Joan Jett in Marin
Jul. 4th, 2006 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gordonzolaSince Joan Jett never changes, it’s either really easy or really hard to review her show at the Marin County Fair last night. I’m going with easy. She played all the "hits" . She played enough songs of the new album to have made a good faith effort to sell some copies. She wore something tight and black. She growled. She smiled. She sneered. She winked, at times enough to make it seem something was in her eye. She played power chords.
She was the object of lust for the entire audience which I’d have to guess was a lot more queer than the usual county fair. Hell, I saw more people I recognized from SF than at most shows I go to back home. Even people I just know from the cheese counter were there. At one point some folks got on other people’s shoulders to display their homemade bed sheet banner that read (as far as I could tell, I was behind them and off to one side), "Dirty Dirty Queerdos Love Joan Jett" with a sweet portrait of her. I felt Joan could have been more appreciative beyond her smile and nod.*
I went with my brother and his wife. My brother and I spent the previous few hours watching the Minutemen documentary together including all the extras.** I told him about my LJ so hi Jim!
I hadn’t been to the Marin County Fair since 1985 or so and except for the huge Ferris Wheel it was pretty much exactly the same. Except you couldn’t rent paddle boats anymore. That was my favorite part of the fair! I didn’t know how I felt about being in Marin, but I figured I was sure to run into some high school people. Fortunately, the reunion made me realize that I probably wouldn’t recognize them if I did.
We crammed in up front and almost imediately the woman on my left starts eyeing me. "Don’t I know you?" she asks. I think my, "Ugh, did you go to Redwood?" answer wasn’t very friendly but no, she had gone to Novato and was a few years older than me. In fact we didn’t know anyone in common and we tried. She introduced me to her husband who said, "Redwood huh, did you used to go to Lark Creek Inn *** at lunch?"
"No, they’d deliver it straight to our Beamers," I replied.
God I’m glad I don’t live in Marin anymore. In fact the only person I saw from high school was a small scale rock star who’s an awesome drummer in a million garage bands. I know her mostly through others and she was in a group so I didn’t say hello. The Novato woman and I did laugh together when Joan tried to say something specific like, "Wow, Marin knows how to rock!" or "Do You Wanna Touch Me, Marin?".
So I know it came up in this space before that Joan Jett plays USO shows in Irag and Afghanistan. Is she a war supporter? Just there to show the working class kids she’s on their side? Desperate to sell records? I don’t know. I heard there’s some kind of anti-Bush song on the new record, but I haven’t heard it. And that doesn’t really make a controversial statement unless you sing country. At one point she swapped out guitars and her backup one had a Gits sticker, a leather flag, and a Dean for President one. Clearly, I’ve never looked to Joan for consistent political leadership. Cop out? Maybe.
But I do enjoy the irony of seeing someone who was a childhood idol, singing in basically my hometown at the most wholesome event possible, when back in the days (before " I love Rock and Roll") I lived here liking Joan was enough to make someone yell "Devo!" out of a car window at you. Social ostracism comes back around, I just wanted to be there to witness it.
*A quick internet search shows Dolly Parton to have been more receptive, A group of women towards the front waved a bed-sheet sign that read "Dirty Dirty Queerdos Love Dolly" to which she replied, "Well, I love you too."
**One of the best music videos ever made was the one for "This Ain’t No Picnic" (It’s starts about 3:25 in on that link). Found government footage of Ronald Reagan shooting at, then bombing the Minutemen as they try to sing about the interests of the working class. Made for $900!
***If it’s not made clear by the New Yorker cartoon, it’s one of the most expensive restaurants in Marin
She was the object of lust for the entire audience which I’d have to guess was a lot more queer than the usual county fair. Hell, I saw more people I recognized from SF than at most shows I go to back home. Even people I just know from the cheese counter were there. At one point some folks got on other people’s shoulders to display their homemade bed sheet banner that read (as far as I could tell, I was behind them and off to one side), "Dirty Dirty Queerdos Love Joan Jett" with a sweet portrait of her. I felt Joan could have been more appreciative beyond her smile and nod.*
I went with my brother and his wife. My brother and I spent the previous few hours watching the Minutemen documentary together including all the extras.** I told him about my LJ so hi Jim!
I hadn’t been to the Marin County Fair since 1985 or so and except for the huge Ferris Wheel it was pretty much exactly the same. Except you couldn’t rent paddle boats anymore. That was my favorite part of the fair! I didn’t know how I felt about being in Marin, but I figured I was sure to run into some high school people. Fortunately, the reunion made me realize that I probably wouldn’t recognize them if I did.
We crammed in up front and almost imediately the woman on my left starts eyeing me. "Don’t I know you?" she asks. I think my, "Ugh, did you go to Redwood?" answer wasn’t very friendly but no, she had gone to Novato and was a few years older than me. In fact we didn’t know anyone in common and we tried. She introduced me to her husband who said, "Redwood huh, did you used to go to Lark Creek Inn *** at lunch?"
"No, they’d deliver it straight to our Beamers," I replied.
God I’m glad I don’t live in Marin anymore. In fact the only person I saw from high school was a small scale rock star who’s an awesome drummer in a million garage bands. I know her mostly through others and she was in a group so I didn’t say hello. The Novato woman and I did laugh together when Joan tried to say something specific like, "Wow, Marin knows how to rock!" or "Do You Wanna Touch Me, Marin?".
So I know it came up in this space before that Joan Jett plays USO shows in Irag and Afghanistan. Is she a war supporter? Just there to show the working class kids she’s on their side? Desperate to sell records? I don’t know. I heard there’s some kind of anti-Bush song on the new record, but I haven’t heard it. And that doesn’t really make a controversial statement unless you sing country. At one point she swapped out guitars and her backup one had a Gits sticker, a leather flag, and a Dean for President one. Clearly, I’ve never looked to Joan for consistent political leadership. Cop out? Maybe.
But I do enjoy the irony of seeing someone who was a childhood idol, singing in basically my hometown at the most wholesome event possible, when back in the days (before " I love Rock and Roll") I lived here liking Joan was enough to make someone yell "Devo!" out of a car window at you. Social ostracism comes back around, I just wanted to be there to witness it.
*A quick internet search shows Dolly Parton to have been more receptive, A group of women towards the front waved a bed-sheet sign that read "Dirty Dirty Queerdos Love Dolly" to which she replied, "Well, I love you too."
**One of the best music videos ever made was the one for "This Ain’t No Picnic" (It’s starts about 3:25 in on that link). Found government footage of Ronald Reagan shooting at, then bombing the Minutemen as they try to sing about the interests of the working class. Made for $900!
***If it’s not made clear by the New Yorker cartoon, it’s one of the most expensive restaurants in Marin
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:09 pm (UTC)"No, they’d deliver it straight to our Beamers," I replied.
that cracked me up.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:42 pm (UTC)thanks, i'll be here all week.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-05 01:58 pm (UTC)Is it a sign of how un-punk I now am that I like Dolly's music better than Joan's?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-05 12:19 am (UTC)Found it!!!
Date: 2006-07-05 01:09 am (UTC)"...But there's another problem to being a woman in rock besides the audiences' preconceptions. There's the matter of other women in rock.
Consider Joan Jett. As a teen-ager, she played in the Runaways, an early '70s group manufactured by pop Svengali Kim Fowley. Leather-clad female rockers were popular for a while back then; besides the Runaways, there was Suzi Quatro, who eliminated her hip quotient by appearing with unforgiving frequency on "Happy Days." The Runaways were a Mann Act violation waiting to happen: more attitude than talent, but clearly the spiritual aunts of all garage-band female rockers hence. Jett was the only one of the group to keep a steady presence after the group broke up, and she is back on the charts with a snarling song called "I Hate Myself for Loving You."
Roxie used to have a guitar signed by Joan Jett. She gave it to Cindy as a birthday present. So Jett must be a hero of sorts.
Cindy and Roxie roll their eyes.
"We were going to open for Joan Jett once," Cindy recalls. "When her management found out who we were, they bumped us. Because Joan doesn't want to share the stage with other women... Women get to the top and don't want competition."
"There's no support," says Karen. "You'd think there would be. But no."
- James Lileks, "Don't Quit Your Day Job -Yet," Pioneer Press, Sept. 18, 1988