We gotta get out of this place

by Gerri Hirshey

"Rock and roll has traditionally been a boys' game. It has forced female artists to work twice as hard, usually for half the recognition, their contributions too often ghettoized into supplements and special issues or obscured by the sparkle of slick marketing packages. No matter the obstacles, however, women have always been drawn to the restless life of the road, to the glamour of the stage, to the need to make a joyful noise.". "What would guitar techniques look like today without Maybelle Carter's "Carter Scratch"? Who would Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin have been if Big Mama Thornton had never recorded "Hound Dog" or written "Ball and Chain"? Where would American music - an art form that has come to define our popular culture - be without the contributions of these women musicians and artists? Gerri Hirshey has been "on the bus," traveling with and writing about musicians for two decades. And she has gathered compelling evidence that without these women, the history of rock would