Is Joan Jett the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll?
Introduction
I wrote a blog post a year before this one with the same title that I since renamed. I rambled on a lot about Joan being like a Marty McFly and I think most of it did not even answer the question effectively. After a year of learning and listening more about rock 'n' roll, I think I have more relevant information in this blog post that answers the question better. Is Joan Jett the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll? You can read my old post here.
I will present my case by looking into Joan Jett’s qualities as a rock musician and a performer. Let us start by saying that Joan Jett as a rhythm guitarist is nowhere near among the best guitarists of all time, and her musical style didn’t really raise the bar in any meaningful way. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts have a slight punk rock sound like the Ramones with some hard rock. I have provided a little bit of history about Joan Jett in my old post. Besides her musical ability, Joan Jett is legendary because she is like a female Elvis who challenged the ideas of women’s roles in music in a way that no other woman has ever done before, at least seemingly not on the same scale, which mirrors what male rockstars experienced as men.
Joan Jett rocks 1980s style.
Comparing Female Rockstars
Let us follow up with Joan's musical style by saying that no female rockstar comes close to matching record sales to the top rock musicians. I mean, I would think so. No female rockstar has torn apart the music industry and transformed it at a global scale, or could be compared to the likes of examples like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, or Led Zeppelin. So, how could anyone crown a Queen of Rock 'n' Roll when nobody could do what Michael Jackson or Madonna did for pop music?
You got Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart, who have had some of the greatest voices in rock. Anne had a huge vocal range, and even though they occasionally have a spot on the radio, if we classify them by global impact and reinventing music, they don't stand out immensely. You can hear a tad bit of Led Zeppelin influence in some of their songs, but Queens of Rock 'n' Roll? Maybe a more fitting title, as niche as it gets, and not ignoring their amazing '70s hits, would be the Queens of '80s Power Ballads because of how powerful and emotional they were that really touch your soul.
Pat Benatar similarly has a huge vocal range. I like her operatic voice combined with rock. Her influences seem to be more vocal oriented and her music strays far from early rock ‘n’ roll, adopting a hard rock or more of a pop sound. Debbie Harry's band Blondie is unique in that they cross over a lot of genres, like rock, punk, pop, reggae, disco, and more. While this is very impressive, it really doesn't help when you're comparing purely just rock 'n' roll, and I find that I really only enjoy their punk rock/pop sound because I don't like reggae or disco at all. Chrissie Hynde's band The Pretenders is very enjoyable for their old style pop and rock sound with a touch of punk, almost like the Ramones. Chrissie even had the perfect Ramones hair in the '80s. These bands all have a distinct sound and loyal fans, but did any of them have such broad influence to really transform music in meaningful ways? Even the King of Rock 'n' Roll will generate a big discussion, because Elvis Presley pointed to Fats Domino as the real King and didn’t like himself being portrayed as such. However, Elvis had great stage presence and energy that entirely changed the genre, so many people will credit him.
The '80s music were great because there were lots of distinct genres and sub-genres and bands had a very unique sound to them. This is true for all female rockstars I mentioned, but the problem is that they and a lot of '80s bands, as expected, simply don't have the same impact as the legends because they were never the first ones to totally transform music or captivate a global audience with their stage performances. This doesn't mean their music isn't legendary, it just begs the question, why do people need to crown a Queen of Rock 'n' Roll? And given all this information, how can we even compare them in the first place? They are all unique with all different sources of inspiration that you cannot compare them together. The truth is, no women were fighting in the 1950s with the rock pioneers to transform the industry and break down barriers until years later… at least, I don’t know anything about it, because they didn’t become influential enough (there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe much earlier)… so the ones we know about later on began dwindling in their specific genre that was already in place.
Elvis Presley in 1956 performing Hound Dog.
Searching for the Queen
We determined that most people don't measure up to the pioneers in the rock industry, so what can we do when we think about a Queen of Rock 'n' Roll? I think the most special quality that comes to mind is to compare them with the King of Rock 'n' Roll. If we can't effectively compare great female rockstars with one another due to their wildly different musical tastes and influences, what better way than to determine who can be the female Elvis? Elvis is cool and sexy, mesmerizing, and makes girls faint. What kind of female rockstar is so cool and sexy and mesmerizing that she can make boys faint and change the world for good? Okay, all of them, I guess.
I recently started listening to Suzi Quatro because she inspired Joan Jett, and after her first few albums, I was saying to myself, this is the female Elvis. Suzi was inspired by Elvis and she covered his song, All Shook Up, and it was really good, and I read that Elvis himself is even said to have mentioned it was the best cover he had heard of that song. Suzi also did covers of other old rock 'n' roll songs like Ain't Got No Home and Keep A Knockin', which are so much better with loud guitars. Keep A Knockin' really sounded like something special that could’ve been really big as Suzi yells, "THIS IS FOR ALL YOU 16 YEAR OLD GIRLS OUT THERE, WHEN A BOY ASKS YOU FOR A DATE," and proceeds to scream the lyrics. I went so far as to discover Suzi's appearance as Leather Tuscadero on the popular show Happy Days, and I was blown away. She just did pure rock 'n' roll with her doo-wop girls as part of her band Leather Tuscadero and the Suedes, and she was literally the female Elvis right there. She even played Johnny B. Goode and I wonder if it inspired Marty McFly because Suzi also had a red guitar. Unfortunately, Suzi Quatro was never famous in the United States for whatever reason, but she saw success overseas. I didn't grow up hearing anything by Suzi Quatro in the United States, and I never knew about her. No younger kids would recognize any of her songs.
Suzi Quatro as Leather Tuscadero.
Queen Joan Jett?
Joan Jett is quite different from Suzi Quatro. Joan is a rhythm guitarist while Suzi plays bass (amazingly, actually), for starters. Joan is more influenced by the punk movement like from the Ramones, but she still has 1950s rock 'n' roll in her blood like Suzi. For starters, photographer Mick Rock, known as "The Man Who Shot the Seventies" for photographing numerous famous rock musicians, made a comment about Joan's look when she needed a last minute photoshoot for her next album. Mick called Joan the female Elvis because of her rockabilly look with black cowboy boots and big bangs, and the iconic photo with her dangerously pink suit jacket became the cover of her I Love Rock 'n' Roll album in 1982. Mick's quote is mentioned in the book SHOT! by Rock: The Photography of Mick Rock, and I think he is right to some degree, not just about Joan's look, but also some of her music.
Cover art of I Love Rock 'n' Roll shot by Mick Rock.
Elvis or perhaps any other rock pioneer has theoretically influenced every rockstar that came after. Joan Jett is no different. You have to look deeper than I Love Rock 'n' Roll or I Hate Myself For Loving You. Like Elvis, Joan released a lot of songs that she didn’t write. Some of Joan's lesser known songs are covers of old rock songs, or they have that rockabilly sound to them. One of the best examples is Good Music from the 1986 album of the same name, which was an original song (a hint of rockabilly, but more like surf rock like The Beach Boys). The Blackhearts come in with backing vocals almost like doo-wop singers too. The music video of Good Music has a scene in the beginning that shows Joan get ready for the day. The camera is right up against the back of her big black puffy '80s hair, then she walks off-screen to reveal a poster on the wall of Elvis himself that she was staring at, with lots of red lipstick kisses on the poster. She has Elvis on her mind.
Good Music.
Part of what sets Joan apart is that she broke down barriers of what society thought of women, and she naturally had some masculine qualities. Joan had short black hair instead of long hair, she dressed like a greaser from the 1950s with black leather jackets and blue jeans often with black boots or platforms from her Runaways days, and her voice is very deep and ferocious, reminding me of Little Richard screaming along to very fast-paced rhythmic rock songs. With her black leather and Jett (jet) black hair, it totally contrasts Joan as a short petite woman, and looks like she stumbled out of the drive-in with her switchblade and two things on her mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. Stay gold, uh… Joanie girl. Either that, or the long lost member of the Ramones, Joanie Ramonie. Joan has described herself as being a tomboy in her youth. She liked baseball, and in 1983, she got to ride in a jet with a flight suit and helmet and everything. With her big black aviators, she could be the one giving the bird to Maverick to keep up internal relations while flying inverted two meters above his F14 Tomcat. Iceman’s killer haircut and Slider's six pack have got nothing on her. She could be the coolest female protagonist in a ‘70s car chase movie, calm and stoic as hell, like Steve McQueen, the King of Cool. Or, she could be a dancer or bank robber who is also tough enough to clean up the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line with her bare fists like Patrick Swayze. Or, she could be the one to hunt down the exceptionally skilled sniper Major König in the ruins of Stalingrad armed with nothing but a Mosin Nagant.
Joan Jett is ready to beat on some brats with a baseball bat, oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh!
Joan Jett is simply the coolest cool dude ever but as a woman. Joan has so many iconic looking moments too that are akin to Elvis's moves on stage, such as the following:
- Badass Bad Reputation jumps
- Whacking the floor with the guitar in Crimson & Clover
- Humorous mishaps in Everyday People that ruins her day, ending in her huge jump on the bed at the end when the frame suddenly collapses
- Music video of I Need Someone with the Blackheart doo-wop singers that combines a Footloose-style gymnastics dance through the abandoned building with Joan running around in dire need of someone
- Joan's cover art of Album (1983) of her jumping with a yellow background that highlights her bright white Gibson Melody Maker guitar and her iconic red canvas shoes
- Good Music has great storytelling of Joan getting ready, throwing out bad music cassettes out the limo window, and finally arriving to her venue as the song peaks with the Blackheart doo-wop singers
- Perfectly puffy black '80s hair with black leather look in 1988
- Driving a Ford Thunderbird in Little Liar
- I must mention the iconic scene of Chrissie Hynde that showed her shifting gears in a little red roadster (which happens to be very rare, I had to look up what make and model it was but I don't remember) in Don't Get Me Wrong, and just seeing her operate the machine sparks great feelings. I'm thinking, oh yeah, living in the U.K., I guess you do have to shift gears if you have to get anywhere that's not in a luxury car or public transit. To me, those little details look so iconic because car enthusiasts love rowing their own gears for that engaging feeling with the car and taking corners. It's just you and the car, like a marine and his rifle.
Elvis in Jailhouse Rock is so iconic.
Dude (Looks Like A Lady)
Before her current band, the Blackhearts, Joan was in The Runaways all girl rock band from 1975-1979. Their manager, Kim Fowley, had a quote that I found a lot of truth in. Despite his, shall I say, eccentric personality, he seems like someone who was unfortunately just too good at their job and knew what he was talking about with rock 'n' roll. This quote comes from the Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin 5 CD box set of The Runways albums. Kim says,
"I saw Rock 'n' Roll from a Darwinian perspective. Elvis shaking his ass like a woman. All going through the New York Dolls and David Bowie, and all of a sudden you turn the page and there has to be a girl standing there. The U.S. male was becoming more feminine and the British men kept getting more and more feminine. They weren't turning into John Wayne guys. Even David Lee Roth, who was growling as he did it like a striptease dancer. The feminine aspect of the Western male just kept going on, and one day it just evolved into a vagina, breast, curves and oestrogen. And so I saw it coming and went looking for it, talent scouting like Sam Phillips of Sun Records anticipating Elvis Presley, who was looking for a white guy who sounded like a Negro."
This actually holds a lot of truth, because yes, you got womanly men shaking their asses, so there has to be an empty spot waiting for a manly woman to come along and rock the world with her power. Forming an all girl rock band is a noble effort as much as becoming a female Elvis who is charismatic and inspirational and drop dead gorgeous. Luckily, Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West were looking to form an all girl rock band at the same time, and they founded The Runaways after Kim matched them together.
The Runaways at The Rathskeller, Boston 1977.
David Bowie wore platforms and sometimes performed with no shirt on, with a very strikingly girly long mullet with makeup to go along with it. I read his book with Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The Life & Times of Ziggy Stardust, that covered his Ziggy Stardust tour, and damn, what a strange woman he looked like. I also learned that he would bring the guitar up to his mouth and pluck the strings with his teeth like Jimi Hendrix did very impressively. Except, David Bowie did it on his bandmate’s guitar in his hands. So David Bowie would kneel down on stage and chomp his bandmate’s guitar while his bandmate remains standing so it looks like a very sexual position. Furthermore, as Kim mentioned, David Lee Roth of Van Halen was very feminine, dancing around showing his sexy body with long blond hair. Whatever makes you happy I guess. You also had Mick Jagger with red lipstick, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith (dude looks like a lady, they even made a song about it!), bands like Twisted Sister who had way too much makeup on like KISS, Axel Rose's look from Guns ‘n’ Roses, and more. Kim was right, men were feminine for whatever reason. So here was Joan Jett, screaming and growling like a man and dressing like a greaser with black leather, considered unwomanly, poised to become the next Elvis by doing the opposite of what people expected and making her mark in the world, and all of a sudden people started hating her for it. She became famous and she made it through the machine gun fire of social and gender criticism, so she has that rock ‘n’ roll sparkle in her eyes that says she was born to rock. Joan Jett is legendary because of her masculine qualities that mirror the feminine qualities that famous male rockstars had. No other woman challenged rock 'n' roll society that way.
Conclusion
Suzi Quatro and Joan Jett both have charisma, great stage presence, and they look like they'd be amazing to hang out with. Joan is like a little Suzi Quatro, just with black dyed hair but that same deep ferocious glam rock voice. From her sensational rock 'n' roll on Happy Days, Suzi Quatro looks like she just singlehandedly took the world of rock 'n' roll and waved it around like a big stick with her bare fists. President Teddy Roosevelt would've been proud. She looked like the female Elvis. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, she was never popular in the United States, compared to Joan Jett, who has had several US Billboard Hot 100 hits and has been solidified as an icon of the 1980s era of rock 'n' roll. Joan Jett is played on any classic rock 'n' roll station and has inspired girls all over the world to get into rock. Suzi saw great success overseas, but with Joan's track record, and with her hard rockin' journey in The Runaways that seemed like they could've kept getting more famous before they broke up, Joan Jett would probably take the crown as Queen of Rock 'n' Roll over Suzi Quatro despite Suzi being a much better guitarist, not just because Joan is like a female Elvis, but her influence is still wildly relevant. Joan is played all over classic rock radio stations and is all over pop culture, like the Guitar Hero video games in the 2000s and Wayne's World 2 in 1993, for example. I feel like I can remember kids in the 2000s on the yellow school bus singing to I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll. They also knew Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot and they hated how overplayed The Bangles’ Manic Monday was.
In conclusion, Joan Jett is just on a whole different level than other female rockstars with her band's unique 1980s guitar-heavy "super hard punk rockabilly" sound, and the fact that her more masculine act with her aggressive screams in her Little Richard voice and cool greaser appearance mirrors famous male rockstars who acted like women. Joan's masculinity while being a woman can also be compared again to Elvis, a white guy who acted like a black guy in rock 'n' roll as Kim Fowley described, who got lots of hate for it because of the culture around rock ‘n’ roll at the time. Elvis and Joan kept doing the opposite of what people expected of their look, to Elvis it was his race, to Joan it was her gender. Despite all this, Suzi can also be the other female Elvis because her appearance as Leather Tuscadero looked so legendary. Joan isn’t a standout guitarist or an amazing singer, but most people aren’t. There are skilled soulful vocalists like Steve Perry, Brad Delp, or Anne Wilson and then there are people who sound like drunk dumb college students like a lot of punk vocalists, but people still admire them. There are people just playing instruments simply not doing anything unique and then there’s Deep Purple miraculously shoving an organ through a Marshall stack or Tom Schultz of Boston inventing new guitar sounds with his mechanical engineering degree. Elvis probably isn’t even on a list of best guitarists or best singers, what mattered was his influence. Maybe for Joan Jett, her underlying influence beyond I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll is enough to be Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, or the Joan Jett of Arc, a saint of rock ‘n’ roll doing what was considered mostly a man's job at 17 years old when a lot of men looked down on her. Right next to her would be Suzi Quatro, of course, in their black leather greaser jackets ruling like the two coolest consuls of the Roman Republic, fixing up Joan's souped-up 1957 Ford Thunderbird as she makes the Indy 500 look like a Roman chariot race in the culverts of the Los Angeles River.
Debbie Harry, Suzi Quatro, and Joan Jett in 1977.
Joan Jett is personally offended by the view of the skyline, so she makes sure to send it a message it won’t forget.
P.S.
In the '70s, Joan had some medals on her leather jacket. One was the Iron Cross, which is still in use for the German Bundeswehr (the army). I'm pretty sure Joan's was the 1939 variant for the Wehrmacht that has a swastika in the center and "1939" labeled on the bottom. Joan also had another medal consisting of a rifle and I think a sword crossed with a swastika and a German eagle on top. From my research, it resembled a medal that I can't remember the name of awarded to people not part of the infantry that supported an infantry assault, like probably a medical officer, for example. If these were real medals, these would probably be priceless because they’re from the Nazi era. I remember finding only the 1914 or 1918 variant of the Iron Cross on EBay from the Imperial German Army. This is just part of a rebellious look that exists in rock and metal, nothing more. I don't care for it, besides being highly controversial, it's way too flashy and too much of a statement, and it makes you a target for enemy snipers (can be figuratively speaking).Joan would be a perfect female protagonist in an action movie. She has a history of facing social pressure and getting hit with glass bottles on stage, so she has the potential to be a well rounded likable character and not just being portrayed as a tough dumb woman for the sake of being tough. She needs an intimidating car to go along with it. She would drive Thomas Jane's matte black '69 Pontiac GTO from The Punisher with bulletproof retractable armor plating covering the windows with two M1911 pistols by her side. Or, Vin Diesel's gloss black and chrome '70 Dodge Charger R/T from the first Fast & Furious movie that ran 9 seconds flat at Palmdale.
Watch Suzi Quatro on Happy Days!
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