Can a Sears Christmas Catalog guitar make history? Is a 16 year old Runaway an icon? Is a bad reputation a female anthem? Did a fan of godmother of pop-punk change my life? If we are talking about Joan Fucking Jett, the answer is hell yes!
The Sears Wish List That Changed History
On a Christmas morning Joan Jett’s parents got her exactly what she wanted from the Sears Christmas catalog! A Silvertone electric guitar. This was what the 13 year old girl wanted for Christmas. In a time where women with guitars in pop music were relegated to acoustic guitars and folk rock, Joan wanted to shred. Joan wanted to fucking rock. A scant three years later, Joan and her Sears guitar would change history.
Runaways at CBGB’s
In 1975 Joan Jett would co found a band called The Runaways. She was 16. They did not talk about starting a band and play pretend in a garage, they started a rock band. By 1976 they were playing CBGB’s and touring the world.
They were huge in Japan, but they were also well known in the rest of Asia as well as Europe, Australia, Canada, and South America. They were headlining, but they were also opening for Cheap Trick, Ramones, Van Halen, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Cherry Bomb and other hits were known throughout the world, but not here in the U.S.
They were not able to capture the same level of success in the U.S. Just like we learned from the Tina Turner article here at Gen X Watch, America was not only reticent to welcome a strong black woman to the recording studios, they were not ready for women who could rock as hard as any band out there.
Unapologetic New Adventures
In 1979 the Runaways would break up. Joan was driven and immediately hit a studio in England with 2 members of the Clash to record 3 songs. One of which was an early rendition of what would become her infamous version of “I Love Rock and Roll”. She then went to LA to finish some contractual obligations with the now defunct Runaways.
Joan Jett took her share of the money and decided to start her band, the Blackhearts. She put an ad in the paper that said she was looking for 3 good men. She found them and they formed the band in 1979. From 1979 through 1981 it was a struggle. Then they would re record “I Love Rock and Roll” and that would put her on the charts for a lifetime and career that continues to this day.
Often called the godmother of pop-punk, her career includes 12 studio albums and 44 singles. She would also hit the top 100 18 times with a number 1 hit, star in the Movie “Light of Day” with Michael J Fox to critical acclaim, and even be the first rock artist to perform a concert on Broadway that also broke world records for swiftest sell out.
She did all of this on her terms!
Bad Reputation as an Anthem
Originally recorded independently, “Bad Reputation” would be re recorded in 1981 on the heels of “I Love Rock and Roll”. In an interview in 2021 celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Bad Reputation”, she would have this to say about the song:
“I’m kind of being sarcastic; my reputation; if it’s ‘bad,’ it’s for being strong, and my parents told me when I was five that I could be whatever I wanted as a girl, I could be anything. I believed them. I guess that is kind of the ‘bad,’ being able to say, ‘I’m gonna do what I want and you can’t tell me ‘no” – especially if I’m not hurting people. “I’m out here playing guitar, and you’re giving me grief for it, but you know, it’s much bigger than guitar. Like I said, when I was a kid, it was all about that, but now I realize it’s much more about other things.”
Jett became a feminist icon and her song went on to be an anthem for women of five generations. Having a bad reputation on your terms as you live your life and do not give a damn what others think.
I met a woman in 1991 who knew exactly what that song meant to her. It was much more and about other things.
Ohio
In the Summer of 1991 a girl I was crazy about broke up with me in a Dairy Queen parking lot. I was heartbroken at the time and took it hard. A friend of mine suggested we take a road trip to get out of my headspace. He had a cousin in Niles, Ohio we could visit. While there we found out Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were performing at the Eastwood Mall. We went. I met a girl with a bad reputation as defined by Joan Jett.
At the concert there was a woman that kept looking at me. She had jet black hair in a punk Siouxsie Sioux style, wearing a black leather biker jacket, spandex pants, studded belt, and had a nose ring with a chain attached that looped to her earring. She was short but her black heeled boots gave her an extra few inches and her bright red lipstick contrasted with her ice blue eyes and dark eye make up. Every time I looked over at her she was staring at me.
When Jett started playing Bad Reputation she came over to me and said, “This is my favorite! I’m Sarah.” I looked at her, smiled, and nodded. She stood next to me and was lost in the rest of the song with a hand in the air in a fist and belting out the lyrics.
After the song Sarah stared at me. I stared back. She spoke! “Dude, I’m trying to hit on you. Tell me you’re gay or have a girlfriend or I’m ugly or tell me your name.”
“I’m Pat! You’re gorgeous and I’m shy!”
“Wanna get out of here?” she smiled.
I told my buddy that I was heading out with Sarah so he’d have to go home with his cousin. I wouldn’t see my buddy ever again.
The Diner
Sarah and I got in my Thunderbird and went to a diner that served beer. We had beers and breakfast at midnight and started talking. She was 22. Only a year older than me and going pre med. Sarah told me that Bad Reputation was why she decided to become a doctor. She was originally set to be a nurse like her mom because her parents told her a girl could not be a doctor. She became a Joan Jett fan in middle school. Joan Jett rocking out in a man’s world and that song let her know she could be whatever she wanted to be and do whatever she wanted to.
She talked about her favorite bands and her dreams and her fears and her hopes.
I had never met a woman like her before. She was my age and was so sure and so free to be herself. I envied it. She also knew what she wanted, and that night she wanted me. She asked if I wanted to come to her apartment and spend the night. I really wanted to, but I was studying to be a minister and I also lived over 400 miles away. I told her both things in the lamest way possible.
“Pat, I like you. This is okay. This is okay. Take some time off from the world. If we still like each other in the morning, stay another day. I got a studio in Youngstown. Say yes.”
“Yes.”
Youngstown
I called my buddy from a phone booth outside the diner. I told him I would see him in a day or two. He told me to screw myself and he was taking a Greyhound back to Chicago if I really did this with THAT girl. He told me you have to be careful with women like THAT. She’s too forward and might have herpes.
She walked up to me in the phone booth and I felt a gentle kiss brush my lips as I was on the phone. She walked over to my car and lit a cigarette. I touched my lips and there was a hint of lipstick on my fingers. I told him I would pay him back for the bus ticket.
A few minutes later we would be in my T-Bird driving to Youngstown.
We smoked cigarettes and a joint on the way to her apartment and I felt her fingers intertwined in mine as she moved my hand to her knee.
Her apartment had a strat on a stand with an amp, an easel with a painting of the sea half done, compact stereo, and a mattress on the floor with an ashtray next to it. Her apartment smelled of cigarettes, weed, and lilacs.
Over the next 5 days we would feast on each other, get high, and talk. We talked about everything.
One night she took me out to meet some friends that were in a punk band. She jammed with them in a dive bar on an open mic night. She was amazing on the guitar as she did punk covers and I saw her as lost as she was at the concert, focused on the music.
So Much More!
In those 5 days I was fully myself for the first time since I was 9. I could just be me and she shared her life with me. She played her records for me. Joan Jett, Ramones, Runaways, Lita, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie, Heart and so much more. With the exception of the Ramones and the Clash it was all women rockers, punk and pop.
She told me about how feminism and suffrage inspired her as her only path to freedom from her dad’s drinking and abuse of her leading to her. She moved out the day she turned 18. Joined the reserves so she could get into school. She was raped during basic and persevered.
I got to hear her dreams and her heroes and how music and poetry freed her and showed her women can do whatever they want. They had to. Life on her terms was the only life worth living because she was never going back to the pain of her childhood marrying a man like her dad.
She went back to Joan Jett a few times. Sarah told me how Bad Reputation was her anthem as a girl in middle school. She was a new generation and she was gong to get out and do something with her life and help people.
This was my first time with a strong feminist at my age. I thought feminists had to be not feminine and maybe hate men or some other idiotic shit. No. She just had a strong sense of self and knew she had the same rights as anyone and was ready to stand up for herself so she could live her life on her terms.
She forever changed the way I saw women and my role in their lives.
Going Home
Day 5 I had to go home. I was starting a new semester in 2 days. She was starting a new semester in a few days as well. The last hour the weight of leaving was hanging over us. We lay in her bed holding each other not saying a word.
We walked to my car. She handed me Joan Jett’s “Up Your Alley” cassette and gripped my hand. I looked at her. “Sarah….” my heart was in my throat and I did not want to go. “I…” She shut me up with a kiss and there were tears in her eyes as she said through grit teeth,
“Don’t you dare fucking say it because then I’ll say it and this will suck more balls than it already does.”
I bit my lower lip and nodded.
“You could stay. Change your major.” She said. I shook my head still biting my lip.
“Need you to promise me something, Pat. Don’t become one of those religious jag offs that treats women like shit. My dad’s a pastor.”
We hugged for an eternity. Forever ended and I drove home.
I kept my promise, Sarah.
Every Feminist Friday is Dedicated to Erika
Erika died on Christmas leaving behind a family that has immediate needs.
Click here to read the story of how Erika saved my life when we were teenagers.
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