Fanny: The Right to Rock

(rock music) - There are a lot of folks that are joining us this evening.

It takes a lot to bring a rock group from bottom to now.

- We're, like, some of the first girls who did start learning how to play, like, five years ago, and there are going to be a lot more girls after us, I can say that.

- That's what we're here for.

(loud rock music) - Fanny is iconic; truly before their time.

Men, for some reason, they coveted rock & roll; that that was theirs, and they weren't going to let us have it.

Come on Come on () - Fanny was the first all-women rock band that could really play and really get some credibility within the musician community.

(scatting) - Yeah, they were girls, but they weren't wearing miniskirts with their #*#*#*#* out.

They were long-haired with instruments.

It's like, this is a girl with an instrument on.

So OK, this is a game-changer.

(scatting) - They had balls, which is what Bowie was saying.

He's like, you know, they're just... they're as good as T.Rex or Martha Hoople or, you know, the Stones or anybody, you know.

And... and he was right.

- It didn't get to the general public.

They know about The Runaways, they know about The Go-Go's, 'cause they had major hits, which Fanny never did.

They didn't have that number-one hit and the platinum records that the other bands had.

But those other bands wouldn't have had those platinum records if Fanny didn't open the door.

It's always the ones that start it that get #*#*#*#*#*#*.

Let's go back to where it all began Seventeen then we started a band Lugging our gear up and down the stairs Having so much fun we didn't really care Girls on the road girls on the go Doing what we knew was gonna save our souls Riding the wave Coming 'round the bend Once you feel the beat you got to do it again Playing for boys coming home from war We were just kids What were they fighting for Civil rights Unrest in the streets But every night we felt so safe in our beats Girls on the road Girls on the go Doing what we knew was gonna save our souls Riding the wave Coming 'round the bend Once you feel the beat you got to do it again - Whoa!

Hey!

Girls (bell ringing) - It's a 1962 Precision bass.

So it's pretty much a collector's item at this point.

I think the only thing my son wants to inherit from me is the bass.

(laughing) - I always have a pair of my... my favourite old pajamas are what swaddles my guitars when they're in the cases, 'cause I don't like them...

I like them to be comfortable.

Ta da, my old friend.

- Back in the day, we would load the trailers ourselves, and we never even thought about having somebody help us do that.

I guess we're just hands-on chicks.

Maybe that's the deal.

(drums playing) - Hey, the sun's coming out.

- Yeah, man, that's a sign.

- It's a sign that the day's already begun and you're still in your pajamas.

- Ha-ha, that's so funny.

- Want to do it from the beginning?

- My brain knows it, but my body is not minding sometimes.

- We are recording an album after, oh, 45 years, 50 years, whatever it is.

Yeah, well, the Rolling Stones can do it.

Of course, they look pretty darn ancient.

If I had as many lines in my face as Keith Richards, I don't know that we would have been offered a record deal.

(laughing) - One, two, three.

(rock music playing) - Ah, you didn't do that groovy stuff that you were just doing.

- You said you were going to do it.

- No, no.

I said I was gonna do the "da, da, da, da" thing.

No, you've got to do that groovy #*#*#*#* you were doing.

(laughing) I can't do it!

That's a bass thing, man.

- OK, ready?

- Oh, my God!

- Same place.

Three, four.

(rock music playing) When I walked in the door, I was with my family again.

It was just like being home.

They're like my sisters.

I mean they... you know, I've known them since I was sixteen.

That's a long time.

- Yeah, man!

(laughing) I know.

I know.

(laughing) Once I was standing.

Right now, see that's what the #*#*#*#* is.

That's what I'm talking about, right there.

- That feeling of the three of us coming back together is really comfortable, and I think that it makes the music what it is.

We're representing everything that we've gone through in order to not only live into our sixties, but to have learned so much, and acknowledge that we're still growing.

So when, walk, Lord and Halcion are the main things.

And then the intro, your idea is kind of on stone crossing, we're just fooling around.

- They have this really important legacy in my mind.

We've got a responsibility here not to muck this up.

This is special.

They're getting back together after all this time as a band, and we have to do it right.

- This is a little-known fact; mini-pads make the best drum dampers.

And they come with self-stick.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#* power secrets.

Look at that.

- Yeah.

- The pick sounds awesome.

- Not too big, but super punchy.

- I love that, very punchy.

- When I think of Fanny, I think that they were just kind of a gutsy rock & roll band from a very gutsy rock & roll time in musical history.

That was one of the more exciting parts about it, is it was like a sort of blank canvas, but a blank canvas that was gonna take paint really, really well.

Check it out, remember, you have to accommodate the mics and the girls.

- And the people, yeah.

- Yeah.

So I'd rather have two straight stands that just come up to here.

- Okay.

I just think it's really great that they're doing another record and I get to be a part of it.

And my mom, I mean, she's been playing the bass, the same bass.

June plays the same guitar through the same amps.

And for me, like, as soon as those sounds happen, it's like I'm a little child again.

(guitar playing) - See, girls were supposed to ask permission to do anything.

There were no girl bands that we knew of, really, who were doing what we were doing.

And we brought the example of girls doing it despite everything.

- Jean is my little sister, and we grew up in the Philippines.

Born to a Filipina mom and an American dad who was from Burlington, Vermont.

When we moved to California in June of '61, racism was the first thing I encountered.

We're brown and nobody knows where the Philippines is.

And many times when I felt worthless and unseen and challenged to be a... you know, a human being....

I think my first vulnerability is feeling invisible.

- It was really difficult for us in the beginning because we really felt so excluded.

In high school, I had a boyfriend, and his father had said, "I'll buy you a Mustang if you stop seeing that half-breed girl."

I just had no idea that kind of prejudice existed.

And he did: He dropped me for a Mustang.

- I grew up in a small town.

We were the only non-white family.

My very first boyfriend - well, sixteen-year-old love - and he came over and he said, "I'm not supposed to see you anymore."

I said, "Well, why?"

He said, "Because you're not white."

And I had no idea.

I had never heard that before, because this is my home.

What's with not making somebody feel welcome, or feel like they don't belong?

You know, why... why make people feel like, you know, that you shouldn't go out with their son because you're not white?

(Singing): If I... A... A flat.

C#.

F#.

So what is that?

If I had it in my power I'd make it so easy For lovers I can see it in your eyes Was it totally unwise To hurry up and give it all Baby... - The Philippine culture, Filipinos, are one of the most musical cultures in the world.

Jean and I are self-taught musicians.

We played ukuleles and we learned pop songs off the radio.

- We had been playing together, and evolving and singing, and we decided that we wanted to perform in the uh, variety show at the junior high.

You know, and all of a sudden, we were somebody and people talked to us.

It was just amazing.

So we thought, "Ah-ha!

That's our doorway."

- We just loved the Beatles, we loved the Beach Boys, and we started just doing cover tunes.

And eventually, we started getting the gigs.

- The interesting thing about the Svelts back then, is that they could play the women's Motown songs that the guys couldn't.

And that had a huge effect on... That's one of the things that really, really set them apart.

And then of course, during the summertime, they would play in the backyard.

I remember many, many occasions that they would be practicing, and hundreds of people would come gather around and watch them.

- This was our hangout.

The Svelts: This is where it all started.

This is where we practiced, right back here.

- Used to be a wooden fence, and there was little slats in the fence, and I would watch them like this.

Well, it was the first girl band I'd ever seen.

(laughter) - Because we weren't supposed to play that kind of music, or those instruments.

And that was the fun of it, was just materializing something that was considered impossible, and almost illegal.

- Yeah.

- How fun is that?

- It was awesome.

(laughter) - When I joined June and Jean, we were all Filipina.

I wasn't particularly popular in school, so when I found music and bands, rock & roll bands, and then I found the girls, it was like I had a purpose.

That became my tribe; it was everything.

- Being in a rock band gave us a place to belong.

We were all different together, and I think that made a big difference for me.

It gave me somebody to be.

- Sometimes we would have three and four shows in a weekend.

- They were ferocious.

(chuckling) This wasn't, you know, standing around being cute.

So, you could really admire their work ethic, which was visible.

You could see how hard they'd worked at this.

- My father had helped us refurbish a school bus.

And so we travelled in that with all our equipment in the back, you know, and the whole thing, and we were able to somewhat sleep in the bus.

We would just book ourselves all weekend because we were in school.

- There's a shot of us on the beach in these outfits we used to call the Tahitian in 1968, and I was already pregnant at the time.

I played until I was about five and a half to six months pregnant.

I was as sick as a dog.

In between songs, I'd be throwing up.

Of course, I would hide it from the audience, but I was so sick for the first, I guess, few months, yeah.

It was tough, but we kept playing.

- The choice came down to whether or not to take a birth control pill that would end the pregnancy.

I stood over the toilet and thought about it and then I flushed it.

And that was my decision.

I had my daughter in the November of '68.

- Losing Brie was a real blow, because we were all having such a hard time just keeping a band together.

And for me and Jean, it was the hardest.

Life for her continued in whatever way, and we were completely traumatized on our side, you know, going on the road without a drummer.

- That's when I joined the band.

So I took over for Brie.

I was seventeen.

It was hard work, really hard work.

But when you're young and you're having fun and you're... you're working hard for a goal, it doesn't seem to be as hard work as you think it's going to be.

It was fun.

Rock & roll is fun.

Ooh baby I can make you run... - When we went to L.A., we had decided we were either going to get a recording contract, or we were going to give it up and go back to school.

- At the time, we had a woman manager, and she went down to L.A. and she uh, was able to set up this night at the Troubadour, which was not, like, a performance per se, it was open mic night.

And that was important for us, because they never would have considered putting an all-girl band even to open for someone unknown.

- I was working for Richard Perry at Warner Brothers.

So, I just always looked for artists that I thought would be good.

And Richard asked me to go to the Troubadour.

Ooh baby Won't you give your love to me Ooh baby You make me run... - When Fanny came up, it was just... it was electric.

They had so much charisma.

I was overwhelmed.

I just thought, this, you know, this band is Richard's; it's got to be Richard's.

He produced Fats Domino, Ella Fitzgerald.

He just had an eye for their talent.

- They put out a lot of energy, and June was a real ball of fire.

I was immediately taken with their musicianship, and the maturity that they displayed.

They seemed to be very dedicated and serious about what they wanted to do and what their goals were.

- And uh, that was it: Richard wanted to sign us.

When we were casting about for the name of the band, we wanted a name that could be recognized and was, you know, was quite distinctive, and short and to the point.

And we came up with the name Fanny.

We thought it was a really wonderful name.

- We put signs around Hollywood, L.A., you know, Southern California: "Looking for a keyboard player."

We finally got Nickey.

- Once we got the record deal, and it was clear that we needed a group home, we needed a band home, and they ended up finding us this house, Fanny Hill.

It's a...

It was Hedy Lamarr's home, overlooking L.A. - Fanny Hill was just a huge experiment.

And it was girlfriends.

It was like we had our own sorority, but we had amps.

It was a sorority with electrical guitars.

And uh, jamming day and night.

And people coming over and hanging out with the chicks, and having a great time, you know.

- Brie just had the baby, so she and her daughter moved in with us and then she wanted to play with us again.

And she did.

And then once Punkin was born, a lot of times she would just, like, be in front of the bass drum and she'd fall asleep.

- During the time I lived with the band at Fanny Hill, I was actually the only one with a child.

It was kind of cool for everybody else 'cause they loved having a little kid around.

They loved having a baby, you know, a piece of reality.

At any given time, there was a band in the basement, 'cause we had lots of jams.

Bob Dylan's The Band, they were down there playing.

Little Feet used to show up.

Bonnie Raitt was there playing.

- I mean, it would be not an unusual occurrence for Joe Cocker to be sitting at our dining room table, eating the muffins we made that morning.

You know, playing a tambourine, or whatever.

I mean, so that kind of thing happened all the time, when music was just bursting at the seams.

- One of the times I came to L.A., they had kindly offered to let me stay at their legendary Fanny Hill, and it was just a great hang vibe there, you know.

We all just became very, very close.

And there was a lot of late nights.

And you know, how fantastic was that!

It was free, and my bass player was with me, Freebo; who ended up being very frustrated 'cause there was a lot of gorgeous, naked women walking around, all of whom were gay.

- Oh, God, Fanny Hill was like a male's wet dream.

(laughing) Nudity, freedom, bodies.

Everybody was, like, had their bedmates.

I didn't have a bedmate, but I would crawl in bed with all of them.

- I came out when I was seventeen.

That's one of the reasons I left home.

And my mom put me in a... the psychopathic ward in Iowa for two weeks.

But after, when the doctors said, "Let her go.

Let's just be there for her."

I got a letter from her almost every day in California and it was... (shaky breath) Just, uh... ...a newsy letter, no judgement, you know?

So, I had a lot of years to work through.

- Being a lesbian, I understood that society was totally against it in the sense that it was really dangerous.

In the sense that you could lose everything.

For me, opening up to that part of myself was the silent liberation that music also afforded me.

You could say it was an internal "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.

- Girlfriends and boyfriends lived there, and then friends of theirs would come it.

So there was just this constant open door, revolving door of... of people.

- Jean and I, we had boyfriends and Nickey Barclay was married to one guy and... and living with another.

She had two guys at the same time.

- I guess it was sex, drugs and rock & roll.

It got really out of hand.

You know, I took my share and probably some of yours.

(chuckling) - The night we... that June and I hung out with Mick Jagger and, uh, Bobby Keyes and we smoked hash all night long, right?

Got so completely stoned; there was no sex, no nothing; it was music.

- Then he invited us to do some heroin, and I thought, "Well, I've never done it before, you know, I'll try a little bit."

The next thing I knew, I was waking up, like, three hours later and then plus I got sick to my stomach, and he had to pull into an alley so I could puke out the door, you know?

I didn't have to say to him, "I am never going to do this again."

We had a job to do.

You could not have done what Fanny did being high and kind of tipsy all the time.

Impossible.

- She worked so hard.

Sitting in that room with the guitar, hours and hours and hours.

And we were rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing, and Brie's voice was so powerful and so strong.

And she was a drummer.

I wasn't...

I probably had some trepidation about having a second drummer, you know, "Oh, she'll take my job," or, you know, "they'll not want me anymore."

- I guess the powers that be, including Richard Perry and our manager, Roy Silver, had it in their mind that we could be the female Beatles.

And at that time, Brie was in the band, but Alice is playing drums, so Brie was playing percussion and singing.

So she was kind of, you know, the extra person, if you will.

- Yeah, when I got the word that I wasn't going to continue on in the band, it's like everything just...

I think I just shut down.

- I don't even know how we ever asked her to stop playing with us.

I mean, I couldn't imagine, you know, I probably just blocked out that whole thing.

- Richard cut Brie; I felt the aftereffects.

I felt the whole house of Fanny Hill just, like, crying.

He had removed a piece of the legacy of Svelts and all the work that they had done together.

She was phenomenal... and she was a mother.

- So, this photo is, um, in my room upstairs at Fanny Hill and this is the day that I got let go from the band, which was a... as you can tell from the way I'm looking in the photo, I was pretty devastated, actually.

Um, she had no idea what I was going through, but I remember feeling just like that picture looks.

I was just lost.

- I still think to this day that's one of the biggest mistakes made in the early Fanny days; that Brie would have added so much more to the band.

- Being given the directive that unless we did this, they would not work with us and we would not have an album.

And we just looked at each other and, like, you know, we had worked so hard to get to a place where we could even record.

And to be given that directive by basically the record company and management, that's what happened.

(rock music) - I signed with Warner Reprise.

They were the first all-girl rock band that was signed to a major label and had an album come out.

- Discovering Fanny was kind of like a surprise.

Like, if you were going to see classical paintings and all of a sudden there was a Van Gogh right in the middle of a... you know, totally realistic set of paintings.

Suddenly there's this completely different thing that happened.

What I need is some time to escape And a place in the country Whoa that's what I need A place in the country I got to find me A place in the country I just got to find me A place in the country - It was hard rock.

It was guitar riffs, solos and it was pounding drums.

They opened for bands like Humble Pie, and they opened for Deep Purple, and they were...

I would put them sort of on that continuum, uh, hard rock but with a lot of melodicism.

Super great players.

- They were, like, making their mark and putting a stamp on the music business and the American music scene.

It created an awareness in the business that, hey, women do this too, without having to be the background singer for some guy.

- Here's another one of those long-haired groups you've heard about.

Their name: Fanny.

(applause) - I just remember hearing them on the radio and they rocked.

Fanny was the first band I saw where a woman played guitar.

And I was very impressed.

And her attitude too, it was just kind of, you know, flipping her hair and just a tough attitude and she played great.

- Nickey Barclay, I mean, you just don't see women rocking out on the keyboards like that.

She was the first person I saw playing like Nicky Hopkins or that I'd only seen men do.

And, uh, Alison, a great drummer.

Oh... () So I could find out why I was turning for the worse You put me under such a spell it blew my mind out And I'm burning Call the nurse 'Cause I believe I'm gonna fade away - I had never seen a woman do a stink face.

But when she would play one of these real vicious bass lines, you could see this.... (growling) Oh... yes I do I got this fever I got a fever Got a fever Got a fever Got a fever (applause) - And especially in the lead guitar scenario, you had the... the view of the male, virile, Thor-like God of guitar, you know, and I think it was difficult for any woman to break through that, uh, cultural view, no matter how awesome they were.

- There aren't too many female rock groups around.

I don't know what the reason for that is, but I do know that there are very few groups, male or female, that are as exciting as the Queens of Rock and Roll, Fanny.

(rock music) Dance ooh Stand ooh Move to charity ball Dance ooh Stand ooh Move to charity ball - There was so much prejudice and disbelief.

For the first ten minutes that we went on stage, people... we had to prove to them that we were actually playing.

- My next guests are four young musicians who, in over a year that they've been together, have been billed with, all of the top artists around, just about.

And tomorrow evening they'll be on their own at Carnegie Hall.

And they have just released their second album, which is entitled Charity Ball.

These are four young women; singly they are Jean, June, Nickey and Alice, but you put them all together, you've got Fanny.

Come on grab a partner We're gonna roll till the break of dawn And I need you I need you - All we had to do is get on stage.

I knew I was going to put that bass drum right up your crotch, you know, "badoom," that's where I wanted it.

(cheering and applause) - So, we broke through that barrier and it wasn't through talking, it wasn't through arguing, it wasn't through convincing anyone that girls could play; we just #*#*#*#*#*#*#* did it.

I ain't nothing with nobody, I ain't nothing with no man - Oh, my God, that's a... that's some old-school #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#* there.

"If you object to this picture on the front of a rock paper, you could be a male chauvinist."

A truer statement couldn't be made at the time.

Now if you saw that, you'd pay... you would just go, "Wow, cool."

(Fanny Singing) - They were the first band that we were spoon-fed the information for in these magazines that we bought to read about Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and the Stones.

And doing exactly what all guy groups did.

Working their asses off, sitting in the back of a #*#*#*#* van travelling up and down whatever highway they were on, to go to some bar or some club to play a gig.

The difference being, no doubt, when they got on stage, they had to deal with a lot of drunken, "Get your #*#*#*#* out" #*#*#*#* that guys didn't really have to deal with.

- And just about every single interview we did, the opening question was: Well, how does it feel to be a girl playing an instrument?

And you go, "Jesus, did you do any research?"

- The idea that we were Filipina-American, that didn't enter into our conversations with anybody, with the public.

That part was kind of ignored, and that made it even worse.

The terrible thing about racism is it can be so subtle.

I knew I was being judged every second, so it's all I... all I did, really, was just play as hard and as good as I could, you know, without um...

I just knew I was representing something new.

I feel like it was intelligent rock.

If you listen to our lyrics, and we had a lot of original songs, you know, we are speaking to you as women.

We were kind of pushing back at all the prejudice that was coming at us.

- Listen to the one where, you know, we're talking about uh, because she's on the pill.

And she knows she's cool or she's on the pill... - In 1968-69, the lyrics were ahead of time.

I think Fanny was ten years too early.

- In the early '70s, the women's movement was full steam; the whole social fabric of America was shifting.

And their... the albums are just beautiful markers of that period of time and that fight.

Look out girl You've got to learn how to get along in this world Look out girl Look out girl Look out girl Look out girl - Lastly tonight, back to Fanny, who've been conquering male chauvinist hearts everywhere.

- In the U.K., calling a band Fanny didn't mean the same thing as it did in America.

(laughing) - They must have been aware that it kind of meant, you know, like #*#*#*#*#* in England and... so it's such a play on... on female empowerment to me, that the name Fanny and the fact that they just were women who rock.

- They took us in; they loved us; they followed us around that little country.

- Yeah, I'd love a cup of tea.

- If I don't get a cup of tea in the morning, I'm no good for the rest of the day.

- It's tea-riffic.

- That'll perk you up.

- It's refreshing!

- Take a fresh look at tea, it's the most refreshing drink in the world.

- We were just such Beatle fans and we just couldn't believe that we had the honour of being able to record at Apple Studios.

- Something happened for us in London where people both in the business and in the audience were giving us a level of respect that we did not get in the U.S. - One of the most thrilling things of recording at Apple was the engineer was Geoff Emerick, who was the Beatles' engineer.

- Geoff was one of the most outstanding engineers, that just the fact that he was the one behind the board on all those amazing Beatle albums.

I knew that I had to work with him at some point.

So I took advantage of the Fanny situation.

- Richard Perry and I fought all the time because he wanted to contain my sound.

Here I was jamming with guys who... who were creating, like, hit sounds and they were loud, right?

So, I'd get like this, you know, tone and sound and everything, and he'd come up... so let's say my amp was on six or seven, he'd just turn it down to two and he would just be like plink--plink--plink--plink.

I just would go, you know, I would just explode.

And I did turn to Geoff Emerick and I said, "Geoff, how do you get George Harrison's sound?"

And he only turned around and looked at me and said, "He gave me the sound and I mic'd it."

And that was the end of Richard, at least with Geoff, coming up to me and trying to turn down my amp.

That was it.

I mean, Geoff basically said, "Leave... leave her alone, would ya?

Just let me do my job."

(laughing) - It was very popular back in those days.

They would give out free flexidisc singles so that you'd buy their magazine and not the... their rival one.

They gave away a song by Fanny, and it was a song called Blind Alley.

I remember putting it on and hearing it for the first time and just thinking how powerful it was.

The way it starts off with this fade-in, kind of muted guitar... (hums) ...and then just the simplest keyboard motif.

Bown--bown--bown--bown- dow--dow-dow... And then the right hand comes in.

And then the big... you know, very glam-rockish kind of two-chord thing comes bursting in and the drums, and then the vocal.

Take care of yourself This is your story Your voice is shaking the walls And they're crumbling down - I mean I had no idea who they were, but this four minutes worth of music, I was, like, hooked.

I would play that thing till it was literally, the needle would have gone through it.

With visions of tomorrow swept away And someone's gonna get burned - It didn't seem outrageous that we did one album a year, but in retrospect, that's a lot of music to be able to put out.

We're leading ourselves Down a blind alley - When we were touring, we were in our rooms, we were writing, we were just trying to perfect ourselves as much as possible.

And that was our aim, to be as good as possible in this short a period of time.

- It was like a military campaign with all the rehearsing and the schedules and getting to the airport on time, and the sound checks and playing 100 % every night.

You could not fail.

And someone's gonna get burned - It was brutally tiring because you're always doing either a gig or an interview, or you're recording.

Most likely all three at once.

But, you know, to keep giving and giving and giving in that way was unsustainable.

- The bad memories of Fanny were pretty much any band story.

The fighting and not know how to express, "That hurt my feelings; let's try not to do that again."

You know, conflict resolution was not the best with Fanny.

- For the longest time, once a week we had to have a therapy session.

The band got together and aired a lot of stuff.

That was really my role in the band, holding it all together.

- A band dynamic is a family dynamic, so just relate it to your own family and you got your answer right there.

- Nickey's a bit of a wild card.

I still don't know who she is.

I don't really know where she came from.

She is very guarded except in her music.

Music is the ultimate.

It walks through walls.

(laughing) You're not worrying about somebody crossing some boundary and, you know, whether they mean to or not hurting you or offending you.

All of that disappears.

- Mother's Pride was still, you know, at a time when the band was very active.

They were playing a lot.

You know, the principle musical drivers in the band were Nickey and June, but they seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the division of labour, you know.

Like, there was no fighting over who's going to sing what.

Well, the general vibe when we were making the record was this is no different than any other act for me.

Part of the challenge was just to keep the curious out of the studio, while the sessions were going on.

At one point, Alice felt that the studio was just too hot for her, so she played the rest of the sessions with no shirt on.

- At first, I found it unusual, but it soon became just, you know, it's the standard operating procedure.

(man talking about Fanny in foreign language) I tried to call you but they've taken out your phone - It was an Indigenous, different thing going on that the way that they approached music, the way they approached their instruments, the way they approached song writing was different than how everybody else was approaching it.

So it's valuable because they're part of that string, here's how rock and roll developed, but they're also outside of it because they were doing their own thing.

- They were absolutely with the spirit of the times, the Zeitgeist, and they didn't have to know it because they were it.

They took what I learned to dance to when I was a teenager in the '50s and gave it a whole new social meaning.

A renaissance of ideas and feeling and excitement.

The fact that they didn't break through wasn't so much a function of their music or their talent, it was the social moment which was unable to hear what they had to offer.

- We only got so far as popularity and really breaking open.

And, you know, it was probably a combination of... we didn't write really great pop songs.

That was not the kind of band we were.

Whereas the Go-Go's and like that, they had great pop songs, you know.

So we never made it in that way.

And it's very frustrating to me.

- Whatever success we had was not what we expected.

We were not bringing enough money in from record sales and shows.

Which seems a little odd to me because as far as I know, we sold, like, 60,000 units per album.

But we signed over power of attorney.

We had no control over our money and we never asked about it because, basically, our bills were paid and that was enough.

- But we didn't get the hit that the label wanted, and that was a lot of pressure.

I mean, I remember sitting around talking about it.

I was like, "What do we gotta do?

I mean... we're working so hard and we should... this all should have been already, like, over the top."

You get after a few years and you're looking around and I'm like, "Where is everyone?"

We're playing our asses... our fannies off for everyone, and it's not enough.

Why?

Why?

You know.

So it was as if it was ashes in my mouth.

- You want a hit record?

You know, you gotta pay to get on the radio.

A lot of money.

This is a pretty nasty business.

Dealing with shyster lawyers and managers and people that did the wrong thing, which caused a lot of internal #*#*#*#* inside the band, which it always does, you know.

Some people can get through that in one piece; most don't.

- It was hard.

In any of the interviews, "Oh, yeah, I'm taken."

Being gay was still a disease back then.

So, you could not be a lesbian in Fanny.

We had to have boyfriends or significant others.

The record company didn't know what to do with us.

They didn't know how to market us.

I went to the management and said, you know, "I want to go talk to those guys in the promotion department and let them know that we're people.

We're not just this 'all-girl band,' that we're people and we have ideas and we, you know... ...listen to the lyrics on our songs."

- We were on the cusp and we could tell the record company, management, everybody was getting nervous.

Hence the changing of the clothes, which completely threw me off because then I was even not comfortable in clothes playing on stage.

- What Warner Brothers wanted for us was to have more skimpy costumes and do all that glam stuff and whatever.

And at that point, June just said, "I ain't doing this.

I can't do that."

There was so much pressure all the time in Fanny.

I mean, you have to remember how young we were and how scared we were.

Really insecure.

There were just a lot of things that I think just kind of blurred over because we were just very busy trying to survive being an all-girl band and being criticized and questioned and looked at like under a microscope all the time.

- I always felt trapped in that one-dimensional way that they were presenting us to the world.

It just... that didn't work for me at all.

I was always gonna be the chick who could play lead guitar.

I needed to... to find out how to be in this world not behind a guitar.

- Well, when June left the band, of course, I was really blown away; I just didn't know how I would continue.

And then shortly thereafter, Alice quit the band.

She didn't want to go on without June.

So, that half of Fanny was gone, but I wasn't prepared to give it up.

- When I was invited back into the band, it was an opportunity to be back with my girlfriends, you know, and to play with Jean again, which was always great.

And so, it was just exciting; it was fun.

- And so together with Roy Silver, who was our manager, we ended up getting Patty Quatro on guitar, and it morphed into a whole different thing.

(rock music) - When I came in, there was a big discussion about clothing and stuff.

They wanted us sexier looking.

Oh, I loved dressing up in leathers, tight leather pants and a leather top with a, you know, just tied with a string in the back.

It was just very sexy but still raw, still primitive.

And yeah, we always had our guitar between our legs.

I mean, Jean and I up front, we were just always having a ball up there.

A lot of showmanship.

Rock and roll survivors The only ones who made it We found a way to keep on While the rest of you fell by Rock and roll survivors We've found our song and played it We've gone too long to trade it I wonder if we'll cave in - And anything that you can do that would, you know, grab the attention of a radio station, you do.

We wanted to be successful.

We wanted that record to come out and we want one of those tracks on that record, uh, you know, to garner attention.

We had a couple of songs and we did Butter Boy, which, which was, uh, at that time, um... it was like a, you know, R-rated kind of song at that time.

But, the Fanny, uh... mystique was still there.

The persona was still there.

She was in control of this song and it was a hit song for them, you know.

"And he was hard as a rock, but I was ready to roll."

You know, "What a shock to find out that I was in control."

(music playing) - Casablanca.

Butter Boy.

Whahoo whahoo Whahoo whahoo He was hard as a rock But I was ready to roll What a shock to find out I was in control Of the situation I didn't need no time or destination - Butter Boy, of all our songs, had been the one that made it the highest on the charts.

And that was thrilling to me.

So much of the idea of it was really based on my relationship with David Bowie.

Go baby go Hit it on boy Show what you know There's a fire down below - We probably dated for a year, a year and a half, something like that.

It wasn't a putdown on him.

He wasn't that person.

But he gave me the courage because of the way he wrote songs and what his point of view was; it gave me the courage to write that song.

He really was... admired the band and the musicianship and all that, so we always had that... that respect from him.

Show what you know Oh there's a fire down below - That should have been the catalyst that galvanized them.

- It was really gaining momentum and Nicki got pulled away.

She wanted to do a solo album.

And... some things going on with boyfriends inside the group and stuff and we lost Brie.

(sighing) So that was a rough, rough thing to go through because we were right on the cusp.

- I wasn't completely sold on the direction that we ended up going, but it was not easy.

We didn't make any money.

You know, those kind of things were difficult, you know.

Maybe we got some kind of money to stay afloat on the road so that we could eat.

I don't remember getting a salary, that's for sure.

- It just got to me after a while.

I just couldn't cope with being on the road and dealing with that stuff day in and day out anymore.

I just got exhausted.

And ultimately, that's what happened, why the band broke up.

I didn't want to continue.

- They were just one of those bands that, you know, they kind of disappeared after the mid-seventies, and every now and then I'd wonder, whatever happened to Fanny?

- Well, we had decided, my husband and I, Earl Slick, had decided that when I had a child, I would stay home with the baby.

I was thirty when I had Marita.

There was no way for me to be going on the road and whatever.

We didn't want that for our children.

And then when I got pregnant with Lee, the same thing happened and I couldn't leave.

And so, I was deeply involved in my children's lives in that way.

And, uh... the music had to take the back seat for quite a bit of time.

- It kind of worked out good for me.

I did a lot of videos in the eighties and nineties.

Um, and I did a lot of tours.

I was really lucky to have worked with Carol King and Robert Palmer, Jimmy Buffet, Roger Daltry, Duran Duran.

I filled, like, a couple of different shoes.

It's like I played either drums or percussion and I sang.

Maybe for the past, like, eight to ten years, music sort of drifted off into the background.

I still did it, but not as much.

- The time just post-Fanny is when I met Ann.

That's how I ended up here in this area.

Part of the reason why I helped start the Rock & Roll Girls Camps was to help the girls we were back then who had no mentors, no supporters except for our moms.

No one we saw out there who was playing, no mirroring, there was nothing out there that said it's okay to do this.

- I've been on the Board since they started.

One of the things that I really admire June for is to start... starting the Institute because, you know, she's really been concentrating on getting young girls to be able to play music and have an outlet way before other people were thinking about it.

- Three, four.

(music playing) - I think it's really great throughout the year to be able to have these programs where kids, and especially young girls, can see that they can be anything they want musically.

- So that's what I... in part what I'm trying to transmit to you.

That whole attitude of singing out.

And you know what, just let people feel it.

What we represent is women who are at the top of their game or young women who'd like to get to the top of their game and they're willing to work.

It's a calling; it's a mission; it's destiny, you know.

And we take that seriously.

We're not gonna stop persisting Till you understand We're not gonna stop resisting Till you give a hand We're not gonna stop, no We're not gonna stop - Glass ceiling, hm, I don't know.

I think it still exists, personally.

You know, I think it's really hard still for women to prove that they can kick ass and play.

- I'm in an all-girl rock and roll band called Jackknife Stiletto.

We're currently on Joan Jett's label, Blackheart Records.

Super hard for any rock band to be doing this, but, you know, for all-females to be out there trying to do this as well, it's like another... another notch down there.

You're like, "Oh, you want to do that too?

Nope."

Like, you know.

(laughing) I think there is still a road to go.

You kind of take for granted, like, some people gave us the right to vote and, like, Fanny gave us the right to rock, you know.

So it's pretty cool to kind of, you know, step back and think about that.

(indistinct chatter) - David Bowie: "One of the most important female bands in American rock & roll has been buried without a trace: Fanny.

They were one of the first #*#*#*#*#*#*#* rock & roll bands - Good old Davie - of their time."

- "They're as important as anybody else who's ever been ever.

It just wasn't their time."

That's true.

And for him to mention them specifically in his little capsule really shows that he was willing to... shine that light on an underknown band, an underrepresented band.

- And I remember the end of the quote was to the effect of, "If I could revivify Fanny, my job would be done."

And I thought, we're going to finish that job for David Bowie.

(rock music) - We were talking about what we would call it and June said, you know, something about Fanny Walk the Earth, and I went, "I love that."

And I love it for a couple of reasons: 'cause it sounds like dinosaurs, and we are.

(rock music playing) - We dealt with the prejudice against girls, right.

And the feminism.

And then June says, "Oh yeah, now we're bucking ageism."

(laughing) (laughing) Nobody says it was easy If it was everybody would We were sisters we were daughters Mixing on the water Badass And really good Breaking the rules What satisfaction It's alright It's alright Making the rules creating action It's alright Alright (muffled singing) - I was absolutely blown away playing with a second drummer for the first time, and playing rock & roll with Brie.

How can... How much better can it get, right?

And the music kicks ass.

The... the album is great.

I like everything I heard, and I liked being a part of it.

- That's so cool, guys.

Come on in.

- That's really fun.

That was really fun.

I'm glad that you pursued it and made it happen.

- I'm so glad you were... - It sounds great, too.

Alice, you did a hell of a job.

- You're awesome.

- Oh, you were pretty damn animated in our group.

- Yeah, I know, but now... - We're recording a song, everybody's singing on the choruses and stuff.

It's sort of a female anthem.

- To be able to be in that room with all these women that had been through what I'd been though, and I'm with my heroes, and be able to sing with them in that kind of really personal, fantastic way, that was really fun.

- Wow, here are these women, these pioneers who also, like me, you know, have women of colour that are in the band and they have queers in the band.

And a lot of times, the influence of these people -- of us -- our influences are written out of history.

- Can you hear the lead vocal okay?

(all): Yeah.

- Here we go, doing it again.

We are stronger than we are alone - Awesome.

That's killer.

We're gonna... we're gonna drop it in right for that last part.

(singing): It's wide open - In that same softer voice.

- Yes.

(all): Wide open - Okay, everybody got it?

Let's just grab it right there.

Calling the ones who have come before And the world breaks open It's wide open - Yeah, that makes a harmony with the other girls.

It's good.

Come on in, guys, that sounds great.

All right.

- Well, here's what I was thinking.

If June wanted to, she could just wear, actually, her black... that black top that she has, which will look great with her white hair.

Or she could wear the red.

I, however, will probably have on a couple of red things.

I'm gonna clash with myself.

Clashing with myself (laughing) - When you're in the last quarter of your life and somebody wants to take pictures of you, that's awesome.

(laughing) It's pretty cool.

- Yeah, it's not bad.

- This hair thing is very complicated, this hair placement.

- I know.

- I knew it was gonna be.

- Okay, heads closer together.

- Okay.

- Probably if people hear our record and don't know the history, they wouldn't know that we're up in our sixties.

You know.

Of course, then if we're touring, we have to take naps and things, but... (laughter) - One, two, three!

(mellow rock music) - Rock & roll is kind of just learning how to age.

And Fanny is one of the only examples of women playing music that are defying other things that are crushing against us.

- And Fanny is its own zip code.

The mould has been broken for people that are older now, showing they can still... they can still bring it.

- You know, so, my big joke with my friends now, maybe I'll be famous when I'm 80.

(chuckling) - Hey, this is Brie Darling, one third of the band, Fanny Walked the Earth, and I'm here to let you know that our self-titled album is now available everywhere to stream or purchase.

So follow the link and check it out.

- Hey, this is Zach Monton, host of Stingray Pause Play.

Look out for the release this week of legendary rock band Fanny's new album, Fanny Walked the Earth.

Pick up the LP or the CD in a store near you.

- Who knows?

With this album, who knows what could happen?

This music I really connect with it, and it really takes me to a wonderful place.

You know, it's like catching the perfect wave, if you will.

There's no feeling like that, just being on that wave.

(soft music) Everybody's looking inside my heart But I want it for my own Taking the long road home Baby, I'm taking it slow Taking the long road home I'm tired of fakin' it Everybody wants to be my friend I want to be alone - I don't think Mary will care.

- No, I don't think Mary will care.

- Well, this was my body's way of saying to me, "Listen, you're not gonna stop and take care of yourself, then we're just simply gonna stop."

And that's what happened.

I've had to rethink everything about what I'm doing.

- Can you talk?

- Yeah, they told me I had to do mouth exercises like.... (exclaiming) - Really?

- Yeah.

Trying to get this side activated.

- Well, it's... it's activated.

It's doing push-ups!

(laughing) Tell me if I blow it.

- No, my bed's already... (indistinct chatter) - ...asked us to sign some merchandise.

Why don't you do a stamp and then just make any little mark by hand.

So just go slow and hold it on there, maybe gush it around.

I'll try to hold it flat for you.

- Oh, gosh.

- Jean, it's fine!

Because you're... you're... it has a personal... it actually is meant to be this way 'cause it has a personalized touch to it.

I mean it has... - Stop being a perfectionist.

- It has a touch to it, you know, I like it.

- Boy, I can't read my own name.

- I can't read my own writing.

- I think it's okay, I just filled in the A and the E a little bit.

- It's pretty cool.

- It's really bitchin'.

- Yeah.

- Hey, that looks good!

- Yeah, I figured out the pressure I have to put on it.

- You got it.

- Oh, that looks really good.

- She's got it down now.

- Yeah, we got it.

- And the new song, by the way, Lured, is great, you know.

I mean, it's the only one I've heard, in fairness; but it makes me want to hear the album now.

- What Lured Away is about is not getting complacent.

Or not forgetting... who you really are or what you really want.

I'm not starvin' but I'm kinda hungry My heart beats I'm not exactly dying Kinda livin' is kinda dyin' I don't feel like singin' I'm not flat linin' I still got a pulse Not flyin' not good enough Nothing's wrong that ain't right You don't hear me laughin I've been lured Sorry for the pain my change is gonna put you through Lured away The story is the same Being lured is nothing new This dim lightin' It's a black hole I'm coming to Time to fully wake up I got a burn Don't want to give it up Maybe I'll start sleepin' at night It's #*#*#*#*#*#*#* scary I kind of like this Nothing is normal No problem with that Got all these questions I really like that Now I feel like singin' I've been lured... - In 1971, when Steely Dan did their first gig in Under the Icehouse, the opening act was Fanny.

And we did our sound check and I walked off stage and all of a sudden, I heard this music and I went, "What's that"?

And I turned around and it was Fanny doing their sound check.

These ladies are frightening, so it's my honour and my privilege to be here to honour these folks.

(cheering and applause) Here they are!

- Fanny is being honoured.

There were six of us, but Nickey kind of just disappeared.

I hear that she doesn't want to be contacted, she doesn't want to have anything to do with Fanny.

- History is a spiral, as it never returns to the same point and so it may be that what's happening with Fanny is they've now... they pioneered it; it took a long time for it to happen.

Other people picked up the mantle and were successful and maybe they have now paved the way for what Fanny can do in the future.

- As the founder and editor of the She Shreds Magazine, the world's only print magazine dedicated to women who play guitar and bass, Fabi Reyna is a passionate force in the industry.

- I started playing guitar when I was nine years old and the lack of visibility and the lack of representation in guitar media, um, you know, almost caused me to not pursue my dream.

Fifty percent of new guitar buyers of the past five years are women.

(cheering) And that fells really amazing to be up here and to be able to say that.

To be able to tell you that truth.

This is She Shreds Magazine.

It's my publication, and um, I've known about Fanny for a long time, and for us, our cover, it needs to be someone that has made a dif... is making a difference, has made a difference, is an amazing talent and also is, you know, you know... we're promoting something that they're coming out with.

And they felt like this year, it was their 50-year anniversary and it seemed really right.

Sol this is going to be our first legacy profile.

Fanny is realistically a pioneer, and they represent so much for the Filipino community and the Filipino-American community and the women of colour community.

So I think it's going to be really impactful for those that, you know, kind of feel like they're alone or that there hasn't... they haven't been a part of history in the past, and they're sort of like the proof and the... the sort of idea that, yeah, we've been here all along.

- As a young adult, Filipinos were invisible as a culture.

I don't think I ever walked around with a sense of pride.

But I get to now.

- Okay, the pretty sexy Jean.

(chuckling) - This is the first time we'll be playing together at all performing.

Jean is amazingly courageous.

She's so willing.

- Sack of flour coming up.

- Yeah.

- Got it.

- I'll be filling in on bass, and it feels great.

I mean, it's actually pretty natural for me to play, to just sit in for her as her hands.

- And I've had dreams where...

Okay, these two fingers are working now, I can play bass.

(laughing) I really have had dreams like that.

Variations on a well-known theme Grab and get what you want Whatever you believe Where are all the angels to help all the helpless now Won't somebody help us Down the drain every second matters Send out the call, everybody, gather One love, isn't that what we're singing about?

One heart One mind One love One is the number One heart One mind One love One is the number... - You know, I really miss playing with Jean.

I can feel her whenever I'm playing.

The closest I can get to that is Lee.

After we set up and Brie was on the drums and then Lee came on and he hit the bass; all of a sudden that feeling and that music was there, and Jean started to cry.

One heart One mind One love One is the number One heart one mind One love One is the number One heart One mind One love One is the number One heart One mind One love One is the number (cheering and applause) (crowd whistling) - So tonight, I'm just very overwhelmed, I'm very excited.

To me, it was just very inspiring to see, especially for myself being a young woman of colour; a Filipina also.

I think when I learned about Fanny's music and their accomplishments many years ago, um, I was just frustrated to know that, you know, how come I didn't know about these women earlier on?

How come I don't hear my parents playing their music or my friends or even people in the community?

They were basically erased from musical history and I think everyone needs to know their name.

They need to be a household band name.

- Being a female band, Asian American and then lesbian women in the band, they couldn't have made it harder for themselves.

(laughing) Part of that is what Bowie liked, someone who just goes for it.

Who doesn't give in; who doesn't give up; who doesn't worry about the odds or what anybody's thinking.

He liked women to be as powerful as anybody else.

David was right: the world needs to know.

They need to know about Fanny.

- The conversation about women's place is right smack dab in the middle of rock & roll.

And you've got this brick wall.

We just start taking the bricks out from the bottom.

And okay, sometimes the wall falls straight down, it doesn't fall over, but we'll just keep taking the bricks out.

- The great thing about anybody, once you've got product out there, even though it gets deleted, sooner or later it's like a tide with a message in a bottle, it'll wash up somewhere.

They wash up in second-hand stores.

Somebody goes through and they pick it up and they just like the look of the sleeve and they buy it and they take it home and... "I've discovered this great band and they're called, 'Fanny'.

Listen to this song."

You know, I mean, that's the great thing.

It's always there.

It just needs... it just needs discovering again.

- You know, they made five records.

And, you know, the Go-Go's get a lot of attention for what we did and we only made three records.

I think they're way overdue for what they accomplished.

- Fanny should be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just for the contribution of, that was overlooked, of that they created something.

They... they were the catalysts.

- I think any time you look back at the history of music, especially the history of women in music, a seminal moment in time was the advent of Fanny when they came on the scene.

And the quality of their records and their popularity and their significance is always going to be... embedded in the history of music and the history of rock & roll.

- But what?

- No, the one where you go... (Raitt): They just were, you know, considered badass and they still are.

- Peace, love, bitches!

- Oh, wait, why don't... - Peace, love, babes.

I'm gonna get in my ride now.

- Yeah, man!

Oh, look at that fringe!

- My fringe will blow in the... in the wind.

- That's what I'm talking about.

We did fight for the right for women to rock.

But, you know, rock... rocking is really essentially a metaphor for having the fearlessness to try.

And when it doesn't work, when you fail, you pick yourself back up again.

- You gotta live who you are and be gracious about it.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the only way to live your life, to really be gracious with who you are no matter what.

- Ready?

Whoo-hoo!

- Started right up!

- All right!

- It would be nice to have the recognition for what we started all that time ago and what we've turned it into.

And I have hopes.

I want to hope.

I want to feel okay about hoping for the outcome, you know.

So, I am.

So there, I said it.

(chuckling) So, pooh-pooh for those of you who said don't.

(rock music) (cheering) (rock music) Feels like the darkest of all our nights so far After all this work we've done We've climbed so high and you know We're all in this together Calling the ones who have come before Kick the doors wide open Wide open She comes when we need her She comes when there's need Calling on our sisters and mothers and daughters She's you She's you She's me And she comes She comes She comes The sea of faces show up, yeah, now we know We are stronger than we are alone, we are one Don't you know We're all in this together Calling the ones who have come before And the world breaks open, it's wide open She comes when we need her She comes when there's need Calling on our sisters and mothers and daughters She is you, She is you She is me Yeah She comes, she comes, she comes She comes Hey yeah yeah The world changes in the smallest ways We won't fade, we're the change We are here on this day This is a promise to you A promise we make She comes when we need her She comes when there's need Calling on our sisters and mothers and daughters She is you She is me