Thursday, January 28, 2016

Badass Songs by Badass Women: A Jana and Erin Playlist

One of the things you notice as a female rock fan is the absence of kick ass female fronted or all female rock bands but women can kick just as much musical ass as men, if not more, so in an homage to those women and the amazingly badass pioneer women of rock, Jana and I decided to assemble this playlist for you guys: 
Badass songs by badass women

First, the originals:


Edge of Seventeen--Stevie Nicks. It's Stevie Nicks. *Mic drop*
Fun fact: Erin's guy has a customer that is a long-time personal friend of Miz Nicks.  The last trip through Australia, he sold her a necklace to give to her.



Bad Reputation--Joan Jett. The original rock badass chick. Please feast your eyes on this epic 80s video because Spotify does not have it available. Fun fact--this song is the theme song to Freaks and Geeks, one of Jana's all-time favorite shows.
 

Crazy on You--Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson. Rock music queens.

White Rabbit--Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick slays on this song.
 

Left off but not forgotten: Janis (Erin should lose her native Texan membership card for excluding Janis), Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Debbie Harry

Now, the next generation:


Celebrity Skin--Hole. Probably Courtney Love's finest hour save for her stint on SOA.

Take it Off--The Donnas.  I don't know what to say about this song except it's fun and edgy and you should know it. Fun fact: this is the band featured in Drive Me Crazy. The 90s movie. Not that Britney shit.
 

I Think I'm Paranoid--Garbage. This was Erin's pick and since I, Jana, am writing the post, I have nothing witty to say except I really liked Garbage when I wasn't confusing them with The Cranberries.  (Erin's note:  Sometime in the late 90s/early 2000s, I saw Garbage open for No Doubt. #badasswomenunite)


Kiss Me Deadly--Lita Ford. She hung in there as essentially THE ONLY female rep for the hair band era (except for Vixen, who went platinum during the same time. Edge of a Broken Heart is a great song, by the way).
 

Left off but not forgotten: The Cranberries, Tori Amos, Alanis, Ani DiFranco

The current ladies:


I Like it Heavy--Halestorm. Lzzy Hale is one of Jana's favorite female singers probably of all time and to pick one song by Halestorm is HARD, y'all. But this one seemed the most apropros for this particular playlist.


Rush You--Baby Animals. Aussie band led by the beautiful Suze DeMarchi. (Erin's note: So, this song isn't exactly their current stuff, but they still play live gigs in Australia, so they can fall into the current list of bad ass women.)  Fun fact: her ex-husband and babies' daddy is Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme fame.


America's Sweetheart--Elle King. This song is in heavy rotation in Jana's playlists because THIS is how you do a female empowerment song.
 

Make Me Wanna Die--The Pretty Reckless. I told Jana I was initially judgemental knowing that a young actress from Gossip Girl was just being a poser and playing dress-up, but she's actually fucking good. Jana concurs with this assessment.
 
Left off but not forgotten: Amy Lee, Paramore, Flyleaf

Ladies who cross generations and don't fit neatly anywhere, even though they all transcend decades:


Just A Girl--No Doubt. The scathing indictment of the way women are treated dressed up as a fun pop song. Wolf in sheep's clothing, indeed.


U & UR Hand--P!nk. Both of us, Jana and Erin, had this incredible woman on our lists and this song is such a fuck you to the douchebag men in bars and clubs and society in general that it's impossible not to include it on this type of playlist.
 

Other women we could have included: Dolly, Reba, Beth Hart, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper.

I'm sure there's more so let us know. Who did we leave off?

14 comments:

  1. This past September we saw Foo Fighters and they had Stevie Nicks come out as a guest and she was so mesmerizing! The power and presence she had really dwarfed Dave Grohl!

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  2. good lord this list is good. you have good taste woman! now i need to rock out all day at work :)

    xoxo cheshire kat

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  3. love that Pink song, and Pink of course. I think I've seen her twice, she is so awesome. I had no idea the gossip girl kid was actually any good, she definitely looks the poser part, so good to hear she's actually good!

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  4. I love that you know someone who knows someone! :)

    Maybe she'll stop by someday on a recommendation, you can always dream right?

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  5. I'm a big fan of Paramore. Those she doesn't front the band, there's a female musician/background vocalist in Sick Puppies and I LOVE them :)

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    1. She's the bassist and I thought about including them but since we were going for the ladies on the mic, I left her off. But she kicks ass!! Sick Puppies has some AMAZING songs, too. "Maybe" literally changed my life.

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  6. Lita Ford didnt get the credit she deserved in the 80's
    ... I also loved Vixen. Talk about throwback!
    Love me some Pat Benatar too.
    I'm going to be spending some time here today rocking out at my desk - this will make my work day so much better!

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  7. Love this list!

    Being an Aussie chick of a "certain" age, I was lucky enough to have Shirley Manson from Garbage and Suze Di Marchi from the Baby Animals contributing heavily to the soundtrack of my late teens and early 20's. When I Grow Up could have been written for me.
    Another badass chick who needs to be on this list is Sarah Macleod from Aussie band the Superjesus. Last year I was lucky enough to catch both the Baby Animals and the Superjesus as a double act. Definitely one of my favourite gigs ever.
    I'd also like to nominate a few other worthy chicks for this list. Namely, Pat Benatar, Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde.

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  8. Love, love, love this! I have most of these songs on a Spotify playlist. Another one I thought of: Sick Like Me by In This Moment. I saw them in concert & I thought for sure that she lip syncing cuz she was that damn good, a friend confirmed that she was not. Daaaaamn! Ha!

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  9. It's so crazy to think that Gwen Stefani and Pink have both spanned decades! I love their music so much, and you couldn't have picked a more perfect No Doubt song for this category! I'm loving that Elle King song so much right now!

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  10. NO Doubt is seriously one of my all time favorites!!! Gwen is so kick ass! I love Pink and Garbage too!!! And Heart is just a classic. I really love this whole list!

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  11. I love the playlists! So many No Doubt jams could've made the list.

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  12. I know you've already seen my comment on Jana's post (and it's totally awesome that you've seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs live ... I'm jealous!), but I had to comment here as well. :-)

    I really love one of the (probably) lesser known Garbage songs called "Cup of Coffee." I put it on one of my playlists last year, and it's a song that I used to listen to on repeat when I was dealing with a particularly shitty breakup.

    I love the playlists that you guys come up with! I realized after looking at these posts that I made a similar "women who rock" sort of playlist way back in 2014. I included most of the artists I mentioned in my comment on Jana's post. At least I'm consistent!

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