It must be so annoying to have a name that, when anyone googles it, all they get is American cheesecake.
But our Sara Lee is a proper musician who has built a diverse career playing bass on some wonderful songs and with various high-profile artists. I’m not at all a Robert Fripp fan, but Lee’s bass on this sounds like it would make a solid Stranglers backing. Thankfully, she left RF and the LOG to join – The Gang of Four.
The Gang of Four were always a joy to watch, and I admired Lee’s playing at many gigs. For a young punkgirl, it was so important to have female role models who were musicians – not glamorous front people but solid team players.
I like the early Gang of Four stuff best; it’s typical to read that Sara Lee’s bass parts were recorded by a (male) session musician for the fourth album. But there are other classic songs that feature the Lee Stomp, namely B52s with Love Shack. And Sara Lee is um, joining in the fun in this video.
I guess that Sara was never really a punk, but she has true spirit and she’s a cool one, so Sara Lee, we salute you!
Don’t forget that Sara Lee was the bassist for the Indigo Girls for most of the 90s, from 1991 to 1997, and with Ani DiFranco’s band in the mid-90s as well. She recorded a solo album (with Ani, Emily from the Indigo Girls and others supplying the lyrics) but seems to have disappeared since then.