Any black women in Rock n Roll BESIDES Tina Turner?

No. She is the only one.

Around here, we call her the "Rosa Parks of Rock n' Roll."

TigerLily1985,

there's a bunch listed here 100 Greatest Female Vocalists of Rock 'N' Roll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_dnWWnKCTk

Cindy Blackmon or Blackman- I've seen it spelled both ways- is an incredible drummer who plays with Lenny Kravtiz.

Here's biographical info on her:

Ummm, ok
Lenny Kravitz Drummer...that was interesting. Thank You. I guess what I MEANT ask is black female VOCALISTS besides Tina. And out of that List....there's a lot of black women listed there, but they're all Jazz-Blues or Folky kinda. They aren't Rock N' Roll. I remember the band KITTY had a black woman in the band, but I don't know even if THATS considered rock. I'd say Metal.

I guess Diana Ross is out because she sang disco.

If you are going to discount people because they sang blues or folk songs then you can't really count Tina Turner since she is listed as an R&B singer.


Aretha Franklin is one of the icons on that list. Rock and Roll of the 60s isn't the rock and roll you must be thinking of. RESPECT should be on the list of every top 100 rock songs.

Beyonce, Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston.

haha really?
Ok um. Wow. Really people??? ROCK N ROLL!!!! Not Mo-town, not some pop singer, a black woman vocalist that is rock. Rock like led Zepplin or Jethro Tull. Tina did Tommy with The Who. something like that.

There was a black woman who went by the name of Mabel Perkins who played with Led Zeppelin for a brief period of time during the mid seventies.

She was mostly heard singing in the background but during one concert in Cleveland in (if memory serves me) 1975 she picked up a guitar and went head to head with Jimmy Page. The crowd went wild as Jimmy laid his guitar down on the stage and she continued on for 10 minutes of finger-blurring blues action.

Here is her photo....



She never did much after that concert, but that hot summer in '75 is still talked about to this day.

So Mo-Town wasn't rock and roll?

Please let us know which of these rock genres you won't accept as rock and roll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rock_genres

It's kind of hard to give you rock and roll stars if you restrict rock and roll to your own private definition.

My Utter Reply
Thank you very much for the info about this Mabel woman. Its just the kind of deal I was looking for. I will investigate this thoroughly.

I apologize for saying that those other genres weren't rock n' roll. What I really meant to say is that it wasn't what I was looking for. I LOVE Mo-town. I was actually asking this question for someone else, not me.

All of these answers are great people! Keep em' comin'!

****, I figured Tina Turner was motown, too...... hmmm....

Really, except for singing in Tommy, what other rock songs did she do?

Durga McBroom, backup vocalist for Pink Floyd

According to the Led Zeppelin biography, Hammer of the Gods, you are correct, Gus. It was 1975 when that happened. All the more impressively, she was just fifteen years old at the time. Pretty amazing. According to the rumors, Jimmy Page started banging her soon after that.

Pink Floyd usually toured with 3 female backing vocalists. Below is concert footage showing all 3 women doing solos in the same song. (Two of the three ladies are Black.)

Great Gig in the Sky

What about Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow?

I would guess he means lead vocals. A lot of bands have/had black back up singers.

I only wanted to add Pink Floyd, since people were talking about vocalists who worked with The Who and Led Zeppelin.

Take a look at my link though, it is a very entertaining concert clip.

Black women in rock: there are more out there than you know
I'm a fan of all types of music and have been interested for a while in Black women who do rock music or incorporate it. There are actually a lot more out there than you think: for example there is a Black Rock Coalition (out of NY (since the 80s) that has female members . Anyway, some women who I've found who rock (or incorporate it with other genres) besides the ones mentioned (but if I repeat sorry) are: Danielia Cotton, Deborah Coleman, Three 5 Human (lead singer Trina Meade), Tamar-Kali, Naeemah, even Res (who had an album out on a major label - wasn't rock but her new independent one Black.Girls.Rock incorporates it a lot more), Sandra St. Victor of Family Stand, and Rebekah (1st album anyway-Remember to Breathe), Fefe Dobson, Erika Rose, Imani Coppola (3rd album especially), Alana Davis (3rd album-Surrender Dorothy) and the Noisettes (lead singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa), Santogold (first in Stiffed now solo incorporates Rock alongside some electronic influences, some punk , etc), Skin from Skunk Anansie. And then like other people have mentioned there are black women who don't sing but who are bass players, etc.

Here are three interesting blogs on the matter:

afrobella.com/2007/01/30/and-now-for-something-completely-different
www.blogher.com/node/12095 ("Black Women who rock")
and http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/article/6580/anti-divas/

They are out there - many are independent and have to fight not only marketing companies but even our (as in music buyers) ideas about if there is a place for Black women in rock but check them out, they are doing really interesting things and run the gamut of what "rock" music sounds like. (Oh and as for pioneers - check out Sister Rosetta Tharpe's story from the 1930's and 1940s : Black female guitarist who incorporated rock when it REALLY wasn't popular AT ALL.)