In the Realm of Utopian Desire: The Chicago
Women's Liberation Rock Band pioneered in challenging everything
about male rock and roll. Using comedy, satire, and a diversity
of song styles, it overturned the grim macho of a standard rock
performance. Audiences danced and shouted and sang along with
it, and when the performance was over, still shouting, the audience
stormed the stage, hugging the band members and their instruments
and sometimes even the amplifiers.
But
the Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band went further than just
confronting pig rock. Every time it played, the band summoned
up the ecstasy of a utopian vision of a world without hierarchy
and domination. Audience and performer, gay and straight, two-year-olds
and eighty-two-year-olds, black teenage girls and Latino transvestites:
for a moment in history as brief as a shiver, we were, all of
us, transformed and astonished.- Naomi Weisstein, former
Rock Band member
The Rock Band album is now available in a newly remastered version from Rounder Records.
Visit the Rounder Site
Download the new Rock Band Flyer
|
|
Consumer video was still in its infancy in the early 1970's, but some video of Rock Band performances do exist.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
These are the 1972 liner notes from the album Mountain
Moving Day which featured both the Chicago and the New Haven
Women's Liberation Rock Bands
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
by Ben Kim(1994): This is a somewhat abridged version of an article
that appeared in Chicago's alternative paper, New City
in April of 1994).
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
The Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band and the Politics
of Cultural Transformation
by Hillary Reser (2004): This is a seminar paper written by Hillary
Reser of the University of Chicago under the direction of Professor
Amy Dru Stanley.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Browse photos and graphics for the Chicago and New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Bands.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Lyrics for the Chicago and New Haven songs
are available.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
The Mountain Moving Day album had songs by both the Chicago and
the New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band. We
have converted all of the songs
to MP3 audio so that you may hear both the Chicago and the New
Haven Bands.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|