YALE NEEDS WOMEN Playlist In 1969, Yale University admitted its first women undergraduates, thus ending 268 years as an all-male college. Yale Needs Women (Sourcebooks, 2019) tells their story.

Here is the playlist to go with it: 22 songs released between 1969 and 1972, plus a two-song prelude from 1967. A quick scan will show that male performers outnumber women on this playlist, perhaps an odd choice given the Yale Needs Women title. It’s a reflection of the times, however. The music industry needed women too.

You can find this playlist on Spotify. Search anne.g.perkins, or use this link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aXLc1veNkKCMqCWd0biKE

To find out more about Yale Needs Women and the first women undergraduates at Yale, go to yaleneedswomen.com.

Many thanks to Rick High, Lily and Mac Perkins-High, and David and Ginger Kendall for their help in creating this playlist. Sources for the liner notes below are at the end.

PRELUDE: 1967

1. Aretha Franklin, RESPECT. Aretha Franklin was the first woman ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and “Respect” was her first song to hit #1. She was twenty-five years old, six years into an abusive marriage that she would end in 1969, a black woman in a nation where that status meant double discrimination. “All I’m askin’ is for a little respect.”

2. Country Joe and The Fish, I-FEEL-LIKE-I’M-FIXIN’-TO-DIE RAG. Released in November 1967, the I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag became one of the country’s most popular Vietnam War protest songs, particularly after its performance at Woodstock in August 1969. You can watch that performance on youtube. 1969

3. Sly and the Family Stone, THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN). Sly and the Family Stone was “Rock’s first integrated, multi-gender band,” notes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group included three black men, two white men, and two black women—one of whom played trumpet, almost unheard of in that era. “Thank You” was released in December 1969 and a #1 hit by February.

4. The Band, UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK. “In an era of divisive politics, the Band produced music that crossed generational and historical borders,” observes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “As played by the Band, rock and roll unmistakably felt like part of a continuum that stretched back to the days of juke joints, fish fries and medicine shows.” Up on Cripple Creek is the epitome of that style.

5. The Rolling Stones, HONKY TONK WOMEN. Honky Tonk Women was the Stones’ last #1 hit in the UK. “Like so many other Stones songs, it’s about sex,” writes Stereogum journalist Tom Breihan. The song features sex in Memphis, sex in New York City, sex in Paris—and a whole lot of cowbell too.

6. 5th Dimension, AQUARIUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN. The controversial rock musical Hair, for which these two songs were originally written, debuted in 1967, and after the members of the 5th Dimension saw it they decided, “We’ve got to cut this song ‘Aquarius’. It’s the best thing ever.” Their producer Bones Howe had the idea of creating this medley. It won Record of the Year at the 1969 Grammy Awards.

7. Creedence Clearwater Revival, BAD MOON RISING. “The times seemed to be in turmoil,” said CCR leader John Fogerty, who wrote Bad Moon Rising. “Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy had been assassinated ... The song was a metaphor. I wasn’t just writing about the weather.” And no, the chorus is not, “There’s a bathroom on the right,” although many listeners mistakenly heard it that way.

8. Diana Ross and the Supremes. SOME DAY WE’LL BE TOGETHER. The Supremes were the most successful girl group of all time, with 33 Top-40 hits, a dozen of which topped the charts at number one. “Someday We’ll Be Together” was the last of them. In 1970, the group split, with Diana Ross leaving for a solo career and Jean Terrell joining the Supremes in her place.

1970

9. Jackson 5, ABC. In 1968, a group of five brothers from Gary, Indiana, debuted as the opening act for Diana Ross at the Forum in Los Angeles. By 1970, the Jackson 5’s first four singles had all been number one hits, an industry record. “ABC” was one of those hits. 10. The Temptations, BALL OF CONFUSION. Segregation, addiction, unemployment, the Vietnam War—the Temptations captured them all in this protest song out of Motown, as well as the resulting sense of confusion. “Round and round and around we go, where the world’s headed nobody knows.” Note the reference in the song to the Beatles.

11. The Beatles, LET IT BE. By 1970, “Beatlemania” had reigned in the U.S. for six years, ever since the group performed on the Ed Sullivan Show as 75 million Americans watched on their TVs at home. Paul McCartney wrote “Let It Be,” after having a dream about his mother, whose name was Mary. The song spent fourteen weeks at #1. A month after it was released, McCartney announced that the Beatles had disbanded.

12. The Carpenters, (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU. You can call this song sappy, but Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of this brother-sister duo, nails it, and Close to You was Billboard’s #2 hit of 1970. Carpenter, who grew up in New Haven, died at age 32 from heart failure caused by anorexia. Her death brought attention to the tragedy of eating disorders, which until then had gained little publicity.

13. Joni Mitchell, BIG YELLOW TAXI. “There is little capital-f Feminism to be found in Mitchell’s music,” writes James Toth in Stereogum, “and yet, within these shrewd, unapologetic and passionate songs, she posits empowerment not as philosophy, but as self-evident truth.” Agreed. Big Yellow Taxi is one of her best.

14. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, OHIO. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded this song in May 1970, less than three weeks after four unarmed students at Kent State University were shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard. The day after the Kent State news broke, a small sign went up on one of the Yale entryways: “Lions 4, Christians 0.”

15. Edwin Starr, WAR. War first appeared as a track on the Temptations’ March 1970 album Psychedelic Shack, but the group turned down requests to release it as a single, fearing its strong political message would hurt their image. Edwin Starr had no such concerns. Starr’s pounding version of the song was the #1 hit for three weeks over the summer of 1970, and became the anthem of the anti-war movement.

1971

16. Brewer and Shipley, ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE. When Mike Brewer is asked whether One Toke Over the Line was a drug song, he replies, “Come on, have you ever been one toke over the line; done one hit too many?” Yes, it’s about drugs, “or anything that you push too far,” says Brewer. “And at that time, I’d had one too many hamburgers, one too many Holiday Inns, one too many nights on the road: toots, tokes, everything.” 17. Ike and Tina Turner, PROUD MARY. Creedence Clearwater Revival reached #2 on Billboard with their 1969 song Proud Mary, but I like Ike and Tina Turner’s 1971 version better. It won them a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance. All the while, Tina was enduring physical and emotional abuse from her husband Ike. She fled the marriage in 1976 and divorced Ike two years later.

18. Carole King, I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE. I Feel the Earth Move was the opening track of singer-songwriter Carole King’s Grammy- award winning album Tapestry. The song “sounds like the unleashing of an entire generation of soft-spoken college girls’ collective libidos,” wrote AllMusic critic Stewart Mason. When King released it as a single, it stayed at #1 for five weeks.

19. Janis Joplin, ME AND BOBBY MCGEE. Janis Joplin, observes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “had one of the most powerful voices of the Sixties. Her voice is equal parts tough and vulnerable, a shout into the void that resonated with a generation.” Beginning in her early 20s, however, Joplin struggled with addiction. Three days after recording Me and Bobby McGee, she died of a heroin overdose. She was 27.

20. Helen Reddy, I AM WOMAN. “That women’s lib crap is gonna kill her,” a Capitol Records executive told Jeff Walk, Reddy’s manager and husband, in 1970. “Why are you letting your wife do this stuff?” By December 1972, “I am Woman” was the number one single in the U.S., the first for Capitol Records in five years. It has remained the unofficial anthem of the U.S. Women’s Movement ever since.

1972

21. Looking Glass, BRANDY. Looking Glass was a New Jersey bar band made up of four guys who had gone to Rutgers together. And then the band’s lead songwriter, Elliott Lurie wrote this hit song with these lyrics: “Brandy, you’re a fine girl. What a good wife you would be.” No comment on the lyrics. Catchy tune, though.

22. The Staple Singers, I’LL TAKE YOU THERE. The Staple Singers—a family group comprised of Pops Staple, his wife Oceola, and three of their children—got their start in 1948 as a gospel group. I’ll Take You There was their first #1 hit. The song, which showcases daughter Mavis, tells of a utopia where there “ain’t nobody cryin’.” The group released it four years after the 1968 assassination of their family friend, Martin Luther King, Jr.

23. Bill Withers, LEAN ON ME. When he was 27, Bill Withers decided to leave behind his nine years in the Navy and try to make it as a songwriter. He sold his furniture to a co-worker, used the money to move to Los Angeles, and got a job at an aircraft factory so he could pay the rent. Five years later, he released Ain’t No Sunshine, a #2 hit. Lean On Me, released the following year, went to #1. 24. Ray Charles, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. Ray Charles’s gospel version of “America the Beautiful” was not a top hit when he released it in 1972, but by 2005 it had been inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame. U.S. President Barack Obama called it “the most patriotic piece of music ever performed— because it captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence.”

SOURCES

All websites accessed August 4, 2019

1. Aretha Franklin: Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect,’” Stereogum, October 12, 2018.

2. Country Joe and The Fish: “Vietnam Music Monday: ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag,’” Newseum, August 17, 2015.

3. Sly and the Family Stone: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “Biography: Sly and the Family Stone.”

4. The Band: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “Biography: The Band.”

5. The Rolling Stones: Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: The Rolling Stones’ ‘Honky Tonk Women,’” Stereogum, November 29, 2018.

6. 5th Dimension: Richard Buskin, “Classic Tracks: Fifth Dimension ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in,” Sound on Sound, February 2006.

7. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Henry Yates, “The Story Behind The Song: Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival,” Classic Rock, May 28, 2017.

8. Diana Ross and the Supremes: Jason Lipshutz, “Top 10 Girl Groups of All Time,” Billboard, July 11, 2017.

9. Jackson 5: Mark Edward Nero, “Greatest R&B/Soul Groups,” liveabout.com, May 24, 2019.

10. The Temptations: Songfacts, Ball of Confusion by the Temptations.

11. The Beatles: “100 Greatest Beatles Songs,” Rolling Stone, September 19, 2011.

12. The Carpenters: Jennifer Latson, “How Karen Carpenter’s Death Changed the Way We Talk About Anorexia,” Time, February 4, 2015. 13. Joni Mitchell: James Toth, “Joni Mitchell Albums From Best to Worst,’” Stereogum, October 22, 2013.

14. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Rebecca Newman, interview by Anne Gardiner Perkins, November 16, 2017.

15. Edwin Starr: Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: Edwin Starr’s ‘War,’” Stereogum, January 10, 2019.

16. Brewer and Shipley: Wayne Jancik, “Brewer and Shipley: One Toke Over the Line,” onehitwondersthebook.com.

17. Ike and Tina Turner: Clarence Haynes, “Ike and Tina Turner’s Tumultuous Relationship,” Biography, February 5, 2019.

18. Carole King: Stewart Mason, “Carole King: I Feel the Earth Move,’” allmusic.com.

19. Janis Joplin: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “Biography: Janis Joplin.”

20. Helen Reddy: Neda Ulaby, “You’re Gonna Hear Them Roar: ‘I Am Woman’ Is An Anthem Beyond Its Era,” National Public Radio, October 24, 2018.

21. Looking Glass: Dave Paulson, “The Urban Legends of ‘Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),’” The Tennessean, December 16, 2016.

22. The Staple Singers: Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: The Staple Singers’ ‘I’ll Take You There,’” Stereogum, February 27, 2019.

23. Bill Withers: Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: Bill Withers’ ‘Lean on Me,’” Stereogum, March 4, 2019.

24. Ray Charles: David Remnick, “Soul Survivor: The Revival and Hidden Treasure of Aretha Franklin,” The New Yorker, April 4, 2016.