Virgo Rising The Once and Future Woman
Thunderbird #7037
1973
At times this record can be a little hokey, but for the most part, there are some great gems here. This comes out of the folk scene, and is an inevitable out come of the woman's movement of the 60's. The highlight of this album is "No Hole In My Head" written and performed by Malvina Reynolds who wrote the Pete Seeger hit "Little Boxes":
The album was produced, engineered, written and sung all by women. The liner notes state: "songs to diaper babies by, songs to rivet or sculpt by, to drink or type or draw up the terms of your divorce by, mow the lawn or fix the door by... songs of sisterhood." The performers range from 17 (Kit Miller) to 72 (Malvina Reynolds).
Burn your bra here!
01. Janet Smith - Freedom Ladies March (c) 1972
The last line of this track sums up the modern woman's triumph.
02. Malvina Reynolds - No Hole In My Head (c) 1965
The best known of the singers on this album, Malvina Reynolds is a provocative and prolific songwriter. Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and the Kingston Trio have all sung the songs she's written on a host of different caring subjects, like "Turn Around." Here's a clip of her performing it on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest:
03. Charley's Aunts - Housewives' Lament
Kate Butler, Helen Tucker, Rebecca Mills are sisters from Bay Area in California.
04. Janet Smith - Talking Want Ad (c) 1972
Janet Smith is an accomplished guitar player as well as a songwriter of depth and humor as is demonstarted here.
05. Nancy Raven - Crazie Ruthie (c) 1971
Nancy Raven has sung professionally since 1963. Her best known albums are "Wee songs for Wee People" and "Lullabyes and Other Childrens Songs" recorded for Pacific Cascade Records.
06. Janet Smith - New Country Rock
Smith owned and ran a folk club in Rome, Italy while performing and teaching high school throughout the late 60's. She could definately be looked at as a rennaisance woman. She plays acoustic on this only instrumental track on the album.
07. Charley's Aunts - Union Maid
A trio of enormous energy and high spirits, Charley's Aunts have composed and played their own songs for years, but rarely together. This LP marks their first performance on album.
08. Janet Smith - Mama's Peaches (c) 1971
Janet Smith appears through courtesey of Takoma Records.
09. Malvina Reynolds - No Room (c) 1971
No Room is a magic atonal. A nod to Alice In Wonderland and is an allegory for overpopulation. Malvina Reynolds was born in 1900 and died five years after this album's release.
10. Kit Miller - There Was A Young Woman Who Swallowed A Fly (c) 1970
Kit Miller was recorded on location at the Foresta Institute in the Sierra Nevada Mountains under the giant Jeffrey Pines.
11. Charley's Aunts - Cut And Dried (c) 1973
12. Malvina Reynolds - We Don't Need The Men (c) 1956
A song written in the fifties and only for people with humor. She also contributed several songs in the 70's to Sesame Street and appeared on it as "Kate"
13. Nancy Raven - Welfare Blues (c) 1971
Nancy sings of the concern women have traditionally felt (or been credited with) for the poor, the neglected, the children of the world in Welfare Blues, a song she wrote in 1971 for the film Welfare: Exploding Myths.
14. Charley's Aunts - Sister! (c) 1973
Sister! Written by Fanchon Lewis, began as a poem, "after I have suffered four years from writer's block," she said. "The love and support of my sisters helped me to break through and Sister! was the first result. The power and energy of sisterhood is contagious. The song starts 'You are all right, Sister. 'You can do it, Sister.' We do what we dare. We dare when we are together."
You can find interviews and in-detail info on the album here
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