rice’s lyrics in “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” carried a depth of feeling, an honestly, a fully expressed emotion, that was startling to me. Freely admitted confusion, an understanding of her own weaknesses and worst potentials, complexity, hope, despair, the whole shootin’ works in a 3 minute masterpiece portrait of the full spectrum of human emotion, from high to low.

This stood in marked contrast from such then popular male vocal efforts as Tony Orlando’sKnock Three Times” and the Archies truly lamentable multi-platinum tribute to all that is transparent, shallow and water soluble, “Sugar, Sugar”.

It was a golden musical era. Female songwriters were getting a shot at telling their own stories on their own terms. Janis Joplin hurled pieces of her heart at us. Carole King made the earth move beneath our feet. Carly Simon called out our vanity for what it was and told the world. Yes, of course, there were many gifted male songwriters doing deeply revealing, sensitive personal stuff (all due praise to Jackson Browne, Van Morrison, and Neil Diamond), and countless songs by chaps that remain potent today.

With that said though, I felt then, and still today, that much of the masculine emotion revealed in song was expressed, at least in part, in the service of getting laid. Soon. Now preferably. And would it kill you, O mighty Creator, to serve me up twins? Do this righteous dude a solid would you?

The female lyrics however seemed enlisted in the service of something of more lasting value. They seemed as to tap in to the wellspring of endurance and patience that women possess as a matter of survival, and nurtured in beautiful contrast to common masculine survival virtues.

I listened so closely to those songs as well because, dammit the women just sounded flat out disappointed by some guy, and by logical extension, me. I felt in some way responsible for the hurt, confusion, despair and weariness expressed in song. Perhaps, if just given a chance, I could make it all right.

O, there was so much to make right too. Guys were clearly capable of and perhaps mission driven to discover new frontiers of insensitivity. The hits just kept coming, the weariness started showing in more unpolished voices, and blown over gaping acoustical apertures, exposed nerves, cracking and creaking, with raw broken china scratchiness, Marianne Faithful, Stevie Nicks, Linda Thompson and Patty Smith.

My 80’s begin with Rickie Lee Jones, end with Sinead O’Cononor, and were punctuated along the way by Kate Bush and k.d. lang, each capable of stamping a nearly toxic dose of honesty, hope and hurt into a 3 minute tune, each terrific long form story tellers too, and each in their way a trailbreaking affront to rock-chick beauty standards.

Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, Natalie Merchant, Liz Phair, Aimee Mann and too many to name made the relative absence of male singer/songwriters the musical non-event of the 90’s. In hindsight, the guys contribution was simply not required. Beautiful, attractive performers, feminine, unashamed of their sexuality, self aware, easy on the eyes, easier on the ears, and happy to challenge your thinking about exactly what women were thinking.

Musically, the ‘Aughts and our current decade are, for me, mirroring and perhaps anticipating a broader change in society. Our beauty definitions have changed, Cougars prowl with quiet certainty in the beauty of experience. Musically too, the kids have left the nest and the mother is still possessed of a confident come-hither look. Lucinda and Emmylou, Patty Griffin, and yes, god bless her hopeful heart the still radiant Mavis Staples hits the studio and jumps on a tour bus in her 70’s.

These lives and stories, expressed in song have for me always revealed a different view of life. They possess a luring complexity, intricacy, deeper and different learnings taken from the seen and felt world, and have been just as potent a lure to my own curiosity about a woman’s experience as her clothing and appearance.

And so, yes I blame Yvonne Elliman. I thank her too. Whose praises do you sing?

6 comments:

Tights Lover said...

Awesome post, Petra, and certainly spot on. I suppose so much about music is less thinking and more feeling or...er...emoting and that's a category the fairer sex typically has us beat in by quite a wide margin.

My musical heyday was definitely over the mid to late 1990s when the females certainly celebrated a sort of renaissance here locally in New England and probably all over. It still does a lot to shape my musical tastes today.

Specifically, without a doubt, "Guyville" by Liz Phair still remains among my top 10 albums of all time. It is simply amazing work.

Anonymous said...

This song always did it for me..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q4HUPQ0NEU
and to me, it has always expressed the mood you've captured so perfectly in your 3rd para..
I've just discovered your blog Petra.. which is more than 'just a blog', it's a beautifully observed positive affirmation of yourself. I read it from start to finish today - and there were many times when I found myself saying - yes, that's it. In a nutshell.
I'm sure I'm not the first to have said this but there's a book here.
Anon..

Leslie Ann said...

I came to appreciate the feminine contributions to music rather late. Back in the day, Rickie Lee's "Last Chance Texaco" or Joni Mitchell's "Coyote" put me over the moon, but my tastes were mostly male-centric.

Just in the last five years, though, the women have spoken my mind. Fiona Apple, Nellie McKay, Regina Spektor, Liz Phair, Erin McKeown, Kathleen Edwards, Sharon Jones and the Dapkings, Gillian Welch, Jenny Lewis, Leslie Feist: These are the singers that make my heart pound.

A great, thought-provoking post, Petra!

Petra Bellejambes said...

@TL - "Well, East coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear ...":) - yeah Liz Phair has a heart, no doubt.

Anon - thanks sincerely. Are you a literary agent? I don't have a book ready yet, but most of the wardrobe required for a national publicity tour is in place.

Leslie - how I missed Joni, I don't know, and your contemporary list is so strong, Regina Spektor is so bright, Gillian Welch is so real, Sharon Jones is so powerful, O the list goes on. Thanks for your note.

On another thought, presumably your guitar gives you a license for longer nails, yes?

Petra

Anonymous said...

While I applaud the many excellent artists to whom you give your stamp of approval, I can't help but wish you'd saved a little sugar for the Archies. OK, so the song is simplistic to a fault, but for me, as regards both songs and people, there is much positive to be found in an occasional dose of the easy and ecstatic.

In my recollection, the properly considerate and high-intentioned love songs were the territory of such nerdy artists as Barry Manilow and James Taylor, but the cool girls all wanted the bad-boy rock stars, didn't they?

Then, they were disappointed when they woke up next to a man who was, well, wild.

Their song could go:

Oh, lover-boy, mine,
Why can't you toe the line,
Like the sensitive kind
With the sensible mind,
Y'know - the ones there's no way
I'd ever give the time of day.

Leslie Ann said...

No, Petra, just the opposite. I cannot play with nails, certainly not on the left hand. I am forced to choose between femme nails and making my own music. Music has been the loser for several years now.

Unbelievably, my list overlooked my favorite, Neko Case. She haunts me.

 
Subscribe in a reader