“Women’s Day In Music”

Groove Innerviews

As the U.S. commemorates “Woman’s History Month” in March with Canada observing it in October, for International Woman’s Day which is celebrated around the world on March 8th, I want to take the opportunity in this article to talk about some of the contribution of women in the music industry that we don’t often talk about. We often limit the achievements of women in music to strictly vocal divas.

“Woman, I can hardly express, my mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness, After all, I’m forever in your debt.”
– John Lennon

Carol Kaye was a rarity when she first made her name in the business. Born in 1935 in Everett, Washington, she is one of the most important studio session musicians ever. A career that has spanned almost 7 decades, she played bass on over 10,000 recordings. Her work with producers like Quincy Jones, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and Phil Spector with his “Wall Of Sound” allowed her to make important musical contributions on records by: Sam Cooke, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, The Monkees and with several big Motown artists.

Her melodic bass lines that were played softy into the fabric of the tunes she played on. As a member of the Los Angeles session studio team The Wrecking Crew, her work on The Beach Boys’ 1966 album “Pet Sounds” was the inspiration for Paul McCartney’s bass playing on The Beatles’ ’67 opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Susan Rogers, a Southern Californian born in 1956, had dreams of becoming a recording engineer in the record business. She was told in sound engineering school that the industry at the time had too many recording engineers already and many qualified knob-turners were without jobs. She was told that if she became a tech who repaired equipment like sound and recoding consoles and tape machines that she would never be without employment.

When she came to install a recording console in 1983 in Prince’s new home studio in Minnesota, she was then asked to put up some tape so that the late rock star could begin laying down tracks for what was to become his career masterpiece and soundtrack to his 1st feature film, Purple Rain, she told him that she wasn’t trained to so do.

Insistent that she try, she did and remained with Prince during his arguably most prolific career period on 1983 – 1987.

After leaving the Prince camp, she would go on to engineer hit records by Canada’s Bare Naked Ladies, Rod Stewart, trip-hop king Tricky and David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads.

In the 2000’s, Rogers would move to Montreal to attend McGill University to earn a doctorate in music cognition and psychoacoustics.

Today, Rogers is the director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory in Boston. On behalf of The Prince Estate, she also assists in the direction and distribution of Prince’s music from his vault which she first helped to create.

A contemporary of Rogers was Peggy McCreary, known in the industry as Peggy Mac. Her work with Prince superseded Rogers’ when she worked with the legend at the history-making studio Sunset Sound in L.A. McCreary would also engineer legendary records by Van Halen, Elton John, Rita Coolidge, Janet Jackson and Toto to name a few

Lastly, I want to salute the great Roberta Flack, whom we lost on February 24th of a cardiac arrest after battling health issues since 2018. Her records on Atlantic were ground-breaking with the late legend having explored pop, soul, jazz and opera in her sound that made her a pioneer, especially as a female Black-American artist.

Duke Eatmon can be heard daily on CBC Radio with Sabrina Marandola on the Let’s Go! Drive Show from 3 to 6pm.