HEY BULLDOG

Listen to HEY BULLDOG by Fanny.

Who said this?

"One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest f*cking rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherf*ckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them. They're as important as anybody else who's ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time. Revivify Fanny. And I will feel that my work is done."

That's David Bowie in 1999, and he feels quite strongly about this.

And he's right--Fanny are quite good, and completely forgotten about. Even so, "they were the first, genuine, self-founded, all-woman rock band to be signed to a major US label, and to gain international fame." You'll see the group name-checked as important influences for loads of female acts, from the Go-Gos to Bonnie Raitt. And even that may be a little unfair--when I say this cover of Hey Bulldog (recorded at Abbey Road, by the way) is pretty good, I don't mean to imply "(for a girl)," I mean it's one of the better Beatles covers I have, full stop (it doesn't hurt that they're covering everyone's favorite choice for lost Beatles classic--it does amaze me when people haven't heard this one).

Enough plugging, here's a couple of interesting things about Fanny. Aside from being one of the first all girl rock groups of any prominence, the Millington sisters are one of the first and only Filipino-American acts to ever hit big. Also, to lay to rest a rumor that is (sadly) untrue, George Harrison did NOT suggest the band's name to the sisters taking advantage of the band's ignorance of British slang. My apologies to the thousands of you to whom I've repeated this story in the past.

Photo: Ft. Tilden (1).