40 Year Itch: A Binder Full of Women

We just realized we didn't have enough great music here from the women of 1972 so we went to a number of women's groups and said: ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.

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Some women sing soft. Others sing hard. And then there are those who can do both. Though best known for the softer 1973 Top 40 hit "I Can't Stand The Rain", Ann Peebles could sing up a storm. Her 1972 Hi Records album Straight From The Heart is full of gritty vocals over smooth Willie Mitchell production. "Slipped, Tripped And Fell In Love" only made it to #42 on the R and B charts but the album scored an A- for its "pre-ideological feminist rage" from the dean of rock critics, Robert Christgau.

 

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In October of 1972 Rita Coolidge released her third album,  the laid-back and charming This Lady's Not For Sale. The following year she married Kris Kristofferson who wrote the title track.In a move far more progressive than you'd ever expect,  Rita streams all of her albums on her website.

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Nicknamed "the female preacher", Lyn Collins was part of the James Brown revue in 1972. The Godfather of Soul produced her album Think ( About It) with the JB's playing back up. The album features the oft sampled hit title track. We dig a little deeper for "Wheels of Life".

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Feel Good is gaining momentum as a cult fave but I found listening to the whole thing in one sitting a little tiresome. Tina sings in her full blown funky style all the way through. That's All. The. Way. Through. Check out "The Chopper"

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The "Queen of Swedish Hammond Folk Groove" (at least that's the title of one of her albums), Merit Hemmingson interprets old Swedish folk tunes by scatting them over jazzy arrangements featuring -what else?-a Hammond organ.

Six Degrees of Separation: James Brown to The Grateful Dead

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1. In 1973 James Brown records "Down and Out in New York City" among other funky tracks for the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Black Caesar. His backing vocalist, "funky soul siren" Lyn Collins, sings lead on another track, "Mama Soul".

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2. A year earlier, Lyn Collins --nicknamed "The Female Preacher"--had a Top 10 hit composed by James Brown called "Think ( About It)". The part where JB shrieks "Yeah!Woo! " (heard over and over again  in the 1988 Rob Base &  DJ E-Z Rock hip hop hit "It Takes Two" ) is probably the most sampled section.

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3. In fact De La Soul samples "Yeah!Woo" for "Jenifa Taught Me ( Derwin's Revenge)" for their 1989 debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising.

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4. Another track sampled on "Jenifa" is the "hoo hoo hoos" from "Take the Money and Run", a Top 20 Single by the Steve Miller Band in 1976. (You know, the one you can sing "Sweet Home Alabama" to.) Steve Miller wrote all of his biggest hits except for one.

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5. Steve Miller took this 1973 unreleased five minute jam from blind guitarist Paul Pena and condensed it into a Top Ten hit in 1977. One of music entrepreneur Albert Grossman's gross misdemeanors was preventing the release of Pena's brilliant second album New Train, which featured musical contributions from Steve Miller Band keyboardist Ben Sidran ( who turned Miller onto "Jet Airliner"), The Persuasions and Jerry Garcia.

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6. That same year, 1973, Garcia's band The Grateful Dead release the first Dead album on their own label. Wake of the Flood features 1001Songs's favorite Dead song "Eyes of the World".