After quitting her first job as an Italian go-go dancer in 1969, Masson moved back to California to teach military cadets how to fly (she'd been taking flying lessons from the age of 15, and owned a plane since she was 21). However, Masson was so piqued that women were allowed to teach men but weren't allowed to fly military aircraft themselves that she wrote a Master's thesis on discrimination against lady pilots, a paper that was presented to US Congress and became instrumental in the opening of flight academies to female students in 1976 (her paper's on show in the Congressional Records Library, by the way).
But her high-flying didn't stop there. Impressed by her paper, American Airlines offered Masson a job, and she quickly worked her way from flight engineer to co-pilot, and is now the only female chief pilot in the airline's history. And during the past 30 years Masson was also the first woman licensed to fly a Boeing 747, earned a doctorate in Aerospace Safety and Systems Analysis, and set a series of aviation speed records between Buenos Aires and New York. In addition to her glittering flight career, Masson is an accomplished painter, has hosted her own TV show, is one of California's top belly dancers, was almost the first woman in space, ran for mayor of LA, and has improved on Einstein's theory of relativity.
For us, though, her greatest achievement was Jet Lady, a whimsical, deeply personal LP on which Masson plays all the instruments and sings every song (despite having little in the way of musical ability), tackling such important topics as buying cheese, smelly dogs and the humdrum world of being a housewife. With original copies of Jet Lady now changing hands for £500, Masson has unwittingly become the undisputed queen of outsider music.
When did you realise that Jet Lady had been rediscovered?
I only pressed 1,000 copies, most of which were distributed through Tower Records. A few years later I ended up running a farm in Texas, and I put my remaining 200 copies in storage. However, the storage man ran off with a bunch of my stuff, including the LPs. Ten years later I did a Google search to see if any albums had resurfaced, and there were hundreds of web pages devoted to Jet Lady. I realised people had been searching for me and were trying to re-release the album. It was weird!
How did the album come about in the first place?
I was born in Hollywood, and right down my street were loads of cable channels that were just starting up and had signs in the window saying 'shows wanted'. So I signed up for my own talkshow, which was taped between my flights. On the show I often sang songs with my guitar, and I knew a few record producers who helped me put an album together. In the end, I bankrolled the whole thing myself.
Jet Lady is one of the most eccentric albums I've ever heard; essentially rudderless, but with a guileless charm that can bewitch even the most sceptical listener. But the most famous track is 'Stinky Poodle', which bears more than a passing resemblance to a song featured in an execrable TV sitcom.
Are you talking about Lisa Kudrow in Friends? It could just be a coincidence, but there are an awful lot of similarities between my appearances on the chatshow and the character Phoebe [Masson's show aired in LA for four years in the 1980s, so the claim is credible]. She even sings a song called 'Smelly Cat'! But I'm glad to see people having fun with Jet Lady, and if Kudrow
used it for inspiration, good for her. After
all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Another song, 'Time Is On Our Side', ponders the relative age of two lovers. And speaking about relativity, tell me more about debunking Einstein.
Physics is my hobby, and I hope to publish my take on Einstein's theories soon. Basically, if you take the equation E=mc2, the component I have a problem with is time. Einstein talks a lot about time, but really there's no such thing - his theory is based on the Earth going around the Sun, but that's an egocentric notion that would have no meaning on another planet where 'time' is measured differently. You've got to get rid of the notion of time and focus exclusively on distance. I'll put my theory on my website one day, but you know how life is... you get distracted by other things.
I never thought I'd discuss hardcore physics in Bizarre! Another favourite from Jet Lady is 'Space Woman', and I believe you turned down the opportunity to be the first woman in space?
I joined American in September 76, and NASA offered me a mission controller job in December. But I turned it down as it was a desk job, and I didn't want to take a back seat to anyone. Perhaps I should've taken the position - after I turned them down, NASA hired Sally Ride, who went on to become the first American woman in orbit. But even so, I'd have been sitting around for the last 30 years, as NASA didn't have a female Space Shuttle pilot until 1995. Nowadays I'm the top female pilot at American, and that would never have happened if I'd joined NASA. I don't have any regrets.
Talking to you for an hour, I've barely scraped the surface in terms of the amazing things you've done with your life. What keeps you going?
Life is short and there are so many things to see and do and have fun with. I don't like wasting time sleeping - there are too many places to visit and things to learn. Life is juicy, and you've got to squeeze it for everything you can.
You can order Jet Lady from Arfarfrecords.com, but keep an eye on Angela's own site - Skycats.com - for more on her theory of relativity
*JET LADY, OUT NOW; ARF! ARF!
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