The Runaways & the solo years

March 8, 2012 2:28 AM

The RUNAWAYS!!! - Live in Japan (48:10) 1977 TV special, more Runaways videos, Johnny Guitar (live - audio only, Lita's solo spotlight). After Cherie: School Days, Wasted, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Saturday Night Special. (previously). Inside - The Solo Years

Cherie Currie: Since You Been Gone, Messin' With The Boys

Sandy West: Lost In Love's Magic, Attraction & I Know Where, Wild Thing, on KLOS, 1984, I Don't Want A Lover rehearsal tape

Jackie Fox: on The Dating Game, "Why Barack Obama Reminds Me of Joan Jett" - When I met Barack Obama, in our first year of law school...

Joan Fucking Jett (live 1983): Star Star, Handyman, Victim Of Circumstance, Do You Wanna Touch Me, I Love Rock N Roll

The best for last - Lita Ford: Out For Blood, Gotta Let Go, Rock N Roll Made Me What I Am Today, Tony Iommi Jam, Paranoid/Heaven And Hell

posted by Ardiril (18 comments total)

After all these years, seeing Joan and Lita performing on the same stage in "School Days" and "Wasted" is a very strange feeling. Those two are such different musicians and songwriters.
posted by Ardiril at 3:00 AM on March 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

The hawt ...
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:15 AM on March 8, 2012

Thanks for this Ardirll. My neighbors in the next office maybe not so much....

Can't want to play some of those clips for my daughter and this reminds me that there is a shortage, if not to say dearth, of female rock and role models on my playlist. Something I will now have to correct so the next time she asks me to play that KKK song - she loves the Ramones - I can put on some of this too.
posted by three blind mice at 3:26 AM on March 8, 2012

Why Barack Obama Reminds Me Of Joan Jett

I clicked that as due diligence prior to coming up with some nasty crack and came away shut up not just by how well written it was but how insightful into the psychology of someone capable of becoming President of the United States - a thing which, as Hunter S. Thompson reminds us, is always going to be a strange and complicated thing.

That said, when I call her Joan Fucking Jett, I mean it as a compliment.
posted by Trurl at 3:28 AM on March 8, 2012 [5 favorites]

That said, when I call her Joan Fucking Jett, I mean it as a compliment.

A necessary clarification due to the fact that when this same construction is used to refer to Barack Obama (as I hear more and more people saying) it is nothing like a compliment.
posted by three blind mice at 3:48 AM on March 8, 2012

@three blind mice

Don't forget The Donnas, Sleater Kinney, Breeders and if you want to go completely metal on her, Arch Enemy.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:46 AM on March 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

So excellent. Thank you!
posted by OmieWise at 4:58 AM on March 8, 2012

When I was putting together that (previously), the revelation was this clip of Ms. Fucking Jett performing her late solo single "Fetish".

She got over the shyness problem, apparently.
posted by Trurl at 5:32 AM on March 8, 2012

This gonna be a live album! And you're all gonna be on it!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:40 AM on March 8, 2012

Yes, I will celebrate international women's day by listening to Joan Fucking Jett and the Runaways. Nothing could be more appropriate.
posted by PinkMoose at 6:40 AM on March 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I had no idea; I guess the whole bosozoku thing is pretty old.
posted by Hoopo at 7:43 AM on March 8, 2012

My thoughts are: they mesh perfectly, great guitar solo on the first track and in general. Love the vocals!
posted by Meatafoecure at 8:59 AM on March 8, 2012

From the Jackie Fox article: "When I met Barack Obama, in our first year of law school [...]"

Wait. How is it I knew that Cherie Currie is an accomplished chainsaw artist but did not know that Jackie Fox went to Harvard law with Barack Obama?
posted by mhum at 9:24 AM on March 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well that was fun. Thanks!

Johnny Guitar [live at the Cleveland Agora, 1976]

It's possible I was in the audience that night.

The RUNAWAYS!!! - Live in Japan 1977 TV special

And thirty years later, this leads to: Tsushimamire!

Previously on Metafilter.
posted by Herodios at 9:38 AM on March 8, 2012

*slow clap*
posted by humboldt32 at 9:43 AM on March 8, 2012

What impresses me most about the concert footage is how tight they are. Listen to live Aerosmith or AC/DC from that year, and all you will hear is slop. Of course, AC/DC made sloppy playing an artform, whereas for Aerosmith, it was a symptom of their lifestyles.
posted by Ardiril at 3:13 PM on March 8, 2012

I highly recommend Cherie Currie's memoir, Neon Angel. It was the basis for the movie The Runaways.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:36 PM on March 8, 2012

What an awesome collection of links. I love that post by Jackie Fox; sometimes it's fun to try to piece together the different versions of the story--besides the recent Runaways movie with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, there's also Edgeplay, a documentary directed by Vicki Blue, Fox's replacement as bassist. (Joan Jett didn't participate in that film in any way, including giving permission to use any song with her on it. In return, Blue didn't sign off for the Runaways film, which Jett executive produced, and so they ended up making up a bassist character for the film.)

Also: Joan Jett - Rebel Rebel. Saw her do that song at Chicagofest about thirty years ago; still my peak live rock moment.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:00 AM on March 9, 2012 [1 favorite]