If you’re gonna sleep in your car, you’re gonna need a roof! We’ll see what the guys come up with soon.
Female vocalists. I’m a sucker for them all. There are a few I’m not fond of, but for the most part I can say I just fall for female vocalists. Karen Carpenter: sucky music BUT a voice to melt over. In the 90s I picked up on Garbage for one reason only: the lead singer was a woman. I think the first female vocalist I first fell for was Jackie DeShannon’s “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” from the late 60s. From there it was the rock group Fanny, followed by the likes of Melissa Manchester, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and on and on. Throw a few of your favorites up and we’ll chat. It’s late as I write this and the brain is not overly f unctional.
So, when I came to pick a song for today, Roxette’s song fit perfectly… and just a by a hair they fit into my “loophole” of having a 70s tie in as the pair first met in 1979. Thin, but counts. Not my favorite from them, but works nicely for today.
*****************
Hey, me too! Female vocalists are the best – Shirley Manson being one of the VERY best. But mostly they still need a decent male band behind them to add the agression (Blondie, Pat Benatar..etc etc) My current tip from the UK – Marina and the Diamonds – built from the same plans!
Well, you and I share a huge liking for the music of Fanny, so I’m not surprised you like the lady vocalists as well.
It’s a shame that female bands get singled out or apparently can’t make it without some guys being in the band. Never understood that. I’ve met plenty of aggressive women in my life (and I thanked each and every one of them…) so it just seems odd they can’t break out of the “mold” the music industry has them stamped into.
Shame really. I’d rather look at Grace Slick then Marty Balin any day…
🙂
Shirley Manson’s rendering of Samson and Delilah in season 2 of the Sarah Connor Chronicles has to be one of the great orgasmic moments in music 🙂
I’d also recommend Bif Naked. Fine, fine voice on that woman.
I too favour the ladies!
😀
Early Heart, their first album more than any other, really combines Rock with Harmonies and is still a favourite of mine.
Another lady of song, Tanita Tikarum (sp?) is brilliant, her song Twist In My Sobriety is another all time fave.
Then we get going onto Chrissie Hinde, Garbage, Evanessence, Joan Armatrading, Texas, No Doubt … the list will go on forever! LOL
The list does go on and on. Ladies don’t get their fair share of attention in the music industry (or for the wrong reasons) and I for one have always tried to support female musicians.
Come on ladies!!
I too love the female vocalists, but I’m more into bands like Fol Chen, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The New Pornographers and Tegan & Sara. Waaaaay out of this music era. 🙂 The Bird and the Bee did do a full Hall & Oates cover album though…
You young whipper-snappers and your fancy music! 😛
Don’t know a single group you listed. I probably have a ton of songs/groups on here you’re not all that familiar with too, so we’re even.
🙂
Don’t feel too bad, people my own age don’t recognize my music either. 🙂 Do check the link though (linked text doesn’t really pop here, but click on “Hall & Oates cover album”) in my above comment.
Actually, both of my parents were in radio, so my knowledge of music is pretty wide-ranging. It’s very rare that I don’t recognize the bands you’re posting. 🙂
In radio, eh? What markets? I was a DJ briefly as a young man and know about hitting the post and all that crap. We could exchange radio horror stories…
🙂
All small market stuff in South Carolina and Delaware. So yeah, in other words we were poor. 🙂
Also, guess I wasn’t awake yet when I first read this because I had some optical illusion action going, and it looked like Jeff was sticking his hand through Bud’s chest.
I often struggle with angles like that… a character in the background and the other character’s action over-lapping them. I’ve toyed with the idea with limited depth-of-field blurring in the over-lapped area, but haven’t done any experiments. In the “real world” our eyes would be drawn to the action and focus on the foreground, so I’ll have to give that a whirl.
Or learn not to over-lap characters. 🙂
Also, what were you smoking? I want some…
Even worse is that Bud is small in comparison, so it was like some kind of horrorshow ventriloquist act.
My drug of choice is lack of sleep. I don’t recommend it. 🙂
I prefer the deeper, raspy female singers, like Joan Jett, Shakira, and KT Tunsall. So seductive! Granted the last two were BORN in the 70’s, so that’s even more of a stretch than Roxette…
LOL! Yeah, my rule of having the music pertain to the 70s does limit me sometimes as some GREAT titles for comics are from bands/individuals who weren’t even alive in 1977. (Damn, that makes me feel old).
I may open the window a bit more on song titles as time goes by. If I start using Tony Orlando and Dawn songs, then you know I’ve hit the bottom of the barrel of 70s music.
🙂
Interesting how no-one’s yet mentioned Canada’s awesome Alannah Myles. She may be only known outside Canada for one song, but that song is one of the most iconic rock hits ever – Black Velvet! Fabulous ‘whisky voice’ on that lady!
Oh, hey, I do know that song (as it plays in the background) Been a while since I heard it. Those Canadians…
“Whiskey Voice” is a great term and one I’ll be using a lot now. I know a certain singer that sounds like that too… wink, wink, nudge, nudge…
It is a great term indeed – I didn’t invent it AFAIK, but am happy to spread it still further 🙂
And I know…several 😛
BTW Black Velvet is one of THE biker anthems in the Islands. Along with Born to be Wild, of course 🙂
Mary Coughlan! Marianne Faithfull! Joan Osborne!
Suzi Quatro. Female vocals *and* bass guitar, and slap bang in the middle of the 70’s. 🙂
Never have really followed the Quatro sisters all that much. Not sure where I was at when they came into the field. I’ll have to go dig up some of her stuff as anyone who plays bass is Aces in my book.
🙂
Female bassist are better than female vocalists…
I love them both… 🙂 But then I play bass…
** bassists **
I’m looking into an option that allows end users to edit their replies. How handy would that be? Man…
Karen Lawrence, with the band 1994. First album dropped in ’78, produced by Jack Douglas… of Aerosmith fame. Karen sounded a bit like Ann Wilson of Heart but more throaty. Awesome pipes! Their second release wasn’t as strong and they faded thereafter. 🙁
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui_YK4vovow
Never heard of them… until now. I’ll check the video out! Thanks for posting!
Hmm. Replied to a comment here and recommended Mary Coughlan, Marianne Faithfull and Joan Osborne, but my reply appears to have been eaten 🙁
Weird, I don’t see it waiting for approval either… not that your comments need that but every so often the software sees a link or two and holds it for approval.
Anyway, sorry you lost that first comment!
Oh well. The internet moves in mysterious ways… 😀
My favorite females in rock bands are: Blueprint Sea, Tegan and Sara, Stereolab, Komeda, the Cardigans, The Ditty Bops, and Pizzicato 5. I can’t stand female vocalist on Top 40 radio. They are awful.
Good point… no-talents like Britney Spears don’t cut it with me either. Madonna has a great voice and a business sense like few others. I know Lady GaGa has a fantastic voice, I’m just not into her antics… but you gotta do what you gotta do these day.
Thanks for bring up that point… I want folks to know I’m *not* a Spears fan…
🙂
Heh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say Spears is a ‘no-talent’ – she does seem to have a decent voice (in the ‘learned it from stealing licks off other singers’ way). She’s definitely no *musician*, though 🙂
I do have to have at you for saying that the ghastly Ciccone ‘has a great voice’. Eurgh! Yes, she’s finally improved a fair amount in recent years, but with all the money she has available for lessons I should bloody well hope so. However, the singing on all her iconic hits, from Like a Virgin onwards, is simply dreadful – thin, nasal, colourless, and showing all the richness and power of, well, a tone-impaired ten-year-old asthmatic 🙁
I consider Madonna to be one of the Four Horsewomen who killed female pop vocals, the other three being Debbie Harry (eww eww EWW!) and those plasticky tweety-warbling birds from ABBA (although in fairness, both Agnetha and Anni-Frid have far better natural voices than the other two). IMTAO the appeal of these women was that anyone could sound like them – including rat-arsed slags at hen parties and, yes, ten-year-old asthmatics. I think that’s the main reason why I can’t bring myself to completely dismiss Britney Spears: at least her vocals have a certain richness to them…
You amaze the shit out of me sometime! I can’t stand Spears… at all. Drives me batty. I’ll consider myself slapped upside the head appropriately here in a minute… k.. there it is.
🙂
Early Madonna is not my cup of tea at all, but she smoothed out a bit later on. Her antics were pretty cool. Now, the true test with me is do I own any of her albums: No. Nuff said.
I do like Blondie, but only have their greatest hits album. Now the ABBA ladies have good voices even if their music is very, well, not liked by most. To each his own.
😛
~grins~ Bear in mind that I’m considering the merits of the voice, not the merits of the image (on account of there not being any…).
I’ve always had great respect for Madonna’s talent. It’s just that that talent isn’t a musical or artistic one! No, her awesome talent is a sense of self-promotion second to few or none. She’s a bloody genius at that and at sensing – and manipulating – the spirit of the times for her own benefit. Had she turned her talents to, say, politics instead of pop music I suspect she’d have been ruling the galaxy by now!
‘A scratch’?! Your arm’s off!
Jeez… I’m such a dummy sometimes… my first response totally missed the fact that YOU, and you alone, GOT the Monty Python reference in the first frame. “Tis a scratch!” “Your arm’s off you loon…” Ah, the Black Knight… we’ll call it a draw then.
Thank you for getting my tiny bread crumbs I leave all over the comic for other movies and TV shows. Nice catch!
NI!
Personally…I like the voice of the woman from Aqua!!!!
The Barbie Girl song? Hmmm… I need to have a serious drink or two with you someday…
🙂
I grew up with the female folk singers – Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Mary Travers, Buffy Saint-Marie, etc., so my tastes in female singers veered in that direction – especially with the late 60’s/early 70’s British “electric folk” groups that featured female vocalists like Maddy Prior of “Steeleye Span”, Sandy Denny from “Fairport Convention” (she provided the accompaniment vocals with Plant on Led Zep’s “Battle of Evermore”), Jacqui McShee of “Pentangle” among others. To this day I’m still nuts over the Celtic folk-style vocalists like Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Maire Brennan, Connie Dover, etc.
Thanks eggtrailer for reminding me of Karen Lawrence! 1994 was great, & she, along with Martha Davis of the “Motels”, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hinde, Pat Benatar, Debbie Harry, were probably my faves from the 80’s era, altho as Bob Long sez, the list goes on forever… For me in the 70’s it was ladies like the Wilson sisters, Chi Coltrane, Lydia Pense of “Cold Blood”, Chaka Khan, and msot of the soul divas. The 90’s – it was Johnette Napolitano of “Concrete Blonde” & my favorite “Best female vocalist that no one ever heard of”, a gal named Theresa Straley of a group called “Harlow” (not the all female group, or the glam group from KC) that put out a self-titled album in ’90. Powerful, powerful voice. There is a song on tha album called “When You Love Someone” that if you can dial up on the web, is worth a listen or two, or three…
If you like the sweeter types of Celtic female voices, try the Black sisters – Mary, and her less famous sister Frances – and Dolores Keane…
Damn, I thought you typed “sweater” types… oooooo, sweaters… especially those pink ones that looked like they had permanent static cling going on… aw, man, I need a cigarette…
😛
Go on then, watch some YouTube clips of Mad Men scenes with Christina Hendricks in them. You know you want to…muhahahaha…
Three words describe her breasts: Oh. My. God.
“What knockers!”
“Thank you, Doctor!”
One of the Best damn lines in “Young Frankenstein”
~bows~ My work here is done 😉
Heya Unclemac! Love your replies… you always remind this old fart about tons of things he’s forgotten. I think I drank way too much and fried that part of my brain. You either have a great memory or Google serves you well.
I’m looking up some of those artist… but yeah, we can’t forget our souls sisters like Chaka Khan (KKHHHHAAAAANNNNN!!!) and others. Damn great voices.
I’m a sucker for most of them… even if Tafkan slaps me upside the head.
🙂
Ha! I’ll NEVER slap you upside the head for liking female *soul singers*. They (mostly) have actual VOICES.
If you’re mentioning Chaka Khan, you MUST mention Mavis Staples. Sexiest female voice in!the!history!of!soul!music!
Thanks Tafkan, yes indeed the Black sisters are sweet, as is Dolores Keane. Another I could have added on the pop side in that same vein is Kate Bush, and, one of my favorite more contemporary Irish traditional bands is”Altan” with their singer Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh – also sweet.
My pleasure, Uncle! And FWIW Kate Bush almost qualifies as a Celtic singer – one side of her family is from a small town in West Waterford and they’re all quite musical 🙂
The 90’s were the last time chicks rocked; Liz Phar!!!, L7, even some of the tamer chicks like Breeder, Veruca Salt, julianna Hatfield, Alanis Morissette and Garbage. In the 2000’s probably only The Donnas and Evanescence. It’s sad that record companies require women to go into Country (wretch). WOMEN CAN ROCK TOO – just ask my wife!
About the ‘hand thru the chest’ thing; I know what you mean. I am just returning to cartooning after an almost 18 year hiatus. Now i am trying to learn Manga Studio and a few other program (Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter, Artrage, etc). I have a bowling buddy that i pass ideas off of. If I were to draw the panel above, I would have made them face each other, made the panel with the car bigger to see more of the car… and show some boobies or cleavage. I’m just gratuitus like that (LOL). Sometime I’ll let you critique mine…
Critiques are welcome… and when you get your comic up and running let me know and I’ll drop by and give you some helpful hints.
On October 13th, this website: http://www.webcomicalliance.com/ will launch with Manga Studio tutorials and tons of other free advice for the beginning webcomic artist. Check out it Wednesday.
🙂
I was born in 1981. Alot of the music I listen to is stuff referenced in your comics, but most of the artists I listed to who debuted after I did are female vocalists. Most are probably lighter/softer than your tastes, but here are a few you might like- from Italy, Paola Turci and Irene Grandi. From Poland, Kasia Kowalska. From Slovakia, Peha. From South Africa, Karen Zoid and Henry Ate/Karma(three of four albums released from the RSA are under the Henry Ate moniker, one from RSA and the two since moving to Florida are titled under Karma).
I will only say “Maddy Pryor” ~
Debbie Harry, Grace Slick, Diana Ross, Belinda Carlisle…
If you want to get more recent, Natalie Imrbruglia and Gwen Stefani have done some good work in this millennium.
Nobody’s yet mentioned Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries) or Loreena McKennitt (who lives about an hour away from me…)