7 Songs: By Amazing Women

A playlist featuring some of my all-time favorite women in music.

The lovely and talented Lykke Li.

Music would not be the diverse, magical world that it is without the contributions of women. From Billie Holiday to Taylor Swift, these women have inspired us and consoled us. Carole King proved to us that women don’t belong in the background. Aretha Franklin reminded us that women deserve respect. Madonna taught us the importance of striving to love yourself. Courtney Love taught us that we don’t need to be quiet and demure. Phoebe Bridgers reminds us that there is still a place for contemplation in the soundbite society. St. Vincent shows us that we can reach our potential in spite of everything that stands in our way, even when those barriers happen to reside within us.

There are too many women in music to ever note them all; women who’ve touched our hearts or spoken to us in a memorable or significant way. This got me to reminiscing about some of the women who have ensured my journey through the trials and tribulations of life has been a little sweeter.

Today’s playlist is a brief compilation of some of the woman that have made my life a better place. They’ve been to my parties, kept me company on road trips and they have comforted me when I’ve felt lonely.

Some of these artists might also be on your list, if you made one. Which amazing women have had an impact on you? Would you be able to limit the list to just seven? If you do make a list (you should!), please comment below on who you’re including and why.

There is so much to appreciate about these amazing women, each from different moments in time or different genres. They share one element though: they are all wicked brilliant.

I feel particularly fortunate to be alive on this planet during the era of Gillian Welch. The guitar and banjo share my opinion, seeming to vie for her attention, perhaps knowing her fingertips are always eager to release their full potential. Her voice is lovely and low, with a twinge of melancholy. One of the few times I’ve been lucky enough to sit in her audience she played her gorgeous album, The Harrow & The Harvest. She laughed as she recalled her mother’s reaction to the album. She said the songs felt pretty lighthearted upon first listen, but once the lyrics soaked in, she realized how dark they actually were. This is an accurate description of Welch’s ability to balance darkness and light through her music. Sadness and pain are expressed with such delicacy that they become just another beautiful nuance of life. Dark Turn of Mind is a flawless example of that gentle balance; it’s a song in celebration of being blessed with a quiet, contemplative mind.

🎶 You know some girls are bright as the morning and some have a dark turn of mind🎶

Neko Case is a lyrical genius, I’m pretty sure. She writes clever, poetic stories carried by music reminiscent of classic country, the blues and honky tonk. She modernizes them, makes them more dreamy. That in and of itself would be enough, but she doesn’t relent; Neko may actually harbor the ghost of Patsy Cline in her thick, intoxicating voice. To hear her vocals live is an unforgettable experience. She has an affinity with brief, sometimes crass, storytelling onstage; she pulls you into reality with an amusing antidote and then sends you back into the ether as her voice surrounds and transports you. It would be easier for me to solve a complex math problem than to choose which song to spotlight, so I decided to add Lady Pilot because she’s singing about the desert southwest. I imagine she was on a flight from Las Vegas to Tucson. Random criteria for selection, I know, but it’s a great song close to my heart and it reminds me of home.

🎶 Stars can’t fight city lights, they’ve turned their backs on us🎶

If I had a time machine, I would be at a Nina Simone concert so fast I’d probably get the bends. Imagine a tiny little New York jazz club, the clang of dishes, occasional noise from the traffic outside and the sultry voice of Ms. Simone soothing your tired, aching soul. I think of Nina and suddenly the urge to put an old jazz record on the turntable, light a midnight cigarette (even though I don’t smoke them), and gaze at the glowing neon city below starts to come over me. Or she makes me think of Tuscany because her music is in one of my favorite movies, which was filmed there. Or I think of the long list of bands that have covered Feeling Good. To be honest, I don’t really know if that was originally her song, but I know she wore it best. No matter the mood, Nina Simone’s music is transporting. Wherever it does take you, the ride will no doubt be enjoyable.

🎶I put a spell on you ‘cause you’re mine. You better stop the things you do, I ain’t lying🎶

Lana Del Rey is an expert at guiding any woman to her inner sexpot. She plays the Lolita with pride and revels in the power it gives her. She describes a world full of wonder and awe; the small town girl fresh off the bus in Hollywood. Then she goes and toys with misogyny, chauvinism and abuse as though they were inescapable and thus just minor character flaws we women must make peace with. Or learn to love. Even if you can’t relate, this window into the mind of the sexy jazz singer, the rebellious teenager, or the trophy on the arm of a wealthy old man is captured in a way that doesn’t make you resent her. She reminds us that whichever pronouns you might choose, there is and always has been a game of sorts going on between the sexes. There are women and there are men, and many of them relate in ways that do not align with ideological expectations currently en vogue. She is the type of woman who enjoys a compliment from a man, rather than finding it offensive.

🎶I don’t know how you convince them and get them, babe, I don’t know what you do, It’s unbelievable🎶

Fiona Apple captured me from the get go because I was at the perfect age to passionately relate to her primary subject matter: the angst of youth and the drama of relationships. She has always seemed to me the musical equivalent of Anais Nin. As Anais paired her intellect with white-heat spontaneity, Fiona pairs the weight and glamour of the piano chanteuse with poignant moments of lust and anger. They both famously display a stubborn refusal to comply with traditions, preferring to live true to themselves rather than however society might prefer. I’m drawn to these rebellious women who speak their minds, expose their weaknesses and refuse to promote anything other than what they have learned to be true. Ready or not, agree or disagree, right or wrong, you can “kick me under the table all you want, I won’t shut up”.

🎶I’m trying to find a place I belong and I suddenly feel like a different person🎶

Rihanna is certainly a staple in the cycle of celebrity, materialism and excess that fuels American life. She makes many of the things that I resent about society look cool. Yet somehow, she has avoided my animosity. She is a songbird under whose spell I have fallen and can’t get out. Her bangers are classics; I love to go dancing and I am always happy when I hear her voice fluttering above the beats. She possesses a swagger that melts cooly into her music; she is a badass. She does temper all of the glitz of the limelight with a career-long commitment to charitable causes. But then she sings songs of worship to the almighty dollar. She confuses me, so I have chosen to file her in my “guilty pleasures” file. We may not share all the same values, but that’s ok. What the world needs now is for people with differing beliefs and values to connect on what they have in common. In this case, all the good music that would never have been born without her. Almost everyone knows Rihanna and has their favorite songs already, so my choice here is inconsequential. I picked Higher for this list because I am absolutely enamored with her voice as it reaches the edge of breakup. The song is short and sweet, but damn it’s intense.

🎶This whiskey got me feelin’ pretty, so pardon if I’m impolite🎶

I cheated; I snuck two of my favorite songwriters in with one song. I was not exactly successful at limiting the list to the number of women indicated in the title. I happened upon Sharen Van Etten and Angel Olsen at about the same time, long after they first began their careers. Because I was a little late, I had quite a backlog of material to explore (which was a pleasure for sure). Both women write very personally and candidly about their lives and the world they see around them. They both have strong, full, honey coated voices to sing about the drama and beauty of contemporary life. Luckily for fans like me, they have felt a compulsion to join their super-voices together both by collaborating for songs and a recent tour. On this acoustic version of Like I Used To the harmony of their vocals is nothing less than fetching. I just adore the idea of returning to habits from the past as a way to reclaim youth, freedom, as a way to reclaim things you might have lost along the way. It is about turning corners, making progress, and getting better through embracing and accepting yourself.

🎶Sell my past for a way to sing and have something left to say🎶

More cheating. I can’t help it. I like to have seven song playlists, but I really believe covers shouldn’t count (because they aren’t an exploration of an artist’s organic contributions). This is why you’ll notice ten songs when I told you there would be seven.

The first is Time In A Bottle covered by Lykke Li. A great song made even better through her perspective. There is a texture to Li’s voice that is easy to hear but difficult to describe. Hearing her sing live is exhilarating; the purity of her voice is enchanting and also forbidding at times. Her albums swing between pop/dance music and deep, dark, airy ballads. I’m a fan of her inventiveness; she takes standard pop and makes it uniquely her own. I’m also intrigued by the quiet, open space that seems to lie just underneath her ghostly ballads.

The second cover is PJ Harvey’s take on Leonard Cohen’s Who By Fire. PJ has a special place in my heart; her songs have been with me since my teenage years, like a long-time friend. I’ve essentially grown up with her voice in my ear, she’s been a little angel (or devil) on my shoulder. Harvey has evolved as a musician and song writer along the way, turning her pain into the most lovely songs. She’s channelled the pain of breakups into her music. She’s channelled the suffering of women, children and the struggles of entire countries into her music. She is the Patti Smith of her generation, fearless, inspiring and a force to be reckoned with when on stage. A true rock ’n’ roll powerhouse.