2008 Supplement -- Best Female Songs Ever, Vol. 1

1. Jill Sobule - "Jetpack"(from Underdog Victorious, 2004)

This tender, heart-wrenching acoustic ballad is proof positive, for those that ever doubted it, that both the lower classes and lesbians have emotionally complex relationships. Its brillaince is that Sobule doesn't take the easy route many songwriters do of telling the audience these things. She shows us she is poor -- "but I don't have a jetpack, I don't even have a car. All I have is this token and a head full of stars" she cries in anguish. As for being a lesbian, you mostly have to pick that out of the other tracks on Underdog Victorious, an album that begins with a failing relationship, goes into some social work as a way of healing, reflects on the relationship, and ends with a potential fling with a butch cop. Of course, one could look at the speaker's obsession with baseball and dominant role in the relationship as defying gender normatives.

2. Mary Lou Lord - "Shake Shugaree" (from Got No Shadow, 1998)

Despite being a talented songwriter in her own write [sic], Lord provides what may be her best performance on this traditional folk song collected by Elizabeth Cotten. The double-tracked vocal, providing an imperfect, folksy harmony lends the song the proper sense of both awe and sorrow as the speaker sells away any hope at livelihood.

3. Mary Fahl - "Going Home" (from Gods and Generals soundtrack, 2003)

Originally a member of a Boston group known as the October Project, Mary Fahl made her solo debut on the soundtrack for the Civil War film Gods and Generals, and it was a glorious debut. The soundtrack featured numerous symphonic compositions and two with vocals -- this composition of Fahl's and Bob Dylan's "Cross the Green Mountain." Reissued on Tell Tale Signs, "Cross the Green Mountain" is now getting the credit it deserves as one of the finest songs in Dylan's canon. As great as it is, though, it may not be the best song recorded for Gods and Generals. Lyrically, Dylan may win out but Fahl's rich and textured voice lends this period piece a pathos deep enough to be plowed through.

4. Suzanne Vega - "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry" (from Solitude Standing, 1987)

In this song, Suzanne Vega dreamily imagines an open market in Portugal where women are bound in iron, then butchered and sold in parts -- "breasts and thighs and hearts." The metaphor to women being pieces of meat is obvious and a bit cliche, but in the song Vega makes it visceral enough that it sounds new and engaging.

5. Peggy Seeger - "Gonna Be An Engineer" (1970, reissued on Best of Broadside 1961-1988, 2000)

This song systematically deconstructs so many of the barricades which have attempted to hold women back, and brillaintly so. It looks at how women are forced into being objects, locked into marriage, robbed of fair pay. Every line is a direct protest. And all of it set to a poppy, bouncing beat that creates a tense contradiction, simultaneously undercutting and sharpening the song's edge. Like Roberta in Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children, Peggy Seeger is not content to sit idly by and let men take all the fun jobs.

6. Kimya Dawson - "Loose Lips" (2006, reissued on Juno soundtrack 2008)

Really, this song is more or less a nonsensical string of allusions. We start off with World War I propaganda about spreading was strategy to the enemy. We get some lines which do get a bit more serious, though -- calling for Bush to be ousted and arguing the ills of suicide. The real treat though comes from Dawson's rhyming skills. She has more verbosity than Paul Barman with lines like "They think we're disposable? Well, both my thumbs're opposable. Spell that on a double word and triple letter score."

7. Joan Baez - "All My Trials" (from Joan Baez, 1960)

This spiritual about finding hope in the afterlife, hope that God will repay us for our trials, carves deep into the soul. It may not be Joan Baez's best known song, but it is one of her best performances, one that, like the river Jordan, chills the body but warms the soul.

8. Joni Mitchell - "A Case of You" (from Blue, 1971)

Prince's Joni Mitchell rip-off, "Ballad of Dorothy Parker," sounds like it could have come off of Court and Spark, but when he decided to record a cover of one of her songs, he chose "A Case of You." Blue is filled with brillaint evocations of heartbreak and regret. "A Case of You" is about the difficulty of letting go while knowing that the person you are leaving behind will continue to effect your life ad infinitum. Mitchell sings that her man is in her "blood like holy wine." She has internalized him, and what's more she's built him up to be like Jesus, an implicit comparison in that he has transubstantiated within her. Mitchell misreads a metaphor, visits a fortune teller and is drawn to devlish men; an impressive feat to cram in to less than four and a half minutes.

9. Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit" (1939, numerous reissues)

This is often cited as the ultimate protest song. Writted by Abel Meeropol, adopted son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg -- the American communists who sold the bomb to the Russians --, this song describes the fruits of racism -- black, rotting bodies, bloated and swollen, swinging from poplar branches. Seventy years on, it is still urgent and necessary, as evinced by such songs working against it as "Barack, the Magic Negro." How sad America sometimes is. We must hope it can heal from these wounds.

10. Scarlett Johansson - "Fannin St." (from Anywhere I Lay My Head, 2oo8)

I think this song is about avoiding priggish conformity on one level, and also about the dangers of going one place only for the purpose of escaping another. Anyway, when we escape, we often don't know what we are leaving behind. What I do know is, after listening to this song I want to observe Fannin St., but only from a protected spot far, far away, safe from whatever allure might try to trap me there.

11. Nellie McKay - "It's A Pose" (from Get Away From Me, 2004)

Nellie is an idol of mine. While I think this song essentializes men a little too much at times, and I'm not entirely comfortable with it, I realize that McKay is trying to make me uncomfortable and I like it. In a 1993 issue of Esquire magazine, there is an article that defines what they term the post-sensitive male, a term which resonated with me at the time, though I recognized myself as not a part of it, and which I have seen more and more as I've grown older and wiser. This seems to be the kind of constructed masculinity -- faux intellectual and faux feminist -- that McKay so incisively deconstructs in "It's A Pose," which may constitute her most striking set of lyrics to date.

12. Tom Tom Club - "Genius of Love" (from Tom Tom Club, 1981)

The Tom Tom Club is more or less Talking Heads minus David Byrne, a fruitful side project while the rest of the group waited for their mastermind to prep his next cerebral soundscape. This song may be better than anything Talking Heads released, though. Musically, this is an extension of the naked funk sound Prince was experimenting with back in 1980. Lyrically, its a whole nother beast. The speaker is a woman recently released from prison and trying to find herself a funkified man. She wants "natural fun" with a rhythmically-blessed black man. Among those she expresses interest in: George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Sly and Robbie, and Kurtis Blow. The lady was surely up to date. Near the end, the genius himself shows up on the scene, breaking down some old school hippity-hoppity and laying down his love for James Brown. True genius.

13. Natalie Imbruglia - "Wishing I Was There" (from Left of the Middle, 1997)

This song is a brilliant example of how phrasing can help a song out. The beat is cool, the melody is great, the chorus is catchy, but what really makes this song stand out is the start-stop rhythm of the vocals when Imbruglia lingers over phrases like "well, fine.... till I think of the problem."

14. Maria Muldaur - "Midnight At the Oasis" (from Maria Muldaur, 1973)

This song is basically just a pean to sultry sex in the Sahara. At times, it can be a bit stereotypically offensive in how it presents arabs, but it is never jingoistic. It stereotypes, but is respectful of the culture. What makes it memorable, though, is Muldaur's shimmering, slinky vocal and that near-disco beat that seems fit for a moonlight rendezvous.

15. Northern State -"The Man's Dollar" (from Dying In Stereo, 2002)

One of the great traditions in rapping is boasting, and there is no dearth of boasts in this bad-ass romp through American culture. I mean, who else writes a book report about the Federal Budget? Of course, my favorite might be that "like Derek Jeter, I'm-a make you stop short." But then, there's always "I'm more European than an English muffin." Decisions, decisions....

16. Loretta Lynn - "Mrs. Leroy Brown" (from Van Lear Rose, 2004)

In the tradition of response songs, Loretta Lynn calls out Jim Croce's classic "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." In the voice of his wife, Lynn sounds pissed to hell that Leroy has left her alone and destitute to watch after the kids. She has been good and faithful; I mean, she's almost drunk from the drink's that [she's] turned down." She doesn't deserve a prick like Leroy Brown. What is she gonna do about it? Take his money from the bank, buy a new car, beat the fuck out of the woman Leroy's sleeping with and skip town from the sound of it.

17. Lorrie and Larry Collins - "Mercy" (1958, reissued on Loud, Fast and Out of Control, 1999)

Guitar-slinger Larry Collins was only fourteen when he lay down the searing axe work on this song. His sister Lorrie was sixteen. Her breathy, raspy voice, calling out that her man makes her cry mercy, sounds like it belongs to a cougar in heat. This song is the exact reason why people thought rock was so dangerous.

18. Hollywood Jills - "He Makes Me So Mad" (1968, reissued on One Kiss Can Lead To Another, 2005)

This song is a great girl group track in the tradition of the Shangri-La's "Leader of the Pack." The lead singer calls out complaints about her boyfriend while the other girls respond. The end result is pretty hilarious. None of the complaints are really valid, and the other girls opinions reflect that.... for the most part. The final complaint is that the girl's boyfriend takes her to see movies at the dollar theatre. Finally her friends turn on the boyfriend and call him out. Its incredibly kitschy, but it is also incredible fun set against a steady rhythm guitar that is punctuated by some well-placed horn charts.

19. The Runaways -"Cherry Bomb" (from The Runaways, 1976)

Joan Jett has always rocked, and this was the earliest evidence of that rocking. Total punk attitude about a girl who is explosive telling herparents to deal with it and quit dictating morality. Many will remember this song from when it was expertly used in Dazed and Confused.

20. Blondie - "X Offender" (from Blondie, 1976)

This song introduced the world to Deborah Harry. Masquerading as another "Leader of the Pack"esque number, "X Offender." The song is sung to a cop from a dominatrix attempting to seduce him. The spicy tale is propelled by some plowing runs on the Farfisi organ and what sounds like a guitar solo based around the F7 chord -- not the easiest shape to make.

21. The Revillos - "Motorbike Beat" (1980, reissued on Children of Nuggets, 2005)

Arguably, the women here may be on background vocals, but they do sing the chorus and they make the verses. In this breakneck ode to motorcycle mayhem is made by the women singing about how they love men on motorcycles. It's surf guitar and revved up engines gived it the amphetamine-fueled feel it needs to flow from the speakers like molten lava.

22. Samantha Ronson - "Pull My Hair Out" (2004)

One listen to "Pull My Hair Out" and it becomes clear that djing and being Lilo's girlfriend is the wrong career path for Samantha Ronson. The punk guitars with a metal grind and cheerleader-style chants coupled with a dance floor bass beat make this a syrupy, irresistible pop confection that is still edgy enough that most listeners might be afraid to sink their teeth into it. Even though this single got no attention upon its release, Roc-a-fella made a big mistake in shelving Red, the full-length rock album this was drawn from. After paying for Ronson to record it, they mysteriously sat on it after the failure of the first single, instead releasing only a few of the lighter weight tracks on ventures like the soundtrack to Mean Girls. This is the only song released from the sessions with real bite, and its ready to draw blood.