A friend was recently ranting to me about how much he hates the song “I Will Survive.” He has very strong feelings about the matter. He’s apparently not alone as you can see below.

And of course his rant made me want to post songs of feminine empowerment.

Cake “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor cover)
Cletus claims that this song expresses hatred for all men. I’ve never gotten that out of the lyrics. It just seems to be a kiss-off for a particular former boyfriend. Unless the line “I’m saving all my loving for someone who’s loving me” is some kind of Lesbian Code.

Cake does a wonderful job of saving this tune from Disco Hell. The trumpet is a nice touch.

Big Fish Ensemble “I Am Woman” (Helen Reddy cover)
Pravda Records was a small indie label here in Chicago. They bit the dust long ago, but before they left they graced us with three CDs that paid trubute to the K-Tel records of yore. Various indie bands covered songs that many of us saw crawling up the TV screen in late night commercials.

I used to work with a guy who played drums for Spys Who Surf, who contributed a song to one of these CDs. He said that they not only didn’t get paid, they didn’t even get a copy of the CD. He was happy when I was able to dub off a copy for him.

Ted Leo “Since U Been Gone” (Kelly Clarkson cover)
For a long time I thought Prince wrote this song because of the way the title is spelled. I was mistaken and then shocked when I learned that “When You Were Mine” was actually spelled correctly by the Purple Dwarf.

Anyway, I guess Ted Leo and his band the Pharmacists are currently one of the It Bands for the Pitchfork Media crowd. On this song he tones down the bombast of the original while keeping the passion.

The Fixx “These Boots Are Made for Walking” (Nancy Sinatra cover)
It can’t be easy being Frank Sinatra’s daughter. I’m sure he threatened to have a few people killed in order to get her a record deal. I was expecting a Nancy Sinatra Renaissance after her song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” was used in the movie Kill Bill, but that never happened. I guess Quentin Tarrantino only has so much power over pop culture.

There are boatloads of covers of this song out there, performed by men and by women. A quick search of the iTunes Store turned up about 70. Most of the covers mindlessly ape the original and aren’t worth anybody’s time. This one is a very downtempo version, which is not at all what I expected from the Fixx.

Trailer Bride “Fujiama Mama” (Wanda Jackson cover)
She’ll blow your head off with nitroglycerin. Yowsa!

This is from a Wanda Jackson tribute CD put out by Bloodshot Records a year or two ago. For those not hip to Wanda, she’s one of the original rockabilly performers and a role model for many of today’s rock chix. She’s still performing today and has been enjoying a bit of a career renaissance herself lately. And nobody deserves it more.