Just that raw, pent-up coil

Who but Joan can step up to the mike, tough as fuck, with that gorgeous vampire-face-mask of a face and have that fucking voice come out? That voice-the one that recalls Lesley Gore and Suzi Quatro at the same time, the one that makes it feel like every door in your head flying open, the one that is so friendly and welcoming, yet, in it’s perfection, so hopelessly impenetrable?

—-Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill

I will say it up front: Joan Jett is one of my heroes. I was a teenager in the 70’s and had the JJ shag and would jump around my bedroom singing “Cherry Bomb” and “Waitin’ for the Night”. So, this review will probably be biased.

The book itself is rather light on actual text. There’s some writing by Kathleen Hanna and an afterword of sorts by Todd Oldham, but the rest is more oral history, distillations of interviews with Joan and Kenny Laguna. It’s still her distinctive voice and attitude, so that’s cool with me. Mostly there’s a ton of photographs from her days with the Runaways  and with the Blackhearts, breakdowns of some videos and original lyrics sheets, all scribbled with a ballpoint pen. Joan talks about Kim Fowley and forming The Runaways, then moving on to work with Kenny and building her solo career as well as forming their own record label. She produced the one and only album by The Germs and produced a Bikini Kill EP, to name a few. She’s written for film, has done some acting and was a producer on the film about The Runaways based on Cherie Currie’s book.

I’ve always admired her drive and determination and the fact that she didn’t take no for an answer. When no label would take her on (she has all the rejection letters to prove it), they just went on the road and played shows and sold the self-produced record out of the trunk of Kenny’s car. That was 1980, folks. From there she’s written and recorded over a dozen albums, among them Evil Stig with the remaining members of The Gits, the proceeds going to fund the quest to find lead singer Mia Zapata’s killer.

And she is still rocking today, having been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just this year. You better believe I will be in the front row when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts come to my town later in July, screaming and sweating and jumping around like that kid back in 1977.