Fanny: The Right to Rock (2021) - full transcript

- 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 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 tits 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 fucked.

♪ 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.

- 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.

- 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.

- One, two, three.

- 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 going to do
the da, da, da, da.

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

I can't do it;
that's a bass thing, man.

- OK, ready?

- Oh, my God!
- Same place.

Three, four.

- 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.

- Once I was standing.
Right now, see that's what
the shit 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.

Pussy power secrets.

Look at that.

- Yeah.
- The pick sounds awesome.

- Not too big,
but super punchy.

- I love that.
It was 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.

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 the sounds happen,

it's like I'm a little child
again.

- 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-AA-flat.

C#,

F#

So what is that?

♪ If I had it in my power ♪

♪ I'd think it so easy ♪

♪ For lovers ♪

♪ I can see it in your eyes ♪

♪ But it's 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 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,
six months pregnant.

I was 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.

- 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.

- 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.

♪ 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, doooom,
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 fucking did it.

(Fanny singing)

- Oh, my God,

that's a. . that's some
old-school bullshit 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. "

- 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 shitty
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 tits out" shit

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 pussy 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!

(narrator):
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. "

- 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-da 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.

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
that the 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)

- 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
shit 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 want 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. "

- 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.

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-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

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)

- 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.

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.

- 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
fucking 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.

And it also speaks
of "Fanny was here;
Fanny made a mark. "

♪ It's alright ♪

♪ It's alright ♪

♪ Alright ♪

(humming)

- We're fulfilling something

that has been called on
a long time ago.

Which is, to me,
is a miracle.

I can't believe
I'm turning 69 in a few days,

and we get to do this.

- We dealt with the prejudice
against girls, right,

and the feminism.
And then June says,

"Oh yeah,
now we're bucking ageism. "
(laughing)

(music stops, laughter)
- What the hell did we just do?

- You guys are actually. .
seem to be pushing yourself
to try to be better

than you were
forty years ago.
- You know, we are.

- Oh, hell, yeah.
- Yeah, well, I mean
individually you should be,

but as a band,
you're pushing yourself
to be a better band, right?

- That's true.

- We have a lot more wisdom
and technique and knowledge

underneath us
being able to push it.
- Every once in a while,

I'm sitting there and playing
and I hear Jean pumping along,

and it's so awesome.
- Yeah.

- Just like the old days.

♪ Nobody said 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.

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.

(ripping sound)
- Oh. . !

- Your baby. . has been born.

- They look great.
- Yeah, I love them.

- Oh, my god,
this is awesome.

Wow. It looks great.
- Yeah.

- Oh, how exciting.

Hey, Kirk.
What do you think?

- Oh, my god,
it's just amazing, isn't it?
It's so cool.

And, hey, the photo
of the three of you?

Seriously.
- You like it?

- I like it.
I love it.

- When and where
can you get this album,

'cause it's dropping out
March right?

- It's going to be out
March 2nd,

so you can't share this yet.

This is your own personal copy.

- Wait, wait!
- Hide that.

Don't look. . don't look.

- No, it's beating,
it's got a heart.
Oh, my god.

- I'm getting one and
I'm taking it to Vegas.

That's like
Mouse and Kelley a bit,
doesn't it?

- It's the Fillmore
poster art style,
then with our heritage,

the Filipino tattoos
because this is our. .
this is us.

- I really want to promote
Filipina American pride.

- Yeah.
- I mean to me,

that's really important
and this is a big step in that,

you know? I mean,
how else do you get
that attention

but playing loud rock & roll?
That's the best way.

- I'll just say that in
socio cultural alignment,

it's a perfect time for you guys
to be rocking right now.

- I think so too.

- 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)

(squawking)

- With my mom having a stroke,

it's obviously been
a whirlwind of. .

every single emotion
I can possibly experience.

There's just a tremendous
amount of sadness.

- I could see the clouds
separate

as soon as I heard her voice.

You know what? She's alive.

She's my friend of 50 years,
you know.

I need to go see how she is.
I'm heading up there.

You know, I'm a little nervous,
I'm a little nervous
about seeing her.

Just 'cause I've convinced
myself that. .

I have a picture and
the picture's good, you know.

Um, and I just want it
to be true.

- I know that this is the start
of a new part of our lives.

I've spoken to her,
but I haven't seen her.

So, um. .

I know that things are not. .

right now the same as they were
even a week and a half ago.

So what does that mean,
you know,

we're never going to play
together again and, I mean,

the weird thing is I'm already
nostalgic for things
that we've done,

and it could be premature.
I just don't know.

-You know, she's not able to be
in her body right now

the way that we've all
been used to, especially her.

So I'm trying to give her a lot
of space so that she can uh. .

be in a healing place and um. .

re-emerge as whoever
she's gonna be
and however we can interact.

♪ Everybody's looking
inside my heart ♪

♪ I want it for my own ♪

♪ Taking the long road home ♪

♪ Baby,
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.

- Did you talk?

- Yeah, they told me I had to do
mouth exercises like. .

- 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. .

- Well, for Fanny, the timing
was unfortunate

because they couldn't. .
they had a new album

but they could really support it
by touring.

And it's always hard to launch
a new record without touring.

Well, you just have
this whole force

that comes together
to promote a record,

and I hope they can get back
on the road and. . and rock out.

- We get a lot of these.
People holding their albums,

which I love, or taking them
out of the envelope,

so. . and he said,
"Oh, good then.

All you need to do now is
for Fanny to walk there,

walk on over to the U. K. "

I'll have to answer that.

Tim. .

Okay. .

"On our way. "

Here's another one.

Australia.

- These days, the only way
to make money is touring,

because record sales
don't count anymore.

I really don't know
how they're going to do it,
you know.

Without Jean standing up
and playing bass,

and being up there,

I don't know
how they can be Fanny.

- So it doesn't feel foreign.

I mean it feels still right,

I can play,

but my right hand isn't
coordinated with it so. .

but I'm trying to get it
to communicate.

"Oh, yeah,
move these two fingers.

That's what you need to do
and you can play bass again. "

- I do have the feeling
that at some point,

you'll be able to play it
again.

- Yeah, I do too.
- I really do.

- There's no "maybe it will be";

it is definitely part
of Lee's legacy is
to have the bass,

which is really a wonderful
thing that he's become such
a great bass player

and he values instruments
and he knows what's going on.

- Well, yeah,
to me, this is irreplaceable.

You know, you can. . I mean,
you can get another,

another sixty-two P-bass
or whatever,

but you can't get
this bass.

And to me, the sound,
that's the sound of Mom.

- Of course, I would love for us
to play.

That's uh. .
I guess that's part
of my big hope.

Only if she wants to,
you know.

And if she doesn't,
I'm so okay with that.

Um, but sure, that's a little. .

that's a little vision
I have in my head,

you know, and
I'm gonna just. .

take her cue.

- Blue Elan 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 fucking 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)

(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 ♪

♪ 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 ♪

♪ She comes when we need her ♪

♪ She comes when there's need ♪

♪ Calling on our sisters
and mothers and daughters ♪

♪ She comes, she comes ♪

♪ She comes, she comes ♪

♪ Hey yeah yeah ♪

♪ Ny happiness is tainted,
I'll never sleep again ♪

♪ Nobody warned me
Rubicon would never end ♪

♪ Turned inside out
Don't risk you'll never know ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby,
welcome to the show ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ It's the greatest ♪

♪ The train has left
the station, wave goodbye ♪

♪ Who stands among us
too late to change your mind ♪

♪ Betrayed ourselves
Where to un? Where to go? ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby,
welcome to the show ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Monkey ♪

♪ Got reservations,
it's happening again ♪

♪ No one predicted
Rubicon was gonna bend ♪

♪ Flock of sheep
got across the moat ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby,
welcome to the show ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ I don't wanna go there,
don't wanna take the bait ♪

♪ The monkey is in motion,
tell me that it's not too late ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

♪ Circus is in town,
It's not my monkey ♪

- Ah! What do you know!

Ta dah!

New musical express.

Exile on Main Street by
the Rolling Stones on one side.

Fanny!
Blind Alley, 1972.

I fell in love.
Still in love.