Still cookin': with a two-CD retrospective of her seminal punk band Gang of Four, bassist Sara Lee talks to The Advocate about music's 'boys' club' mentality.

Chances are, you have some Sara Lee in your music collection and you don't even know it. Bassist to the coolest stars, Lee is in a position most musicians envy. Over the past 20 year's, this English-born New York transplant has recorded or toured with such major names as the B-52's, Indigo Girls, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Fripp, Ani DiFranco, and, most recently, Joan Osborne. She appeared in the B-52's classic "Love Shack" video (in which a rising dr-ag star named RuPaul was also seen). She has performed with Japan's most respected musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto. And she's featured on A Hundred Flowers Bloom, Rhino Records'upcoming retrospective of the British punk quartet Gang of Four, due in stores November 3.

Not only is Lee one of rock's pioneering female instrumentalists, but she is a lesbian. Her success is a testimony to her talent, her determination, and the growing opportunities for both women and out gay people in the music world. We caught up with Lee between flights as she began touring with Osborne. Here's what she had to say for herself and aspiring musicians.

You started out in this business when there weren't too many female instrumentalists besides Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads. How did you manage to play with someone as high-profile and as musically respected as Robert Fripp the first time out?

I was working at Polydor Records in London as a secretary during the day and as a roadie and aspiring musician at night I had befriended an A&R person who saw my band at the time and, unbeknownst to me, had brought Robert Fripp to one of our shows. Robert was looking for a young rhythm section and had actually come to e the band that went on before us. He didn't like them, but he called me a week later. He said that he was at the show and that our playing was great. And I said, "Who am I speaking to?" and he said, "Robert Fripp," and I thought, Oh, good grief!

There was a time in the '80s when you were popping up hi every New York City band.

I had moved to New York during my time with the Gang of Four, and when they split up, my money ran out, and I resorted to waitressing and playing with everyone I could. Hilly Kristal, who runs CBGB's, once said to me that he could put a bed in the back if I wanted to stay overnight because I was playing there three times a week with some ten-odd different bands -- Richard Lloyd [from Television], Lenny Kaye [from the Patti Smith Group]. After about a year and a half of that, the Thompson Twins in 1987 called me up and asked if I wanted to go on tour, and I said, "Yes, please!"

Next you recorded and performed with the B-52's at the height of their career. What was that like?

It was an absolute blast working with them and seeing what happened with Cosmic Thing, that wonderful reemergence of the band. I actually came off an eight-month tour with them and the very next day flew to Japan to start work" with Ryuichi Sakamoto. I also did something with the B's earlier this year for their greatest hits collection, but I had to leave between recording Good Stuff and that tour because I started working with the Indigo Girls on Nomads, Indians, Saints.

Has your being a woman ever been an issue with other musicians or the record companies?

Even though I was supposed to be a member of the Gang of Four, I never was signed, and so I've never had much to do with the record companies. Musicians in bands have treated me well. The recording studio is the area that's been a little suspect. Studio musicians aren't used to having women musicians around, and they still aren't, actually. I did a session for a French singer a couple of years ago with these heavy-weight L.A. session guys who were like, "Oh, you're the bass player. W-o-o-oh." By the second day they were saying, "Well, you really play well with the drummer." Yes, thank you, I've been doing it for 20 years!

Did you consider yourself a lesbian when you started playing in bands?

I didn't. I had dates with women occasionally, but I was also dating guys at the time. The shift in my orientation coincided with a shift in my friends about ten years ago. I'd been living in New York and met a new group of people who were women and gay and who turned out to be really good, enduring friends. That introduced me to the lesbian community, as such, in New York, and that's when I made a change.

Has your sexuality ever been an issue?

Homophobia does exist in the industry, and the question of whether or not to come out can be a difficult decision. As a "side" musician, this is an issue I haven't run into. Artists either hire me, or they don4 based on the way I play. And I've spent the last ten years working primarily with the Indigo Girls and the B-52's, so what problems are you going to have there? But people in general are worried to come out in this business, and that's so disappointing to me. You'd think that the arts side of life would present us with a more liberal alternative.

Not necessarily, when business is involved with art.

I've been lucky and have always worked with easygoing, open-minded people. But I'm not an artist with a record deal trying to present myself to the public or the industry. I've never had to deal with businesspeople. Yet I know all the managers of people I've worked with, and everybody's been fine all along.

Where is room for improvement?

I think men in recording studios could start acknowledging the fact that there are good female instrumentalists out there -- good engineers, producers. Women are doing everything, and you wish the day would come when that's fully acknowledged. It's still such a boys' club.

Do You have any advice for women or gay musicians starting out?

Don't let boys make you feel like you can't do something. You just have to practice and not give up, not be intimidated. When I went to London auditioning for bands in 1978 -- 1979, I told myself that if I failed an audition and didn't get a job that I shouldn't worry because somebody would like my playing. I actually got myself into two bands where the guys absolutely didn't want a woman in the band because they believed that women can't play rock and roll. Things have changed since then.

Walters is a pop-music critic for The Advocate.