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JOAN JETT: 30 Years of Rock and Roll
from: gibson.com
by Ted Drozdowski
JOAN JETT's tough-as-Teflon guitar sound is an example of Holy Grail post-punk crunch at its finest: a thick bottom with a bright and crisp top and snarl 'n' sustain to spare, all driven by her Gibson Melody Maker.
That sound and the series of irrepressible hits it spawned helped make Jett the first woman to be recognized with a Gibson signature model electric guitar, the JOAN JETT Signature Melody Maker, based on her longtime battle-scarred, white, go-to axe. And that's not all. She also inspired the Gibson JOAN JETT Blackheart model, a one-pickup variation that, true to the literally colorful allusion in its title, is a sleek, black-finished riff machine.
Jett got her first Melody Maker in 1977 when she was in the RUNAWAYS. "It was light and it sounded great," she told Gibson.com last year. "It was the guitar I played on all my hits, like ÔI Love Rock 'n Roll,' ÔBad Reputation' and ÔDo You Wanna Touch Me.' It's my baby."
The Melody Maker had been back in production for six years when Jett acquired her white instrument, which has been subjected to a variety of modifications and change-ups over the years.
Gibson's original run of Melody Makers was from 1959 to 1971 and they were to-the-point, with a mahogany neck and slab style body, routed so its two single-coil pickups, tone and volume pots, and even the jack could be assembled on the pickguard and mounted on the body in a single piece. As the original production run went on, 12-string and three-pickup versions also were manufactured, and the original Gibson Les Paul Special-like single cutaway was doubled. Jett's 1977 model hews close to the first double-cutaway versions, with a Tune-o-Matic bridge -- the first year that feature became available.
To get a close-up look at how Jett and her scalding tone are wired, check out the album that elevated her from the club scene to arena and festival stages, I Love Rock 'n' Roll, which was released 30 years ago but still smells like a fresh power-pop bouquet.
The disc featured the twin six-string attack of Jett and Ricky Byrd, although it's Jett's raging rhythms that drive the entire affair. Jett is known for using a Mesa-Boogie Mark III head with Marshall or Mesa cabinets as well as a Vox AC-30 in tandem, but, according to her current guitar foil DOUGIE NEEDLES, she used a MusicMan 2x12 combo for her power playing on the album's title track, turned up to "stun."
Jett's grounding in punk rock and her scholarly knowledge of '60s garage rock and pop created the album's overall blend of punk-inspired heat balanced by concision and mainstream accessibility.
"I Love Rock 'n Roll" was Jett's first #1 single and propelled the entire album to#2 on the Billboard LP charts. The song was actually a cover, written by Alan Merill and Jake Hooker of the Arrows, a British teen-pop sensation in the mid-'70s who even had their own TV show, but still remain obscure in the States. The tune was written as a response to the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)". Jett's version is tougher than the Arrows original, but follows their template.
The Arrows weren't the only group from the past that Jett tapped for material. As the crafty hooks, classic pop length and focus on melody at the core of her own writing indicate, she is a student of great '50s and '60s pop-rock. So the I Love Rock 'n' Roll album also features tunes originally cut by Tommy James and the Shondells ("Crimson and Clover"), the Dave Clark Five ("Bits and Pieces"), the Kingsmen ("Louie Louie"), Eddie Cochran ("Summertime Blues") and the Coasters ("Nag"). That the album's original songs like "Love Is Pain" and "Be Straight" hold up to the chestnuts Jett covered is tribute to how well she absorbed the lessons of the past.
When it comes to guitar playing, Jett's mantra remains "keep it simple, but effective." Few artists have gotten, or continue to get, as much mileage out of down-stroked trimmed-to-the-core rhythm guitar as she does. Today Jett's discography includes 14 studio albums, including 1995's Evil Stig backed by the Gits, and half as many compilation discs. |
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