IâM THE QUEEN OF ROCK AND ROLL (PART 1 OF 3)
Sleater-Kinney and the rock star mythos
Editorâs note: Re-publishing this post since the original version got deleted by Tumblr upon a copyright holderâs request for the removal of a concert photograph.
Sleater-Kinney werenât supposed to be rock stars - or at least thatâs what much of the mainstream press wanted you believe in the â90s. As Jovana Babovic notes in her 33 1/3 book about Dig Me Out, much of the press surrounding the band at the time of the albumâs release made note of the fact that as an all female band, the band were an anomaly in the world of rock music. Even further, some reviews suggested that they were destined for âminorâ success, effectively limiting the band just as they were getting started.
The rock star narrative wasnât made for a band like Sleater-Kinney - a dissonant, feminist three-piece with no bass player - but that didnât stop them from co-opting the rock star mythos and inserting themselves into the greater rock and roll canon on their own terms.
(Side note: if you want to play a fun game, go through the Youtube comments on Sleater-Kinney live videos and count the number of dudes debating whether or not the band has a bass player.)
Sleater-Kinney first sang about being rock stars in 1994 on âBig Big Lights.â In the chorus, Tucker asserts that sheâs the biggest star there is: âI worship my body sonically / I am the star, I am the best.â Thereâs nothing subtle about it - Tucker is a rock star, and it doesnât matter if you believe her or not.
What makes a rock star, anyway? The words ârock starâ suggest fame and recognition, but before the world considers you a rock star, you have to believe it yourself. Sleater-Kinney had that down early on with âBig Big Lights.â Itâs telling that one of the bandâs earliest recordings focuses on being a rock star: Sleater-Kinney knew they were rock stars long before the rest of the world even knew who they were.
Once you believe it, you make some more music and you tell the world. Â Cue âI Wanna Be Your Joey Ramoneâ off of 1996âs Call The Doctor.
âI wanna be your Joey Ramone
pictures of me on your bedroom door
invite you back after the show
Iâm the queen of rock and rollâ
Tucker evokes the name of Joey Ramone (and in the second chorus, Thurston Moore) as an aspiration, as a way of inserting herself into the canon by co-opting the names of the existing gods. But she turns right around with âIâm the queen of rock and rollâ as a sort of self-exaltation that doesnât just place her in the canon - it puts her right at the top.
Even the album cover for Dig Me Out plays into this act of self-mythologizing. As shown below, the cover is an obvious homage to the Kinksâ 1965 record The Kink Kontroversy.
The Kink Kontroversy was the Kinksâ third studio album, just as Dig Me Out was Sleater-Kinneyâs third studio album. The Dig Me Out album cover, then, could be read as the band consciously comparing themselves to the Kinks, a band considered by many to be among of the rock greats.
The album itself also features âWords & Guitar,â a classic Rock Song About Writing a Rock Song:
âWords and guitar, I got it
Words and guitar, I want it
Way, way too loud, I got it
Words and guitar
I want it all, I want it all, I want it
(canât take this away from me
music is the air I breathe
canât take this away from me)
Words and guitarâ
By the time The Hot Rock rolls around, Sleater-Kinney are four albums in and have more or less established themselves as a creative unit. On âThe End of You,â the band takes the act of self-mythologizing one step further, evoking images from Greek mythology to frame the band in the context of a Greek epic.
âThe first beast that will appear
Will entice us with money and fame
If you listen long enough
Youâll forget thereâs anything else
Tie me to the mast
Of this ship and of this band
Tie me to the greater things
The people that I loveâ
Lyrics about rock music are particularly present on All Hands on the Bad One as well, especially on songs like âBallad of a Ladyman,â âYouâre No Rock and Roll Fun,â âThe Professional,â and (as discussed yesterday) â#1 Must Have.â Â But on the albumâs B-side, âMale Modelâ is perhaps the clearest example of the band carving out their distinct place in the rock canon.
âCause you donât own the situation honey
You donât own the stage
Weâre here to join the conversation
And weâre here to raise the stakes
Now do you hear that sound
As the model breaks, take the stage
Let the image of him fade away
Go back and tear the pictures from the page
Itâs time for a new rock ânâ roll age
History will have to find a different face
âYou donât own the stageâ is an especially important line, again playing on the bandâs recurring theme of ownership - Â this time in the context of music. While rock has long been a male-dominated space, it truly belongs to no one - so why not embrace a new ârock ânâ roll age?â Why - as women, as feminists, as a band with no bass player - should Sleater-Kinney be shut out of rock stardom?
Jump forward to 2003. While promoting One Beat, Sleater-Kinney joined Pearl Jam on their Riot Act Tour. After years of critical acclaim and success within their own scene, Sleater-Kinney went from headlining small-to-mid-sized venues to being the opening act at a large arena show. They had to prove themselves all over again on a nightly basis to crowds that might not necessarily be receptive to their sound or politics.
One Beat was the bandâs biggest, most sweeping album to date. If any of the bandâs songs were made to be heard in a stadium, it was those 12 tracks on One Beat. But Sleater-Kinney left that tour with Pearl Jam knowing that they could always go bigger.
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