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JOAN JETT: No Labels
from: Blade Magazine
by Dawn Ramos (photos by Michael Rubenstein, Lance Perkins and Cody Smyth
What do you call a woman whose shoes look more comfortable than those worn by her all-male backup band? What if she likes to wear leather, is an avid sports fan, enjoys relaxing at home with her four cats, eats a vegetarian diet and has a deep voice and a tough attitude? What if she croons graphic lust songs that soon seem more conspicuously directed at women, muscles her way into major league music to become an all-star in the previously "boys only" sport of rock ’n’ roll and captures the hearts of three decades’ worth of fledging- and full-grown dykes?
By definition, you’d call that person JOAN JETT. But what’s in a name—or a label, for that matter? Some dirty deeds have been done with labels, but labels are nonetheless needed by everyday people.
Dictionaries define a "label" as a short word or phrase descriptive of a person or group. A label indicates that what it refers to belongs in a particular category or classification. While some find this function of labels constraining, it is fair to say that if someone has certain characteristics, a label may help others understand who they are.
For more than a quarter century, lesbians have been among those who pushed their way to the front of concert halls to worship at the feet of the punk-turned-mainstream rock icon. Suspecting or certain that Jett was one of their own, gay grrrlz have embraced the guitar girl who has a reputation – though not necessarily a bad one – for evading labels. In early June, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS released SINNER, the group’s first studio album in more than a decade. En route to the Scranton, Pa., leg of the Vans Warped Tour, a punk mini-palooza that Jett and her band are headlining, the rocker took time
out to talk to the Blade about the matter of labels.
"I don’t really think about labels," Jett said. "I ignore them. If people stick ’em in my face, I say that doesn’t really apply. I don’t think in those terms." A review of Jett’s history gives some clues as to why she claims to be unaffected by labels. In her press kit, Jett recalls her early RUNAWAYS days when people in the audience yelled things like "dykes" and "sluts" at the band. Jett’s callousness to labels may be a defensive reaction to having such epithets slung at her.
Her longtime manager and keyboardist KENNY LAGUNA, who affectionately called Jett "Joanie" during the interview, talked
about the obstacles women have encountered in the music business. Laguna subscribes to the theory that guitars symbolize
phallic energy that gives female performers like Jett a male presence on stage.
"For some reason, women playing rock ’n’ roll seems threatening," Jett told Billboard magazine in May. "I guess [it] implies owning your own sexuality." Jett has survived the brutalities of the limelight. A psychic shield that deflects hostilities may be one of her coping mechanisms.
There may be another explanation for Jett’s distaste for labels: it’s been said that the high school dropout is nevertheless well read and routinely devours philosophical treatises. The name game simply may be below Jett.
"I can’t really talk to people on that level, because I’m not coming from the same place other people are in that respect," she told the Blade.
Her discomfort with labels doesn’t change the fact that she needs them. Containing her first overtly political music,
Jett’s album reflects America’s domestic and foreign policy quagmires. Asked why her new CD is called SINNER, Jett explained that there are a couple of reasons.
"I think what a sinner is, is very subjective. What a sinner is means one thing to me; it means a different thing to you. It means a different thing to somebody hard left or somebody hard right," Jett said.
From another angle, Jett added, "Morality is subjective, also. In a way, I’m claiming the word ‘sinner’ because to be human is to sin. If you read a lot of the various religious texts, you learn that, to be a human being, you are going to be sinning. If you embrace being human, then I suppose you are a sinner." While discussing her role in the Broadway production
of "Rocky Horror," Jett was frank. "Most people don’t consider rampant sexuality to be moral. But to me, as long as it’s loving, it’s moral," she said.
Jett wouldn’t say which number from the SINNER album she likes best. "I love ’em all. It is still so early into this record, that I love everything on it. I have a hard time picking favorites in anything. I am not a ranker. I don’t like picking top 10s. I don’t ever have a favorite anything, period, including favorite food. I could never tell you what my favorite song is, because it is like a label—and I don’t go there." She did concede that the songs she is "really enjoying at the moment" are the tracks from the album getting live play on the Vans Warped Tour. Among these are "A.C.D.C.," "Androgynous," "Fetish," "Five," "Naked" and "Riddles."
Regarding the title "Androgynous," Jett said, "I don’t know the textbook definition of androgyny, but for me, it is about blurring the lines and not having rigid roles." Jett practices what she preaches. While visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Jett shocked her Israeli escorts. She breached the gender barrier (yet again) by placing her written prayer
request between stones in the section of the sacred monument reserved for men and forbidden to women. No one else
– male or female – has dared to defy the edict that requires gender segregation at the shrine.
Calling "Fetish" a straight-up sex song, Jett added that she thinks the title and song are pretty self-explanatory. On her use of the term "switch-hitter" in the song "Baby Blue," Jett was less forthcoming. "I’m not go- ing to tell
you what it means to me because I am writing it for everybody, and ‘switch-hitter’ means one thing to one person and
another thing to someone else," she said. "There is a gray area in "Baby Blue," and it can mean a lot of things to different people, so I don’t want to define it. A lot of people say different things to me about what it means to them and I don’t want to limit people’s experience."
In comparison, Jett claimed there is no gray area with the word "fetish." To her, "you are my fetish" means "you are my
obsession."
On whether her work is autobiographical, Jett said, "I wouldn’t say all of it is, but a lot of it is. It is based on stuff that happened to me or stuff that happened to friends or family or other people who I live in my world with."
Jett previously has confided that she yearns to connect with fans and attempts to let them know that she shares their fears
and desires. She once said she feels like she grew up on the road and loves to be on tour. Jett talked to the Blade about how she appreciates her fans and the reasons she thinks she has attracted such a diverse following.
"First of all, I gotta say I feel blessed to have such a wide audience. I think it is because I have been on the road the whole time. Every year I’ve been out there playing to a lot of people."
As Jett continued, she found it necessary to resort to the labels she says she would rather shun. "I’ve seen every type of person: punks, really straight people, college yuppies, bikers, every type of person shows up. I don’t know what that is, but we call it ‘the great democratic coalition of fans’ because it really spans the whole gamut. It is a really great mix." She has seen kids and people in their 80s at her concerts.
"A lot of kids get their musical interests from their parents," Jett said. "They are able to share the music and enjoy things their parents liked. When I was a kid, I wasn’t looking to share my mom’s music and she wasn’t necessarily looking to share mine with me, either. I think that is an interesting change."
Asked to discuss her music in terms of its relative artistic and activist value, Jett responded by eschewing the labels altogether. "These are all such strange questions to me in the sense that I don’t think about it," she said. "I just do it. I don’t ask myself how it works. How do I analyze it? How do these issues relate to each other? I don’t think about how music relates to the left or to the right. I just do what I do and I don’t think about how it shakes out on any level. I just do what is in my heart. If they happen to be things that coincide and work together, that’s great."
She describes her political piece "Riddles" as her own statement about what she sees, and her way of wondering if other
people are seeing the same things. As Jett contemplated whether she intended the song to motivate political action, Laguna
interjected a reference to the song’s lyrics "Wake up, people." "That is a call to arms," he added. Jett agreed, but noted, "I don’t think in these intellectual phrases."
Fond of intellectual phraseology or not, Jett has enough political savvy to know that the current administration’s soaring
budget deficit illustrates that labels are meaningless if not backed up with substance. "A true conservative wouldn’t say it is OK to have a deficit, so those are poseur conservatives," she said.
Jett is aware that her music and her presence in the industry have political implications, but she classifies her impact. "I think, for years, just being a girl playing guitar was political," she said. "I’ve been doing that since I was 15 years old. To me, that is socially political. It is different than talking about the actual politicians and writing songs about running the country. That part is new to me." Jett was present on stage when Democratic contender Howard Dean screamed his way out of favor in the 2004 primaries.
Unlike Dean, being loud onstage is something Jett gets paid to do. She hasn’t experienced conflict between her desire for self-expression and commercial success. She focuses on her audience and what she wants to accomplish in her time with them. "You can say anything you want, to whatever degree you want, but you may not have people listening to you," she said.
"It feels good to a lot of people to be really angry, and I understand that. But, a lot of times you don’t get stuff done if everyone is so pissed off and there is no room for conversation or movement. No one stops me from saying whatever I want, but I certainly check myself in certain circumstances. It depends on what it is. If I’m playing a state fair and they tell me not to swear, I can say "fuck you" and swear anyway—and then I won’t be playing state fairs anymore. You can call that limiting my artistic expression or you can call it just being respectful of people’s rules and being professional. It depends on who you are trying to talk to and what arena it is. You do what you gotta do, I guess."
Jett does what she has to do to avoid being labeled a problem performer. Even so, she probably won’t be playing at Israel’s
Wailing Wall any time soon. Jett and her band are slated to start their SINNER Tour in mid-October. Check out the review of SINNER in this issue’s Arts and Entertainment section. For all the latest news about JOAN JETT, visit www.joanjettbadrep.com. "Morality is subjective. In a way, I’m claiming the word ‘sinner,’ because to be human is to sin. If you embrace being a human, then you are a sinner."
Complete article, and additional photos can be seen by clicking here.
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