As female Rock icons go, there are fewer more pleasing to the eye than Joan Jett. Any serious study of Jett’s groundbreaking career would have to include a ton of photos in order to fully illustrate the sheer force of her image and attitude, and this gorgeous book does just that. Indeed Todd Oldham’s new biography of Jett may be the clear front runner for definitive study status because it contains as much color photography as it does text. Certainly Jett’s work and career are worthy of serious analysis. She has been a balls-out, unapologetic, kick ass rocker since day one. Peruse page after page of glossy photos of Joan Jett and treat your eyes to an enticing visual document of a true underdog original and a classic American girl that created a look all her own. Her sense of style has been copied by countless disenfranchised vixens the world over. Before Joan Jett and the Runaways, the Plain Janes of the world had almost no prototypical recourse to re-envision themselves. The punk rock fashions partly inspired by Joan Jett and the Runaways gave ugly ducklings more eye-catching options than they’d previously ever dreamed of. Joan Jett proved, and continues to prove to this day, with not just her look but her straightforward rock and roll music, that a woman can be a fireball force to be reckoned with in a male-dominated industry.
In a subtle twist to the traditional role of biographer, Oldham has compiled and transcribed hours of Joan Jett interviews from across a thirty year span and arranged them chronologically so that it reads like Jett telling her own story from the very beginning. The result of Oldham’s efforts is an authoritative study that reads like a definitive history as it comes straight from the source. In transcribing Jett’s words for this book’s text, Oldham has crafted Jett’s autobiography for her.
While still a teenager, Joan set out to blow people’s minds by assembling an all-girl band. Though the press treated The Runaways with disrespect and outright hostility because they were women playing rock and roll, Jett seems to recognize that this was also the reason why they were getting any attention at all. The shameful irony is that the Runaways were then cast in a role where they had to defend and explain themselves to the doubters and haters in the rock press that refused to take the band seriously.
I’ve always had the feeling that Joan never liked to talk to the press about her days with the Runaways. But here she speaks very frankly about the group and the divisions within that led them to disband. Some of the girls were more into metal where Joan and Sandy West believed they were just playing good old rock and roll. Speaking of her kinship with punk rock, Joan reflects on the music’s simplicity and the friends she made in the fledgling British punk scene that embraced and admired the Runaways from the days of their first UK tour in ‘76. Much like the punk rock that was to follow them, the Runaways, though trend setters and trail blazers, were misunderstood and unappreciated in their time. It’s easy for us to see that now. But at the time the girls were in a situation where they could draw no comfort from such a thought. None of them yet twenty years old, they were ill-equipped to deal with the continuous slagging in the press. It was all but over for the Runaways as soon as there were divisions beginning to form within the ranks.
Though they presaged punk’s DIY ethic that would spark so much controversy and commerce in the years to come, The Runaways have been slighted by history. They have never truly received proper credit for being one of the first all-girl bands and inspiring riot grrls around the world to pick up guitars and start bands of their own. In the aftermath of their break up, the punk rock scene the Runaways had helped to inspire would soon explode into a worldwide phenomenon.
Even when she was still a child, Joan always was the Runaway with the toughest and most compelling look. With her thick rings of eyeliner, black hair, tight jeans, sneakers, t-shirt, and a sly snarl that oozed sexy boredom, the other girls in the band always looked like frail cheerleaders standing next to her. As a way of protecting herself, she initially adopted the tough chick exterior as a teenage defense mechanism. In one of the most revealing quotes in the book, Jett confides, “The tough image was put upon me. I don’t think I’ll ever shake it. But personally, I don’t really care. I just wanna play rock and roll.”
After a tough time re-grouping, Jett finally got a new band together and took to the road with unflagging determination to make the big time. The Blackhearts’ sound revised and refined the Runaways blueprint only slightly, but the new tougher, tighter sound caught on almost immediately. Playing shows that sold out on word of mouth alone, Jett sold her independently produced first LP out of the trunk of her car. Though she sold every last copy of multiple pressings of her debut album, Joan was turned down by no less than twenty-three record labels before getting signed. Finally, Joan hears her song on a Miami radio station while the band is on tour and it is heart-warming to read her telling of the triumphant tale. By this point in the story you’ll be rooting for our little girl and the first wave of well-deserved success is cause for celebration.
Jett retains her humility and undying resilience through the ups and downs of her career. Her unwavering belief in the power of straight up rock and roll carries her through the tough times, up the charts, and on into the ages as an undying icon of rock history.
This book stands not just as testament to a fiercely determined woman who won out in the face of adversity and the sexism ingrained in our male-dominated culture, but ironically also a photo album of Jett’s strikingly beautiful face. This is no sex symbol peep show. It’s a mixed collection of professional photos of Jett onstage and from various photo shoots throughout the years in addition to a slew of cozy candid snapshots of Joan with family and friends.
In spite of her reputation as a bad ass rock and roller, some of the candid shots here are most endearing. In the best of them you can see past all the make-up and rock and roll clothing and Jett’s inner child shines through. Truly a window to the soul, it’s her eyes. She can spit that rock and roll scowl at you from onstage and rattle you to your core. But when she lets that little girl smile through it’ll melt your heart. Regardless of her expression, it’s those eyes that’ll hook you. Check the sly grin slowly dawning on her sweet face on the book’s cover for the first glimpse of that smile ‘bout to break.
Joan telling her own story is a fascinating read indeed. But the enduring memory that I will take away from my experience with reading this book is that while flipping through this collection of great photos my face began to mirror Joan’s, smiling back at page after page.
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For more information, contact: http://www.ammobooks.com/books/joanjett/
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[A slightly edited version of this article originally appeared on Crawdaddy.com in October 2010. –rh]
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