The political discourse has gotten particularly stupid and nasty, the Ukraine situation is unremittingly horrific, and COVID is still a problem, so I figured I needed a break. In times like this, it's nice to hearken back to a simpler time, when things were still pretty bad, but youthful optimism still holds out.
In my case, I have been an unabashed Joan Jett fan from the get-go. I love Joan's music, but I love Joan herself... besides having a fierce sex appeal that doesn't diminish from her badasssery, Joan is valiant, a crusader for justice, a savior of the helpless... there's nothing about her that I do not love LOVE LOVE.
In an interesting change of pace from her loud, hard-rocking oeuvre, Joan has released an album of acoustic versions of her classic hits. Here's an almost plaintive version of her signature tune Bad Reputation:
For a particularly topical song, here's an acoustic version of her cover of the Replacements' Androgynous, a particular favorite song of mine:
If Joan Jett is on your side, you're on the right side.
The whole album is great fun... Joan sounds just as bad in campfire singalong mode as she does in stadium concert mode. It's not-quite-nostalgia, the old songs being a different style, but it's nice to hear new aspects of old favorites.
Looking back on the gay marriage debate, I feel I should post the incredible song Androgynous by Minneapolis' favorite native sons The Replacements which, though not about same-sex marriage, takes on traditional gender roles:
The song initially comes across as a novelty song, but one quickly realizes that it is a plea for tolerance:
Mirror image, see no damage, see no evil at all. Kewpie dolls and urinal stalls will be laughed at the way you're laughed at now.
You tell them, Mr Westerberg! Joan Jett recorded a cover version of Androgynous, which is a staple of her live shows:
{ZRM} I am pleased to note that I have seen both Teh 'Mats and Joan Jett live in concert.{/ZRM} Hell, I even ran a 10k in Central Park so I could see Joan play a "Run Hit Wonder" event, which was kicked off by a concert featuring The Donnas.
Merry Christmas to all of my readers. I've been working the graveyard shift, which has largely entailed watching a white Christmas morph into a gray, slushy one as the snow which had been falling in the evening turned to a light rain. Oh, well, Dearest Joey sang "it ain't Christmas if there ain't no snow", but I remember more white Easters than white Christmases here in the NY metro area.
I've never hidden the fact that I love, love, love Joan Jett, so I'm posting her badass take on a Christmas classic to serve as my Christmas post:
Now, how's this for a Christmas surprise? I had no idea that Joan Jett recorded a cover of the Ramones' Judy is a Punk:
Of course, now that I posted a video for a Ramones cover, I feel that I must post the Ramones' beloved Christmas song:
The meltdown really shows a great deal of immaturity on the part of the emo-boy Nazi crowd. My beloved Joan Jett had the best advice concerning fake friends:
I just found out that today is Robyn Hitchcock's sixtieth birthday. I could give a little discussion about Robyn, who is one of my all-time favorite musicians, but I think I'd rather post a bunch of his songs.
Here's Robyn performing Brenda's Iron Sledge, a demented little ditty which has always put me in mind of a poorly-translated Slavic folk song:
Here's a more recent video of Robyn performing one of his most beautiful songs (albeit it one with a hint of unsettling imagery), Airscape:
Here's the disturbing, but oddly life affirming, Sounds Great When You're Dead... remember how dodgy things get, they're preferable to death:
Here's Queen of Eyes, which was originally done by Robyn's first band, The Soft Boys. It comes across as the sort of song The Byrds would have written if they are totally tripped out on acid and Mervyn Peake novels:
I'll leave off with Robyn playing his beautiful Madonna of the Wasps with the Decemberists:
Yeah, you could say I'm a fan. I've seen Robyn play more than just about anyone, with the possible exception of Joan Jett, who is relatively local. Happy birthday, Robyn, just don't make young people scream.
Anyway, that's not what I was going to post about... poking around the t00bz, I found a reference to a performance by Joey Ramone at a 1993 pro-choice benefit, fronting a pickup supergroup called The Resistance (Joan Jett put in an appearance playing guitar). The band played mainly covers,
from John Lennon to Sam Cooke to, in a case of foreshadowing, Louis Armstrong. I found an audio recording of the performance, which is wonderful:
Longtime readers will know that I have been a huge Ramones fan since I was a child, and it's nice to know that, while he played a cartoon lunatic delinquent in his band persona, Joey Ramone was a sensitive, articulate liberal. His monologue at the beginning of this performance is a testimony to his values, to his humane nature. We lost Joey to lymphoma on 4/15/2001, a loss which I took pretty hard (my brother Sweetums and I were returning to NYC from Easter at mom's house in Virginia, and when we heard the news on the radio, we blasted All the Stuff and More all the way home, singing along with tears in our eyes). Looking back, it was a loss for all of America. We could use more voices like Joey's, and I'm not just talking about his Queens-accented sorta-bleat/kinda-croon.
This Valentine's Day, I hope that everybody who is looking for a kiss finds one:
Gotta love the New York Dolls... when I was a nerdy grammar school kid who read the newspaper every day (yeah, I did), I read about the Sex Pistols and somehow got the notion that they wore women's clothing on stage. Silly me, I had them conflated with the Dolls. Yeah, I was a punk rock n00b in the second grade.
If you find your kiss, make sure that it's not one of those deadly kisses that one seems to hear about every now and then. Last week, in one of the comments, the wily Wiley wrote:
That girl's band reminded me of Cher on "the Sonny and Cher" show introducing an all girl band with the caveat that they weren't very "feminine" as if Cher weren't a professional vamp. I thought at the time that the network forced her into it, because she didn't seem very sincere when she said it. I was 14 at the time, so it was '75 and I'm thinking it might have been very early Joan Jett. Or not. I dunno. But I really liked them and loved it that they were rough and tumble--- like me--- a ridiculously heterosexual tomboy.
I believe that the band in question was The Runaways, who featured Lita Ford on guitar. Of course, Lita Ford had something to say about those deadly kisses later on in her career:
I have to confess that I find the song dated and more than a bit cheesy. I remember my freshman college roommate and I laughing our asses off at the opening line, "Went to a party last Saturday night, didn't get laid, got in a fight." Damn, Lita, you'd been a rockstar since you were in your teens, could you not have tried a little harder?
As far as songs titled "Kiss Me Deadly" go, I have to rate for Generation X's song by that name (warning, video contains footage of Billy Idol... I kid! I kid!):
Of course, both songs share the title of perhaps the greatest film noir ever produced. Kiss Me Deadly took a run-of-the-mill Mickey Spillane potboiler about stolen narcotics and turned it into a post-Hiroshima horror story about a deadly "whatsit" being chased down by various law enforcement officials and an international criminal organization.
Inspired by Smut's posting of a picture of a statute of Perseus slaying Medusa, I went searching for a clip from Kiss Me Deadly, in which the villain describes the "whatsit" at the center of the film as "the head of the Medusa", and found the entire movie posted. Yeah, I know the SOPA and PIPA people will freak, but I'm posting the movie, because it must be seen. As a little background reading, you may wish to check out Wiley's take on nuclear fears- as an Air Force veteran, she's extraordinarily wise about these issues.
Damn, what dialogue! I still get goosebumps hearing the villain's speech at 1:16:
What is it we are seeking? Diamonds, rubies, gold? Perhaps narcotics? How civilized this earth used to be. But as the world becomes more primitive, its treasures become more fabulous.
Why is it that the villains always seem to end up with the best lines?
The actor who played the villain, Albert Dekker seems to have died of sexual misadventure, which brings us back to the topic of Valentine's Day. If you are going to get kinky this V. Day, take all possible precautions to be safe- leave the deadliness to posted videos.
I figured I should post something about Wendy O. Williams, having jokingly written about Gone With The Wendy, a hypothetical novel (later movie) in which the singer drives an explosive-laden bus through a "Tara" made of televisions.
I remember reading her obituary, and being struck by the fact that she was a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. I immediately thought of Berke Breathed's Tess Turbo, and the cartoon in which the Joan Jett knockoff was wondering if anyone could possibly know that she was a (as the Wikiwakiwoo quotes) a shy, sensitive, withdrawn young woman who likes Smurf dolls, sad rainy days, and silly, romantic poetry. This consummate show/stuntwoman and artistic gadfly was obviously an extremely intelligent individual, and I am forced to wonder what additional accomplishments she could have had (especially since a bizarre contest for a Connecticut senate seat is taking place now), had she not tragically taken her life.
Who knew that a Metal Priestess could be so fragile?
For me, the classic road-trip music will always be Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers (the original lineup included Jerry Harrison, who was a founding member of Talking Heads, and David Robinson, who drummed for The Cars). Here's a live version that, I confess, I'd never heard before:
Of course, Roadrunner sounds suspiciously like Sister Ray, by the Velvet Underground:
Roadrunner has become somewhat of a standard. Joan Jett tackled it:
The song was also hilariously butchered by the Sex Pistols in a rehearsal, with a confused John Lydon ad-libbing in quite entertaining fashion:
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper's Jesus at McDonald's was a tongue-in-cheek "tribute" to the song:
The song's got legs, which is pretty outstanding for a love song to Stop and Shop.
The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.
