744 Joan Jett - Bad Reputation (1980)

 744 Joan Jett - Bad Reputation (1980)

Studio Album - Glam Rock


About the Act:

Joan Jett started her musical career as a member of The Runaways, from 1975 to 1979. She then became Joan Jett as a solo artist, followed closely by becoming Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who are still going, though with some changes of blackhearts - maybe their hearts cleaned up and they needed replacing. Oh, she's American, and considered to be Rock, maybe Punk.

About the Album:

This album was released in the brief period between runaways and blackhearts, and was the first of two solo albums in that time. It was originally self-released as Joan Jett, and then swiftly re-released as "Bad Reputation" There were slightly different versions for different territories, I listened to the US version.

My History with this Album:

None.

Review:

This is an interesting juxtaposition, just after Mott the Hoople, who I expected to be more Glam. This was more Glam than I expected, with the predominant sound being that of Chinnichap productions (Mud, The Sweet, Suzi Quatro) and a certain man who has been all but written out of British Pop history, on account of being the wrong type of bad boy.

In fact two of the songs on this album were written by that un-named artist. Doing Alright with the Boys, probably made more sense in the original, singing it as a female gives it curious undertones. However, Do You Wanna Touch Me, while being somewhat forward from a female perspective, was, in the original, in retrospect, one of the creepiest songs in rock history. 

There is some variety mixed in here, with one song I would truly call straight rock, and quite a few that are effectively Rock n Roll (of the more gutsy varieties) being updated with a stronger distorted guitar sound - which sort of bridges the gap between Glam and (American) Punk to my mind. In this mixture there are a few actual older songs covered, like Shout, and Wooly Bully, and a ballad which is You Don't Own Me.  It's quite good fun, musically, not really heavy rocking, nor really punk rawness, but it kind of draws a line from Rock N Roll through Glam and points towards Punk, showing a continuity.

It grew on me somewhat, as it played through. To start with I liked the opener, Bad Reputation, which is quite a nice somewhat rebellious song. After that, for the next few songs I was disappointed by the tone, which is just too... nice. Even some of the more "I want to be a strong woman" songs were really "I want to be a strong woman, please, if my Boyfriend lets me". It's just a bit light on actually being a role model.  It also suffered a little in comparison to Mott, which had depth. This doesn't have depth, but it does have some dancability, which is a good quality in its own right.

6.5/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1gB28ytYFQElaXngAfeYep

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6vwnon3sINoiY_VBoYkjMTAzeQmd5vIN

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Reputation_(Joan_Jett_album)



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