After I finally finished going through all of the comments on Stereogum's list of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs (say that ten times fast!), I wrote nine posts about it. Actually, there were nine that used that heading, but "What about Bowie" was a direct outgrowth of that project, even though I was very clear at the time that I considered it to be separate.
I am going to list all of those posts at the end, but I am not going to re-examine all of them now.
I do want to get back to the one about women rocking, though, because women who play guitar wonderfully were so consistently overlooked, by both Rolling Stone magazine and by Stereogum commenters.
I dove in to women in rock. There were some I knew already, and I found some new ones. Also, because it was guitar, there were some that didn't seem to fit. Some of the tracks that really rocked, I thought did so more on the basis of the percussion, and that's a different thing.
One thing that was important to me was a growing realization that it is really easy to discount women and automatically defer to men, and I don't want to be a part of that.
The other thing, and maybe the various blog posts are the greatest testament to that, is that this was my first big music project completed, and it was an accomplishment. I learned things. I started hearing things differently, and making connections more quickly.
I can better recommend bands that you might like now. I like that.
The "Women Rock" playlist is not necessarily the best introduction to women playing guitar, but some of that was shifting goals. Reviewing things now, I can see that I probably need to do a few additional playlists, just for my benefit.
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/04/women-rock-revisited.html
The next week of songs does pull from that, but it also pulls from things that came up later, including this article from last year that I really enjoyed:
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-female-guitarists/
That gives us the first song, "Highly Strung". It feels like a nice transition, because I did have a vague sense that there should have been more Steve Vai the first time around, and Orianthi definitely rocks.
That could be reason enough to include it, but what I really love is its playfulness. Something I really liked about the Dragonforce video last week was the humor in the middle.
"I'm just going to drink this while you shred. Oh, it's my turn to shred? That works too."
This is part of what makes it awesome when best friends form bands. (I know some great bands hate each other, and that's a shame. Especially when they're brothers.)
Here are the daily songs for the week:
“Highly Strung”
by Orianthi, featuring Steve Vai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7b-_YcACuQ
“Crazy On You”
by Heart -- A classic, known before and appreciated last time around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7inhwScSQ
“One Shot of
Poison” by Lita Ford -- Last time I knew Lita Ford but not this song. I was glad to find it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqQ0R7OXYVY
“Divine Hammer”
by The Breeders -- I finally got around to listening to The Breeders. It seemed important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUiP5eyx3NM
“Rebel Girl”
by Bikini Kill -- One of my discoveries from last time. It did make the playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0oeqAQ1qE8
“Demolition
Boys” by Girlschool -- I found this the last time around, and then kind of forgot about it. My bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQhJSQJOdv8
“I Love Rock N
Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts -- I knew this song and artist before, but I can still appreciate. It's a good way to end, because I agree with the song's premise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUxsP8ED_cM
I love rock and roll.
Other "Greatest Guitar Songs" posts:
The trouble with internet comments: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-trouble-with.html
What were they thinking?: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-what-were-they.html
You get a gold star!: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-you-get-gold-star.html
Mission Creep: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-mission-creep.html
Women rock: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-women-rock.html
History lesson: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-history-lesson.html
Bridges and Riffs: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-bridges-and-riffs.html
Excuse me, you left out my favorites: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-excuse-me-you.html
The Sampler: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-sampler.html
What about Bowie?: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-about-bowie.html
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