Robyn Archer's taboo buster, 'Menstruation Blues', in 1970s, selected in 2023 for Sounds of Australia Registry
Robyn Archer's composition “Menstruation Blues” was included on her Ladies Choice, her first album in 1977. Born Robyn Smith in inner-Adelaide suburb of Prospect, began singing at four years at the family hotel and professionally from 12, going from folk and pop and to blues, rock, jazz and cabaret with international repute.
Acclaimed Adelaide singer Robyn Archer’s 1974 taboo-busting “Menstruation Blues” went officially mainstream when her song was selected for the Australian National Film and Sound Archives’ 2023 additions to the Sounds of Australia Registry.
“Menstruation Blues” joined Sherbet’s “Howzat” and the “Slip Slop Slap” jingle among the 2023 choices. The song was on Archer’s first raw and folksy 1977 album, The Ladies Choice, that also included tracks such as "The old soft screw" and "Dicks don't grow on trees". Archer sang “Menstruation Blues”, with Headband, when she was inducted into the South Australian music hall of fame in 2016.
“Menstruation Blues” was also part of her 2023 touring show An Australian Songbook, that included the sequal “Menopause Waltz,” “An Insect on the windscreen of my heart” and “The backyard abortion waltz” about her mother’s friend who died from a backyard abortion in Adelaide in the 1940s. Archer, born Robyn Smith in inner-Adelaide suburb of Prospect, began singing at four years at the family hotel and professionally from 12, going from folk and pop and to blues, rock, jazz and cabaret.
Archer graduated from Adelaide University with a bachelor of arts (honours English) and a diploma of education. She taught at Elizabeth High School before taking up a career as a singer, writer, songwriter, director and artistic director of festivals. She earned international repute as a foremost interpreter of the songs of Brecht, Weill and Eisler but also as a singer, songwriter and theatrical creator with strong positions on social, sexual (as a queer icon) and arts politics.
Archer set female firsts as director of the National Festival of Australian Theatre (1993-95), artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts (1998, 2000) and Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania's inaugural international arts festival (2001). Archer was also the chair of the community cultural development board of the Australia Council and artistic director of the Melbourne International Festival of Arts (2002-03). Other roles included board member of the International Society for the Performing Arts, ambassador for Adelaide Crows football team, member of the Australian International Cultural Council, trustee of the Don Dunstan Foundation and the Adelaide Festival Centre in South Australia.
She was awarded the officer of the Order of Australia, Chevalier du l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and an Australian Creative Fellow, and declared an Australian Living Treasure.
