For some reason I just got the urge to look up videos by Fanny, an early ’70s, female-fronted blooz-rock band I’d vaguely heard about for years but never heard a lick of—nor saw. Here’s what I found:
Lord almighty, these gals, led by the sisters Millington, were Heart a few years before the Wilson sisters got their act in gear! OK, they’re lacking the delicate balance of firepower and finesse that would characterize the finest works of Ann and Nancy, but Jean, the bass-playing lead singer’s hair couldn’t be better conditioned and her crocheted vest is to die for! Harmony-singing guitarist June provides the requisite hard-rockin’ support and possibly pioneers the art of head whipping.
Drummer Alice de Buhr doesn’t get enough face time, but I like her no-nonsense approach to fills (see her work during the guitar solo at around the 2:20 mark). The unsung hero of the band, however, may be keyboardist Nickey Barclay. Her passionate organ solo on “Special Care” is the highlight of that song (it turns out she was briefly a member of Joe Cocker‘s Mad Dogs & the Englishman, if that organ part sounds familiar)—and how ’bout that hairdo?
In case you thought these ladies were 2-boogie wonder, here they are on Sonny and Cher’s show (using their drums, no less):
One more thing: does that hollow-body guitar look huge on June Millington or what??
oops, it looks like my first post never showed.
I have written extensively about Fanny, a band I admire greatly. I am stunned that they are a mere historical footnote, because to this day they are still the most musically accomplished of all of the all-female rock bands. They fell a bit short of what they needed to be in order to have become famous: their songwriting was a bit hit and miss, they relied too much on Nickey Barclay’s blues-rock and not enough on the Millington sisters’ better pop-rock and hard rock, and had little confidence in their own songs (their albums didn’t have a lot of covers, but they always seemd to be used as side-openers.) If they had written one bonafide hit things might have been different, but instead they have a lot of great album tracks and five very good but not-quite-great records. Maybe they needed that extra little bit to achive the kind of acclaim they deserved.
The thing I admire most about them is that they did everything 100% through their own talent and hard work. They never once pandered sexually or acted in any way the way men seemed to think women in the industry should act; they didn’t succumb to trends of their time (except for some glammmy clothes during the later Patty Quatro version–but still no cheap sexuality.) Can you imagine an all-female band today who doesn’t appear for some photo shoot in their underwear?
Right on, pudman13! With way more experience digging the band than I did you better explain some of the humble strengths that I was trying to get at. It’s a bit of an insult that they’re compared to nothing but “all-female” bands when they have more in common with some hard-rocking bands that happened to include some guys, or even bands of that time and musical ilk that included no women. And yes, from what I heard, the main weakness of the band was the lack of some killer songs.
Fanny got some positive reviews in Rolling Stone in the early ’70s but even then the magazine noted that people had a hard time taking an all-girl rock band seriously. They were pretty good players and got some minor airplay with a cover of “Badge” and the original “Charity Ball”, but as you say, the songwriting wasn’t quite enough to sustain any momentum.
Can I get an amen on the following: most women look really goofy playing electric guitar and bass. The question is why — is it because most guitar/bass wielding is basically dick substitution? It just seems to me that chicks who play in a “female” style look weird and “wrong” — and chicks who ape the “male” style do, too (for different reasons).
I realize this is gonna win me the insensitive ape award today, but please understand I’m pointing out two things: the guitar-wielding difference my eyes can see, and the weird way this sight makes me feeeel. Can you get to that?
And I suppose most guys look really goofy sewing and cooking, right? I think Aimee Mann would have a few things to say to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uejh-bHa4To
I’m willing to accept your sincere feeling on this issue and not judge you, HVB. I know you’re a gentleman and a scholar beneath that rough exterior.
1. I think a lot of dudes our age are still not used to seeing women wielding an electric axe, so it’s still unusual for many of us, if not necessarily “goofy.”
2. Even though a lot of male rockers are tiny, electric guitars often seem larger – to me – when strapped on women. The necks seem to stick out further.
3. The Millington sisters, in that first clip, also seem to start out with a reverance for their axes that seem to be characteristic of women guitarists as well as early ’70s prog-folk-blues guys. I don’t know for sure what that’s all about, but it seems like they’re trying to start out with “good form,” as their guitar teachers impressed upon them. Maybe women and prog-folk-blues guys are generally “more compliant” with the rules of good form. However, 2 minutes into the opening song the sisters seem to me as comfortable and natural with their guitar presence as any guy on guitar would be.
Am I picking up on some of what you’re seeing?
I like Aimee Mann, but hell, she looks uncomfortable in her own skin let alone wielding a guitar.
They’re competent, but there’s no tension to this stuff. Part of that is the blooz genre itself – smoothing or fuzzing out the edges, I suppose. I agree with the idea that a good song, or even something with some built-in dynamics or an interesting riff, they’d probably be good.
I don’t understand Bakshi’s beef. And by beef I do mean steer or cow.
Mod, the issue of comparative instrument size may be a very big part of the problem here. But I think there’s also a stylistic difference in picking and fretting technique, too. The first few moments watching the bass player were kind of squirm-inducing for me. It just looked like there was a lack of confidence on display at some level — like she wasn’t playing the instrument like it was being *mastered*. Am I wrong?
All I can say is…John Sebastian is always such a pleasant young man.
Eh?
Seriously, Mockcarr? That surprises me. I think Mod is picking up what I’m laying down. I mean no disrespect to womyn-kind here. I just think most women (not all!) look different from most men when they play their electrified fretted instruments, and it bugs me a bit that they don’t adhere to rock “conventions” in this regard. The former observation is a matter of fact, the second is admittedly a matter of my own hang-ups, whatever they may be. I suspect you’d feeeel the same way if you saw a woman “throwing like a girl” on the Yankees roster, even if she was a brilliant fielder.
I’m telling you, HVB, I saw the same thing in the opening measures and I think it has to do with the impulse to show compliance with “proper” technique. Once the song gets going the sisters get into a way more natural groove. There was probably a lot of pressure on them to play those instruments “pretty well,” as Sebastian put it. They were concentrating extra hard at the to prove their worth as rock musicians to apes like our rocking, ultra-manly forefathers.
I think their contemporary prog-folk-blues guys faced similar scrutiny. The boys in Genesis weren’t hittin’ the pubs and pickin’ up birds with the lads from Led Zeppelin; they were reading fantasy novels and studying for their maths exams. They were also a new breed in rock. Don’t hold it against them.
BTW, I LOVE what mockcarr has to say about this genre, in general, smoothing out rough edges. I actually find that part of their work kind of endearing, like they’re tending to the blues rather than living them.
Should we be surprised that women might not be interested in appearing to “master” their instruments?
Maybe it looks a bit odd when a woman strikes a pose like the chick from White Zombie or the bass player in Belly (Gail Greenwood?) where they are striking a heavy metal pose and they appear to be using the bass as a phallus.
But there are plenty of dudes who look awkward holding a guitar so why should the women be held to a different standard?
I have noticed that a lot of women seem to favor Teles and SGs and I always thought it was because they can be lighter than say a Les Paul, but maybe the size has something to do with it.
And I’ve never seen a woman play a Firebird. Is that the quintessential “Man’s Guitar”?
What’s your OED say about “mistress” as a verb?
I might have to retract that comment about women playing SGs. I swear I’ve seen that a lot before but now the only one I can think of is Carrie Brownstein (who, incidentally, looks masterful while doing it).
I searched google images to confirm my recollection but only found one other picture that I thought would qualify, and, upon closer inspection, that turned out to be a picture of Todd Rundgren.
3. trans.
†a. to mistress it : to play the part of mistress, have the upper hand. Obs.
1716 R. Palmer Let. 25 Aug. in M. M. Verney Verney Lett. (1930) II. xxii. 43 We here are in a very Hopefull way, this being my Wive’s ninth day, and I hope she will be able to Mistress it in the family in a little time.
1819 ‘R. Rabelais’ Abeillard & Heloisa 11 Care not a farthing, but resolv’d To mistress it with men they lov’d.
b. To treat or dominate as a mistress.
1904 M. Hewlett Queen’s Quair i. viii. 117 You are too masterful, my girl.‥ I do not choose to be mistressed by a maid of honour.
†4. trans. To call or address as ‘Mistress’. Obs.
1802 H. Martin Helen of Glenross III. 74 Not but I am surprised too to be ‘mistressed’, and to hear them talking of my child.
5. trans. To become mistress of (an art, subject, etc.).Usually used humorously or ironically after master v. 7b.
1856 C. Reade Never too Late II. xxii. 218 This one is a first-rate gilder, she mistressed it entirely in three days.
1963 M. McCarthy Group 105 Had she mastered (mistressed?) the idiom.
1991 F. Cooper Jay loves Lucy (BNC) 81 ‘What’s this?’ said Piggy-wig, straddling a chair with the triumph of one who has mistressed a Zanussi automatic.
If she could hit, she could play. That’s the AL, dude.
Looking different isn’t bad until someone gets hurt, and then they blame the teacher.
A woman from a distance can look very much like a skinny guy. Are you telling me if Brian May was 5′ 3″ you might not mistake him for an ugly woman after six or seven bevvies?
A strong contender for COMMENT OF THE MONTH!
Gotta say, until now I assumed Fanny was a joke, but, frankly, they are not bad at all. Good to know.
John Sebastian is the spitting image of David Wallace from “The Office”
BTW, “Fanny” in British English is a vagina.
What about when PJ Harvey holds a guitar? Yes it dwarfs her but doesn’t she look manly?
Polly Jean looks fine playing guitar.
I have a distinct memory of Fanny playing on the Mike Douglas show, circa 1974 or 75. I remember them doing a glammy song with an eponymous shout chorus. Did anyone else see that? I haven’t been able to find a clip anywhere on the internet. For some reason it left a lasting impression, but I assumed all along they were a Runaways-esque flash in the pan and didn’t know anything about their early 70’s crocheted vest history until today.
OK, with a little research I found the song I remember wasn’t eponymous at all. It was a cover of “I’ve Had It” which my 11-year old mind must have interpreted as “I’m Fanny”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XTw53BAgak&feature=related
They had apparently been signed up by Neil Bogart by this point. I guess that explains the less subtle Look.
And this may have been when the Quatro sister joined. Did they write this song? I think I only know it from Alex Chilton’s version on Like Flies on Sherbert.
I’ve Had It was a hit for The Bell Notes in 1959. On Like Flies… it is credited to Orbison-Wilson. It appears to be same song, but I haven’t been able to find any connection between Roy Orbison and The Bell Notes.
This must have been the Patti Quatro version of Fanny. They had their only top 40 hit, something called “Butter Boy,” at about that time. That was when they would have been somewhat glammy. June Millington was no longer in the band at that point. I kind of like the last Fanny album (other than the dreadful Stones cover mentioned earlier) but it’s quite different from the others.