作者terissa (就是那個光)
看板Lilith
標題A Woman Rocker Worth Crow-ing About
時間Sat Apr 24 00:46:02 2004
A Woman Rocker Worth Crow-ing About
By-line: In testosterone-laden world of rock, Crow is reigning queen
By Eric Olsen
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 10:31 a.m. ET April 23, 2004
Women are fixtures in the top echelons of pop, soul, country, dance, blues,
gospel, even hip-hop, but there are very few women near the top in rock,
and no one with the status or longevity of a Madonna, an Aretha Franklin, a
Dolly Parton, or the star power of a Britney, Cher or even Jessica Simpson.
Among the current female rockers who actually sell are Sheryl Crow, veteran
growler Melissa Etheridge, angry young woman Alanis Morissette, troubled
aging punker Courtney Love, punk/metal ingenues the Donnas, punkish indie
rock band Sleater-Kinney and revived new wavers Chrissie Hynde of the
Pretenders and Debbie Harry of Blondie.
Goth-pop-metal hybrid Evanescence, led by young singer Amy Lee, broke huge
last year but guitarist and co-songwriter Ben Moody has already departed
casting grave doubts on the band’s future. Avril Lavigne is massive with
the kids, but let’s face it, her brand of pop-punk is way more pop than
punk and it remains to be seen if she will still be a star by the time she
turns 21. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Kim Deal of the Pixies are
respected indie rock pioneers and fixtures, but they aren’t really stars in
their own rights. Formerly brazen indie-rocker Liz Phair just had a big
album, but she turned slick popster to do it. Did I mention Sheryl Crow?
Sheryl is reigning Queen of the Rockers
Singer, songwriter, musician, producer and girlish 42-year-old sex symbol,
Crow, originally from Missouri, is by far the biggest star of those listed
above, as her current spate of activity underlines. The former backup
singer for Michael Jackson (“Bad” tour of '87-'88, tabloid rumors of their
romantic involvement were greatly exaggerated, as in completely fabricated)
was selected for the plum assignment of kicking off the NBC “Today” show’s
“Toyota Concert Series,” Friday morning live from Rockefeller Center.
Sunday she will be a celebrity participant in Washington’s March for
Women’s Lives, an abortion-rights demonstration expected to draw nearly 1
million people to the National Mall.
Then on May 4, Crow takes to the air again, this time literally as she will
perform a 40-minute acoustic set before an invited business audience on a
United Airlines flight between Chicago and Los Angeles to promote a joint
venture between the airline and Sony’s new Connect Online Music Service. (A
novel cross-promotion between the companies, anyone who downloads music
from the Sony service can earn flying miles from United, and United flyers
will be rewarded with points toward music downloads.)
Back on the ground, Crow is dating American bicycling champ Lance Armstrong
(she has been credited with putting “fire back in his pedaling”), she does
an on-screen performance of Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” in
“De-Lovely,” MGM’s film about Porter, which is set to close the Cannes Film
Festival on May 22 and open in the U.S. on June 25.
But amidst all the glitter, glamour and globetrotting, it’s the music that
counts and Crow has the goods. Crow’s voice is youthful but lived-in, and
her eclectic but immediately identifiable style draws together rootsy rock
‘n’ roll, bright pop-rock, alt-rock and country into an extremely appealing
blend very well represented in her recent smash collection “The Very Best
of Sheryl Crow.”
After kicking around L.A. for several years in the late-'80s and
early-'90s, fighting depression, doing studio backing vocals (Sting, Rod
Stewart, Joe Cocker, Sinead O’Connor, Stevie Wonder, Foreigner, Don
Henley), and avoiding being forced into the dance-pop mold as a solo
artist, Crow fell in with a loose group of musicians and songwriters
(including producer Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald and David Ricketts of
“David and David”) who called themselves the Tuesday Night Music Club. Out
of beery sessions with this group came her brilliant debut album of the
same name in late 1993. She won Grammys for Best New Artist, and Record of
the Year and Pop Female Vocal for her breakthrough single “All I Wanna Do,”
which also leads off the best-of collection.
“All I Wanna Do” is a classic L.A. brew of sunny country-rock, Latin-esque
rhythms, fabulist humor (“I love a good beer buzz early in the morning”), a
hint of surf guitar and a shadow of desperation as the world passes before
the bloodshot eyes of the Crow character and her “plain ugly” drinking
companion William. Also on the collection from Crow’s debut is the sublime
“Leaving Las Vegas,” a sad but hopeful farewell set to a hip-hop beat, the
sweet beat ballad “Strong Enough” (“lie to me, I promise I’ll believe”) and
the similarly themed “I Shall Believe.”
Crow’s exceptional self-titled second album came along in '96, forging
Stonesy fuzz guitar, roots rock swing, and odd studio noises and squiggles
into a sound both classic and contemporary. Representing it on the
collection are emblematic “A Change Would Do You Good,” gentle “Home,”
world-weary “If It Makes You Happy,” and swirling, hard-charging “Everyday
Is a Winding Road.”
Another winner, “The Globe Sessions” ('98), didn’t break new ground but
canvassed familiar territory quite pleasurably (if a bit somberly) with “My
Favorite Mistake” (remarkably echoing Aimee Mann), “There Goes the
Neighborhood” with big fat “Exile On Main Street” guitar riffs from her
co-writer Jeff Trott, and the Stones’ own sax man Bobby Keyes, and bluesy
“The Difficult Kind” (“Anything But Down” is strangely left off the
collection).
Crow’s image was glamorized considerably (note hot beach pics) and her
music brightened on “C’mon, C’mon” ('02), where it became clear that the
40-year-old was not going to go gently into that good night. On the
collection are “Steve McQueen” (with chic treated vocals) and “Soak Up the
Sun” (with Liz Phair singing along). Also on the collection are Crows
monster country duet with Kind Rock “Picture,” and her new cover of Cat
Stevens’ lovely “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” her biggest solo hit single
since “All I Wanna Do.”
And that’s why Sheryl Crow is rightly the biggest female rock star in the
world today. But where are the other rocking women? We’re in a lull right
now with no one other than Crow comparable artistically and commercially to
Janis Joplin, Grace Slick or all-girl bands of the '80s like the Go-Gos and
Bangles. Testosterone still flows through the heart of rock, still powers
the chords, and still never gets pregnant. The less rigidly priapic genres
of new wave, punk and indie rock have borne more feminine fruit than rock
proper, and there the best hopes probably remain.
The alternative rock festival Lollapalooza is playing up a feminine angle
for this summer’s tour, hyping the return to live performance of tiny but
ferocious English alt-rocker PJ (Polly Jean) Harvey. “Uh Huh Her,” the
seventh Island Records album from PJ Harvey is due in stores on June 8, and
she will be a main stage Lollapalooza headliner, as will Sonic Youth (with
bassist/singer Kim Gordon), whose new album “Sonic Nurse” will be released
the same day as Harvey’s.
Note the slant of this festival press release: “With Polly Jean Harvey and
feminist agitpoppers Le Tigre now joining Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon on the
bill,” it reads, “Lollapalooza 2004 just got its first full-on dose of
Femme with a capital F!
“It goes without saying,” the release continues, “but we’re going to say it
anyway: the remarkable ladies of Lollapalooza are among the smartest, most
passionate and influential individuals that rock ‘n’ roll has ever had to
offer, and Lollapalooza 2004 is thrilled to have them on board for what
will be a truly extraordinary summer experience.”
I don’t know about all that, but it’s nice to hear women rockers getting
some old-fashioned hype and attention. Maybe their time has come around
again.
Eric Olsen is the editor of Blogcritics.org and a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.
c 2004 MSNBC Interactive
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