Welcome to the
Some Girls Listening Guide
This audio companion follows the mixtape made to go with The Museum Of_ exhibition Some Girls, taking a selection of tracks and expanding upon their lore for your art-viewing pleasure.
The Girl From Ipanema
Getz/GilbertoStan Getz & João Gilberto
1964
Perhaps the most well-known bossa nova tune of the 20th century, “The Girl From Ipanema” was originally written in 1962, but didn’t get its well-known esteem until Getz and Gilberto recorded their award-winning version in 1964 featuring the vocals of Astrud Gilberto. Alongside the remaining tracks on the album, “Ipanema” is widely believed to have popularized bossa nova worldwide, being part of one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time.
Girl From the North Country
Nashville SkylineBob Dylan & Johnny Cash
1969
Following Dylan’s first trip to the U.K. in 1962, “Girl From the North Country” was recorded at Columbia in New York for his sophomore album as one of multiple folk hits. Fast forward to 1969, in his first attempt to record an honest country record, Dylan (alongside Johnny Cash) released the most well-known version of the song to date, which has garnered several journalists to deduce the true identity of the unnamed girl in the song. “Girl From the North Country” has been performed by Dylan almost 600 times since the 60s, making it his 31st most-played live song.
Girl
Rubber SoulThe Beatles
1965
1965 marked the Beatles’ mainstream artistic recognition by critics following several albums of then-new original songwriting. Rubber Soul, often cited as one of the best records in their discography, boasted a collection of folk, baroque and pop influenced songs, several of which would later become part of their greatest hits. John Lennon wrote “Girl” as an ambiguous portrait of a woman that the narrator of the song is infatuated with despite her multiple shifts from uplifting the singer to degrading him. In a later interview, Lennon claimed the lyrics depicted an archetypal woman he had been searching for, and would finally find in Yoko Ono.
L.A. Woman
L.A. WomanThe Doors
1971
The 7-minute, epic title track of the Doors’ L.A. Woman marked the end of side one, as well as the end of albums to be recorded with frontman & singer-songwriter Jim Morrison. Morrison’s death later that year would mark the beginning of the end of the Doors, as well as the beginning of the infamous 27 club phenomenon, a list of popular musicians who strangely and tragically die at the age of 27 (a list consisting of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Morrison himself, and many more). After the recording of L.A. Woman, Morrison had moved to Paris (where he passed), revealing the title track less about an unnamed girl, and more of a farewell letter to Los Angeles, encompassing both his love and disdain for the city, and the culture that surrounds it.
(You Make Me Feel Like)
A Natural Woman
Lady SoulAretha Franklin
1968
Despite being written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, the classic soul hit was actually meant for Franklin’s powerful, howling voice, and King wouldn’t come to record her own authentic version of the song until her 1971 magnum opus, sophomore album Tapestry. The song would go on to become a signature hit for both Franklin and King, reaching top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the former. “Natural Woman” is an exemplary work of songwriting, demonstrating how a song can speak not only to a single individual, but to a broader, shared human experience.
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
Greatest HitsTom Petty & the Heartbreakers
1993
Written during a transition from MCA to Warner Brothers Records, it’s funny how one of Tom Petty’s greatest hits’ first official release was on a greatest hits record. “Mary Jane” became Petty's first Billboard Top 20 hit of the 90s with its piercing harmonica riff, and its ambiguous shift between the title of the song being reference to either a delusional drug addiction, or a heart-throbbing girl from Indiana.
Lola
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part OneThe Kinks
1970
Despite its release during a transitional change for the band at the turn of the decade, Lola Versus Powerman was both a critical and commercial success, remaining a tour de force in the Kinks’ discography that is well worth listening to the whole way through. Unfortunately for us, several tours and a film project got in the way of a long-awaiting “Part Two” album. Fortunately, though, Part One contains more than enough power tracks to quench our thirst for rock & roll, including the titular song “Lola,” which portrays details of a romantic encounter in a bar between our singer and Lola, who is possibly a cross-dresser. Our narrator describes his confusion towards Lola (who "walked like a woman but talked like a man”), yet remains head-over-heels in love with her.
Alison
My Aim is TrueElvis Costello
1977
Continuing our trend of the lasting impact of a certain woman’s presence in song form is Costello’s debut album lead single, Alison. Although this track puts a name to the heroin in our story, little is known about the meaning and inspiration of this new wave ballad. When asked about it in an interview, Costello once said that the song was written as an homage to a woman he saw working at a supermarket, who once would’ve been the kind of woman sailors name a ship after, had she been from a different time.
Debra
Midnight VulturesBeck
1999
Already established as a 90s lo-fi god of rap, art-rock & sampling, Beck continued his exploration of widely varying fusions of genres until the very end of the millennium. Although not as successful as its masterpiece-predecessor, Odelay, Midnight Vultures boasted entries into funk, disco, and r&b. Funnily enough, “Debra” was originally written and recorded for the Odelay album about 3 years prior to its official release, only delayed by its tongue-in-cheek, all-falsetto, horndog-sound quirkiness about a girl our singer meets at a JC Penney stealing the show from the other songs in the LP.
Mrs. Robinson
The Graduate (Motion Picture Soundtrack)Simon & Garfunkel
1968
Simultaneously released in the soundtrack of The Graduate film as well as their second-to-last album together, Bookends, “Mrs. Robinson” was a strange folk hit with rich lore. On one side, the song portrays an affair between a restless older woman and a recently graduated young man, but on the other, Paul Simon’s traces of a stranger original song about American nostalgia, lost heroes, and the disillusionment of public morality. We at the Museum proudly say “here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.”