watch the youtube video!

here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KcrE07uNyE

And please add your favorite women in music in the comments below or on my previous post with the text of the poem!

Riot in the Supermarket - Fighting Sexism in Music!

Stuck Rolling Phone

I wanna see mick jagger in a tight red sequined dress

shaking his narrow ass on stage

singing about how happy and fulfilled he feels

under his girlfriend’s thumb

I wanna see Bob Dylan in a blonde wig and full makeup

convincing everyone of his genius

without being allowed to write his own lyrics

as he sings exclusively about romance

with rhymes like

love/above

moon/june

arms/charms

I wanna see Paul McCartney figure out how to get to his Fab Four rehearsals

while he does all the childcare

since            of course    Linda’s career comes first

saturday morning     10:45

working mom rushing through

grocery store left the baby and

my partner at checkstand gotta

get one more item

where’s the organic shortening?  No not Crisco    Damn. 

out of stock

rush back to checkstand when

I get arrested by bright red

Rolling Stone cover

100 top musicians of all time

every single artist on cover a man

every sullen brooding rock face

every smiling pop face

every neck an adam’s apple

every upper lip mustached/shadow/shaven

every one

collector’s edition

what

the

hell

?

I pull out camera phone

snap photo of cover

snap another of my female face scowling beside

bright red outrage

two rows of masculine musicians

before I rush back to screaming

baby and stressed partner

I slam dried mango and organic onions

into recycled bags

wish I had bought the shortening

any lubricant

cause women are always getting screwed by the music business

we get it rough   whether we like it like that

or not

so to Rolling Stone

I say

you can’t find one woman to rep for 100 best?

ready to flash a redheaded Rhianna’s cleavage

or Lady Gaga’s bubble covered ass

but no question of estrogen when questing for excellence

like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

he got the props as a dancer

while she did everything he did

only backwards and in high heels

you can’t measure men’s and women’s musical careers

by the same yardstick

because men and women can’t have the same careers

only when Michael Jackson sings

yes

billie jean was my lover

the kid is my son

and I’ll be quitting music for the next ten years to raise him

only when James Brown sings

it’s a woman’s woman’s woman’s world

only when the glass ceiling for women in music

isn’t just high enough for the woman            a tall hairdo             and six inch stilettos

only when masses of teen boys giggle in the wal-mart

crushed out on Ani DiFranco

only when the butches get as much play as the femmes

only when the industry makes reparation for chewing up Lauryn Hill

only when managers and producers acknowledge

they should have sent Amy Winehouse to rehab

instead of just making a mint off her singing about not going

only when we invent a time machine to go back

and give genius Nina Simone the career she deserved

will I be fully satisfied

if I had a sword right now

I would bow before queen of soul Aretha Franklin on one knee

ask her to knight me

so I could rage into battle to defend her honor

Her royal face should have graced the cover

Beside King Michael and Elvis

Rolling Stone, how dare you desert the queen?

And I would storm the doors of Rolling Stone

in armor made by the albums of my top 100 women musicians:

Ella Fitzgerald/Annie Lennox/India.Arie/La Lupe/Tracy Chapman/Grace Slick/Anna de Leon/Erykah Badu…

I know I’m missing people because I’m writing this at 4:11 AM, the hour when working mothers find time to write...

I’d rock Janis Joplin/Meshell Ndegeocello/Dionne Warwick/Des’Re/Stevie Nicks/Alicia Keys/Joan Armatrading/Coco Peila/Mavis Staples/P!ink/Sheila E/Zap Mama/Queen Latifah, Norah Jones…

picture the glint off my breastplate of cds

vinyl around my hips

cassettes and 8-tracks clanking below the knee

big ass speakers on my back

an iPod in each hand blasting my way in with Chaka Kahn

I am every woman

it is all in me

armored with Brenda Russel/Susana Baca/Mary J. Bilge/Big Mama Thornton/Jill Scott/Cesaria Evora/Sade/Deva Mahal/La India/MC Lyte…

F*** rolling stone.  They’ve proven themselves unequal to the task of picking the best.

Who’s on your list?