From the early days of Tin-Pan Alley right up to the present, there have been women who excelled in creating and recording their own material. Most often though, they collaborated with others. Even Memphis Minnie, the famed blues artist, collaborated with her husband, one writing the lyric, the other the melody. That trend lasted for decades. Felice Bryant wrote with her husband Boudleax in the creation of countless pop masterpieces for The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison (she didn’t sing). Carole King wrote with Gerry Goffin to compose more great melodies than one could count. Carly Simon wrote with others, even on her classic “That’s The Way I Heard It Should Be.” And today Taylor Swift collaborates with many co-writers.
There are exceptions, and it’s those exceptions I’d like to single out for praise. Following are ten significant songs listed in order of their release. Each was composed, lyric and melody complete, and sung by a great woman singer-songwriter, without collaboration. We start in 1964 with a California folk artist who had a giant hit with a meaningful song – the lyric was an ode to discarding expectations and enjoying the present.
“I will never love you, the cost of love’s too dear / and though I’ll never love you I’ll stay with you one year.”
Released in 1964 on the album My Kind of Folk Song, the singer Gale Garnett disguised a revolutionary statement in the form of a cheerful folk song. “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine” is a song of liberation, a declaration that this woman is not interested in a traditional role of marriage. She’s a free spirit. The song reached number 1 in the U.S. and in her native New Zealand , and earned Gale a Grammy award in 1965 for best Folk Recording.
“Give me my freedom for as long as I be / all I ask of living is to have no chains on me.”
Laura Nyro is probably the most talented singer-songwriter who never had a hit record with her own material. She was a terrific singer, but Three Dog Night scored with “Eli’s Coming”, as did the Fifth Dimension with “Wedding Bell Blues”, and Blood Sweat and Tears with “And When I Die”. Yet Laura’s own version of that last song, recorded in 1966 on her debut album The First Songs, is an absolute treasure. She is one of the great female pop songwriters, and her songs are legendary. Just not by her.
“It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy dusty Delta day…”
Bobbie Gentry‘s “Ode To Billie Joe” was released in 1969 and has remained a country and pop classic immemorial. It’s a haunting Southern Gothic tale about a suicide, and the way it is told of a farm family sharing the news at the dinner table, is revealing for their indifference to a tragedy – and for the understated sadness of the teller of the tale. It’s one of the great story songs of all time. People still travel to the site of the Tallahatchee bridge in Money, Mississippi to gaze at the river and argue about what Billie Joe threw into the water that day.
“It’s life’s illusions I recall /
I really don’t know life at all“
Joni Mitchell‘s second album Clouds was released in 1969 and was a significant departure from her muted debut a year earlier. Her lyrics were more direct, her voice soaring and joyful, and her music more vibrant. The closing track “Both Sides, Now” was astonishingly mature in its perspective on life. Joni had endured a failed marriage and had given up a secret child for adoption. Hence her loss of illusion. The album won a much deserved Grammy Award for best Folk Performance. The song has been covered countless times, notably by Judy Collins, but stayed with Joni almost as a lyrical talisman.
“Walk me out in the morning dew my honey,
Walk me out in the morning dew today.”
The singer? – virtually unknown… but the song “Morning Dew” was significant for its message. The 20 year-old Bonnie Dobson, a Canadian folk artist, composed this song in 1969, inspired by Nevil Shute’s apocalyptic novel On The Beach. The song is a dialogue between two lovers the morning after a nuclear holocaust. Tim Rose falsely claimed to have written it. Robert Plant helped Bonnie reclaim her ownership some 30 years later. Bonnie’s performance on her album is both pristine and moving. This song proved women could address something beyond romance.
“She is like a cat in the darkness and then she is the darkness / she rules her life like a fine skylark and when the sky is starless…”
The addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to Fleetwood Mac was the most exciting thing to happen to rock music in the 1970s. They were more than a couple, they were individual monster talents. Stevie Nicks proved it straight off with her composition “Rhiannon”. She spoke of it as a “tribute to a Welsh witch” but it took on a wholly different meaning to millions of women who saw it as a symbol of their power and potential. The self-titled album came out in 1975 and remains timeless in its impact.
“Oh the feeling when you’re reeling / you step lightly thinking you’re number one.”
This self-titled album from Joan Armatrading came out in 1975 and was her third. It contains several outstanding tracks, both for their emotional purity and the sonic excellence in the album’s production. The opening track,”Down To Zero”, sets a mood of passionate intensity seldom equalled outside of Nina Simone, though this time around the songs are the personal creation of the singer. The closing track, “Tall In The Saddle”, is a searing indictment of love gone wrong. Joan is the truth-teller supreme.
“Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen / Pour myself a cup of ambition”
Dolly Parton’s hit from 1980 was the theme song from the movie 9 to 5, and it was an up-tempo number about a down-tempo time: the life of a working woman. She was the composer, the singer, and a highly successful actress in the film, showing a talent for comedy that endeared audiences of every description. The film was turned into a musical, and the song “9 to 5” won two Grammy awards. It became an anthem for female office workers everywhere. Rolling Stone called it “Dolly’s most transformative song.”
“You wait in the car on the side of the road
Lemme go and stand awhile / I wanna know you’re there / But I wanna be alone”
Lucinda Williams‘ major label debut album from 1987 introduced her to fans of roots music and alt-country. Selected to open for then-famous Cowboy Junkies, she blew them off the stage with songs like “Passionate Kisses” and “Big Red Sun”. The real sleeper tune was “The Side of the Road”, which illuminated a woman seeking independence and equality in love. Her biggest influences: her father, poet Miller Williams, and the famed bluesman Robert Johnson. A potent mix fully realized in Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.
“We all must live our lives / Always feeling.
Always thinking / The moment has arrived.
If not now, then when?“
Tracy Chapman’s debut album from 1988 was one of the fastest selling albums in history – after she debuted the single “Fast Car” on network TV. The album contained several gems, all of which Tracy wrote. Her awareness of the plight of millions of black Americans still rings true today. The finest song on the album, “If Not Now”, said it all and did so passionately and eloquently, in a voice and manner that belongs solely to the creator of this unique album. Nearly forty years on, her debut shines as a brilliant landmark of soulful commitment.
