netWert


Auricle: Music Discovery and Discourse


On my mind: Liz Phair

Poking through my CD collection with a friend last night I rediscovered my Liz Phair albums.

She may have fallen below the radar now, thanks to parenthood and a changing musical climate, but music fans should not forget what a significant impact she had on rock music in the 1990s. Releasing her debut album, "Exile in Guyville," at the height of the grunge era, she brought a tenderness to songs patterned after the Stones instead of Seattle. And no other woman at the time was so deliciously, brutally sexual with her lyrics:
"Every time I see your face I get all wet between my legs ... I think of things unpure, unchaste, I want to fuck you like a dog, I'll take you home and make you like it ... I'll fuck you till your dick is blue"

"I ask because I'm a cunt in spring, you can rent me by the hour"

"You've been around enough to know that if I want to leave, you better let me go, because I take full advantage of every man I meet"

"He said he liked to do it backwards. I said, that's fine with me -- that way we can fuck and watch TV"
Phair represented female empowerment to women and unbridled lust to men. As a result, "Exile In Guyville" is still irresistible.

Another friend walked in while I had the "Guyville" jewel box on my table, pointed to it, and declared, "That is one of the greatest albums I have ever heard in my entire life." Indeed.

January 11, 2001




MORE TO EXPLORE

What's an auricle?

Auricle articles
Top Ten Albums of 2000
Top Ten Singles of 2000
The Now Playing list

EXTERNAL PIECES

Billboard Online Top Ten lists
1999, 1998, 1997, 1996

Album reviews on Billboard Online
Chore of Enchantment, Giant Sand
Hooray for Boobies, Bloodhound Gang
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Jesus Lizard, Jesus Lizard

History pieces, from Billboard's 20th Century A to Z
Censorship
Heavy Metal
The Kinks
Progressive Rock

AROUND NETWERT

Ideapad (media commentary)
Journal (personal muses)

About the author

netWert Search




Copyright © 2001 David Wertheimer. All rights reserved.