Every once in a while, I hear something that is amazing and blows my mind. It could be what a stranger says in passing or something I overhear or a song that comes on the radio that I’ve never heard before.

I’m a visual person. I love art, art history and people who love art. But, every once in a while, something happens that changes me forever. What I hear changes me. I’m surprised by this.

Kashmir came on one day when I was riding in the car with my teenage son. I couldn’t believe it. It was epic. And, my son couldn’t believe that I didn’t know the song and really anything about Led Zeppelin even though “Stairway to Heaven” is one of those songs everyone knows. I could see the journey in my mind’s eye and I still can. I didn’t expect this. I looked pretty uncool as I leaned forward. I didn’t and don’t care. It was a dream. It doesn’t happen every day.

I caught a bit of a Saturday morning television show the other day. I was doing the boring stuff you do around your house on a Saturday morning. Then, June Millington came on. I think the show was about her music institute in the Berkshires. Pretty quickly I heard that something.

Fanny. Oh my god.

June Millington, her sister, Jean Millington, Alice de Buhr and Nickey Barclay in the early 1970’s. David Bowie summed it up in a Rolling Stone magazine story in 1999 better than I ever could: 
“They are as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time…”

https://www.ima.org/playlikeagirl.info/solo.html

Change your life. Check out June. In the interview she said three things that stayed with me. Be generous with yourself, forgive those who wronged you and have gratitude.

I deal with the challenge common to many women of going unrecognized professionally and to this day struggle with reconciling the quality of my work with the lasting effects of working in a past toxic workplace. I made a commitment to supporting other women in the workplace. I’m going to be more generous with myself, work on forgiveness and always be grateful.

Thank you June. Your artistry and words have changed my life.
Trailblazer.
Thank you Fanny.

You just don’t get any cooler than Fanny, the all-girl 70’s rock band that deserves to be remembered like the others.