Nickelodeon Records

Down the street from Viva Pops is the iconic Normal Heights sign on the corner of Adams and Felton.

As mentioned in a previous post, my goal was do to do everything on Adams that day...

The Return of Music Listography!

It's back...Music Listography - Your Life in Playlists!

See my FIRST Music Listography post here! The topic was "List the Music Your Parents Listened To When You Were A Kid". If you missed that post, then dagnabbit, click on that link and read it now dammit!

This book was one of the best birthday gifts I have ever received! Thanks TORC (The Other Rock Chick)!!!

This installment is:

LIST YOUR TOP FAVORITE FEMALE VOCALISTS OF ALL TIME

Of course, this is the Canine Cologne version. Loyal readers already know of my love of rock/hard rock/classic rock/heavy metal. So, don't expect to find any "nice" singers who can perform vocal histrionics like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey , Alanis Morisette, or even Beyonce or any of their ilk here in this list. Oh heyell no (say that like "Debbie Pelt" from the latest episode of "True Blood")!

True to form, here goes...

Aja Kim
Former lead singer of the Iron Maidens (the only female Iron Maiden tribute band). This lady is BAD AZZ!!! Although she's practically a female Bruce Dickinson who can hit the wailing high notes and low throaty growls worthy of a heavy metal vocalist, she is also an accomplished singer who can sing a variety of musical genres. Most notably, she has toured and performed with Clarence Clemons (of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band) and Phil Campbell of Motorhead. I have both Iron Maidens albums ("The Iron Maidens" and "Route 666")and I think she's even better than Bruce Dickinson!  Her renditions of such Maiden classics like "Number of the Beast", "Wasted Years", "Aces High", "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills" make me wanna turn that shit up to 11 and peel the paint off the walls!

Her web site: Aja Kim

Eleanor Academia
Although Eleanor is now based in LA, she was born in Hawaii and grew up in San Diego. She is a graduate of Sweetwater High School (mid 70's). Her website doesn't say it, but she IS Filipina American. More points in my book, plus she's mega talented!  She is not only an accomplished musician but a martial artist as well. She is adept at playing both indigenous Philippine instruments as well as modern instruments. I had the pleasure of meeting her back in 1998 when her band performed at Miramar College for the Kapwa Conference. Her drummer at the time was Terry Bozzio (formerly of Missing Persons) and she was smokin' awesome that day! The album she was promoting at the time was "Oracle of the Black Swan" (1998), a hybrid of traditional Philippine percussion (gongs, kulintang, drums) and heavy metal!!! In the mid 80's, she toured and performed with Ray Parker, Jr. (Hey, it's the "Ghostbusters" guy) and released several light jazz albums. Songs of note from "Oracle of the Black Swan": "Unimpressed", "Middle Child", "Alone", "In a Silent Prayer", and "Sunrise". Listen to snippets of the tracks here.

Check out her site which has her latest CD, "When You Live" Eleanor Academia.

Ann and Nancy Wilson (of Heart)

Now let's go back to the 70's. Ann (the brunette) and Nancy (blonde) are the sister power duo fronting the Seattle based rock band, Heart. In their early days, they were likened to "Little Led Zep" due to Ann's vocals which were like a female version of Robert Plant. However, she developed her own signature style and both sisters are responsible for killer anthems like "Crazy on You", "Barracuda", "Magic Man", "Heartless" and "Straight On For You", although my personal favorites are "Dreamboat Annie" and the beautiful ballad "How Deep it Goes". They kinda jumped the shark in the mid 80's when big hair and shoulder pads and power ballads were in ("Never", "What About Love"). I wasn't into that period of Heart. Just early Heart.

Cool trivia - Nancy Wilson is married to Cameron Crowe who wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of all time., "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". She appears in the movie as the "beautiful blonde in the Corvette". It's the scene where Brad Hamilton is delivering fish sandwiches to IBM and he catches her eye during a traffic stop. He realizes that she is NOT flirting with him, but LAUGHING at him (due to his pirate costume) and he angrily throws out his hat and the fish sandwiches out of his car window.

So far, I've chosen chicks who can not only sing, but also play instruments (okay, except for Aja Kim since she is just a vocalist, but still!) Something about a woman slinging a guitar is pretty damn hot!

Heart's "How Deep It Goes" from the album, "Dreamboat Annie" (1976):

Veronica Freeman
She is the frontwoman of San Diego based heavy metal band, Benedictum (albums "Benedictum" and "Seasons of Tragedy").  In addition to being really, uh "endowed", this woman can really belt it out. Forget about the boobage, she can sing AND kick your ass back and forth with her hands tied behind her back and blindfolded based on the sound of her voice alone. She was the former lead singer of a Ronnie James Dio tribute band and oh my Gawd, she's like a female Dio! That's crazy scary! Whether she's singing ominously in Latin or covering an old Sabbath ditty, this is music to listen to when you want to pet kittens, knit a tea cozie, lay out scrapbook pages, or maybe, just maybe even break stuff! Insert twisted and sardonic maniacal laughter here.

Here's one of my favorite Benedictum songs, "Benedictum". All hail and raise your hands in the horned salute:

Stevie Nicks
One of the original divas of rock. If you don't already know who Stevie Nicks is, she was one of the members of Fleetwood Mac.   Her solo songs include "Silver Springs", "Sleeping Angel" (this was on the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" soundtrack), "Gypsy", "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (her duet with Tom Petty), and  "Edge of Seventeen" (the guitar riff was sampled by Beyonce for her song "Bootylicious"). I remember her album "Belladonna" being really big back in junior high. She was also quite the stylish diva with her ehtereal flowing skirts, platform boots, floaty scarves, long earrings and feathered hair.

Chrissie Hynde

Now we're getting to the big three...I used to do my eyeliner like Chrissie Hynde back in junior high. I loved her jet black hair with her eyebrow skimming bangs. I imitated her thick black eyeliner on the bottom lids and thought I was cool, but I'm sure I just looked like a drowned raccoon!

I first remember hearing "Brass in Pocket" when it came 1980 (6th grade!). I was instantly hooked. Her debut album, "The Pretenders" was one of my favorite cassettes back in junior high. I was not only enamored of her tough rocker chick look, but also with her sultry voice and the chiming guitars of Hynde and the late James Honeyman-Scott. The fact that she was the frontwoman didn't escape me either. Instead of being just a pretty face and in the background, Hynde exuded a tough chick exterior with a don't give a shit attitude along with her Keith Richard's inspired wardrobe of black jeans, white t-shirt and leather jacket.

One of her earlier hits from the debut album was "Stop Your Sobbing" which was first done by the Kinks. Ironically, she later became the girlfriend of Kinks frontman Ray Davies (songwriter for "Stop Your Sobbing") and had a child with him in the 80's before dumping him and marrying that red headed dude from Simple Minds, Jim Kerr (she had a child with him too!). My favorite Pretenders song include: "Kid", "Mystery Achievement", "Back on the Chain Gang", "2000 Miles", "The English Roses", "Precious", "Talk of the Town" and most of all, "Message of Love". There is a really great live album she released a few years back where she performs her hits, "The Isle of View". It's acoustic but also with a string quartet. Listen to that album's version of "Back on the Chain Gang"; it will take your breath away.

[edit - 7/26 - I received a frantic voice message from Superman today imploring me to change the info re: Chrissie Hynde's second baby daddy. I erroneously wrote that Jim Kerr was from Simply Red. Oh, no, no, no. That was NOT correctamundo and as a music fan, I hang my head in shame. Jim Kerr is from Simple Minds. D'oh! For the record, the lead singer of Simply Red was Mick Hucknall, who later briefly appeared in that Cole Porter flick, "De-Lovely" which starred Kevin "Talk Italian to me" Kline aka Mr. Phoebe Cates).]

For the young 'uns, Chrissie Hynde also appeared in an old "Friends" episode where Phoebe Buffay's teaches Chrissie Hynde how to play "Smelly Cat" (and she does it better too).

Here's one of my favorite Pretenders songs, "Stop Your Sobbing" (1979):

Pat Benatar
Next up is another awesome female vocalist, the one and only Pat Benatar. Trained classicaly in opera, Benatar soon became one of the biggest voices in rock. She  hit it big in 1979 with her debut album, "In the Heat of the Night". Starting in 1980, she went on to win four Grammies for Best Female Rock Performance for four years straight. Her debut album, "In the Heat of the Night" had the songs "We Live for Love", "No You Don't", and "Heartbreaker". Her second album, "Crimes of Passion" was a bigger smash with the hits, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Hell is for Children" (controversial due to its themes of child abuse), "Treat Me Right" (I loved this song), "You Better Run" (this was cool too, she was so tuff!).  I think it's so romantic that she married her guitarist, Neil Geraldo and is still married to him after all these years! He was and still is an awesome guitarist!

Pop culture altert - In "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", there is a scene where Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh's character) is lamenting to Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates' character) insecure about her looks because she sees several girls in school dressed up like Pat Benatar. The girls are wearing skin tight leggings with ankle boots, belted striped tops and headbands. The 80's look is back in! Ha ha!

Here's some cool trivia, the music video for the song "You Better Run" was the second music video ever aired on MTV in 1981. The first, of course, was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star".  Damn, look how skinny she was when she was young.

Here's one of my favorite Pat Benatar songs and videos, "Shadows of the Night". This is the live performance version. I couldn't get the actual video (embedding was disabled) but she plays a Rosie the Riveter character and daydreams about being a WWII spy and escaping from the Nazis). That video can be seen here on YouTube:

Joan Jett

I saved the best for last...my musical heroine, Joan Jett.

She is my favorite female vocalist of all time! Like Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, I emulated Joan Jett's signature thick black eyeliner back in junior high (9th grade, when I first started wearing makeup). I totallydug her look (but never dressed like it until years later of course, ha ha): leather pants, jacket, boots, rocker chick hair, everything. I loved that she played guitar and that she was the leader of her band.

As a founding member of the Runaways, an all teenage girl group which formed in 1976(predating the Riot Grrrl movement), Joan Jett had stage presence and guts.  With such jailbait anthems like "Cherry Bomb", "You Drive Me Wild" and the prison "opera" "Dead End Justice", they were also majorly exploited by their Svengali manager Kim Fowley who bilked them of profits and verbally (and most likely sexually) abused various band members.

After several years in the group and eventually becoming lead singer after original singer, Cherie Currie left due to personal issues, Joan Jett left and disbanded the group in 1979 and formed her owned record label in 1980, Blackheart Records. This was after being rejected by 23 record labels. In doing so, Jett became one of the first female recording artists to found her own record label, which still continues to this day.

Joan Jett is still going strong today. She's totally an inspiration and I really love her songs and her musicianship. Although many of her hits were based on cover songs (like Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover, Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)", and Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People"), I really liked her guitar heavy sound and her rough vocals. Songs like, "I Love Rock and Roll", "Bad Reputation", "Victim of Circumstance", "Roadrunner" and "I Hate Myself for Loving You" are among my faves.  Can you believe she is 52 now??? Wut???? I want to look that good when I'm 52!

Cool trivia: In the 2007 movie "Juno", the main character mentions her three favourite bands, one of which is The Runaways.

*Note, in 1990 she released an all covers album, "The Hit List".

"I don't give a damn about my BAD REPUTATION":

Until the next Music Listography post!

So, who are YOUR favorite female vocalists of all time and why?

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "J" is for Joan Jett

It's that time of the week again...
Fresh out of her stint from the pioneer all girl teen rock group, The Runaways, Joan Jett forged ahead in the 80's with a smokin' album, "I Love Rock 'n Roll", her second solo effort but the first to feature her backing band, the Blackhearts, which also contained the hit title song.

Jett's version of Crimson and Clover was a badass remake of the song, originally recorded by American rock group Tommy James and the Shondells in 1969. If the name of this band doesn't ring a bell, dig back to the annals of your mind and see if you remember late 80's mall teen popster Tiffany's horrific version of I Think We're Alone Now...Remember it now? That was another Tommy James and the Shondells hit.

While "Crimson and Clover" was about a woman and sung by a male, you'll notice that the lyrics are NOT changed when Jett sings it, making it much more "intruiging":

"I, I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her
Crimson and Clover
Ah, and when she comes walking over
I've been waiting to show her
Crimson and Clover
Over and over..."

I don't give a damn if she hasn't come out of the closet yet but I've admired Joan Jett since the early 80's as a young teen and a budding chick rocker. As a rock icon, she had it all, the musicianship, the singing chops, and a killer fashion sense. I emulated her thick eyeliner in junior high and dug her hairstyle and her outfits. She never compromised her femininity as a female rock musician and for the most part, kept herself covered up unlike some other female musicians who felt they had to show their tits and sex it up to play with the big boys.

And because I love trivia so much, here's a cool fact about this song (courtesy of Wikepedia's entry):

The song is famous for a unique "wobbly" vocal effect near the end of the song. To produce this effect, Tommy James plugged his microphone into a guitar amplifier, flipped the tremolo switch, and repeatedly sang the line "crimson and clover, over and over". When it was released in November 1968, some listeners thought he was saying "Christmas is over" instead of "crimson and clover."

This is known as a Mondegreen, which is "the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song..."

Anyhow...check out this cool shirt which is a take on those "What Would Jesus Do?" shirts. I think I like this version much better. Here's where you can order it! It also comes in pink!
Until next week's installment...

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "G" is for Girlschool

It's time for chicks kicking some rock and roll A$$!!!

Bursting from the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene) scene of the early 1980's, Girlschool was one of the first all female hard rock bands I ever heard...These chicks could hold their own!

Other female fronted acts that I liked and still like:

The Runaways - Killer all female rock band! OMFG - Joan Jett & Lita Ford were so bad ass! Can't wait for the new "Runaways" movie coming out next spring!!!
The Pretenders - I loved Chrissie Hynde in junior high school. I patterned my thick eyeliner after her. I dug her hair. I loved how she wielded that low hip slung guitar and growled into the mic. Intelligent lyrics and cool chords.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Here comes Joan Jett again! She's in her early 50's and she still looks and sounds amazing!