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The Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band

Naomi Weisstein 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



Vintage Video of the Rock Band Print E-mail

Consumer video was still in its infancy in the early 1970's, but some video of Rock Band performances do exist.

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Who We are and How We Got Here Print E-mail
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
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Suffragette City: The Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band Print E-mail
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).
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"One By One You're Gonna Know Our Power" Print E-mail

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.

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Rock Band Photos and Graphics Print E-mail
Browse photos and graphics for the Chicago and New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Bands.
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Song Lyrics Print E-mail
Lyrics for the Chicago and New Haven songs are available.
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Listen to the Mountain Moving Day Album Print E-mail
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. 
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From Women Who Broke the Silence

During the feminist revolution, the battle lines were again simple.  It was easy to tell the enemy, he was the one with the penis.  This is no longer strictly true.  Some men are okay now.  We're allowed to like them again.  We still have to keep them in line, of course, but we no longer have to shoot them on sight.

Cynthia Heimel