Equality for women!

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 15

Equality for women!

By

JUDE FAHEY

Heart “Dreamboat Annie’’ (Interfusion L 36071): Okay, fellas, the time has come. Just as women have fought their way into carpentry and priesthoods they have attacked rock as well. In Heart's case, like warriors. Sisters Ann and Nancy W: son write all the material, sing, and play guitar

in this Canadian band and (I like this) men support them in the subservient areas of bass guitar, drums and keyboards. Ann has a voice roughly simiiar to Robert Plant had he been born Roberta, w'ith the full rock range of coaxing, crooning, soaring and screaming. And as odd as it may sound, Nancy is a dynamic lead guitarist.

Women have been rock stars before but there were restrictions. Most had to take either a gentle, folksy line (Mitchell, Ronstadt) or an exaggerated butch one (Joplin, Quatro) to be acceptable. The Wilsons though are female counterparts to Plant and Page and with the instant commercial success of “Dreamboat Annie” they

are already up with Aerosmith and Boston in the new front line of American bands.

Musically though, like the other two bands, Heart are relying on old formulae and their style derives almost entirely from the Stones and Zeppelin. This is what makes money these days. They are all as bold, as dynamic, as pretentious as each other, and they all have the right blend of vigour and familiarity for instant, mass, appeal. (Originality rarely comes into the matter these days; nobody takes the risk).

There seems to be more to Heart though than the Bostons, Aerosmiths and Thin Lizzies that dominate new-wave rock. A few solid, catchy, riffs have persisted on my mind ever since I first played the album, and Ann’s voice is exceptionally powerful and clear.

“Magic Man”, “Crazy on You” and “Sing Child”, all very forceful, are the recommended tracks: the rest are patchy. Most are solid but there is a bit of the dreamy and romantic tossed into — perhaps to show that girls will still be girls as long as they can rock as well.