The 1981 Listening Post - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock and Roll

 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

The 1980 Listening Post - Joan Jett - Bad Reputation

Joan Jett - Bad Reputation

#181

May 17 1980

Joan Jett

Bad Reputation

Genre: Rawk

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Bad Reputation

Make Believe

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got

Do You Wanna Touch Me There?

Let Me Go

Did you know Joan Jett produced the Germs record, G.I.? Don’t know why I wanted to put that out there. Ok. Maybe because that’s considered one of the pre-eminent punk albums of the era and I don’t consider Joan “punk”. I think The Runaways were a terrific Power Pop Girl group. And, if her own success proved anything to me it’s that Joan is a Pop Rocker with a snarl. 

And that’s what this album is filled with.

It’s a waste of time to put “requisite 80s covers” on this thing because it’s replete with them. And yet, Joan’s originals are just as good, if not better than her choices of covers. 

This is glam, this is power pop rock, this is 50s girl group gone bad. “You Don’t Own Me” is a striking cover that, in many ways (for me, at least) announces the beginnings of Riot Grrl by taking ownership of a trope from 20 years before and, well, owning it. 

And it doesn’t stick around long, giving way to some boogie rock on “Too Bad On Your Birthday”, which only suffers from sounding like Joan is singing her vocals separately from the band. She comes across as a lead vocalist and less the guitar slinging front woman on that cover. She seems distanced from the band. But that’s picking nits. 

I find myself in a bit of a quandary, though. I am usually one who can separate the art from the artist but I have real trouble tapping my feet to anything written by Gary Glitter. And yet, tap my feet I did while listening.

And that’s just Side One. Which is a fucking timeless party album. I defy you to put any track on at a barbecue and stop someone from swaying, dancing or tossing the hostess in the pool and then everyone diving in with her. 

Points off only for being so cover heavy and two of those being Glitter tracks and I…I just can’t…

Also, her version of “Shout” comes too soon after Animal House and that, my friends, is the definitive version of that song. Here she just seems like she’s rushing through it like she has a contract obligation to do the song. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/bad-reputation-expanded-edition/1434145250

The 1986 Listening Post - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Good Music

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Good Music

#551

December 9 1986

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Good Music

Genre: Rock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Good Music

Requisite Joan Covers:

“Roadrunner” by Jonathan Richman. Not as good as the original but more muscular and that song has the spine to handle it. 

“Fun, Fun, Fun”. Joan’s version is exactly how it would sound by a beer fest afternoon band. 

Hendrix’s “You Got Me Floatin’”. Yawn. 

Lowlights:

“Black Leather”. Another rocker jumping in to garbage hip hop. Don’t rap, Joan. Ugh. 

I love Joan. Even when I don’t love Joan. I love how she influenced bands like The Donnas. I love how she produced the fucking Germs album and yet she’s really a power popper at heart. I love how she opens this record with the lyric, “We need to hear Good Music!” without a hint of irony but an obvious understanding and affection for The Beach Boys (featuring Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine & Bruce Johnston on backing vocals!). I love how she made/makes her bones on fantastic covers but her most lasting contribution to the pantheon of “Rawk” is “Bad Reputation”. 

I love Joan. 

I don’t love this. It’s just not a lot of fun. It’s one mediocre Jett track after another. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/good-music/186028281

The 1984 Listening Post - Joan Jett - Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth

Joan Jett - Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth

#251
October 1 1984
Joan Jett
Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth
2.5 out of 5


"Cherry Bomb" is an awesome and auspicious and audacious Runaways track. It's filled with every parent's nightmare as their little girl figures out who she is and goes off into the world to flex those muscles and wares.
I get that Joan wants to redo it, she wrote it. But here it's so lazy. The emphasis is on the "bomb" and not the "cherry" and that completely misses the point as Joan searches for a hit.
Joan seems like she should have an edge. She looks the part. She has the name. The hair. The chops. But, instead of sounding like The Donna's older sister, she comes across as their aunt. This is the women who produced The Germs album?? Just go buy a ballad ala Heart and sell some records, Joan.
So much of this record sounds like Joan's mining old sounds from the 50s and the early 60s ala "Surfin' Bird". Just because she employs her growl doesn't give it menace or make it current, though.
She's not the Go-Go's who could hide their danger behind a cute facade. Joan has no cute facade.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/glorious-results-of-a-misspent-youth-expanded-edition/1434141338

The 1983 Listening Post - Joan Jett - Album

Joan Jett - Album

#122

July 1983

Joan Jett
Album
4.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Fake Friends
Everyday People
Secret Love
Star Star
I Love Playing With Fire
Coney Island Whitefish

The production isn’t anywhere near as full as it should be. In fact, it’s thin, sparse, which showcases Joan but doesn’t add heft to the proceedings. It reminds me a lot of Runaways but the songs are great and coming on the heels of listening to that Madonna it’s a welcome relief.
This is garage rock that sounds like it was conceived, rehearsed and recorded in a garage.
This album is exactly what you want and expect of Joan.