 In the Realm of Utopian Desire 
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| Photo donated by Virginia Blaisdell. Graphic from Rounder Records | |||||
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In the Realm of Utopian Desire
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| Photo donated by Virginia Blaisdell. Graphic from Rounder Records | |||||
The Chicago
Women's Liberation Rock Band pioneered in challenging everything
about male rock and roll. Using comedy, satire, and a diversity
of song styles, it overturned the grim macho of a standard rock
performance. Audiences danced and shouted and sang along with
it, and when the performance was over, still shouting, the audience
stormed the stage, hugging the band members and their instruments
and sometimes even the amplifiers.
But
the Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band went further than just
confronting pig rock. Every time it played, the band summoned
up the ecstasy of a utopian vision of a world without hierarchy
and domination. Audience and performer, gay and straight, two-year-olds
and eighty-two-year-olds, black teenage girls and Latino transvestites:
for a moment in history as brief as a shiver, we were, all of
us, transformed and astonished.- Naomi Weisstein, former
Rock Band member
