Remembering the Godmother of Grunge: Seattle Underground Icon Tina Bell
In 1983, the Seattle band Bam Bam, fronted by an elegant Black woman named Tina Bell, created a sound that rooted the foundation for a genre that white men with combat boots and flannels would later conceive as “grunge.” Looking back at the beginnings of grunge, with the preconception that “everybody involved” was white or male singing about teenage angst, means ignoring the Black woman who pushed the genre and subculture to flourish.
Usually considered an exclusively white genre, the existence of Bam Bam is revolutionary. Before Kurt Cobain was getting Rolling Stone cover features, he was just one of many of Seattle’s teen roadies fascinated by Bam Bam and Bell. Bell contradicts the stereotypes of a usual white, disheveled grunge vocalist but rather a young Black woman with a strident, sludgy voice. She wore a mohawk and heavy black eyeliner. Her energetic stage presence embodied shrieks and moans of a troubled life over dark, pulsing guitars and rhythms. She came years before the big Seattle four of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.
Bell was accompanied by her bandmates; guitarist Tommy Martin, bass player Scott Ledgerwood, and drummer Matt Cameron, who’d go on to play with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. There’s something about Bell that is shocking and nerve-rackingly radical with her feminist-driven shock value and percussive poetry.
The grunge songstress’ influences were all over the map: The Doors, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Motorhead, Iggy Pop, Bad Brains, X-Ray Spex, Marvin Gaye, Patti Smith, Screamin Jay Hawkins, Chrissie Hynde, and lots of Gospel. She grew up singing in the choir of Seattle’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Both The Mt. Zion Baptist Church Choir and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle were vital to Bell’s development as an artist. Her music is reminiscent of 70’s punk which is deeply rooted in her lyricism in Bam Bam.
Punk zine Please Kill Me interviewed Bam Bam’s bassist Ledgerwood who talked about Bell’s sparkling, dynamic presence. “Tina had an inspirational aura about her that was absolutely regal, but without arrogance,” he said. Many were inspired to see a fellow Black woman screaming into a microphone in the hard-rock scene; one that wasn’t always inclusive of Black people or women. Bell didn’t receive the full recognition she deserves because of deeply rooted sexism and racism.
Because there was a small presence of Black women in the scene, Bell faced violent threats and racist abuse. “She seriously bashed two Nazi fucks when they called her racist slurs,” Ledgerwood said. “She grabbed the mic stand, swung it around several times, then smashed both of them in the head; one pretty badly.”
Iconic Black women like Sister Rosetta Tharpe—one of the founders of rock n’ roll—have experienced similar circumstances of falling victim to mainstream whitewashing. In a 2012 article in The Stranger, Jen Grave writes, “Bam Bam struggled, in part because audiences weren’t on board with an African American female punk singer. The press compared her to Tina Turner, as if that made any sense,’ Tommy (Bell’s husband) says.”
Despite their success in garnering a cult hometown fanbase, Bam Bam was hardly recognized by music historians until recent years. In Catherine Strong’s 2011 essay Grunge, Riot Grrrl and the Forgetting of Women in Popular Culture, a critique of women in punk and grunge, Bam Bam wasn’t included. It is not a coincidence that in rock (and various other genres) Black women have been left uncredited for decades, even during feminist movements such as Riot Grrrl.
Though women have been screaming themselves hoarse since the start of Riot Grrrl, an era of the activist punk subculture that addressed third-wave feminist concerns like sexual autonomy and violence against women by women-fronted bands. There’s something about Bell’s presence and fluid “aura” that led the band with grace and ferocity.
Bell’s polished delivery of divine poetic doom with her sludgy rhythms captured the essence of punk almost 10 years before the Seattle sound became mainstream. Bam Bam was also the first band to record at Reciprocal Recording; the future location of Nirvana’s sessions for Bleach and Incesticide. Her story is representative of a larger problem that Black musicians face: erasure. Bell served as a predecessor of many big names in rock, but she is nowhere near as celebrated. Record labels expected a Black woman to become a hip-hop superstar, soul diva, or pop princess. Record deals and Nirvana’s stardom weren’t even in the question for Bell because people in power didn’t give her the shot she deserved. Many record labels shied away from the possibility of a Black female rockstar and deemed it controversial.
“She was fucking badass. That’s all there is to it. She was amazing as a performer. I’ve only seen one White male lead singer command the stage in a similar way that Tina Bell did, and that was Bon Scott of AC/DC,” said Om Johari, who attended Bam Bam shows as a Black teenager in the ‘80s.
As of recent years, many music journalists and grunge lovers rediscovered the Queen of Grunge. Most Bam Bam songs were rooted in real-life experiences. Bam Bam with Bell recorded its debut 1984 EP, Villains (Also Wear White), before the Seattle band Green River recorded their first 1985 album Come On Down. Green River was often credited as starting the grunge genre. Ironically, Bam Bam recorded their album in the same studio with the same producer who’d be there a year later for Green River.
Bell’s stage presence was rock-royalty that was engulfed with rage and backed by a radiant, powerhouse energy. She was as regal as she was anarchic on stage. Tina Bell was fronting and writing music for a hard punk-grunge band at a time where the underground scenes dismissed women of color from stages. Despite her years of dedication, sold-out hometown shows, and innovative soundscapes, acceptance for Tina was non-existent.
So, how was all this talent lost to history? This lack of recognition took its toll on Bell as she retired from music in 1990. If Nirvana was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then Bam Bam and Tina Bell should be equally celebrated. Bell died in 2012 but she is revered as the “Godmother of Grunge” and was known to use her microphone stand as a weapon on stage whenever she felt disrespected or invaded on stage.
