Joan Jett
Most famous for her role as lead singer and guitarist with The Blackhearts, Joan Jett has been rockin’ & rollin’ since the 1970s. The very first song she ever wrote was You Drive Me Wild, which Joan states on her website she can still remember being in her bedroom playing and singing it.
Before she would find members to create the band The Blackhearts, she would spend time being part of The Runaways and then pursuing a solo career. Before placing a successful ad to find three band members in L.A. to form The Blackhearts, she spent time writing tracks and even recording songs in England with Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones. They wouldn’t be the last famous rockers that Joan Jett would work with. Her 1988 track I Hate Myself For Loving You has a guitar solo from Mick Taylor of The Rolling Stones. If you want free music downloads of these tracks use Kazaa, they have her extensive back catalog.
Going back to hit Bad Reputation, which was released in 1981. The music video is apparently a reenactment of the situation that occurred after 23 record labels turned her down for what would eventually be chart topping classics I Love Rock N’ Roll and Crimson & Clover. Here is the music video:
I Love Rock N’ Roll was originally recorded during her days in England with the Sex Pistols, but was re-recorded upon arriving back in America. Her and Kenny Laguna agreed to form their own record label Blackheart Records in order to get the track out there. 30 years later, the label still exists, and the track has been ranked #27 best single of all time by Billboard.
Interestingly enough, in the video for I Love Rock N’ Roll, Joan was able to again refer to another hit of hers. In the beginning scene of the video in the bar, the song playing is her hit Bad Reputation. I read this, watched the video, and viewed a dozen more Joan videos at Technorati.com:
This year saw a release of the movie The Runaways, which starred Kristin Stewart (of the Twilight
series) as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning of Cherie Currie. Of the movie, Joan states that she hopes it inspires people to go out and do what they want to do with their lives no matter how many people say no. Read more about the movie and Joan Jett’s role as producer at FanGirlTastic.com.
There’s also a new book out about a young girl (age 12) who is determined to be a rock star, idolizes Joan Jett, and uses a mantra “What would Joan Jett do?”, which is also the title of a song on the soundtrack sung by none other than the queen of rock herself. The book is called Rules To Rock By and is written by Josh Farrar. I read about it on a site called Born2BJettHead which is pretty amusing and informative.
Joan paved the way for female rockers in a mostly male-dominated genre of music. She made it clear to the masses to not judge a book by its cover and that female musicians should be taken just as seriously. More than 30 years after the start of her career, Joan is still performing. In fact, at the age of 51, she’s currently touring to perform her greatest hits. She’s the definition of Rock & Roll.
Tags: Cherie Currie, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Kenny Laguna, rock & roll, The Runaways