The first thing that jumps
at out you when you look at Rolling Stone’s Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time
(by women), is that there had to be a lot of stretching to come up with a list
that long.
Here’s the Top 10:
1. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
2. Joni Mitchell, Blue
3. Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis
4. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
5. Patti Smith, Horses
6. Adele, 21
7. Missy Elliott, Under Construction
8. Blondie, Parallel Lines
9. The Supremes, Anthology
10. Bikini Kill, The Singles
No one, I mean no one, is going to argue with Aretha
being number one, even though she was the Queen
Of Soul. Close enough. But Taylor Swift? Bjork?
Dolly Parton? Yoko Ono?
I know I go on endlessly
about how it was so much better before we splintered into so many subcultures,
but Dionne Warwick? Donna Summer? It’s supposed to be Women Who Rock, not Queens of
Pop.
Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith,
Debbie Harry, Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett? Absolute rockers.
Carole King, Dolly Parton
and Dionne Warwick? Nope.
Listen: there’s a lot of talent on this list and all
of the names are deserving of respect. I
know rock is a verb that has also
come to mean, “cool.” But rock is rock,
and not all these ladies do.
