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Warped Tour: JOAN JETT gets back where she belongs
from: kansascity.com
by Alan Sculley
After 12 years of waiting, fans this summer are finally getting "SINNER," a new studio CD from JOAN JETT . But it’s not like Jett intended to see her recording career go on hold like that.
"If we had had our way, it would have been out much earlier," Jett said of the new CD. "But there were several things in the way of that. So here we are now."
The main obstacle was Jett’s former record company, Warner Bros. But in this case, Jett and her long-time songwriting collaborator, producer and manager, KENNY LAGUNA, weren’t so much at odds with the label as victims of a record company in flux. Essentially, Warner Bros. Records went through five different regimes headed by different presidents, and they all had different visions for the new record.
"Each guy was really into JOAN JETT and wanted to help make the definitive JOAN JETT record," Laguna said. "At one point they wanted her to work with this fellow, Bob Rock. Bob Rock is a really good producer. He does a slightly more corporate sound than Joan likes, but we did a bunch of stuff with him that cost a lot of money."
New presidents still came and went and so did sessions with other producers, including Ted Templeman and Ed Stasium.
"At the end of Warner Bros. spending something like a million dollars on stuff they didn’t put out, they said we’ve been analyzing your music and we think the best records are the ones you and Joan did alone," Laguna said. "We’re going to send you some more money and why don’t you guys try a few sides and see what it sounds like?"
Jett and Laguna decided then that enough was enough and asked off of Warner Bros.
"They were really nice about it," Laguna said. "They did it in a way where we could afford to get (the master recordings) back."
The whole experience, Jett acknowledged, was frustrating. But then Jett is no stranger to adversity, and she’s shown an ability to survive in the sometimes capricious music business form more than 30 years.
Jett came to prominence 1975 when, at age 15, she co-founded the all-female rock band, the RUNAWAYS, with singer Cherie Currie and guitarist Lita Ford in Los Angeles. After the RUNAWAYS split in 1979, Jett decided to go solo, but record labels refused to sign her. Jett moved to New York for a fresh start.
She assembled her band, the BLACKHEARTS, and started gigging. At some shows – even a bit later in her career -- audiences were less than receptive to seeing a woman front a rock band. Some fans were downright hostile and would curse, throw things and spit at Jett.
But the resentment only made Jett more determined to succeed.
"I’d get really pissed off when people would insinuate because I’m a woman or a girl, certainly at the time of the RUNAWAYS, that I couldn’t play rock and roll," Jett said. "I’d sit there and I’d think women are playing cellos and violins and playing Beethoven in symphony orchestras. You’re telling me a girl can’t play guitar in a rock and roll band? That’s not it. It’s a social issue. A woman is not allowed to own her sexuality, and that’s what is implied in women playing rock and roll."
Jett, who by this time had met Laguna, decided to quit waiting for a record deal and formed BLACKHEART RECORDS. One of her first recordings was "I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll." Radio jumped on the song after its release in late 1981 the song and the album of the same name shot up the charts.
"I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll" paved the way for other hit songs that followed, such as "I Hate Myself For Lving You," "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and her cover of the Tommy James hit "Crimson and Clover," and Jett turned out a steady string of albums right up until 1994’s "Pure And Simple." Then the new albums stopped – until now with "SINNER."
The new CD is full of classic hard-hitting but tuneful Jett rockers, such as "Riddles," "A.C.D.C." and "Change The World," balanced out by the occasional ballad, such as "Watersign." There’s nothing complicated or unexpected about "SINNER," but the songs are catchy and consistently solid.
Jett will give fans a taste of "SINNER" and earlier favorites on the Vans Warped Tour this summer, where she will play in front of predominantly young fans, many of whom may know little about her solo career, much less the RUNAWAYS.
Speaking of the RUNAWAYS, Jett shot down rumors that have circulated in recent years about the group reuniting. She noted that the RUNAWAYS belonged to a certain era and any reunion would be the subject of ridicule.
"Can you see the press if the RUNAWAYS tried to do a reunion tour?" Jett said. "I can see the headlines now, ‘Middle Aged Women Trying To Recapture Their Youth.’ That’s the headline, and you know it.
"If you missed what it was when it was and when it was supposed to be, then it’s over," she said. "You can’t go back."
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