She sings

cappiethadog

"It's nice to have a chick occasionally," quips Mick Jagger; it's a compliment, but an unaware backhanded one, that the Rolling Stones lead singer makes about Tina Turner, as he watches her perform "I've Been Loving You Too Long" in the 1970 documentary film "Gimme Shelter" on a moviola. Turner is tightly cropped by the camera, but the audience knows that Tina's serial woman beater husband, Ike Turner, lurks somewhere in the negative space, wielding his guitar while she ad-libs "sock it to me", a lyric that's not part of the Otis Redding original. Ten years later, Pat Benatar would have a top ten hit with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", which attempted to normalize sadomasochism for a generation of spandex-wearing young women Just like Turner, the band that backed Benatar was a male-only outfit. Bonnie Raitt, one of many talking heads in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice", sets the time and place for women in rock, when female musicians were in short supply. Bassist Kim Deal was thirteen-years-old when "You're No Good" hit number one in 1974. Ronstadt, the "First Lady of Rock" sold out arenas, but it was "always a band of guys" that served as her musical cabinet. Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State, was thirty-seven when "Heart Like a Wheel" spent four weeks at number one in early 1975. According to Raitt, being practically the only "girl singer" on the rock circuit could be lonely. In the early-seventies, Linda Ronstadt and Tina Turner were like the Bronte sisters. In Albert and David Mayles' direct cinema-style depiction of the infamous free concert at Altamont Speedway, Turner, we see, uses sex to sell herself, transforming the mic stand into a phallic symbol, whereas Linda was more like one of the guys, on and off the stage, intermittently copping Jagger's strut like a honkytonk woman in drag and replicating the obscenity-laced talk of her bandmates in order to fit in what was, essentially, an old boy's fraternity. Both singers, despite being undisputed queens in the industry, were constantly surrounded by men, and were, sadly, subjugated by peers and minions alike. Linda Ronstadt needed another voice; a female one, to keep her company in that ivory tower called fame.

Abba was bigger than The Beatles in Scandinavia; it's true, especially in their Swedish homeland. But Stockholm circa 1982, as depicted in Lukas Moodyson's "We Are the Best", doesn't seem altogether different from the previous decade, in regard to the idea of a female musician being the norm. Kenneth(Johan Liljemark), one of the counselors at a youth center, can barely keep a straight face when two young girls tell him about their band. Bobo(Mira Barkhammar) and Klara(Mira Grosman), punk rock devotees both, complain about the volume of Iron Fist, the metal band playing in the music room. Kenneth, haughtily, tells them: "You have the right to play music in there," if you book the allotted time for yourselves on a sign-up sheet hanging outside the practice space. When the girls discover that Iron Fist forgot to fill the requisite box with their namesake, Kenneth makes excuses on the boys' behalf like it was 1974, communicating to Bobo and Klara the notion that women are singers(Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frida Lyngstad), not musicians(Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson). "The Iron Fist Takes It All" if it was up to Kenneth, but his partner Roger(Mattias Wiberg) arbitrates in favor of the "Dancing Queens". Bobo sits behind the drum kit, clueless. Klara, allegedly, plays bass. Both girls have no discernible talent on their respective instruments. Ironically, they both ridicule Hedvig(Liv LeMoyne), a classically-trained guitarist, along with the rest of their junior-high schoolmates at the annual talent show. All their punk rock heroes are guys. Subconsciously. Bobo and Klara don't take female musicians seriously either. Hedvig, a soloist, joins the band. Similar to Linda Ronstadt, the devout Christian girl who plays, exclusively, classical music, gets eclectic, making a left field decision to go punk.

In 1997, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris joined Ronstadt to form Trio, the rocker's wholly successful foray into country music. They recorded two high-charting albums before dissolving as the century came to an end. Parton, a diva, while exercising discretion, nevertheless, unwittingly, gives the game away as to why the penultimate album was their last, in what one suspects was a planned trilogy. Young girl or middle-age woman, nobody likes being bossed around. Even though Linda Ronstadt suffers from Parkinson's disease, the moviegoer detects some latent resentment in Parton's retelling of the Trio sessions experience, especially her colleague's work ethic. Dolly, obviously, had an adverse reaction towards having to do repeated takes at Ronstadt's insistence, calling her tactfully, "a perfectionist", in the studio. Furthermore, there is an overcompensating quality to how Parton compliment's Ronstadt's sterling voice. With false humility, Dolly defers to Linda as being the superior singer; it's false because she can afford to. Ronstadt isn't a songwriter. She just sings. Roy Orbison and Joe Melson wrote "Blue Bayou". Buddy Holly and Norman Petty wrote "It's So Easy". Karla Bonoff, on the other hand, despite being a singer-songwriter herself, was thrilled with how Linda transformed three of her songs on the multiple Grammy Award winner's seventh album "Hasten Like the Wind", noting that she "could never have sung it like that". Bonoff respects the vocalist.

In "We Are the Best", band tensions heat up when Bobo complains about Clara's didactic nature. As it turns out, the reluctant drummer wanted to play bass. But neither Bobo nor Clara should have final say about the creative direction of their musical venture. Hedvig is most like Linda. She took a risk. Instead of a record executive, its Hedvig's mom that needed convincing, in regard her daughter's unexpected experimentation with secular music. Hedvig, the shy Christian, is the real punk, not Clara, and especially not Bobo. At a house party, drunk from stealing the older kids' leftover drinks, Bobo tells Linus(Charlie Falk), Clara's older brother that he "should mix it up, not just listen to one thing". Bobo likes punk music, but she's not a punk. Punk is more than a genre; it's a take-no-prisoners aesthetic you bring to life. It's Hedwig who embraces musical diversity. She can play anything.

Linda could sing anything.

She was the best.

score 7/10

cappiethadog 11 October 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5178391/