Back in the late 70’s a man named Rod Swenson was producing experimental counter-culture shows with the likes of The Dead Boys, The Ramones, and Patti Smith. I happen to believe in synchronistic moments, and I’m not a believer in coincidence, so when Wendy Orleans Williams (known to her fans as WOW, the initials of her real name are no coincidence either) saw Swenson’s casting call in an industry publication lying on the floor of a bus she was riding on, she answered the call. It was the beginning of a relationship that began on that day, lasted 22 years, and ended only when Wendy took her own life in 1998 while feeding squirrels in the backyard of her home in Connecticut.
The Plasmatics first performed at CBGB’s on the Bowery in New York City in 1978 and before long they were playing four-day residencies, often two shows each day. Their shows attracted lines that snaked around the block, and every single show was sold out. By the end of 1979 they were selling out bigger New York City venues like Irving Plaza and the Palladium, and by the following year they had expanded their reach to Philadelphia, Boston, and New Jersey, selling out those shows as well. Eventually they made it all the way to Los Angeles where they were book at the legendary Whisky a Go Go for two nights, but demand was such that the two additional shows were added.
I’ll admit it, I was deeply embroiled in Led Zeppelin, the Police, and a new band called U2 when Wendy first emerged on the scene, and she scared the shit out of me. But as I began to learn more about her, she began to be something of a personal hero. She was all at once a heavy metal priestess and a radical punk rocker who had an agenda that she was determined to express through her art. To say that she was ahead of her time doesn’t begin to cover it. She was working out in a gym full of guys at a time when such a thought was anathema to women. She was a strict vegetarian and animal rights activist before it was fashionable. She railed against rampant materialism and often said that her act was about exorcising the evil in society. She preferred style to fashion, asserting that fashion was about “following” and style was about being yourself. She drove her point home by cutting her hair into a mohawk which was rarely seen, and never on a woman. None of this might seem to be groundbreaking in this day and age, but if you ask anyone who was on the scene back then, artist or fan, you’ll find out just how radical it was at the time.
Wendy was all about freedom, doing what she wanted to do, and dressing the way she wanted to dress. She spoke out against what she called, consensus programming as practiced by fashion and make-up companies, governing bodies, and society in general. Every single thing Wendy did, every piece of clothing she wore, had a purpose. There was nothing random about her. She championed feminism and helped to make it possible for women to get out front and rock. Not only was there no one like her back then, there hasn’t been anyone like her since. She turned conformity on its head and in doing so won respect throughout the rock world. At the same time she was the ultimate enigma; praised for her sweetness by the likes of people like Tom Snyder, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Joan Rivers (you can see the interviews for yourself on YouTube), while portraying the extreme hellcat on stage. The hard metal bitch on stage, the likable, appealing, and pleasant woman off.
Wendy saved her respect for those with open minds, and she gained respect from them in return. She was determined to be fair, and just as determined to disrupt the status quo. Every artist has their own way of getting their message out, Wendy did it the hard way.
“Rock and roll has always been an attitude and will always be an attitude.” – Wendy O. Williams
