The Excellent Women

OK, now here's a challenging claim:

-- that 
IT IS NO ACCIDENT 
that the post-Beatles singer-songwriter thing really takes off as advanced
by a woman, Laura Nyro, the mother of all female singer-songwriters, 
and that the apex of the singer-songwriter thing (the aforementioned
Hissing, Dreaming, Walking) is achieved by these three excellent Women. 

And why is it no accident? Because with these excellent women their
ambition is still linked to their interest in sincerity, expression, and
communication. They (still) sing from the heart.

By contrast, when you think of post-Beatles masculine ambition, what comes
to mind? 

Answer: Prog rock. Not that I'm totally down of Prog Rock (I liked early
Yes-- when their songs were romantic, before they became "cosmic"-- and
have been enjoying grooving to Mars Volta lately, under the guidance of my
16 year old son) but the negatives of Prog Rock, such as technical display,
showing off, wanky prancing around on stage, aggressively ugly sonorities,
jerking the audience around with gratuitous time changes, bombastic and /or
hermetic content, etc strike me as consistent with those all-too-familiar
masculine negatives. Not only are these uber-dudes not singing from the
heart, much of the time they don't have a heart to sing from, since their
hearts have been eclipsed by those grasping male egos. Their
all-too-obvious ambition is not at the service of sincerity, expression,
communication.

But don't get me wrong: I'm happy to be a guy. 
And it puts me in a better position to say such things, n'est-ce pas?

Bruce 

PS On the other hand, there are some sincere men, who sing from the heart.
But they're not musically ambitious. 
Not as ambitious as these 4 excellent women. 
Not any that I've encountered, unfortunately.