Liz Phair releases "Hey Lou" single

And Rock Hall of Fame tries to leave Guyville

Hey, it’s not Tuesday, is it? No, you didn’t lose a whole week. As I mentioned back in January, I’ll be publishing a bit more frequently here. I’m still working on the pacing and topics for these additional publications. Right now, these additional posts are available to everyone but it may give some idea of the kind of thing paying subscribers might expect to see in their mailboxes periodically.

—Marshall—

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a stone-cold Lou Reed fanatic. And I am also a huge fan and admirer of Liz Phair--I read all the buzz surrounding Exile In Guyville in 1993 and I had to go out and get it. The conceit of the record is that it was written as a song-by-song response to the tracks on the Rolling Stones classic Exile on Main Street. What music maniac wouldn't want to hear that. 

What I didn't bargain for was the incredibly high quality of the songwriting, nor the seriousness with which Liz Phair took her concept. It's not that it's obvious how the songs relate to the Stones songs or their sequencing on the album--far from it. It's rather the way that Phair wrote with the supreme confidence of a seasoned rocker and how she challenged the male domination of the rock music scene that had always existed.

Specifically, Phair was writing about Chicago's Wicker Park indie music scene, dubbed Guyville by the band Urge Overkill. It was a hipster world in which guys didn't even consider that women could possibly have ideas and insights into rock music that might rival their own. For all of its 'indie-ness', it was a rockist enclave with loyalty to the patriarchy.

Exile in Guyville made me understand, in real terms, what it would be like to be a smart, talented, ambitious woman in a culture that doesn't pay attention to them except for sex. It's there, in every song on Guyville, and it's mind-numbing. 

And there's the sound of Exile, which is lo-fi with intimate vocals and a lot of fuzzy guitar with plenty of feedback. It rocks like hell. 

Since then Liz has made a bunch of records, some better than others, but I have to admit that I didn't expect to be two months into 2021 and writing about a new Liz Phair single from an upcoming new album.

Now here's the thing: the single is a song about Lou Reed but it's coming from the perspective of his last wife, Laurie Anderson, and it's kinda funny, but you know, not completely because "We’re losing all of our friends/ Pretty soon it’s going to be just you and me across the table"...who can't relate to this a year into pandemic life? 

It's like a shady Lou Reed song, with its catchy chorus ("Hey Lou/Are you feeling alright?") and sly references, and it calls Lou out for being, all too frequently, an asshole and it's just as much about the patriarchal domination of rock music in its way as Exile In Guyville. 

Which brings me to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2021 list of nominees. There are some great performers here, but performers are now eligible beginning with the year 1996--so how many of these artists should already be in there? Devo, Kate Bush, The Go-Gos, Chaka Kahn, LL Cool J, Fela Kuti...some of these will be open to interpretation depending on your musical taste, but all reasonable people will gasp at the realization that Carole King and Tina Turner are not already recognized by the Hall. 

I mean, let that sink in for a few minutes. Carole King has written some of early rock and pop music's most iconic songs--"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?," "Up On the Roof" --and recorded one of the most highly regarded albums of the rock era, Tapestry. Tina Turner was one of rock and soul music's most high energy and amazing performers despite being locked into an abusive relationship she could not escape, until one day she did, becoming one of the biggest stars of the seventies and eighties. I mean, she was on stage with Mick Jagger at Live Aid, so how could she not have the approval of the Rock Hall of Fame? 

It's long been noted that the RHOF is dismissive of female artists and the backlog of eligible artists who should have been in the HOF on their first year or two of eligibility completely bears witness to that fact. This year the HOF points to the fact that it is possible to submit a ballot composed entirely of female artists, but...

Does that make up for the years that deserving female artists were locked out by not even being nominated? The years that recently deceased murderer, producer, and ghoul Phil Spector spent lobbying to keep The Ronettes from being nominated because lead singer Ronnie, like Tina Turner, escaped from her harrowing marriage to Spector and reclaimed her voice? The countless other examples of women in general, and Black/WoC particularly who should be there by any objective standard, yet are not?

Many people, particularly those who are on the younger side, acknowledge that the RHOF is, like any other Hall of Fame or award or other validation that people receive for their work, far from a meritocracy. Nope, there is not a single awards process that doesn't encompass a political aspect or have some level of in-group/out-group dynamic that makes some people a shoo-in for acceptance while others are easily overlooked, whether purposely or due to baked-in bias. In addition, these people reason, the RHOF is becoming more irrelevant with each passing year as the rockist culture they enshrine becomes less and less the predominant culture of the popular music business. 

The fact is that the RHOF has always represented primarily a small group of current rock artists who can be defined as having a 'classic' sound--Springsteen, Bon Jovi, U2, Rolling Stones, etc. If you watch the celebratory live performances held each year at the time the inductees are announced it's like a succession of yearly high school sports banquets: the same people show up again and again, and they win all the awards. Or, when the HOF is forced to acknowledge a performer that is outside its centrist, rockist vision they can have one of these stalwarts induct them, anointing an outsider with the blood of the Lamb. 

Especially sad this year is the nomination of The New York Dolls just after the death of Sylvain Sylvain, leaving singer David Johanson as the only original member still living. The Dolls' legacy got a push this past year with the announcement that Martin Scorsese is working on a Johanson documentary. The Dolls were regularly described as sounding terrible and looking worse in their trashy, campy glam rock-cum-junkie drag that was too rough and ready for glam rock, but which predated the punk look that wouldn't arrive until after the Dolls had already self-destructed. 

Now the RHOF has nominated them, though their induction is far from certain. Unfortunately, as Johnny Thunders once sang, you can't put your arms around a memory.