Not Going Away

Spending the morning working on my taxes. By working I mean searching for records and receipts that if I had organized them in the first place, I could be doing something else now, but what’s done is done, and, because it’s International Women’s Day, I am listening to a playlist of women folk singers. Folk, my music of choice most of the time.

Bonnie Raitt is singing John Prine’s Angel from Montgomery, one of the few songs by men that successfully captures a woman’s perspective, at least in my opinion. He, sadly, a casualty of the pandemic. Raitt daughter of a musical family, I listened to the original cast recording of Carousel, in which her father, John, sings the lead, dozens and dozens of times during childhood. Bonnie is one of the greatest rock and roll guitarists of all time. As of 2023 she was one of the only 80 women inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 923 are men. Seems a bit fixed if you ask me.

So it’s ot surprising then that I am thrilled that Taylor Swift is the biggest pop star in the world today even if I can’t name a single song of hers, and don’t think I’d recognize one if it were playing right now. My granddaughters can. And that makes me happy. So do the many female performers at this year’s Grammy Awards. It’s about time. Just as if not more exciting, Beyonce received a Grammy for Best Country Album, a field dominated by white men and, occasionally, white women. Ironic it’s taken so long given the rich history of Black Americans in country and western music. The Grammy in no way makes up for her album, Cowboy Carter, being snubbed by the Country Music Association. I understand that awards don’t mean much of anything, but symbols are symbols, and such is life in America.

My playlist this morning reflects my era so it’s filled with Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, Traci Chapman, Dar Williams, etc., etc. As I write, instead of continuing to work on those taxes, Joan Baez is singing Diamonds and Rust. I can’t be the only one who had that song running through their head while watching A Complete Unknown. It’s a favorite of mine. Her theme is “don’t get mad, get even.” That’s not an accurate figure of speech. If one weren’t already “mad,” why the desire to “get even.” Although the word, “mad,” does suggest crazy, beyond mere anger. And I admit I have sometimes thought about getting revenge through writing. Who hasn’t? But the past is past and fixed. Baez does get the last word, though. There is something to be said for that. It’s a great song.

The rest of us can focus on the future while International Women’s Day is being flushed down the drain by the current administration (I will not say or write the name) along with anything else that might be decent and good about America. But I have not forgotten that in my four years of college I had only one class with a woman professor, and that there was only one woman on the faculty at Boston University Law School the entire time I was there. All this only encourages me to appreciate Women’s Day more. I am grateful to my female high school teachers, three, in particular. They helped me develop the confidence necessary to keep going– Frimi Sagan and Nicki Kovacs (both of blessed memory) and Doris Gelman. The work continues. We can’t give up.

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