Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock and Roll
#539
November 18 1981 LISTENING POST ADMIN DISCOVERY (YES. JUST READ)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
I Love Rock and Roll
Genre: Rock
4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
I Love Rock and Roll
(I’m Gonna) Run Away
Victim of Circumstance
Be Straight
You’re Too Possessive
Requisite 80s Cover:
This is hard. This song is so deeply associated with Joan that it’s a challenge to refer to it as a cover but it is. “I Love Rock and Roll” is a cover of an Arrows tune. Joan made it the bop it has become and it’s timeless. But it is a cover.
“Nag”. Okay, Joan. This can’t be very different from the original but I can’t find that on Apple and I don’t wanna seek it out. No doubt She Na Na gave this a spin in rehearsals.
Her version of “Crimson and Clover” was pretty ubiquitous during the summer, even on that junk station in Maine. You couldn’t get away from it and it’s lush and delicious and, I think, after “Nag” a bit of a tell tale trolling on Joan’s part. She took a long time to come out, if she ever did, but the signs and signals were all here on this record. But she pissed off the LGBT community by not declaring. One of the reasons I adore Joan. None of their fucking business, right? Except…all you had to do was listen to her records.
“Bits and Pieces”. A terrific cover and a great tune and it’s weird to me that it’s been 40 years since Joan’s but the Dave Clarke version was just 17 years old at the time. Time’s a bitch. Gary Ryan’s bass is a plodding electric pulse that I can only imagine is boring to play but perfect to listen to.
“Little Drummer Boy”. Imma just leave that one alone.
We all know how I feel about opening with a cover. But that song was barely known. It’s like Racey’s “Kitty”. No one knew it. No program director programmed it. And Joan’s version crushes.
And from there we get a playlist of originals and covers from the queen of rock and roll.
We all know Joan was in the Runaways. Did you know she produced the Germs album? That record does not sound like a Joan Jett record. She always had her eyes on the pop charts, despite her ‘tude.
In my history this is a weird one cuz my dad asked me to buy it for him and he listened to it once and hated it and it was never heard from again. I didn’t pick it up cuz, hell, if dad hated it…it isn’t worth my time.
Much like Bad Reputation my favorite song is the track Joan wrote that references that classic, “Victim of Circumstance”. It’s a rewrite, sure, but, fuck it, it works and when it works, Joan’s gonna mine it. She tries this trick to lesser effect on “Be Straight” but the message…its clear, no?
Between the good covers and the excellent originals I really missed out. And my dad was wrong on this one.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-love-rock-n-roll-expanded-edition/1434144397
No comments:
Post a Comment