Museum salutes pioneer lady rockers

By MEGHAN BARR

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

When Wanda Jackson was a girl with a gravelly voice who opened for Elvis Presley in the 1950s, nobody had ever heard a woman sing like that before.

By then, Presley was already gyrating his way to superstardom. But Jackson — called the “queen of rockabilly” for her gritty, feisty performances — couldn’t even get her songs played on the radio.

“It’s like they just got their heads together and said, ‘We will not help this girl do it,’” the 73-year-old Jackson recalls. “They just wouldn’t play my records if it was the rock stuff. So it didn’t take long before I was putting a country song on one side of a record and a rock song on the other.”

Jackson’s old acoustic guitar is featured at a new exhibit dedicated to female artists that opened over the weekend at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland. “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” chronicles the pioneering role of women in rock ’n’ roll, from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to Bikini Kill and Lady GaGa.

The hall of fame had toyed with the idea of opening such an exhibit for years, and it gained traction after Cyndi Lauper paid a visit last year and watched a film about the roots of rock, said Jim Henke, vice president of exhibitions and curatorial affairs.

“She thought it was too male-dominated,” Henke said.

The museum exhibit itself is an exercise in contrasts. There’s the gold bustier Madonna wore during her “Blond Ambition” tour and handwritten lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s first album. There’s Bonnie Raitt’s dobro guitar and a Mickey Mouse Club jacket worn by Christina Aguilera. There’s the nude rhinestone outfit that Britney Spears famously revealed at MTV’s Video Music Awards in 2000 and Stevie Nicks’ handwritten lyrics to “Stand Back.” And let’s not forget Lady GaGa’s infamous “meat dress,” which is also on display.

Visitors can watch a story about how women in rock have shaped music, and the museum will host educational programming throughout the year.