Liberation versus abuse, women's rights versus whoring. I try make sense of our confusing, sex-obsessed, attention-seeking world. I'm sure I'm going to get dirty.
An interesting road you came in here on. This sex in music subject is an interesting one as well. My first trip to Japan was with The Runaways. They preceded Miley by some years. They were groundbreaking and in a lot of ways a template for things to come. I wasn’t much older than them and realized much later what a clusterfuck our whole situation was at the time. I ended up staying much closer to Lita but would run into Joan periodically. I would try to see Sandy when in LA (RIP). For some reason your essay made me think of them, evoking emotions I still have problems with.
Well enough of my maudlin babbling. As always Mike you hit topics close to me. I consider it a true blessing to have discovered you….painful as it is sometimes.
That's another helluva anecdote. I've been meaning to watch that movie for several years, and here you're talking the real thing. Fanny and Suzi Quatro were among those who set a trail but it took others such as The Runaways to be trailblazers. I had no experience akin to yours but I still think of people, especially girls, from those days, wondering if they survived.
In the Runaways Vickie did ok. She got out and got into documentaries. Jackie just faded into obscurity. I felt so bad for Sandy. All she wanted to do is play drums in a band. Lita and Joan wanted to be stars and both achieved that to a certain extent. I used to look Sandy up when in LA. She was sick for quite awhile prior to passing. I had a friend who looked in on her and we helped her financially at times. I couldn’t make her a star though and that still makes me sad. Their original manager Kim Fowler was the Sunset Strip version of Harvey Weinstein. One of my regrets to this day is not seeing how many of his bones I could break in 60 seconds for what he did to those girls.
Sorry for that rant. You are good at finding subjects to tweak my memories, and that’s what I like about you.
We may have different experiences, we meaning everyone, but we're not as emotionally isolated as we sometimes feel. It's like different people with different experiences are simply latching onto shared trunks of primal feeling. Of course, when there's a thread of commonality, such as the sub-culture of rock 'n roll, its amplified.
I remembered this the other day. There was a documentary of sorts made about the tour of Japan The Runaways did. I looked it up and found it on YouTube. Not great quality but pretty much capsulizes what was going on...and the fascination for Cherie's crotch shots.
Bloody hell, they don't half go on and on and on (and on and on...). Haven't they got anything to say?
'Nothing Compares to You', as far as I can see, said it all: all of that nonsense (on and on and on...) about how much better they could make men, when all they really wanted to say was in that one song, and just the title was enough. I think it's really appropriate and fitting it should be the only thing anyone will ever really associate Sinead O'Conner with (despite all the attempts to make it not so by going on and on and on... about nothing).
Anyway... It may seem not to be the case, but I enjoyed an attitude to women and feminism very much like you describe your own in your formative years and earlier adulthood (if I've read that right). I suspect that's quite common to most of us about (y)our age. (My mother always liked to consider herself as the cutting edge at the vanguard, etc. — 'Invincible', like Helen Reddy.) Isn't it remarkable how much things change by staying the same (and how every generation convinces itself it's the first)?!
Why the hell you reading all this nonsense. I was writing to myself, and people pop in without me inviting them for a beer. This newfangled internet thingamajig lacks old-school, call-before-you-comment sense. You could've entertained yourself better by staring at a mosquito on your testicles, or watched the first episode of Days of Our Lives. But since you've already misadventured, I'm, sure you've found beauty in Amanda Palmer's forthrightness to the world, and read one of her ex-husband's great fantasy books.
"I'm, sure you've found beauty in Amanda Palmer's forthrightness to the world, and read one of her ex-husband's great fantasy books."
Needless to say, but of course! How might I have dared otherwise?
Can't imagine how life might have been so barren before it (the Forthrightness, that is); and how might I have dared to presume on the Earth's oxygen supply with any less than the most intimate knowledge of her legendary husband's work?
I am now a much better man (than I was before encountering this post).
You should write for GQ ,Mike. You certainly have a tap on the latest trends.
I came into age in the late 1960s it was a wonderful time for love. A time of innocence, and excitement.
That time machine would mean a younger me gets to meet sexy women. Ok, I'm in!
Thanks for those cool words.
An interesting road you came in here on. This sex in music subject is an interesting one as well. My first trip to Japan was with The Runaways. They preceded Miley by some years. They were groundbreaking and in a lot of ways a template for things to come. I wasn’t much older than them and realized much later what a clusterfuck our whole situation was at the time. I ended up staying much closer to Lita but would run into Joan periodically. I would try to see Sandy when in LA (RIP). For some reason your essay made me think of them, evoking emotions I still have problems with.
Well enough of my maudlin babbling. As always Mike you hit topics close to me. I consider it a true blessing to have discovered you….painful as it is sometimes.
That's another helluva anecdote. I've been meaning to watch that movie for several years, and here you're talking the real thing. Fanny and Suzi Quatro were among those who set a trail but it took others such as The Runaways to be trailblazers. I had no experience akin to yours but I still think of people, especially girls, from those days, wondering if they survived.
In the Runaways Vickie did ok. She got out and got into documentaries. Jackie just faded into obscurity. I felt so bad for Sandy. All she wanted to do is play drums in a band. Lita and Joan wanted to be stars and both achieved that to a certain extent. I used to look Sandy up when in LA. She was sick for quite awhile prior to passing. I had a friend who looked in on her and we helped her financially at times. I couldn’t make her a star though and that still makes me sad. Their original manager Kim Fowler was the Sunset Strip version of Harvey Weinstein. One of my regrets to this day is not seeing how many of his bones I could break in 60 seconds for what he did to those girls.
Sorry for that rant. You are good at finding subjects to tweak my memories, and that’s what I like about you.
We may have different experiences, we meaning everyone, but we're not as emotionally isolated as we sometimes feel. It's like different people with different experiences are simply latching onto shared trunks of primal feeling. Of course, when there's a thread of commonality, such as the sub-culture of rock 'n roll, its amplified.
I remembered this the other day. There was a documentary of sorts made about the tour of Japan The Runaways did. I looked it up and found it on YouTube. Not great quality but pretty much capsulizes what was going on...and the fascination for Cherie's crotch shots.
https://youtu.be/UBodAEO-DEU?si=D_l14WOdNHT9vPbY
Thanks. I've bookmarked it.
Bloody hell, they don't half go on and on and on (and on and on...). Haven't they got anything to say?
'Nothing Compares to You', as far as I can see, said it all: all of that nonsense (on and on and on...) about how much better they could make men, when all they really wanted to say was in that one song, and just the title was enough. I think it's really appropriate and fitting it should be the only thing anyone will ever really associate Sinead O'Conner with (despite all the attempts to make it not so by going on and on and on... about nothing).
Anyway... It may seem not to be the case, but I enjoyed an attitude to women and feminism very much like you describe your own in your formative years and earlier adulthood (if I've read that right). I suspect that's quite common to most of us about (y)our age. (My mother always liked to consider herself as the cutting edge at the vanguard, etc. — 'Invincible', like Helen Reddy.) Isn't it remarkable how much things change by staying the same (and how every generation convinces itself it's the first)?!
Why the hell you reading all this nonsense. I was writing to myself, and people pop in without me inviting them for a beer. This newfangled internet thingamajig lacks old-school, call-before-you-comment sense. You could've entertained yourself better by staring at a mosquito on your testicles, or watched the first episode of Days of Our Lives. But since you've already misadventured, I'm, sure you've found beauty in Amanda Palmer's forthrightness to the world, and read one of her ex-husband's great fantasy books.
"I'm, sure you've found beauty in Amanda Palmer's forthrightness to the world, and read one of her ex-husband's great fantasy books."
Needless to say, but of course! How might I have dared otherwise?
Can't imagine how life might have been so barren before it (the Forthrightness, that is); and how might I have dared to presume on the Earth's oxygen supply with any less than the most intimate knowledge of her legendary husband's work?
I am now a much better man (than I was before encountering this post).
By hook, but especially by crook, I knew you'd agree.