Babes With Guitars

^^Shatter the illusion why don't you.

Awesome track and a cracking cover by Ada!!! - Hats off to her, she nails it imo

Awesome track imo

Before the Bangles, before the Runaways, before the Go-Gos, even before B*Witched... there was:


(You're The One)

(25-02-2023 16:00 )Doddle Wrote:  They might just possibly be miming, but who the hell cares?


(Addicted to Love)

The stupid "controversy" around that video, remains a demonstration of having a fixed, sweeping view about a certain phenomenon, such as how women appear in visual images, and just imposing it on every instance.. what undermines such homogenised views, is when the women in those images speak for themselves, as they did in 2018 in The Top of the Pops Story of 1986

Also a three-part interview with them, from 2013, on this blog: https://www.noblemania.com/2013/07/the-g...-1986.html

Plus this 'Where Are They Now?' piece from 2018, which mentions the predictable, associated controversy about their being miming non-musicians: https://inthe1980s.com/robert-palmer-girls/

I've always had a thing about the woman on guitar on the right at the front, Julia Bolino.

However, as someone who likes a number of Robert Palmer songs, I wouldn't list it near the top of my favourites.

I think there are lots of great female guitarists out there, imo the most talented that I've seen so far (granted mostly she only does covers) is Elena Verrier. Her technique, accuracy, and her fluid motion of making the most difficult of solo's or guitar rhythms seem like it's a breeze in the park, seem almost effortless when she's playing them. Her many covers which include Slayer, Metallica, Sepultura and Death have been brilliant imo - plus she looks amazing! - Her cover of Metallica Blackened is awesome! - All down picking which is very difficult to do at the speed she does it!

Our very own Sophie Lloyd is another. Anna Cara is also someone who I've only recently discovered - her cover of Slayer Raining Blood is pretty awesome imo

https://youtu.be/5MCPZ9P0ulI

I forgot to link this: a 'Ladies Only Edition' of the Addicted to Love video!

I could go on and on about (women) guitarists I like, but off the top of my head.. Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, half-sisters, who were half of the original lineup of Throwing Muses, one of my favourite bands, and the former is one of my musical s/heroes. They each played lead or rhythm, depending on whose song it was.
Leslie Langston, the original bassist, was also brilliant, and indeed, with David Narcizo on drums, that lineup is one of the best of any band ever, in my view. (Releasing material of general brilliance, from 1986 to early 1990s: https://www.discogs.com/master/283881-Th...A-Doghouse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Doghouse )
The German band Can is one of few other bands, where every member is outstanding.

Tanya Donelly might be more widely known for bands of which she was part, outside Throwing Muses, as an early member of The Breeders, alongside Kim Deal, one of the original members of the Pixies, subsequently joined by her sister Kelley, and her own band, Belly.

I'm not necessarily a fan of guitarists who are virtuosic for its own sake.
I find Carlos Santana and Jeff Beck tedious, generally, and aesthetically barren.
Albeit, I was stunned in recent years, to discover that Santana had made an album (a very good one) with another of my musical s/heroes, Alice Coltrane, and I do like a number of Yardbirds singles, some or all of which probably feature Beck, and he might be in the lineup that appears in the film Blow Up.
Nonetheless, I think it's a tragedy that Can guitarist Michael Karoli, is much lesser known than Santana.
I can't really understand why anyone would rather listen to Santana or Beck, than Can or Frank Zappa, or free improvisation guitarist Derek Bailey, or many others, male and female, and not necessarily as 'obscure' as Caspar Brotzmann.

To conclude, on a 'non-virtuosic' note, another of my favourite bands is the Slits, (whose first, outstanding album, 'Cut', was produced by Dennis Bovell who I've previously mentioned in relation to his band Matumbi: https://www.babeshows.co.uk/showthread.p...pid2683829 and he also produced another classic 'post-punk' album 'Y' by the Pop Group whose singer, and wider pivotal figure, Mark Stewart, sadly died recently,) and their guitar-playing by Viv Albertine, is mostly rhythm, and another 'post-punk' band, with whom they 'shared' a drummer, the Raincoats, has guitar-playing I really rate, especially on their second album, 'Odyshape', and lastly (for now!) Bilinda Butcher, who plays rhythm alongside another of my guitar heroes, Kevin Shields, in another of my favourite bands, My Bloody Valentine.

Some who've appreciated my posts here, might be interested in my potted history of the music industry, via the Eurovision Song Contest(!), the first of several posts in the thread: https://www.babeshows.co.uk/showthread.p...pid2780940

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(The Warning)