The Feminine Complex were an all-female American

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

band in the 1960s. The band formed while the girls were attending Maplewood High School (Tennessee) in Nashville. They released only one album, '' Livin' Love'', in 1969. The album has been reissued twice and has since developed a minor

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

The group's career

The Feminine Complex consisted of Mindy Dalton on

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, Judi Griffith on

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

and

, Lana Napier on

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, Pame Stephens on

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and Jean Williams on bass. Napier and Williams decided to form an all-female band in the fall of 1966, eventually asking Dalton and Griffith to join. All four were members of the Maplewood High School girls'

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team, giving themselves the name of The Pivots, which was also their team's name. By the summer of 1967 they added Stephens, a friend of Williams', and changed their name to The Feminine Complex. According to Napier,

Everybody was just throwing out stuff...And somebody threw out a name, and I don't remember which one of the girls, I think it was Mindy, said, 'No, we need something feminine'--and I just added 'Complex' to it. We weren't simple!

They played small local gigs in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

and surrounding areas from 1967-68. Dee Kilpatrick of

Athena Records Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...

signed the group in 1968, and they recorded their debut, ''Livin' Love''. They broke up when school began, in fall of that year. ''Livin' Love'' was released in 1969.

Livin' Love

Two singles released from the album, "I've Been Workin' on You" and "Hide & Seek", were Top 40 hits in Nashville; a third, "I Won't Run", also charted in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. Jonathan Marx, who researched and wrote about the band for the 1996 CD

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

of the album on

Teenbeat Records Teen Beat is an American independent record label, originally based in Arlington, Virginia, now based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded by Mark Robinson (of Unrest) in 1984 at Wakefield High School, along with Phil Krauth (of Unrest ...

, recounts:

Lee Hazen, the engineer who recorded the band...played me the album--which, he was quick to tell me, was recorded with session musicians. And it sounded like it too: A couple of songs brimmed with feedback and psyched-out
guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...
s, while others were punched up with a Memphis-style horn section. Then Lee remembered, 'Yeah, I recorded some
demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...
with just the band too,' and a short rummage through his vast library of reel-to-reel tapes turned up the original recordings.

These demos were included on the 1996 Teenbeat reissue, and a subsequent 2004 reissue by

Rev-Ola Records Rev-Ola Records is a British independent record label formed in 1990 that specializes in reissues, as well as select new releases. The label is headed by Joe Foster, a former child actor and musician/producer. He, along with Alan McGee and ...

. A separate CD of

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

and live recordings, ''To Be in Love'', was released by Teenbeat in 1997.

Discography

Singles

* "I've Been Working on You" / "Six O'clock in the Morning" (Athena 5003) 1968 * "I Won't Run" / "Forgetting" (Athena 5006) 1969 * "Are You Lonesome Like Me" / "Run That Through Your Mind" (Athena 5008) 1969 * "Hide & Seek" / "Six O'clock in the Morning (Demo)" (Wurlitzer Jukebox WJ14) 1996

Albums

* ''Livin' Love'' (Athena) 1969

Compilations

* ''To Be in Love'' (Teenbeat) 1997

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feminine Complex, The American psychedelic rock music groups Garage rock groups from Tennessee Musical groups disestablished in 1969 All-female bands Musical groups established in 1966 Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee 1966 establishments in Tennessee