ReCOWmendations -- May 2023: Women Who Rock Docs
Tina Turner, Fanny, Poly Styrene, Donna Summer & a bonus pick
I had the great fortune of getting to see the legendary and influential band Fanny perform in San Francisco on May 20. Chances are that you, like me until about six months ago, had never heard of Fanny before.
It’s believed that Fanny are the first all-women rock band to release an album on a major label.1 It’s debatable whether they were really “the first” but what isn’t debatable is how talented, uncompromising and overlooked Fanny has been for more than 50 years. Hopefully that’s about to change. Bands like The Go-Go’s, Bangles and The Runaways all cite Fanny as a huge influence.
I could be wrong but I believe they’ve only performed a handful of times since the mid-70s, so getting to see them (and I only found out about the show one day prior) felt like witnessing an important part of rock and roll history.
The concert in San Francisco coincided with the airing of a new documentary about the band on PBS stations in the US, but it’s also available to rent on Amazon Prime. Which is exactly what I did four hours after seeing Fanny perform that afternoon.
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart, Fanny: The Right To Rock should appeal to both new and long-time fans of the band.
Watching the film, it’s hard not to become incensed at how little respect and acknowledgement Fanny received by the music industry. Not just at the time, but ever since. How much of this was due to racism (Jean, June and Brie are all Filipino American), homophobia (June and Alice are/were out lesbians) and sexism (a whole lot of that), gets explored in the film. But instead of focusing on the struggles Fanny faced during their heyday (1968-1975 approximately), Hart wisely decides to highlight the accomplishments of the band, focusing on their exceptional skills as musicians and songwriters.
I was amazed at the range of genres Fanny incorporate into their sound. From psychedelic to hard rock to soul to funk to folk to jazz and everything in between. There’s a ton of live and behind-the-scenes footage from their early days mixed in with newer clips of the band, reunited again after almost 50 years and recording a brand new album.
It’s easy to react with incredulousness watching this, seeing how little press and recognition Fanny received over the decades. Even with huge, iconic artists like David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Todd Rundgren (who produced Fanny’s 4th album Mother’s Pride in 1973) singing Fanny’s praises, they never received their just dues and still remain unknown to most.
Thankfully there are brilliant and dedicated filmmakers out there trying to rectify this imbalance.
And Substack writers too: my friend Charles Hsu wrote a piece about Fanny a few months ago on Zapato’s Jam: Music Without Borders. Check it out here:
After watching Fanny: The Right To Rock, I knew that I wanted to focus my ReCOWmendations this month on Women Who Rock Docs.
Below are three more of my recent favorites, plus a 4-part documentary series on MGM+/Epix, all of which are essential viewing for anyone wanting to know more about the women whose influence on rock and roll is undeniable and under-appreciated.
When choosing which documentaries I would feature, I went back and forth about including Tina, which aired on HBO in 2021. I wanted to choose films that were as groundbreaking as the artists they explored. I didn’t think Tina did that. I found it a fairly traditional, and the talking-head style direction felt a bit rote to me. But it did incorporate amazing concert footage from throughout Tina’s illustrious career and that alone is worth the price of admission.
When I had the idea for this piece, it was two days before her death. It would be wrong not to include the film here. Tina was the ‘Queen of Rock’ and her impact on the evolution of music is (arguably) unparalleled. There are tons of great tributes to her out there; here’s a link to one that I found particularly strong.
Perhaps I was expecting something a bit grittier in Tina, something that pushed boundaries the way Tina did. But as free and impassioned as Tina appeared on record and in concert, there might be a second, less obvious interpretation to the title of her 1984 breakthrough album Private Dancer. Privacy seemed like something she didn’t get most of her life, and I would bet spending her last 28 years in Switzerland had as much to with craving solitude as spending more time with Erwin Bach, her German boyfriend/husband.
Perhaps, after so many years in the public spotlight, having to deal with constant racism and sexism from the industry and the press (and the public too), Tina was finally able to keep her private life private.
There are a few recent interview clips of Tina incorporated in the film, but for the most part, her story is told through archival footage and other artists and performers who knew her or were heavily influenced by her.
Clearly, the abuses she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband Ike Turner needed to be addressed, but I feel like that section of the film goes on much longer than it needs to. Especially in light of Tina saying early on that she didn’t want those experiences to define her or take away attention from her accomplishments.
Also, during the segment featuring her 1984 multi-platinum album Private Dancer, the filmmakers do not mention that Cy Curnin and Jamie West-Oram of The Fixx played on the songs “I Might Have Been Queen” and “Better Be Good to Me” and are in the music videos. I know, it’s an odd criticism, but as a huge fan of The Fixx, I was hoping for a sentence or two acknowledging them and how they came to work with Tina Turner.2
Ultimately, despite Tina not being in my top 10 favorite rock docs, I do think the film is essential viewing. Tina is a legend (I can’t bring myself to use past tense yet) and her impact on the rock, soul and pop music industries is incomparable and will always be.
I just watched Love to Love You, Donna Summer on HBO (I mean “Max”; I can’t accept this new name) last night, so my response is more immediate than the other films.
I knew very little about Donna Summer “the artist” or “the person” before watching this documentary. And I definitely learned a lot more about both afterwards, but as the film illustrates, Donna was not the type of person to talk about herself much. Not even to her daughters.
The film, directed by Donna Summer’s daughter, Brooklyn Sudano (along with Roger Ross Williams), reveals adult Brooklyn discovering details and anecdotes about Summer’s life along with the audience. This gives the film an added depth and complexity.
Donna admits more than once that she never felt comfortable revealing her true self in her songs and so would create personas — the sexy vixen, the ultra-confident diva — to allow her to explore a wide array of characters.
The film, to its credit (and possible detriment) does not resort to a talking-head style structure. Most of the commentary we hear is audio only. Including many interviews with Donna herself that are incorporated as a sort of narration. The downside to this technique is that I sometimes got confused as to who was talking, as the audio clips were not always credited.
Like Tina, Love to Love You, Donna Summer includes lots of rare live performance footage. And incorporates behind-the-scenes clips of Donna while recording her iconic albums in the studio. I had already viewed Summer as an iconic singer and artist, but these clips cemented this belief and allowed me to see how unique and talented she was.
I was aware that Donna Summer died in 2012 at age 63 from lung cancer. But the impact of her death when finally revealed in the film, is shocking and tragic none-the-less.
As a huge fan of punk rock I was familiar with the iconic band X-Ray Spex. But I didn’t know that much about them — their history or the history of vocalist Poly Styrene (Marianne Joan Elliott-Said)3.
So when Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché came out in 2021, most everything I learned in the film was new to me.
Like Love To Love You, Donna Summer, I Am a Cliché was also produced and directed by the film subject’s daughter: in this case, Styrene’s only child, Celeste Bell. Paul Sng (Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain, Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle) co-directed.
The film features Bell exploring her mother's history and legacy through archival footage and interviews with her peers and fans.
Loosely structured around Bell going though photo albums and her mother’s memorabilia, Bell celebrates and honors her mother, but does not shy away from exposing Poly’s less-than-ideal parenting skills.
But Bell makes sure not to make the film about her — she entered the world way past the year(s) her mother was in the spotlight. She only later learned about X-Ray Spex, and the impact her mother’s short-but-powerful career had, not just on the punk rock scene at the time, but how it directly led to the proliferation of women and women of color in punk and alternative rock scenes in the years to come.
Styrene was unafraid to speak up for women and women’s rights, despite near constant pushback from not just a misogynistic industry, but a misogynistic society. The film doesn’t shy away from revealing Styrene’s demons, mostly in the form of her struggles with with mental health issues, her personal identity and relationships.
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché is essential viewing for anyone who wants to learn more about an important woman who shaped the future of rock n’ roll.
Women Who Rock (2022) is a 4-part documentary series on MGM plus (originally on Epix) directed by famed rock journalist and filmmaker Jessica Hopper.
These sorts of all-encompassing documentaries inevitably leave out important artists and give short shrift to others. It’s impossible for that not to be the case. To truly do a “Women Who Rock” series, it would have to be at least 200 hours long.
But, given the time constraints, it’s impressive how much is covered here. It’s loosely told chronologically, but does jump around a bit at times. Starting with Mavis Staples, and then going back to Big Mama Thornton, the first episode mostly covers the ‘50s and ‘60s. Episode two mostly features artists of the ‘70’s (Heart, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, Fanny, etc.). Episode three covers the ‘80s and the influence of MTV and “image” obsession. And episode four focuses on the ‘90s, delving deeper into the women of country (Shania Twain) and hip-hop (Missy Elliott).
To share a complete list of all the women featured in this 4 hour series would go on for pages.
And half the fun is guessing and discovering who might be featured next. The listing says this is season 1 of the series, so here’s hoping there’s a season 2 coming soon.
MGM plus offers a 7-day free trial (I did mine through Amazon Prime) so you can watch this series without having to pay for yet another streaming service.
Are there any women of rock documentaries I’ve left out that you’d like to highly recommend to your fellow worm-heads? Something off the beaten path that has especially pleased your brain? I can think of several but wanted to keep this post only to films released in the last two years. (I haven’t seen the Go-Go’s or Sinead O’Connor docs yet.)
Have you seen the ones I’ve mentioned above? What did you think?
Leave any feedback or suggestions in the comments! Let’s dialogue!
Music and film make the world go round. Let’s keep listening and watching.
-Steve
"ROCKRGRL Honors Fanny, Legendary Female Band, at Berklee". Berklee College of Music. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008. - “Though Fanny was not the first all-female rock band to sign with a major label (after Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the Pleasure Seekers), they were the first to release an album on a major label[9] and one of the first to achieve top 40 success on the Billboard Hot 100.[15] Fanny's music was influenced by the Beatles and the Funk Brothers, the loose studio musician collective on Motown records.[47]”
The story, as far as I have learned, is that Rupert Hine, who produced The Fixx’ Reach The Beach (1983) and Phantoms (1984), and also was producer for Private Dancer, introduced the artists to each other. West-Oram is credited as co-writer for “I Might Have Been Queen.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Might_Have_Been_Queen
According to her wikipedia page:
As a teenager, Styrene was a hippie. When she was 15 she ran away from home with £3 in her pocket, and hitchhiked from one music festival to another, staying at hippie crash pads. Thinking of this as a challenge to survive, her adventure ended when she stepped on a rusty nail while bathing in a stream and had to be treated for sepsis.[5]
Having been 'an itinerant traveller, alternative fashion designer and a failed pop-reggae singer',[10] she saw Sex Pistols perform at the Pier Pavilion in Hastings on her nineteenth birthday, 3 July 1976,[11][12] and decided to form the punk band X-Ray Spex.
I thought "Pretend We're dead" about L7 was well done.
Wonderful column, Steve, and definitely some new stuff to add to my "to do" list (which is getting woefully long!) And thank you for the shout-out to my article on Fanny. I also read the piece you linked to by Carefree Black Girl. I agree, it's powerful and makes an important point: We can't just use our trauma as a stepping stone. Sometimes we never fully get over it. Admitting that is also the first step to having compassion for all the other damaged people on this planet--which is everyone.
I started writing up the Fanny concert but you beat me to it!!!! Thank you again for the heads-up about it. What struck me about them is the complete ease they felt on stage, despite barely having had a chance to rehearse--they were even joking about it. When they had a false start on one song, it didn't fluster them at all, they just went back and restarted. Complete pros. I guess 50 years of performing will do that!@ And they didn't seem at all jaded, only grateful and happy to be there with their fans.
I spoke with Brie after the show, and we touched on the various kinds of discrimination they faced. She made an interesting point: The discrimination was largely because of their gender. Their status as minority or gay barely entered into it, not because people were more tolerant, but because such things were SO far out of peoples' normal awareness that they didn't even have a way to process it. Now, as June says, they are on the cutting edge of battling age-ism.
If I may, one more link--this is to my article before the one on Fanny. I mention Sister Rosetta, Goldie and the Gingerbreads, Lesley Gore and a few others. https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/rock-and-roll-women-1-pioneers I did follow up columns on The Runaways, Joan Jett and many others. I've got to watch Women who Rock--hadn't seen it and yes, I'm curious who they included!
Finally, as you know, but for your readers who get this far into this comment--Women are taking over the rock, punk and metal scenes in much of the world. Even as fans of my generation moan about the "death" of rock, it is alive and well in the rest of the world, and it is women who are carrying the torch.
Thanks again for a great column!