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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-10-30 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 4

what have they done to my song?

  Music is to me the most universal "art" and probably the most ancient. Even before humankind made music, there was beautiful noise in the world. Birds, insects, elephants even, all communicated in characteristic sounds. (Maybe they weren't "communicating", as humans would perceive; maybe they just like to make their noises.) And music happens when water runs over stones; the sound has varying pitch and rhythm. Music happens when humans recognize patterns in all this joyous noise. 
   People were of course tuned in, sensitive to rhythm since their own bodies expressed rhythms in heartbeat, breathing, sucking, etc. the body moves to a one-two, lub-dub, beat. Somewhere in the formative years of humanity, someone started stamping or clapping that rhythm: someone hummed a soothing noise to her baby; a whistling note came out of someone's sucking mouth; and someone dug it. 
    "I love to sing, love the way it feels, 
     the sensual feeling of song in my 
     throat." --Buffy Saint-Marie
   Music came out as physical joy. Music was also sort of a mystery, a thing to wonder at. It became associated closely with religion in some societies. Religion and music in the last thousand years (at least) have reflected the increasing specialization and male dominance of western "civilization". Since the 15th century or so, western music reflects class divisions: folk music and classical music. The upperclass "serious" music has been preserved in written form; folk music is orally passed on, but changes a little with each person's interpretation.
  Classical music seems to reflect ruling class values: stability, systems & rules, abstraction, specialization of roles, and of course, male supremacy. Women were tabooed out of control in music as in religion, government, arts and trade. And we civilized women are under the influence of an aristocratic musical tradition that is composed, directed and performed mostly by men. Even when women were breaking taboos in poetry and novel writing (18th and 19th centuries) the only roles for women in music were as singers. Woman's place was in the home and if she was musically talented that was where she was to perform. (Of course, men designed and produced the instruments....thus....)
      "What have they done to my song?"
        --Melanie Safka
       "Yaaah, squeeze my lemon, baby"
        --Robert Plant/the Led Zepplin
   Some very popular, influencing music is chauvinist: some is also overwhelmingly cop-out (all that "I want my own little faraway world' crap). With a little imagination I can listen and ignore or "change" the lyric. I really thought for a while that a line from Let It Be was "nothin's gonna chain my world". But the dreamy tenor voice came through with "nothin gonna change my world." And that is too damn much -- that should sound like one of our people? 
   Economics is a weird trick: success corrupts too many musicians. And stability, I fear, is a figment of our parent's imagination. Exit all that phony pleading about All I Need Is You and Please Love Me Forever, which is the prelude to If You Leave me I'll beat your ass. There's a new world coming, but it ain't me babe. New music for new people...I am a new person, according to yesterday...
   Feminism can be in music; there is music clearly expressed from a female viewpoint. But where are the women in music? In front of the band looking cute, squealing for a male body; in back of the band, a groupie; behind the scenes, never being credited or considered. Think of one rock group with a female instrumentalist (not a sexy singer): I thought of only Sly and the Family Stone; a woman is lead guitarist. (Name a female jazz developer? a female classical composer?  a female symphony conductor?) This society reflects the usual male dominance through music even more than through the other fine arts. 
   But maybe I see it that way because I'm so into music that I want to relate everything to it. I love to play music so much that I was trying to cooperate with oppressively egoistic men, just to make music. And it was a sad realization that I was left out of jam sessions, was unconsidered or put down when I tried to take the lead; I was not part of the group, I was a chick dammit. But I could not help it. I couldn't sing some of those words, couldn't help squirming at "Down by the river/I shot my baby, shot her dead."
   Sisters join the dance...we are full of music...do you wish it as I do, that women's joy, women's pride, women's love shall be the music in the streets...can you imagine a feminist rock group playing the music of Dancing In The Streets? Some of us in WLF would really like to get it together. If you are into music -- if you can play drums, piano, flute, bass, brasses -- if you write music -- if you love to sing--if you have instruments or equipment we can use -- get in touch with us in Iowa City WLF and spread your sound around. Cock-rock is not our vibration! Let's get it on, with sisters.
               Lay Lady Lay
                   LAY OFF!

[photo]

Helping Sisters on the move
   We get letters from sisters who've seen our paper in distant parts of the country, who are thinking about moving to the Midwest. We want to help them but we need -- they need -- information from more sources than just Iowa City. We hope sisters in other groups in the Midwest can supply information about their towns: like job opportunities, housing availability, etc. -- whatever a woman would need to know about a place she's never known.
   

Dear Sisters,
   We are a collective of women, each of whom has been strongly emotionally based in New York, and among us, I suppose, we've accumulated an incredible number of interim years here. Some of us have labored within and without the establishment and some are newly statistical adults. And now it's time to move out. New York is guilty of intense factionalism, the air is rotten (one doesn't  quite see New Jersey from the West Side anymore), floods of freaks, some to organize and some for solace, abound, the Young Lords are offering viable help within Third World communities, certain presses are being smothered or obliterated and we feel a need to disseminate our revolutionary woman's consciousness.
   It's our intention to move to a middle or large size city with a substantial white working community. We want to organize working women and probably high school women. We want to offer alternatives through our life style, accurate information, and the continuity of growth possible when lives are freely blended.
  Where we're at is that many of us have commitments in N.Y. lasting a few months. People come through to rap with us but we don't always catch them. So we are scouting.
  Roughly we'd like to know what's happening: is there a women's center nearby and how functional is it --does it reach working women? Do you know of any women's living collective? Would we be shot, tarred and feathered or tolerated? Is any organizing along women's lines being done? Could you also be able to put us in touch with people to continue to answer these questions?
  Do you have word of Cedar Rapids or Des Moines?
   Maybe we could set up a dialogue wherein we could relay useful information to you about women's groups here and speak more specifically of what our thoughts and lives are doing now.
       Forward Sisters in the Struggle
Women are the Revolution\
       Love, Judith
Judith Lindbloom
161 Lexington Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10016

4  Vol. I   No. 8    Ain't I

Saving...

what have they done to my song? Music is to me the most universal "art" and probably the most ancient. Even before humankind made music, there was beautiful noise in the world. Birds, insects, elephants even, all communicated in characteristic sounds. (Maybe they weren't "communicating", as humans would perceive; maybe they just like to make their noises.) And music happens when water runs over stones; the sound has varying pitch and rhythm. Music happens when humans recognize patterns in all this joyous noise. People were of course tuned in, sensitive to rhythm since their own bodies expressed rhythms in heartbeat, breathing, sucking, etc. the body moves to a one-two, lub-dub, beat. Somewhere in the formative years of humanity, someone started stamping or clapping that rhythm: someone hummed a soothing noise to her baby; a whistling note came out of someone's sucking mouth; and someone dug it. "I love to sing, love the way it feels, the sensual feeling of song in my throat." --Buffy Saint-Marie Music came out as physical joy. Music was also sort of a mystery, a thing to wonder at. It became associated closely with religion in some societies. Religion and music in the last thousand years (at least) have reflected the increasing specialization and male dominance of western "civilization". Since the 15th century or so, western music reflects class divisions: folk music and classical music. The upperclass "serious" music has been preserved in written form; folk music is orally passed on, but changes a little with each person's interpretation. Classical music seems to reflect ruling class values: stability, systems & rules, abstraction, specialization of roles, and of course, male supremacy. Women were tabooed out of control in music as in religion, government, arts and trade. And we civilized women are under the influence of an aristocratic musical tradition that is composed, directed and performed mostly by men. Even when women were breaking taboos in poetry and novel writing (18th and 19th centuries) the only roles for women in music were as singers. Woman's place was in the home and if she was musically talented that was where she was to perform. (Of course, men designed and produced the instruments....thus....) "What have they done to my song?" --Melanie Safka "Yaaah, squeeze my lemon, baby" --Robert Plant/the Led Zepplin Some very popular, influencing music is chauvinist: some is also overwhelmingly cop-out (all that "I want my own little faraway world' crap). With a little imagination I can listen and ignore or "change" the lyric. I really thought for a while that a line from Let It Be was "nothin's gonna chain my world". But the dreamy tenor voice came through with "nothin gonna change my world." And that is too damn much -- that should sound like one of our people? Economics is a weird trick: success corrupts too many musicians. And stability, I fear, is a figment of our parent's imagination. Exit all that phony pleading about All I Need Is You and Please Love Me Forever, which is the prelude to If You Leave me I'll beat your ass. There's a new world coming, but it ain't me babe. New music for new people...I am a new person, according to yesterday... Feminism can be in music; there is music clearly expressed from a female viewpoint. But where are the women in music? In front of the band looking cute, squealing for a male body; in back of the band, a groupie; behind the scenes, never being credited or considered. Think of one rock group with a female instrumentalist (not a sexy singer): I thought of only Sly and the Family Stone; a woman is lead guitarist. (Name a female jazz developer? a female classical composer? a female symphony conductor?) This society reflects the usual male dominance through music even more than through the other fine arts. But maybe I see it that way because I'm so into music that I want to relate everything to it. I love to play music so much that I was trying to cooperate with oppressively egoistic men, just to make music. And it was a sad realization that I was left out of jam sessions, was unconsidered or put down when I tried to take the lead; I was not part of the group, I was a chick dammit. But I could not help it. I couldn't sing some of those words, couldn't help squirming at "Down by the river/I shot my baby, shot her dead." Sisters join the dance...we are full of music...do you wish it as I do, that women's joy, women's pride, women's love shall be the music in the streets...can you imagine a feminist rock group playing the music of Dancing In The Streets? Some of us in WLF would really like to get it together. If you are into music -- if you can play drums, piano, flute, bass, brasses -- if you write music -- if you love to sing--if you have instruments or equipment we can use -- get in touch with us in Iowa City WLF and spread your sound around. Cock-rock is not our vibration! Let's get it on, with sisters. Lay Lady Lay LAY OFF! [photo] Helping Sisters on the move We get letters from sisters who've seen our paper in distant parts of the country, who are thinking about moving to the Midwest. We want to help them but we need -- they need -- information from more sources than just Iowa City. We hope sisters in other groups in the Midwest can supply information about their towns: like job opportunities, housing availability, etc. -- whatever a woman would need to know about a place she's never known. Dear Sisters, We are a collective of women, each of whom has been strongly emotionally based in New York, and among us, I suppose, we've accumulated an incredible number of interim years here. Some of us have labored within and without the establishment and some are newly statistical adults. And now it's time to move out. New York is guilty of intense factionalism, the air is rotten (one doesn't quite see New Jersey from the West Side anymore), floods of freaks, some to organize and some for solace, abound, the Young Lords are offering viable help within Third World communities, certain presses are being smothered or obliterated and we feel a need to disseminate our revolutionary woman's consciousness. It's our intention to move to a middle or large size city with a substantial white working community. We want to organize working women and probably high school women. We want to offer alternatives through our life style, accurate information, and the continuity of growth possible when lives are freely blended. Where we're at is that many of us have commitments in N.Y. lasting a few months. People come through to rap with us but we don't always catch them. So we are scouting. Roughly we'd like to know what's happening: is there a women's center nearby and how functional is it --does it reach working women? Do you know of any women's living collective? Would we be shot, tarred and feathered or tolerated? Is any organizing along women's lines being done? Could you also be able to put us in touch with people to continue to answer these questions? Do you have word of Cedar Rapids or Des Moines? Maybe we could set up a dialogue wherein we could relay useful information to you about women's groups here and speak more specifically of what our thoughts and lives are doing now. Forward Sisters in the Struggle Women are the Revolution\ Love, Judith Judith Lindbloom 161 Lexington Ave. New York, N.Y. 10016 4 Vol. I No. 8 Ain't I