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Rock trailblazer plays Boston next weekend; JOAN JETT bringing songs from first new CD in 12 years
from: eagletribune.com
by Alan Sculley, Eagle-Tribune
After 12 years of waiting, fans this summer finally got a new studio CD from JOAN JETT called "SINNER."
But it's not as if Jett intended to see her recording career go on hold that long.
"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 longtime songwriting collaborator, producer and manager, KENNY LAGUNA, weren't so much at odds with the label as victims of a record company in flux.
Warner Bros. Records went through five regimes headed by five different presidents, and they all had different visions for the new record, according to Laguna.
"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 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 to leave Warner Bros.
"They were really nice about it," Laguna said. "They did it in a way where we could afford to get our stuff (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 often capricious music business for more than 30 years.
Jett came to prominence at age 15 when she co-founded the all-female rock band the RUNAWAYS with singer Cherie Currie and guitarist Lita Ford in Los Angeles in 1975.
After the RUNAWAYS split in 1979, Jett decided to go solo, but record labels refused to sign her. So she 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 'n' roll band. Some fans were downright hostile, and would curse, spit at and throw things at Jett.
But the resentment only made Jett more determined to succeed.
"I'd get really (angry) 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 'n' 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 'n' 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 'n' 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 Loving You" 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.
If you go
Who: JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS with the Eagles of Death Metal
Where: Avalon, 15 Landsdowne St., Boston
When: Friday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m.
How: Tickets are $25. Call 617-262-2424.
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