Rock, and especially alternative rock, is my favorite music genre.  I’ve chosen to go over rock and alternative from 1990 to the present because it is rock music, and not pop music, that is my first love.  Part of the impetus of this blog is to use 2020, my first year covering the best and worst of rock and alternative music, as a starting point to see if rock music can make a comeback after its worst decade to date.  But just because it’s my favorite genre does not mean I refuse to entertain criticisms to the genre.

One big criticism I have regarding the genre is how closed-off rock music is from a diversity standpoint.  Where did we get this idea that rock music had to be so white?  I thought music was colorblind, where the only colors we had to see in terms of music was the colors the instrumentation brought forward to us.  Similarly, I don’t understand why rock music has to be so male-dominated.

Look throughout history.  While there have been numerous female lead singers throughout history, very few bands have made it with women calling most of the shots.  Off the top of my head: The Runaways, Elastica, Veruca Salt, Bikini Kill, Heart… that’s really not much.  Why does it have to be the way?  Because sometimes, women can bring an edge to the rock genre that men can’t bring.  And rather than make a diatribe that just sounds sexist coming out of a man’s mouth, let’s just play a song that proves that women could rock just as hard in the rock genre as men.  Girl power!

“Pretend We’re Dead” – L7

Modern Rock
#8 peak (July 11, 1992)
#48 year-end, 13 weeks on chart

UK
#21 peak (April 25, 1992)
#37 year-end, 7 weeks on chart

I don’t know much about this band.  Sadly.  But what I do know is that “Pretend We’re Dead” is a killer song, that stands just as powerful and booming as many of the greatest songs in grunge.  Maybe it was because of peer pressure that the band had to prove that they were just as badass as the boys.  Or maybe it was because the band was just as skilled at writing riffs and selling hooks as their male brethren.

L7 was formed in 1985 and began life as a punk band, with their first two albums doing little business and generating only one single, which did not chart.  On their 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy, the band went into the studio with Butch Vig, who had just produced The Smashing Pumpkins’s debut album Gish and some album called, um… I can’t think of what it’s called… uh, Nevermind?  I’ll come back to it later.  The point being, Vig was a ringmaster in the explosion of grunge, and L7 switched from their faster-paced earlier recordings to a darker, louder sonic palette.

As with many of the greatest songs of the grunge era, the first thing that sticks about “Pretend We’re Dead” is how crushing the guitars are.  The song’s B5-E5-A5-F#5 chord progression comes along with all the thunder and explosion of a tank.  In execution, “Pretend We’re Dead” reminds me quite a bit of “Seether” by Veruca Salt, another grunge song by a group primarily run by women (while L7 was all female, Veruca Salt was a band led by two female frontwomen, with two guys in the rhythm section): a relentlessly catchy song with piledriving guitars, backed by heavy guitar tone, in the background.  While the song’s chord progression never changes for the duration of the song, the song adds numerous musical elements to the distorted rhythm section that present the song’s music as anything but boring.  In the song’s intro and post-chorus, guitarist Suzi Gardner plays an arpeggiated guitar melody that may be simple, but is an irresistible earworm that adds a singalong quality to this dark song.  And finally, once this locomotive of a chord progression finally starts to sputter around the final chorus, the song adds an unexpected touch of psychedelia with its backwards guitar solo.  With how much grunge was about combining punk and metal aesthetic, hearing an influence from psychedelic music that was not the melodies of The Beatles being copied is just so refreshing in a genre that would eventually get recycled again and again for the next two decades.

As with numerous Nirvana songs, “Pretend We’re Dead” comes across as little to write home about lyrically.  To the first-time listener, L7 comes across as a band who just specialized in stating random, inspirational messages and passing them off as revolutionary:

Turn the tables with our unity
They neither moral nor majority
Wake up and smell the coffee
Or just say no to individuality

But looking into the meaning of “Pretend We’re Dead,” it means quite a bit more than just attempting to be a proto-Imagine Dragons and just reciting whatever encouraging statement came to mind.  Frontwoman Donita Sparks came up with the line of “Pretend You’re Dead” in response to a breakup she was going through.  Not wanting the song to be personal, she changed the line to “pretend we’re dead,” and wrote the song’s lyrics as a protest towards the then-current Reagan/Bush era of politics and attempts on social reform.  The chorus of “pretend we’re dead,” in this case, becomes a protest towards the 12 year period of conservative government in America: nothing will change in the country if no one speaks up.  It’s unknown specifically which topic L7 were going after, but it’s likely the song was written to organize against efforts to deny voter registration to Americans, and especially to protest for greater abortion rights.  As the band that co-founded the Rock For Choice concert series with Sue Cummings, L7 were particularly impassioned pro-choice activists.  Looking back at this second verse, the line “they neither moral nor majority” may be interpreted as justification for pro-life movements and the denial for women to access abortion clinics throughout the country.  In particular, though, the line “just say no to individuality” is implied that the enemies of the song do not believe in women’s rights, placing their beliefs on abortion over a woman’s right to make decisions over her body.  With the punk attitude Sparks sings with and the violent guitars, I think it’s safe to say that L7 won this round.  Take that, Texas!

L7 largely stands today as a one-hit wonder, largely known for this song and their bizarre stage antics, which included two separate incidents in 1992: Sparks infamously launching her tampon into the crowd at the Reading Festival, and a performance on the British TV show The Word where Sparks dropped her drawers while performing this song.  Controversy aside however, “Pretend We’re Dead” is a killer song with enough power to take on the biggest songs in a male-dominated genre.

UP NEXT: One of the most frequently heard songs in my life is at #9.

SOURCES

Reilly, Phoebe. “An Oral History Of L7’s ‘Pretend We’re Dead.” Spin 7 March 2012. Web. 22 August 2022 https://www.spin.com/2012/03/l7-look-back-20-years-pretend-were-dead/.

Strong, Martin C. The Great Rock Discography (5th Edition). Edinburgh: Mojo Books, 2000. Print. Pg. 589. 25 August 2022. Information gathered from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L7_(band).

Brewer, Mary F. Exclusions in Feminist Thought: Challenging The Boundaries of Womanhood. East Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2002. Print. Pg. 127. 25 August 2022. Information gathered from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L7_(band).

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Rate Your Music

Photo of L7 from IMDb