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Hello Stackers!

Happy February all!

This month's weekly theme is "Femmes Fatales". So hit me with those Ladies with Lungs, Our Maidens of Music, our Sirens of Sound, our Babes That Belt, our Princesses of Pitch. So let's hear those Angels of the Arias! The Valkyries of the Voice!

(I'm running out of these, so throw any others in the comments aswell 😜)

Let's Talk Music. Share Tracks. Zap Sats.

This week's submission from me is double the Dames. Sharon Den Adel and Anneke van Giersbergen with their beautifully haunting rendition of "somewhere".

Enjoy.

Let's go!

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Can't let Femmes Fatales month pass without mentioning Marlene Dietrich - the singer/actor who broke hearts across international, political & sexual barriers.

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German born Dietrich was asked to star in Nazi propaganda films - to which she vehemently refused.

Instead, she made movies for Hollywood, visited U.S. troops to boost morale in France and recorded tracks in German to demoralize German troops.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoy5-9mP5PM/X-iDvqr2cTI/AAAAAAAD8jk/Tu2PFmDchjUiK3onLhyyBuJdLliQ9ZHDACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/marlene-dietrich-morocco-10.jpg

The other bridge that she crossed was her cross-dressing flirtatious kiss with a female audience member whilst singing dressed in a top hat & tuxedo in the movie Morocco with Gary Cooper.

Emulated by Madonna. You can't beat the original Femmes Fatales megastar - Marlene Dietrich.

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/23100000/Marlene-Dietrich-marlene-dietrich-23183338-1178-1500.jpg

The blond bombshell was a megastar by 1937. Made famous by the movie The Blue Angel in 1930, Marlene Dietrich was Germany’s most revered actress, singer, and performer. She was independent and expressive, both in her openness in her bisexuality and in her bravery to set fashion standards not previously accepted or explored for the decade. When Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germany’s top diplomat, approached Dietrich to star in the Führer’s Nazi propaganda films, he didn’t expect the answer to be “no.”

Dietrich had a problem, and his name was Adolf Hitler. “Hitler is an idiot,” Dietrich said in a wartime interview broadcast from Britain to Germany. “Boys, don’t sacrifice yourselves. The war is crap.”

[...] recruited Dietrich to use her voice to record a series of anti-Nazi propaganda songs for the OSS Morale Branch. She recorded the songs “Time on My Hands,” “Mean to Me,” and “Taking a Chance on Love” in German to demoralize German and Italian troops. The US Strategic Bombing Survey said “the programs were just as devastating to German morale as an air raid.”

https://coffeeordie.com/marlene-dietrich

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You went in on that DD. Amazing write up. 🔥 And she sounds like such an incredible person.

The song sounds amazing, my German is severely lacking but its gorgeous. Don't need to speak the language to hear what the songs saying.

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Big hair, big earrings, black leather, shoulder pads and the 1980's little red easter egg at 1:26. What's not to love? This iconic song seemed to be on almost every Rock or Soft Rock album mix 2-3 decades ago.

Where is she now, I wonder?

Here is here wiki page. She is 63 now. It says she attended Julliard and studied violin and piano but much preferred guitar.

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I've watched it back several times and I can't see what the Easter egg is :( is there something written on the cassette that I just can't read because tiny phone screen?

Also, this track goes up to 11 and I do my best to belt along with it even if it is several octaves lower 🤣

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Yes it's the red Grundig personal cassette player. I won't call it a Walkman. You were either a Sony Walkman person or "something/anything else" ;-) haha

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Ahhhh before my time sadly. Although I did own a Walkman in the mid 90s before CD players became more available... Man we moved fast through the 90s and early 2ks... Cassette then CD and then pretty rapidly MP3 players before iPods, and then by 2010 we were listening to music on phones via apps like Spotify... Rapid movement, although granted, that is 20 years.

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Icon. Such an incredible song. And such a brilliant artist.

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1989 classic from Texas and Sharlene Spiteri

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One of Scotland's greatest exports! I always enjoyed her music. The white on blonde album was great. As was the hush. Great artist, and a brilliant submission for our femmes fatales

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Couldn't agree more with either statements, such a unique voice and great songs. Fun fact: Sharleen's cousin is Mark Rankin, the lead singer of Gun, and she appears on their first two albums as a backing singer. When you know, you can't not hear her. Made their albums even better.

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Really!!???!!?? Wow... The more you know 🤣 I'll be listening out for her now.

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Aretha Franklin singing Beatles song, Let It Be

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Oooooo very nice. I didn't realise that Aretha had covered this. Sounds great (because of course it does it's Aretha) she's got lungs that can carry a note for days.

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Such an incredible artist. She was a blessing to the music industry.

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Catherine McGrath - Talk Of This TownCatherine McGrath - Talk Of This Town

Hard to pick one from Catherine, so here's two

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Catherine McGrath - Thought It Was Gonna Be MeCatherine McGrath - Thought It Was Gonna Be Me

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Why choose one when you can have both ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯. It's my thread and I'll allow it 😁.

Loved the sound of her vocals, really lovely. Got a great sorta country pop sound. And you know I do love some country rock/pop

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Straying from my normal path with The Crystal Method ft. Dia Frampton https://youtu.be/lBIqGsE5yg8?si=dKvafV3qO1-KPTja

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Solid submission. I remember ages back hearing the crystal method do a cover version of points of authority. It was excellent.

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O yea off an old LPU release, I remember that track

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I really enjoyed it, it was simple adjustments, slight genre change but paid homage to the original nicely. Quality musicians.

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Would you consider that a cover, a remix or a sample?

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Florence and the machine! Great submission. Absolutely deserves a spot in the Femmes Fatales hall of fame.

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I haven't heard much of siouxsie and the banshee, but i have heard the name. Really interesting vocals, sorta similar to pat benetar (whom I'm surprised hasn't yet had an appearance in femmes fatales section). Definitely "musical adventurers" as the times described them. Great submission.

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