What did your parents make of all this? I was still living in my mother’s house in the Valley in the early Runaways. It was definitely a transformational trip. And I saw a Clash concert, so it was the first time I experienced what was called pogoing-2,000 people all jumping up and down at the same time. In high school, I was getting howled at-very lightweight bullying, maybe because they were afraid -but stuff like “Diamond Dog,” “David Bowie.” My first trip to England with the Runaways really changed a lot of things for me because I saw all the kids totally dress in that early ’75–’76 punk stuff, with Malcolm McLaren’s Sex shop. I was looking for a way to have my own look. Those were all bands I was listening to, so I sort of went with that. Bowie had a wacky shag there for a minute, and a lot of the band the Sweet had shag haircuts. She was wearing black leather, and she had a shag haircut. Rex and Suzi Quatro, who was having hits at the time. ![]() Also, I was a big British glitter-music fan, so that means Bowie and T. I’ll tell you, a big influence on my style was the movie Cabaret-that sort of decadent, heavy-makeup, ’20s flapper-girl vibe. Who was your hair inspiration in those days? Did you have pictures pinned to your wall or rockers you wanted to emulate? Definitely. Cherie was platinum blonde, and I just thought it would be fun to be the opposite. My hair was sort of brown with some highlights in it, and I was wearing black leather at the time. ![]() it was early Runaways, probably December of ’75, so the five of us were together. When did you do that definitive dye job? Well, I was in L.A. Despite this flaw, Jett Rock is a good document of a true rock & roller and is chock-full of classic rock & roll.In Bad Reputation, we see family photos of you with medium-brown hair. The main problem with the disc is the track sequence, which seems to be entirely random and causes some unfortunate moments of whiplash like when the modern hostile sounding tracks "Fetish" and "Spinster" segue into her innocent cover of "Crimson and Clover." A simple chronological progression would have been much more logical and enjoyable. Unlike most of the other Jett collections, all the songs are taken from the original albums. ![]() The rest of the disc rounds up all the hits ("I Love Rock n' Roll," "Bad Reputation," "Light of Day," "This Means War," "I Hate Myself for Loving You") as well as solid album cuts like her collaboration with Paul Westerberg ("Backlash"), her cover of CCR's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" from her otherwise ill-advised covers album, the stomping "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" from Bad Reputation, and the tough "Spinster," which was co-written by Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna. In between it takes the best tracks from each of her albums (oddly only picking two from her best record, I Love Rock n' Roll, while picking three from the still good but inferior Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth) and throws in a couple of rarities like her rollicking cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme "Love Is All Around," the previously unreleased "Watersign" (from an album she recorded in 1999 and is still on the shelf), a duet with Greg Graffin of Bad Religion on Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" originally intended for the Tank Girl soundtrack, and 2001's tribute to science fiction movies called "Science Fiction," which is easily the worst song on the record and should have been replaced by Jett Rock's most glaring omission: "Victim of Circumstance" from I Love Rock n' Roll. The collection draws on her entire career starting with two tracks from the rare fan club-only release 1979 ("You Can't Get Me ") and ending with 1999's Fetish. If you want to pay the money, there is (almost) nothing but excellent rock & roll on Jett Rock. Jett recorded some of the best hard rock of the '80s, and people should be able to get a hold of it easily. The fact that it was released only in Japan (and seems to be the only hits collection in print in 2003) is a real shame. Jett Rock: Greatest Hits of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts is the strongest collection of Jett's work to date.
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