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New JOAN JETT doc proves she's the most badass rocker around
from: nypost.com
By Sara Stewart | Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute
PARK CITY, UTAH -- The queen of badass rockers, JOAN JETT, got a little emotional as she took the stage Monday at the Sundance Film Festival after the world premiere of the documentary "Bad Reputation." A female audience member asked her what her favorite career high is: "This would be one of 'em," the leather-clad Jett said, ducking her head and wiping away a tear.
It's high time the 59-year-old Jett got the rock-doc treatment, and "Bad Reputation" does it right, tracing Jett's trailblazing path as one of the first, and still the hardest-rocking, women in a notoriously sexist industry (as one commentator in the film puts it, back in the day, Mick Jagger could -- and did -- come out on stage riding a giant inflatable phallus, but try sending Jett out on similar female genitalia and the mostly-male music critics would have been running for the exits).
"Growing up in the '70s, I didn't think it would be such a big deal for a woman to play rock 'n' roll," says Jett in the film. But she found out that wasn't the case: Her first band, the teenaged RUNAWAYS, was cursed at, spit on and had bottles and trash thrown at them. Jett says she would go backstage, have a cathartic cry and keep going. She found kindred outsider spirits in the world of punk, once lending Sid Vicious her favorite belt -- an accessory which ended up in one of the most iconic photos of the Sex Pistols bassist and his girlfriend.
When Jett finally landed a major hit in 1981 with her cover of "I Love Rock ‘n Roll," it's hard to fathom how more than a dozen record labels rejected the demo of it she sent them -- and how hard they must have been kicking themselves as the foot-stomping anthem stayed atop the Billboard charts for months.
Kevin Kerslake, director of "Bad Reputation."Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Director Kevin Kerslake ("As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM") has a wide-ranging roster of musicians weighing in on Jett's impact on rock through the decades: from Iggy Pop to Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong to Kathleen Hanna, whose riot grrrl band Bikini Kill drew inspiration, and eventually production assistance, from Jett. "That voice! Those pronouns!" Hanna gushes, recalling her first time hearing Jett's cover of "Crimson and Clover," which dared to keep the object of the Tommy James & the Shondells love song a "her."
One of the film's most unexpectedly charming features is the 40-year friendship between Jett and KENNY LAGUNA, her longtime producer and collaborator, who banter and bicker like an old married couple -- one where the husband gladly helps his wife plaster electrical tape over the rip in the crotch of her skintight pleather pants.
Jett, who on Monday noted the particular strangeness of seeing her life played out on the big screen, told the audience she never set out to become an activist -- but as the film shows, she's been an advocate for animal rights, women's safety (following the rape and murder of The Gits lead singer Mia Zapata in 1993) and for making sure the next generation of female rockers had more support than she did. As this doc reveals the extent of her warmheartedness, Jett's bad reputation may be a thing of the past. |
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