Friday, April 24, 2009

ASCAP Music Conference: Winding Down on Day 1



Like I said before -- lots going on here at the conference…but in true rock n' roll style the day certainly ended with a bang and not a whimper. 
The last session of the day  was a one-on-one chat with lady rockers Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart). It was so great to listen to them speak and have a chance to hear them perform. NOTE: I'll be posting a little unplugged video of “Crazy on You” shortly so check back. The moderator Melinda Newman (who was excellent BTW) asked them if like guys who get into the biz to meet chicks, did they got into rock n' roll to meet boys? I loved Nancy’s response: "we got into rock n roll so we could play guitars, we wanted to be like the Beatles not marry them."  Another interesting tidbit: The song “Barracuda” comes with some pretty good stories. Did you know it was written about some smarmy guy that tried to hit on Ann back stage and was saying a whole load of inappropriate things to her? Or that Sarah Palin tried to use “Barracuda” for her campaign and Heart had a cease-and-desist order issued against it…yay Ann and Nancy! Things have gotten better for us lady rockers and it is not as shocking as it was 30 years ago that a girl would actually want to play the electric guitar (or drums or a bass or scream like a banshee), but it does bum me out that after all this time us gals in the harder-rock arena still face so many barriers to entry and are still not part of the boys rock club! Then again f*ck em-- we’ll make our own club after all that’s why GRGR is here. Even Ann and Nancy didn’t have the answer – yes I was able to get up and pose a question as to why they thought women still faced so many barriers in the rock world and what their thoughts were on changing that. Ann's response: “That’s the 60 million dollar question," while Nancy suggested we not have all girl bands but play with some boys. Hello we do that already…I was hoping for a little more insight from them after all this time but I guess they don’t know the answer either, so what can you do! They are still some incredibly talented and awesome ladies. 
The day culminated with me finally having time to eat…like you care LOL. Seriously they had a songwriter in the round showcase at the Highline that was excellent…Craig Wiseman the funny guy from the morning panel played and a few others. My faves were Siedah Garret (who wrote Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”) and sang a great song called “Air Guitar” and Dan Wilson who wrote “Closing Time.” Now seriously -- for years haven’t you all thought that song was about picking up a chick after a drunken night? Well guess again! Apparently the song is about his new baby at the time – he didn’t want to be one of those dads who forced his band to play a mushy “Junior” song so he couched it all in metaphor and wrote "Closing Time"…gotta love it… It’s been a day…c u tomorrow! Rock On, G. Founder GRGR

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