GIRLS TALK

GIRLS TALK

A COMPLETELY RANDOM SAMPLE OF CHOICE QUOTES WOMEN HAVE MADE ABOUT THEMSELVES, EACH OTHER, AND GUYS. SOME GUYS ARE IN HERE TOO, SAYING THINGS WE’RE SURE THEY’D PREFER TO FORGET.

Toby Goldstein

• Why Pat Benatar dresses mean: “Everyone’s first reaction was either to pick me up or pat me on the head like a five-year old.”

—Glamour, June, 1982

• “If you can’t get yourself a girl, a guitar makes a wonderful substitute. Take it from a guy who knows.”

— K.K. Downing (Judas Priest),

Hit Parader. June, 1982 •“1 only became a bass player because of the girls.”

— PhU Lynott CREEM, May 1977

• “Are you asking, did I get the chicks that didn’t get to screw Mick? No, I didn’t. Next question.”

— Chris dagger. Rock, 3/25/74 •“I had no trade, but was too literate for shit work.”

— Mary Travers, talking about her waitressing days, Ebet Roberts CREEM, October 1974

•“I’ll probably be 40 years old and still playing rock ’n’ roll, wearing leather and saying fuck."

— Suii Quatro. CREEM, November, 1974 •“We’re animals! We take care of each other like a pack of wolves.”

— Gina Schock, (Go-Go’s), CREEM, November 1981 •“1 just want to fuck my mother, basically. Always have done. Not so much now, because she’s getting

a bit older, she’s losing her grip on her looks. She’s a cute little French girl.”

— J.J. Burael (The Stranglers), New MusicalExpress(NME), Ebet Roberts 2/10/79

•“Look at this stuff. So much of it is acrylic—or worse. I think this stuff will still be around after the earth disintegrates.”

— Kate Pierson (B-52’s), Rolling Stone, 12/11/80

•“I am personally not deluded by the fact that what I’m doing is going to change the world or anything like that.”

— Siouxsie Sioux, NME, 12/23/78

•“My mother told me that I looked too strong and masculine. She’d say, ‘Yoko, you are going to have trouble because you look masculine and you’re too intelligent for your own good.’ And men didn’t like that.”

— Yoko Ono, Crawdaddy, 8/29/71

•“The gangs in New York wear makeup —everybody we knew since we were 15, when we were going out in gangs and putting on a little bit of lipstick and little bits of blush-on and then we would hang out on the corners and do our thing.”

— David Johansen. Rock, 3/25/74

•“New Orleans is the kind of place where, to get anyone moving, you gotta jump around like you’re trying to get out of your bra without using your hands.”

— Epic Records publicity executive Lois Marino, while on tour with Boston. CREEM, July, 1977 •“I’m voyeuristic. I like to cause havoc. I never get angry, I prefer to observe things from a distance and I love stirring things up."

— Lydia Lunch, New Sounds New Styles. February, 1982 • "We love women. And all the songs that we’ve ever written hold women in a mixture of awe and desire and...well, we don’t understand them."

— Doug Fieger (The Knack).

CREEM. February. 1982 •“I’m the Connie Francis of rock ’n’ roll.”

-Elton John. CREEM.

May. 1975

•“I’d like Clint Eastwood to beat me up.”

— Chrissie Hynde,

Hit Parader, July, 1982

• “My ballet teacher believes that my head was cut off in another life."

— Stevie Nicks, Playboy, July. 1982

•“A rock musician is the last man I’d want to get invloved with.”

— Linda Ronstadt,

Crawdaddy, 4/2/72

• Robert Christgau reviews the debut album from Iris; “In which a band of women prove they can play

as schlocky as the Brooklyn Bridge, only worse."

-CREEM. August. 1974

• "If I wasn’t as articulate as I am 1 would probably go around thumping everybody."

— Pauline Black (ex-Selecter), NME. 1/30/82 •“...every woman in the planet, every Western woman, is stupidly vain. We let them get away with it. you know. ‘Listen, the bomb's gonna drop in five minutes, but I can’t go into the fallout shelter until I’ve done my makeup.’ ”

— Pete Townshend.

Rolling Stone, 6/24/82 •“You should see Daryl when he sings ‘Sara Smile.’ He walks out to the front, to the very precipice of the stage, with his eyes half shut, and blatantly rubs his crotch, while he sings to those girls. There's not much more you can do to communicate, other than jerking off the whole front row."

— John Oates. CREEM, August, 1977 •“Shut up, Britt! Why don’t you shut up? Let the men get on with the interview.”

— Rod Stewart (who else?!?),

CREEM, September, 1976

• “I get that orgasmic rush every time I perform.”

— Wendy O. Williams,

(Plasmatics) College Media Journal, 3/24/80

• “Question: Would David Lee Roth kick Pat Benatar out of bed?

Answer: Not if she’d gained a little weight.’ ” Dialogue between Rick Johnson and David Lee Roth. CREEM Van Halen special. •“Maria Muldaur is God in Boston, but I think she makes it more on the same strapless attributes Linda Ronstadt does than on real talent."

— Dave Marsh. CREEM, July 1974

•“I learned a lot about heavy drugs when I met Herman Brood. I learned that you don’t have to touch it."

-Nina Hagen. CREEM, March, 1981 •"A certain kind of ‘chick singer’, as they’re known, makes me want to throw up. See, 1 don’t really think sex comes into it that muchmen’s songs, women's songs. Well, not to me. If I’m singing a man’s song that’s talking from a man’s point of view to a woman. I’d still say it that way, and it wouldn’t mean I was a dyke."

— Marianne Faithful!. CREEM.

May 1981

•"I’ve never sung a song that had distasteful lyrics; 1 wouldn’t do what Marianne Faithfull did."

— Rachel Sweet. CREEM. May

1981

• “I mean, a relationship could be the worst thing that’s ever happened. ya know?"

— Linda Ronstadt.

... ... Circus, 10/27/77

• “She’s relaxed around you. When she’s nervous, she pays more attention. She thinks they’re gonna get her.”

— Chris Stein talking about Debbie Harry. CREEM, August 1982

• “Patti Smith comes about as close to being it as you can get. Before long she will be looked back upon as the one who wrist-whipped poetry and rock ’n’ roll back to life.”

—prediction, CREEM, PooiNo.k.n/ November, 1974

• “All my beliefs, political and otherwise, are very romantic. It’s like me having a crush on Prince Charles. I don’t know anything about him. I just think there’s something sexy.”

-Patti Smith. NME. 9/16/78

• “I’m always under this cloud of— well, not quite self-doubt, but I’m never quite sure of myself. I’m certainly not. say. like Patti Smith who’s always coming out with these statements about how she sees the greatness of her art and how great her band is. She seems so damn adamant about her own selfesteem.”

— Chrissie Hynde. NME, 3/17/79

•“Those stupid L A. punk groups —it’s so tame. Barbra Streisand singing Tm A Woman In Love,’ has got more sex and style and flair.”

— Nick Lowe. Trouser Press.

July 1982

•“After the show I raced back to catch up with him only to be stopped short at the backstage door by a six-foot-five protective barrier —the bouncer. I explained that Rick was my husband, but he didn’t believe me. Left with no other choice but to attack, 1 bit him!”

— Liz Derringer. Circus, 6/9/77 •“You’ve got to expect to get exploited in music. Well, in every other business you’re exploited in some way or another. There are girls walking around the streets now who are being exploited but they’re doing it anyway.” “And Annabella does it for free!”

— Annabella Lwin and Leroy Gorman (Bow Wow Wow) CREEM, March 1982

•“We used to look really rough in the beginning, which was ideologically okay; now, though, we’re starting to look even rougher, so we try to make ourselves look more attractive. Which is very bad for our credibility. Mind you, the trouble with heavy feminism is that it’s not very much fun.”

— Kim McAuliffe (Girlschool), CREEM, July 1982 • “I didn’t know I was being overly sexual until I saw myself on video tape. Then I got paranoid, because that’s not what I intended.”

— Chrissie Hynde.

Hit Parader, July 1982

•“Phil said, ‘Either you go on the tour and we don’t get married, or you don’t go and we get married.’ I had no choice, and I was in love,

so...”

— Ronnie Spector. CREEM. „ ,. January 1981

• Grace Slick, on her role in the Jefferson Airplane: “I’m usually tasteless and tend toward crude shock shit, whereas they’re trying to be tasteful saying, ‘No, it’s not neat to have a cunt on the cover’ and stuff like that.”

Rode, June 1973

• “Of course we have our vices like every good rock ’n’ roller should, but I think comparatively, we’re some of the nicer rock ’n’ roll people around.”

— Nancy Wilson (Heart), Hit Parader, April 1981

• “1 think there’s always this strange desire in relationships to tell about your past love life—a very masochistic thing. I mean, both sides end up wishing they’d never asked.”

— Carly Simon, Rock 5/7/73

•“I think to myself some nights when I come home, maybe I’ve been working 16-17 hours and I’m tired—wouldn’t it be nice to have a man who really loves you, a couple of kids, stay home, cook dinner, rather than get up at six in the morning and be ‘Miss Show Business.’ ”

— Cass Elliott.

Crawdaddy, 4/2/72 •“I used to hide my leather jacket under the staircase so my mother wouldn’t know I had one.”

— Genya Raven, Hit Parader, February 1981 •“The guys in the group must get tired of putting up with our emotionalism."

—Ann Wilson (Heart), Circus, 7/21/77

•“I think the Runaways were just too honest. Girls act like that—girls drink, girls smoke and girls swear. If it had been an all-guy band no one would have given a shit.”

-Joan Jett. NME, 4/10/82 •“We were inspired by wigs in Fellini movies and hairdos from when Diana Vreeland was editor of Vogue. And in Georgia, there’s lots of waitresses. And don’t forget the trailer park gang.”

— Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson (B 52’s), CREEM. July 1982

•“I can’t tell you about that. It’s too embarrassing...I sang every horrible Top 40 song you can name. I even sang a Cher song—that’s how bad it was.”

— Pat Benataron being a singing waitress, CREEM, January 1981 •“I find that if I wrote from a woman’s standpoint I’d wind up with universal; it comes out more applicable to everybody. 1 don’t propose that 1 really know how to do it. I ask my women friends, ‘Is this a common situation? What do

women think about this or that?’ I try to make it authentic."

— Chris Butler (Waitresses), Trouser Press, May 1982

• “I was definitely off the wall in my youth. I’d rape a nun if she got in my way.”

— Ted Nugent.

CREEM, June 1976

• “Who said 1 behaved? I didn’t behave. I caused a ruckus in the courtroom. Cleveland is third in the country in rapes and fifth in murders. The D.A. was afraid of the real criminals so he took a cheap shot at me. Because I’m a woman. I look different. I have a Mohawk. And I’m upset at the status quo.”

— Wendy O. Williams

(Plasmatics), CREEM, September 1981

• “I can still feel an affinity with almost any woman you can mention in rock ’n’ roll, really. Because I think everybody has had to be very strong about themselves to get anywhere at all.”

— Lene Lovich,

CREEM, May 1980

•“Put women in front of a microphone and a camera as well, and something happens to them. They become affected, over-dramatic, high-pitched. Some turn sexy and sultry. Others get patronizing and pseudo-charming. But with a man you seldom have this problem.”

— NBC radio executive.

New York Times 5/24/64 •“How many times can you look at a pair of tits and get excited? If you’re going to do that, have the guys strip because that's what 1 want to see.”

— Suzi Quatro

CREEM, November 1974

•‘‘Were not competing with Dionne Warwick, so people therefore can say I’m a good singer.”

— Chrissie Hynde, CREEM. November 1981 • “I’m not a real ‘baby come back to me, I can’t make it without you’ singer. If somebody wants to go away, you don’t drag them by the leg. I want somebody around the house who wants to be there, so I don’t care. If they want to leave, they should leave.”

— Grace Slick.

CREEM. April 1981 •“Sometimes I would focus on one face and, being self-conscious, it was like a sort of dialogue with that one face. And I’d think, ‘oh God, do they like me? Do they hate me? Are they going to talk to me?’ I mean, such bullshit.”

— Phoebe Snow, Circus, 12/22/77 •“There could be someone standing in the checkout line looking at US magazine and see X in there, then turn around and see me and say, ‘Jesus Christ, look at that girl’s hair,’ making me real embarrassed.”

— Exene, Musician, June 1982 •“We only eat female journalists for breakfast.”

— Hugh Cornwell (Stranglers), CREEM, February 1981

• “I can’t help it if I want to hang around with musicians."

— Bebe Buell.

CREEM. October 1980 •“The clear little voice is camoflage, just like the big tits."

— Robert Christgau reviewing Dolly Parton’s Greatest Hits.

CREEM. October 1980

• “Goddammit, a large percentage of American women wouldn’t be half as liberated if it wasn't for the Rolling Stones in the first place, and people like us. They'd still be believing in dating, rings and wondering whether it was right to be kissed on the first date or not."

— Keith Richards. CREEM Rolling Stones special •SARAH LAWRENCE GIRLS: 1) Linda Eastman 2) Lesley Gore 3) Yoko Ono 4) Carly Simon.

The Book Of Rock Lists •“I realized it didn’t bother me if I was singing professionally or just around my kitchen."

— Sandie Shaw on why she retired for 15 years. NME, 4/10/82

• "Well, I don’t dislike them at all, because 1 think we’ve all been called groupies at one time or another, haven’t we?”

-Bebe Buell. Circus, 7/21/77 •“Sometimes my day is staring at the ceiling and wishing I was dead and melting over the sides of the bed."

— Cristina (ZE recording artist), New Sounds New Styles, February 1982 •“I have to admit that I was very screwed up when Mick and I split. 1 think for two or three years I was still shellshocked although, of course, I kept telling everyone I was fine—which is what we English do, isn’t it.”

— Marianne Faithfull,

CREEM, June 1978

CREEM CLOSE-UP

WOMEN IN ROCK

RINDY ROSS

With her hubby, Rindy formed Seafood Mama and played the Portland, Oregon, bar circuit. The band changed its name to Quarterf lash, signed with Geffen and created a new female anthem with Harden My Heart."