This summer I have attempted some musical time-travel by divulging into what past generations have listened to. This began when my boyfriend and I stumbled across an original pressing of The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed. Then I began to explore 60s music and it lead me to two ama
zing female super stars. I had always heard these dynamos in the background of some childhood memories, but I never gave them the attention they deserve. I realized their music is still completely valid and important to our angsty over communicative lives and everyone owes it to themselves to listen to them.
First and (in my humble opinion) foremost is none other than Carole King. I can almost guarantee you that this fabulous lady got your mom through some tough shit in her own adolescence. But her are still utterly relevant and relatable to the countless dramas that plague us today. The timeless trials and tribulations of finding love, moving away, trying a long distance relationship, and the triumphs of friendship and really great sex are all talked about in her songs. In her life King fell in and out of love with other artists in the music industry, raised her daughters and overcame her crippling stage fright to become a phenomenal solo artists as well as bad ass working womyn with a y!
No one can give me a pep talk that will get me more jazzed than “Beautiful” when I walk to interviews or to the gym or really any daily social interaction. Perhaps I have had an overly emotional summer, but Carole King is the perfect prescription to help you when a big ole case of the feels comes your way.
In the mood for some raw and tender folk?
Janis Ian is a tremendous role model of mine. Among about a million other achievements, she had a hit single #14 on Billboard’s hot 100 at the age of 13. At 13 I was still “growing into” my baby fat and thought Etnies were a socially acceptable form of footwear, so it is astounding to me that she had not only written a song—people actually liked it, A LOT. She continued to create and perform throughout her life, winning a Grammy for her single “At Seventeen” in 1975 and then again for the best spoken word album in 2013.
Her songs will pull at your heart strings, empower you, and just make you feel good. Janis was a pioneer in many ways, she did not just stick to music and visual performance, Ian was a successful columnist and science fiction author. Some accredit her over-creative artistic sensibilities to her up-bringing. Both parents worked with children in the arts and do to their liberal beliefs she spent many years of her young life under surveillance in the era of the “red scare.”
She is folksy and powerful and living proof that you are never too anything to create; too young, too old, too girly, too old school, too different, and especially not too afraid.
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