Great music by women

[IAmAmy]

This may not be the right place or forum for this thread but just in case: I feel music is far too dominated by men. What great songs are there by women? I know most of my favourite songs are by women, I'd love to hear more.

Love most of the women mentioned here...........Carly Simon Joan Armatrading. Annie Lennox.

Love Nanci Griffiths Late Night Grande Hotel. Was one of mine and DHs songs 25 years ago when it was on a compilation called All Woman.

All Woman album from 1992 track listing.

rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/various_artists_f2/all_woman_f1/

My favourite woman artist is Alicia Keys. Her voice is like nothing I can describe. And I love that she is a 'real' woman. Never been stick thin, or overly done up. She doesn't slut drop, and lately, she has taken to not wearing make up and letting her fro wild. I adore her to my core! Her latest album is like magic ....

Also, the Dixie Chicks are awesome. And I adore Paloma Faith as well.

Your friends your friends

(I am formerly IAmAmy)

Kate and Anna mc garrigle

Judy tzuke

Joan armatrading

Two songs from The Kick Inside by Kate Bush, released when she was 19

The rest of the album is amazing, Moving, The Man with the Child in His Eyes and obviously Wuthering Heights. Amy Winehouse's version of a song written by Carole King (think her husband was involved too).

Amoureuse by Kiki Dee, originally written by Veronique Sanson

Joan Baez performing her song Prison Trilogy at Sing Sing prison

Really surprised Joni Mitchell hasn't been mentioned much!

Paste some songs please!

Two of my chums singing one of my favourite songs:

Jerry Burns is Glaswegian and I don't know much about her other than she I think she was a model. I'm not sure if she released another album but I loved this.

It reminds me of the very brief period when I Iived in Glasgow in early 1987.

And obviously from those tracks ,the Glasgow of what used to be called "yuppies", Merchant City flats and Princess Square shops rather than say Maggie Bell's or Alex Harvey's Glasgow

Pale Red is great.

Lass, as a Scotswoman (I think), do you like the Trainspotting films?

This is a little girl I discovered years ago as she liked The Raconteurs, The White Stripes and Led Zeppelin. She is only 10/11 in these. She still plays at local gigs in Austin. I bought her self released ep.

I wash my face with soapy water
Disguise the tears cause you're somebody's daughter
And they don't ever wanna see you cry

Anxiety's grip is always waiting to take me
It sits in my stomach, I fear it's starting to shape me
It's hard to live when you're scared to die

She is splendid.

This is a fantastic song by a girl who would have gone on to great things:

Lass, as a Scotswoman (I think), do you like the Trainspotting films?

I saw the first one and it is clever and funny but I didn't like it. I didn't see the second one.

I've never read any Irvine Welsh. I'm told he was brilliant in the first book but it has been downhill ever since to a cesspool of coarseness and misogyny.

As a person I dislike him a lot. He made a fortune out of recounting tales of the Edinburgh underclass and then decamped to Amsterdam and New York where he lectures people like me (whom he despises) about the elitism of the Edinburgh Festival and why Scotland should be independent.

I live in Scotland but I don't think of myself as a Scotswoman. I'm one of the minority of people who tick "British" on forms rather than Scottish !

I live in Scotland but I don't think of myself as a Scotswoman. I'm one of the minority of people who tick "British" on forms rather than Scottish !

Interesting! I would probably tick "Londoner" on such a form if I got the chance in future!

Regarding Trainspotting the books are very good I think. I like the films as well but I'm biased with the second as it culminates with "Silk" by Wolf Alice (who I am quite eveidently obsessed with).

Oh I see why you were asking about Trainspotting. I liked Soapy Water. I hadn't heard it before.

Alice is the friend you have mentioned before? Very, very sad.

Soapy Water is fantastic. One of their less well known songs, but is wonderful. Have you heard Silk? This is a wonderful performance of it:

She is. This is another song she wrote (she was already a prolific singer/songwriter at 13): she is on the piano and sings the first verse

NoLove It's probably not really your thing but there is brilliant collaborative work amongst women in the country/alt country/bluegrass music scene.

Emmylou Harris , Linda Ronstadt ,Bonnie Raitt and Dolly Parton have been friends for decades and there are other wonderful women such as Iris DeMent, Gillian Welsh, and Alison Krause who all work together.

Harris and Ronstadt were part of the LA Laurel Canyon scene in the 70s along with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Joni Mitchell however was a bit of a "man's woman" and never worked collaboratively with the other women.

My favourite Joni Mitchell songs...

Both 'Both Sides Now'

- from 1969 album Clouds - from 2000 album Both Sides Now and the song that plays in Love Actually while Emma Thompson is making everyone cry

Help Me:

For Free and Rainy Night House from Ladies of the Canyon

there is brilliant collaborative work amongst women in the country/alt country/bluegrass music scene.

Thanks Lass and for the suggestions! Though I have a genre I mainly listen to I still enjoy songs in a variety (and have discovered some fantastic ones thanks to this thread) and that's exactly the sort of thing I love hearing about and discovering. Looking forward to listening to those songs and am keen to hear more about the artists!