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Jett brings feeling of 'Pioneer Days'
from: springfieldnewssun.com
by Leslie Gray Streeter
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The presence of rocking veterans like The Buzzcocks and JOAN JETT among the loudly musical youth of the Vans Warped Tour might seem to be proof that the grown-ups still have something to teach. But that's not how Jett sees it.
"It's not about proving anything," clarifies the fetchingly raspy singer, who's played every year of the tour and whose new album, "SINNER," pretty much nails any doubts about that to an amp and blows the stuffings out of it.
"Our regular shows get young kids, and it's gonna be great to play for this audience," Jett says. "Maybe some of them know who I am, and the ones who don't may have heard my name. Now they can put the music and a face to the name, and hopefully they'll enjoy it."
The kids that do know who JOAN JETT is — and honestly, they really should — might be familiar with her status as, as she puts it "an early woman in rock," or the unapologetically aggressive, prominent drums, in-your-face hand claps and crunchy riffs of "Bad Reputation," "I Love Rock-N-Roll" or "I Hate Myself for Loving You."
There's something almost pioneer days-sounding about the phrase "early woman in rock," albeit a pioneer with a leather petticoat and an electric guitar and a pack of smokes stashed in her wagon. But if you think about it, the 47-year-old Jett did help forge a path for the ax-wielding ladies, a path she doesn't think enough have followed down, at least not that get played on mainstream radio (more about that later.)
But what you should know is this: Once upon a time, there was a Philly girl named Joan Marie Larkin, who then became a Maryland girl and self-proclaimed "Baltimore Orioles Freak," and then a California girl.
But our Joan was not the Little Surfer Girl kind of Cali chick — while still a teenager, she co-founded the RUNAWAYS, an all-girl band who looked like they weren't sure if they wanted to kiss you or smack you around a little bit. Or maybe both.
After the RUNAWAYS broke up in 1979, she formed the BLACKHEARTS, with whom she had her biggest hits, and with whom she's coming to the Warped tour. Their new album, the politically and spiritually centered "SINNER," is something of a departure for the group, Jett says, because she "wanted to do something that reflects something beyond love and sex and relationships. It's a commentary on a couple of things, like the state of our country and spirituality."
It must be noted that "SINNER" does cover love and sex plenty, in the naughty S&M-referencing "Fetish" and a rollicking cover of Sweet's gender-bending hit "AC/DC." But songs like the pointed "Change the World" and "Riddles" are evidence of Jett's "commenting on things that are going on in our country [which is] difficult, because I don't want to come off as being preachy. It's important to note that I'm not calling anybody names or anything like that. [Our leaders] aren't speaking to us straight. People are dying for someone to speak to us straight."
Jett has spent a lot of time lately playing for American troops, who she believes are fighting for values like "free speech," something she's trying to perpetuate, she says.
Another thing Jett has tried to perpetuate is the place of women in rock, something she was hoping would not still be an oddity in 2006.
"I'm sure there are plenty of girls who are very capable, but they're hitting that resistance, that glass ceiling they inevitably hit as they gain more popularity," she says. "I don't see any girls playing rock 'n' roll. Where are the ones getting radio exposure? The radio is all pop. Rock is threatening because it implies that you own your sexuality, that you're telling the audience what you wanna do with it. In the pop world [the message is] 'You can do anything you want to me.' With rock 'n' roll, it's much more threatening. They showed Elvis [on TV] from the waist up. They were afraid that Chuck Berry was going to steal their 16-year-olds," she continues. "And the girls were screaming and flashing and sweating. To some people, that's a lot more threatening."
And the need to scream headlong down the forbidden road, whether or not it threatens people?
Sounds like something a pioneer would do.
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