#Joan jett 80s how to
#Joan jett 80s full
#Joan jett 80s series

Tommy James's 'Crimson and Clover' was the second single, with its much-discussed same-sex pronouns Jett's version sets soft-and-sweet, whispery vocals against the grind of her signature Gibson Melody Maker. That was just one of the well-chosen cover songs on the album. Number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row, it was eventually christened one of the Greatest Songs of All Time by both Billboard and Rolling Stone.

#Joan jett 80s full

The heavy-rotation MTV video shows a bar full of patrons shouting along, which came true in real-life 1982 in every town in America. The title track of I Love Rock 'n' Roll was a defining choice: Strong, gritty, no-nonsense, with an unmistakable guitar riff and a chorus that just won't quit. Which was good I thought, it really kept us together, it kept us sharp.' 'So we were doing both without really stopping. 'During the weekdays we'd be in the studio and during the weekends we'd travel around the New York area, the Northeast, doing gigs,' Jett told Creem magazine in '82.

They furiously honed their act, wrote a few songs, and hit the recording studio. It got picked up and released as Bad Reputation, and the Blackhearts hit the road. Selling her debut album out of the trunk of a car, they couldn't keep up with demand. In the face of record label rejection and then mistreatment, they ended up putting their own savings into building a band and a label to showcase Jett's talents: Blackheart Records. She befriended songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who toiled alongside her through a ridiculous swamp of misogyny (and is still by her side).

Wiser for the experience and still just as determined, the Joan Jett who faced starting a solo career in the late ’70s found better company. I just didn’t like being told I couldn’t do something I could obviously do.” “When you tell me a girl can’t play rock and roll, you’re not saying a girl can’t master the guitar, you’re saying girls aren’t allowed to play rock and roll because rock is a sexual type of music and being sexual is not allowed for girls.

#Joan jett 80s how to

'I didn’t know how to make sense of a world that gave girls sh*t for playing guitar. “I was angry,' she told Rolling Stone in 2018. By her own admission, she drank too much.īy then she'd gotten over the shyness, finding her voice at the mic and in daily life. They were huge in Japan, playing for Beatlemania-like throngs of screaming young women. Still a teenager, fresh from the glam-freak Hollywood clubs, she made fast friends among England's punk scene, jamming with the Sex Pistols and even recording a few songs (including an early version of 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll').

#Joan jett 80s series

The stories differ as to how the band's rise and fall took place behind the scenes, but after five albums and a series of world tours, it's safe to say that his decisions eventually contributed to the band's implosion.Īll that travelling was a crash education for Jett. Joan Jett's vision of an all-girl band took a couple years to come together, but the Runaways found each other, and found a manager - though a controversial one, Kim Fowley.

She was young, and shy, but so determined to get out there and play that she scoured the parking lot hangouts and teen clubs of Los Angeles looking for other girls like her. At age 13 she asked for an electric guitar for Christmas, and like countless teens before her, subjected her family to hearing the same note over and over until she got it right. Joan Marie Larkin had the fire in her from the start. Above, listen to Alisa Ali's conversation with Dennis Elsas about Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' multi-platinum I Love Rock 'n' Roll, released in November of that year, and below, Laura Fedele’s overview of that release. Leading up to WFUV's 1981 Throwback Thursday on August 26 - dedicated to albums celebrating their 40th anniversary this year - all month on “Album ReCue” we're deep diving into some '81 releases chosen by our weekday FUV hosts.