MEAT LOAF IS FOR 15-YEAR-OLD BOYS

Ellen Foley is 12 years old (this is what she told me—why anyone has to lie about their age for no good reason is beyond my comprehension. In a nutshell, who gives a shit?) and was bom in St. Louis. She lives in New York. Ellen sang the femme parts on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell album and appeared in the quickly-forgotten television program about three women in the music biz, 3 Girls 3.

Her album, Nightout, was produced by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, who also arranged and played guitar. Songs on the record include Graham Parker’s “Thunder And Rain,” and a version of “Stupid Girl” by Jagger/Richards.

We spoke to her after her successful European tour—Ellen and her group will be touring Australia and Japan by the time you read this.

CREEM: Do you think your career would have taken off sooner if you were a man? ELLEN: Uh...Jesus Christ, I don’t know. I never approach it from that point of view. I’m a woman and I do what I do, and of course my sexuality has a lot to do with what I do, because it’s rock W roll. Beyond that I can’t compare my position to that of a man’s. I’d be in worse shape if I sang worse.

I don’t think it has much bearing on the whole thing.

CREEM: Do you feel you’ve ever been exploited as a woman, in your career? ELLEN: No. Uh uh.

CREEM: Do you think the current plethora of women musicians in the charts reflects a change in women’s roles or just a change in the public’s taste?

ELLEN: A change in time. I think a lot of it has to do with the East Coast. All these girl who are coming out are East Coast, all from New York for the most part. The public taste wants more energetic music, more aggressive, more positive things, rather than females just singing about their reaction to being left by a man.

CREEM: What music did you listen to, growing up?

ELLEN: The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand for a while there, Roy Orbison, a little Tamla/Motown here and there. CREEM: Any women in particular? ELLEN: Nah, uh-uh. The singers I liked the best were men. I love Jagger, Roy Orbison—they were my two favorite singers.

CREEM: Do you think it’s easier in the 80’s for women to make it in music that is was in the 60’s or 70’s?

ELLEN: I think the way it was set up, because there were factory-type situations, things were actually created, people created, Spector created his artists, and now it’s a more self-directed thing. I think you have a little more control than they did at that point in time.

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CREEM: Do you think the males in your audience project their fantasies upon you? ELLEN: Oh yeah, it’s great. My audience is. mostly 15-year-old boys in the front row. It’s wonderful! My band didn’t like it much, they tell me that all I attract are boys, and it doesn’t do them much good.

CREEM: Would you prefer to have an all-female group?

ELLEN: No. I want a really sharply -delineated focus. I like the contrast, and I used the boys in little romantic scenes and interludes. I wouldn’t quite work the same if they y/exe girls.

CREEM: You cover a lot of other artists’. material as opposed to writing your own... ELEN: I’m writing a lot more now, you’ll see on my next album.

CREEM: Do you feel any responsibility for your female fans?

ELLEN: Yeah, I think if they can see that someone up there can be in control of the situation that they want to be,if it’s an example, then it’s good.

CREEM: You recorded what’s regarded as one of the Stones’ most sexist songs, “Stupid Girl”—how come?

ELLEN: I think I wanted to see what kind of reaction it would get. I like it because I was laughing at my own ego, my own vanities as well as anyone else’s. I did a great thing over in England—there’s a show over there called the Kenny Everett Video Show. The gyy who does the directing did those new oowie films, he did the Boomtown Rats films, the Blondie video disc. We did a film of “Stupid Girl,” and we used these muscle men and these beauty queens, and me at one point dressing up in these leathers as a boy, a la Freddie Mercury, looking at myself in a mirror.,.all these different forms of vanity and ego that the song points out. For me it’s not necessarily a misogynist statement. I’m holding a mirror up.

CREEM: So you portrayed the stupid girl? ELLEN: No, I acted out my interpretation. CREEM: Do you feel that on the first album you were overly dominated by Hunter and Ronson?

ELLEN: Nah, but when it came to the remix there was a little bit too much echo and stuff. But aside from that, no, I don’t think so.

CREEM: Are there any hew women musicians that you like?

/ ELLEN: I love Patti Smith and Bette Midler. I think Ellen Shipley .made a really good record.

CREEM: What do you think of the Pretenders?

ELLEN: You know, I haven’t heard the ^record. Everybody is loying it to death, but I haven’t heard it yet. _ W