Women Over 40 Rock!

Before Madonna, before Cyndi Lauper, there was Pat - the invincible Pat Benatar.  In May of this year a 2-CD re-mastered digital collection of 40 of her classic hits and signature songs was released.  This amounts to more than 2 hours of music that showcases her amazing 4 ½ octave range.  All of her classic hits are there, including “Heartbreaker,”  “Love is a Battlefield,”  the ironic “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” as well as, “Fire And Ice,” “Invincible,” “We Belong” and “Hell is For Children,” the poignant song about child abuse.  There are also cuts from her blues album “True Love”.  This CD set is a collection of riches and a tribute to this trail blazer who took on the male hierarchy of rock music and won.

Pat Benatar didn’t start out as a rock dynamo.  She was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, into a working class family living on Long Island.  Her mother, Millie, had been a club singer with dreams of singing opera.  Pat briefly trained to be an opera singer but financial realities kept her from attending Julliard.  When her marriage to her high school sweetheart ended in 1975, she moved to New York.  She started out as a shy cabaret singer, performing with her eyes shut, afraid to look at the audience.  It was a chance event on Halloween night in 1977, at Catch a Rising Star in New York.  She showed up for her usual set dressed in costume.  She describes it as “a vaguely Vampirella-like send-up of an urban minx – with black tights, and I was all legs with this black short top and a lot of black eyeliner.”  Wearing that costume gave her the courage to unleash her passion and that night was the debut of her sexy, take charge persona.

What is intriguing about Pat Benatar is that she has listened to her heart throughout her career.  When she met and fell in love with her lead guitarist and collaborator, Neil Giraldo, she grew uncomfortable promoting herself as a sexy vamp.  As she said in liner notes, “As time went on I wasn’t comfortable behaving like that, knowing I was in love with someone.  It felt disrespectful to our relationship….I felt different things about my marriage, about the family I want to start with Neil.  A costume is only for fun for a little while; you can’t let any impulsive idea make you into an object or a prisoner.”  Of course, her record label had a different idea.  But she bucked the system at a time when there were almost no solo female rock artists.  Then, at the height of her career, she started a family, working hard to balance her multiple careers as performer, song writer-collaborator, wife and mother.

Pat Benatar has never hesitated to call herself a feminist.  On this CD set you’ll hear the passion and strength in her voice. Even if you have other Pat Benatar CD’s, this set is one to own.  It’s a beautifully put together retrospective of her career and the sound is impeccable.

At 55 she is still recording and musically exploring.  This summer she’ll be touring throughout the country, May through September.  Over 30 years ago she began to pave the way for other female artists.  Today women in rock can expect to be treated as equals, without condescension.  As more all female bands emerge, as rock ‘n’ roll camps for girls spring up, it’s clear that the battles Pat Benatar waged have made the road for women in rock a little wider and a little smoother.

Jan Bina, Blogger for In the Trenches Productions, The First Entertainment Website Celebrating the Power and Beauty of Women over 40