I actually like to do stuff like that. Okay, admittedly, I don't actually play out, but I work up clearly sexist songs like Jet's "Are you gonna be my girl?" to perform with the gender reversed.

We actually had a disagreement about this with Deb on facebook. She wanted to reverse gender for a specific song, that resonated about a specific individual for her. I felt that she should leave it, and perform it with the original gender intact and that people would understand the inference. Out of respect to the original songwriter, you know?

So I would only change the gender on a song that I intended to lambaste the author, in that kind of context, one that illustrated the sexism of the original.

I have to take issue with some of the comments to that essay. Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" works reasonably well with the genders reversed (if you switch the cheerleader-girlfriend to a quarterback-boyfriend). The song makes a case that the girlfriend is not the right fit for the guy -- even though she's a Prize Catch, she's also bringing him down, maybe even verbally abusive. It also makes a case that the singer is the right fit -- similar tastes in music, and he feels comfortable with her.

Compare to Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." No particular reason that the girlfriend is bad or the singer is good. She wants him, girlfriend is in the way, and that's that.

Although maybe the comments on YBWM say something about what the audience for mainstream pop expects from male vs. female singers. As in, it's more acceptable for a woman to wear her heart on her sleeve.

For me, the Holy Grail is Dan Penn's "Do Right Woman," which is a feminist anthem when Aretha sings it and a plea for masculine understanding when sang by Gram Parsons (in the Flying Burrito Brothers). Same words, similar delivery, all context.

I've been on a "music I listened to in high school" kick lately. So, Cheap Trick. What are some good albums of theirs from the late '70s and early '80s? I have the album All Shook Up, plus a few other hits of theirs.

Also, what are the essential Kinks albums (any era)? I've got four or five....

The Kinks didn't make any bad albums in the 1960s.

The Kinks didn't make any bad albums in the 1960s.

in this, I can hold myself to the same standard as the Kinks.

The only Cheap Trick albums I can think of from that era are Live at Budokan and Dream Police, but I've never listened to either entire album.

The only Cheap Trick albums I can think of from that era are Live at Budokan and Dream Police

I just downloaded those from iTunes.

Weird that neither iTunes nor Amazon has downloadable Kinks albums from the '60s. Some greatest hits albums that include songs from the '60s, but that's it.

I think Live at Budokan is the one my bro regards as essential. I never gave much though to Cheap Trick and then I saw them live (at The Last Fling in Naperville of all places) and on a blanket on the gress I really listened to Surrender for the first time & I grabbed my friend and started shaking him because he was talking to someone else during what he surely must realize was the best song ever written! Now every time I hear that song I get a little shock of happy memory.