Loretta Lynn, actress Sissy Spacek and singer Sheryl Crow on Lynn’s work and influence among women artists, and her song, “The Pill.” The song about birth control was both banned and a top hit for Lynn, who has her own special brand of feminism. See archival footage of Lynn performing the songs she wrote: “The Pill” (1975) and “Wine, Women and Song” (1964).
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TRANSCRIPT
♪♪♪ LYNN: ♪ While I'm at home a-workin' and a slavin' this way ♪ ♪ You're out of misbehavin', spendin' all of your pay ♪ ♪ On wine, women, and song ♪ SPACEK: She has never been afraid to speak her mind.
You know, she... Say what you will, but she's a feminist.
She was when... And she made it okay for other women to go, 'Yeah!'
[ Laughs ] I don't know, but that's the way movements start.
CROW: She wrote about what it was like to be a woman who was making the transition from barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen to a working woman and meeting some of these very current-of-the-time topics head on and giving voice to all these women.
And I definitely couldn't be doing what I'm doing unless she had broken down those barriers and had been a songwriter for all of us.
♪♪♪ LYNN: ♪ You wined me and dined me when I was your girl ♪ ♪ Promised if I'd be your wife, you'd show me the world ♪ ♪ All I've seen of this old world is a bed and a doctor bill ♪ ♪ I'm tearin' down your brooder house 'cause now I've got the pill ♪ ♪ This old maternity dress I've got is going in the garbage ♪ ♪ The clothes I'm wearing from now on ♪ ♪ Won't take up so much yardage ♪ ♪ Miniskirts, hot pants, and a few little fancy frills ♪ ♪ Yeah, I'm making up for all those years ♪ ♪ Since I've got the pill ♪ 'The Pill' was banned.
But when it hit the charts, they had to take it out of being banned and play it, you know.
Everybody had to play it when it was on the charts.
