JOAN JETT
By Paul LaRocco
Bad reputation
After 30 years of sandblaster
punk and urgent rock ‘n’ roll, Joan Jett is trying something
new. But Sinner, her first studio album in more than a decade, doesn’t
stray from the classic sound Jett proffered with the Runaways and,
later, the Blackhearts. Its difference lies in the words. Angered
by the current state of affairs, Jett, for the first time, penned
political commentary to go along with biting relationship tales. “Riddles,”
for example, lashes out at the Bush administration’s communication
tactics, ending with a soundbite of one of the President’s famous
verbal missteps. This summer, Jett and her backing band take the new
songs on the Warped Tour, which she tells Mean Street she imagines
to be “some sort of musical traveling circus.”
Do you think you
guys, the Germs and the Buzzcocks [other veteran punk bands on Warped]
can teach any of the newcomers a thing or two?
I don’t know if we can teach anybody anything, but we can share
a lot of experiences; maybe roadblocks bands can run into. How do
you get around that? Or how do you stay not dispirited, just excited?
It’s a very tough business.
Is it tougher to
sustain longevity these days?
I think you obviously have to have something to say, or something
that you represent as an artist, that really connects with people.
Sometimes it’s not even something that you put your finger on…But
I think today, maybe people have an advantage, because technology
might help. Bands, if they can’t get a record deal, they can
print up their own stuff, put up a website, get people to go to that.
I didn’t have that opportunity.
Would you say your
influences are the same today as they were 20 years ago?
Pretty much. When I hear new things I like, I’ll incorporate
it into, I guess, what you call the Soundtrack of Your Life: the things
I grew up listening to, which would be early ‘70s British glitter
music. Bowie, T. Rex, the Sweet; a lot of records that people over
here never got a chance to hear. Great three-minute rock ‘n’
roll. And then the whole punk rock scene, with the Ramones and all
the English bands. The Runaways were touring a lot in England, so
I got to see a lot of stuff right as it was happening, like the Clash
playing in 1976, when ‘pogo-ing’ was a new word. To see
two thousand kids all jumping in the air at the same time was mind-blowing.
I noticed there’s
a Replacements cover [“Androgynous”] on the new album.
I think I could kind of relate to those things [Paul Westerberg wrote
about], people’s gender roles. I’m always like, “I’m
a girl and I like being a girl, but I don’t like being told
how to dress.” Those really rigid roles still exist [today],
even more so I think because there’s this allusion that feminism
is happening and everyone’s equal. But in a way, it’s
still the same. I still can’t find shit to wear.
The first track
on the album, “Riddles,” ends with that famous Bush “fool
me once…” stumble. I don’t think that was unintentional.
Really, [the song] is just about the way the administration doesn’t
speak straight to us. I worked for Howard Dean, campaigned for him
and talked to people about why I thought he should be president. And
I still do. I like the way he spoke, beyond just being able to get
results. Like balancing the budget 11 years in a row; all things he
did up in Vermont. So to see the difference and the way this administration
doesn’t talk straight to you, or completely obscures what they’re
saying, or makes it like 1984, where black is white and hot is cold
and good is bad. Like clear skies means we can pollute more, or healthy
forests mean we can cut them down.
After writing the
social/political commentaries, do you see yourself doing more of that?
I don’t think there’s any going back.
