May 9: Song of the Day. Belly–”Feed the Tree”
Guys dig girls that rock. Hell, girls dig girls that rock too. There’s just something sexy and powerful about a girl with a guitar and a microphone giving the boys a run for their money. And who says they even need a guitar in the first place? Billie Holiday rocks! Etta James rocks! But so do Patty Smith and Janis Joplin and Kim Deal. They freakin’ rock!
In the end there’s way too many for me to list off of the top of my head, which is cool, because I’d hate to steal your thunder by naming one of your favorite female rock stars. So for the sake of discussion, I’ve chosen one of my favorite rockin’ ladies from my college days.
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Tanya Donnelly was a co-founder of the 1980’s band Throwing Muses and was a member briefly of the early 90’s side project band The Breeders (Tanya had already left the Breeders before their big hit “Cannonball” in 1993). But when I was in college, the band and the song that I most remember loving Tanya Donnelly for was her band Belly and their song “Feed the Tree”.
Feed the Tree by Belly
I’m not saying that Tanya Donnelly is at the top of the heap when it comes to my all-time favorite female rock stars, but in the early 90’s, she was pretty darn close.
So with all that in mind boys and GIRLS, whose your leading lady rock star?
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Tagged as: 05/09, Belly, girls rock, Song of the Day
I’m gonna go with Chrissie Hynde and let “I’ll Stand By You,” “977,” and “Back on the Chain Gang” speak for themselves.
Kirstie MacColl for being a bit of a plump badass. Lauren Hoffman because she is such a quasi-goth diva and Lucinda Williams for her scratchy drunk self.
kick ass choices all 3 dolly. lucinda is the queen of “Drunken Angels”
exene cervenka ftw!
@4. Nice choice! From her X years, with The Knitters, or both?
@shaun: x is great. i’ve never listened to the knitters, but let me know if i should get schooled in their creative output.
the knitters are essentially the country off-shoot of X. They’ve only released 2 records. But the three principle players were John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and Dave Alvin of the Blasters. First record was in the mid-80’s and their second was back in 2005. They were pretty much the forerunners of cowpunk, a hybrid blend of country and punk that sprang up on the West Coast in the mid 80’s, primarily in L.A. Essentially Dwight Yoakam made a name for himself playing the punk rock clubs of L.A. with bands like X, The Blasters, and Los Lobos. If Willie brought the hippies and rednecks together in the 70’s, Dwight brought the mohawks and the cowboy shirts together in the 80’s. A lot of that credit goes to X and the Knitters as well for making it cool to like punk and country. You still hear a lot of that today with Hank III, Lucero, Dexateens, the Avett Brothers, etc.