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From The Vault: Bad Reputation
from: The Leader
JOAN JETT: punk icon, international rock star and--good God!--a woman. Often hailed as the original Riot Grrrl--read: radical feminist/punk of the early '90s--Jett has been paving the way for women in music and busting down walls in the boys' club that is punk for nearly 30 years.
Before there were The Donnas or Bikini Kill, there were The RUNAWAYS. Years ahead of boy-band pioneer, Lou Pearlman, a producer by the name of Kim Fowley helped create what was supposed to be the pre-fab, estrogen-loaded answer to The Ramones. Fowly brought together five teenage girls from Southern California, including JOAN JETT. In 1975, the band began recording and touring to only minor acclaim. If they achieved nothing else, The RUNAWAYS gave the talents of Jett and Lita Ford their start in the music industry. But despite big success in Japan in the late '70s, The RUNAWAYS never quite lived up to expectations and, after internal fighting about which direction the band should take, the group split in '79.
You can't talk about JOAN JETT's solo career without talking about KENNY LAGUNA. Jett met her musical partner in crime during her time with The RUNAWAYS. Laguna helped fund and create her first album and has been Jett's right-hand-man ever since, playing the role of producer, songwriting partner, backing vocalist and manager.
In 1980, JOAN JETT released her self-titled album in Europe under the German label, Ariola. Unfortunately, the album achieved only minor success, and as a result, Laguna bought the album back from the label, with the hope of releasing it in the States.
After being rejected by at least 23 American labels, Jett and Laguna created their own record company, BLACKHEART RECORDS, and printed the album themselves. Soon, New York DJs singled it out and major airplay of the song "Bad Reputation" prompted the small label, Boardwalk, to pick up the album and re-release it as Bad Reputation in 1981.
Bad Reputation peaked around #50 on the U.S. charts with the single, "Do You Wanna Touch Me," making it as far as the top ten. It wouldn't be until her next album, I Love Rock and Roll, that JOAN JETT would truly top the charts.
On Bad Reputation, the instrumentals are fairly polished, with heavy drums, solid guitar and the occasional saxophone. The vocals are raw, forceful, rarely sweet but enjoyable nonetheless.
Despite her talents as a songwriter, JOAN JETT has had a long history of success with covers throughout her career, and actually only five of the 13 songs on Bad Reputation are originals. Many of the tunes on the album are hits from the '60s. And while she puts a new spin of her own on each of the cover songs, the most memorable on the album were those written by Jett herself.
"Bad Reputation" is likely the most unforgettable song on the album, though it was never released as a single. Reportedly, Jett and Laguna never expected the autobiographical "Bad Reputation" to be popular, but it soon became an outsider anthem for folks of ill-repute everywhere.
Whether JOAN JETT meant it to be or not, Bad Reputation is rife with feminist prose, featuring such songs as "Bad Reputation," "Jezebel" and covers of "Doing All Right with the Boys" and "You Don't Own Me." It is probably fair to say that Jett was only singing about her experiences rather than trying to champion any ideology, but that undercurrent of "subvert the patriarchy" is still apparent. Unfortunately, the album was released at a point when the women's movement of the '70s was slowing down and feminism was frequently sneered at by mainstream culture. This may be part of why Jett's ovaries-to-the-wall style wasn't as widely acclaimed as it could have been.
Despite feminist overtones, Bad Reputation, rather than being a showcase of politics, was a springboard into fame for the artist and is a prime example of Jett's many talents as a musician.
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