We haven’t done one of these in a while, so it’s overdue.

Of late I’ve been bemoaning the seeming lack of real musical talent among young artists, and wondering if I just need to look farther afield.  Apparently I needed to look no farther than Quebec, for Canadian artist Lisa LeBlanc.  Here she is with her work Aujourd’hui, ma vie c’est d’la marde.  Enjoy.

We haven’t had one of these in a while, but I’ve had about four shots of Bullit Rye and I’m feeling musical.  So here’s the amazingly talented Mary Chapin Carpenter, with Shut Up and Kiss Me.  Enjoy.

And here’s the equally talented and beautiful Sara Evans with Perfect.

I haven’t done one of these in a while.  Regular readers of these virtual pages already know of my fondness for the Land of the Rising Sun; here is a daughter of that land, Natsumi Kiyoura, singing Bokura no Aikotoba (Our Words.)  Enjoy.

With all the Social Justice Warriors and virtue-signalling in the entertainment industry today, it’s fun to take a look at some songs from back in the day that would be considered “hate speech” today.  And the fun thing is, most of them are nothing of the sort.  Here are a few.

The first selection here may not be considered PC today, but it was and is one of the greatest rock&roll tunes over written.  The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is a paean to a brave man who fought and lost in America’s only family war.  And no, the song never mentions slavery.  It’s a sad, touching song.  Forget Joan Baez’s middling cover; here, from Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz is the song’s originators, The Band.

And how about Sammy Hagar’s response to Imperial blackmail to force the states to the old double-nickel speed limit?  Here he is, pre-Van Halen, with I Can’t Drive 55.

Speaking of Van Halen; around 1982, they did a cover of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman.  The video was yanked from MTV; here is it in its entirety.  Take a look and see if you can tell why.

The penultimate selection here would be abhorred were it released today, due to a flurry of teacher/student “relationships” in recent years.  Van Halen touched on the subject with Hot for Teacher, but it was the Police with Don’t Stand So Close To Me that really nailed it.

Finally, from early 70s folks singer Melanie, this tune really fits only in the non-PC selection because of one line; listen, and see if you can guess which line I’m referring to:

On that musical note, we return you to your Thursday, already in progress.

Here’s another interesting sub-genre of rock & roll, one that I’ve always enjoyed – bad-girl rock!

The whole genre really got going with the lady pictured here, Joan Jett, when she and Lita Ford started The Runaways.  (Don’t bother seeing the biopic of the same name; it was well and truly awful.)

Joan went on to have a substantial career of her own, and she can well and truly be described as the founding lady of bad-girl rock.  So here, on this sunny California Thursday, I present a few examples of bad girls rocking!

First up is the lady herself, Joan Jett, with a rendition of her Runaways hit Cherry Bomb.

Now Joan had a bigger solo career than her former Runaways partner, but that doesn’t mean Lita Ford didn’t do some rocking too.  Here she is with her song Hit and Run.

 And here they are together!  Going back to 1977, here is a performance of the tune Wasted by The Runaways.

Joan and Lita kick-started a genre.  They did it without auto-tune, while actually playing instruments, by doing live shows without lip-syncing.

How many young women performers now can say the same?