Posted on 09/09/2010 2:39:02 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
Wanda Jackson had no idea the influence she would have on future rock 'n' roll women when she carved a sharp, distinctive line across the heartwood of the new genre back in the 1950s and '60s.
..."I was just doing my career - not one day at a time but just plodding along, trying to get hits, working every place that you can," Jackson said. "...I don't think that far ahead. My husband says I'm like a duck. I wake up in a new world every day."
Yet signs of the 72-year-old's influence are everywhere as the Americana Music Association prepares to cite her for lifetime achievement during Thursday night's (Sept. 9) Americana Awards...
More than 50 years after she became one of the first women to tackle and transform nascent rock 'n' roll - at the suggestion of Elvis - women have pushed it in new and unexpected directions.
...The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer with the fierce voice and the uncommon versatility cleared the way for key female rock figures like Patti Smith and Kim Gordon...
...She landed rock hits like "Let's Have A Party" in the U.S. the 1960s and had hits in Japan and Germany, but she was always filled with musical wanderlust and eventually left rock for gospel, leading a ministry with her husband. She thought she'd never return to rock 'n' roll but in the 1980s promoters in Scandinavia and Europe interested in the history of rockabilly contacted her and launched a second phase to her career...
"I get to enjoy it now," she said of her legacy. "I see the young girls get to do their thing out there on stage with freedom. To think that I had a hand making that happen for women really thrills me."
(Excerpt) Read more at billboard.biz ...
Not sure how I managed to go more than 50 years having never hear of Wanda Jackson until today.
hear=heard
She floated on the edge and then deep into country for a good bit of her mainstream career.
And then she sang gospel.
And then she got on the rockabilly revival circuit in Europe and the States.
None of these genres are given much play by People, Us, Rolling Stone, Spin, Good Morning America, Tonight Show...
There are a lot of “unsung heroes of rock and roll”.
Doesn’t mean that they don’t have followings, just that they are not in the Dick Clark/Bill Graham/Jann Wener Presents history of music post-1955.
Fujiyama Mama--Annisteen Allen (1955)
I’ve never heard of her, but good for her to still be kickin around, enjoying her music!
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