The Shoulda Been A Hit List compiles some of Joan's collaborations (with Bikini Kill, The Gits, L7, Wanda Jackson, Paul Westerberg, and others), as well as bonus tracks, b-sides and live cuts from the mighty Blackhearts.
Songs That Joan Jett Taught Us and Joan Jett's Jukebox went over well with readers, and that should come as no surprise. Joan's music and her iconic image haven't lost any appeal over the past 40+ years. Who else could rock stadiums all summer long (starting next month on her tour with Poison, Motley Crue and Def Leppard) while being embraced by Kathleen Hanna, Laura Jane Grace and Miley Cyrus? Who else could fill in for both the world famous Kurt Cobain and the underground icon Mia Zapata?
The other day I saw a story about Joan's friendship with Mike Tyson. Today I read Trombone Shorty singing her praises: she joined him onstage last weekend at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and she lent him the original tracks from "Bad Reputation" to play with for a new ad campaign. My online activity may be monitored more closely than I realized, but these stories show the breadth of Joan's popularity, and her generosity of spirit.
Speaking of generosity, you can help fund The Embarrassment documentary! The Kickstarter deadline is May 25th.
Joan Jett: The Shoulda Been A Hit List
ReplyDeleteTHE LINK: https://tinyurl.com/4bhwmnfh
THE TRACK LIST:
01. Love Is All Around (Single) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
02. Activity Grrrl - Joan Jett With The Gits/Evil Stig
03. I Hate Long Good-Byes - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
04. I Want You (1979 Fan Club EP) - Joan Jett
05. Spinster - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (Feat. Kathleen Hanna)
06. Rebel Girl - Joan Jett & Bikini Kill
07. Backlash - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (Feat. Paul Westerberg)
08. Let's Do It (with Greg Graffin)
09. Two Shots - Wanda Jackson (feat. Elle King & Joan Jett)
10. Androgynous - Joan Jett, MIley Cyrus & Laura Jane Grace
11. Lie To Me - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
12. Don't Surrender - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
13. Contact - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
14. You Don't Know What You Got (Live B-Side Bonus) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
15. Turn It Around - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
16. Wait For Me (Bonus Track) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
17. Hostility (Japanese Bonus Track) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
18. You Got A Problem - Joan Jett With The Gits
19. Crimson & Clover - Joan Jett With The Gits/Evil Stig
20. The French Song (Live At Hellfest) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
21. Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Live) - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
22. Cherry Bomb (Live) - Joan Jett with L7
23. I Hate Myself For Loving You (Live At Hellfest)
Another Stinky Production
Thanks Stinky -- this looks great!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty hyped to dive into this in the next day or two. There's something about Joan Jett (as a solo artist) that never quite clicked for me, in spite of her legions of fans who I DO dig. So I'm most happy to have a well curated playlist of collabs to check out and possibly change my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI had kinda written her off as someone who had a few hits in the 80's (and a cool song with Paul Westerberg). But I watched her playing with Dave Grohl, Krist and Pat Smear (her old Germs buddy) and realized that there's probably NOBODY else who could have done "Teen Spirit" that well. Any other singer (male or female) would have been kinda cringy -- and would have caught shit for sounding too much or not enough like Kurt. Joan just does Joan, and it sounds perfect, and it got me to thinking about how versatile she is. Not versatile in the sense of someone like Prince, who could play any instrument and sing anything from throwback soul classics to Afrofuturistic funk. Joan's versatile in being able to successfully bring her style to almost any song. If Joan does a Hendrix or Sly Stone song, it sounds like Joan. That's not to say that all her songs sound the same. But whether she's covering the Beach Boys or the Sex Pistols, she sings with passion and plays with amps on 11.
DeleteSmells Like Teen Spirit (2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5uHsJdqzK8
Alternate link (in case anyone has problems with the Mediafire file):
ReplyDeletehttps://krakenfiles.com/view/yCqI9pAFkU/file.html
Thanks again, excellent collection!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all who commented (I’m looking at YOU, Mr. Dave, & Dr. Feelgoed!) This was a fun collection to put together.
ReplyDeleteNot many artists would have FOUR CDs worth of comp-worthy tracks, but as I read the comments I realize both Jon & I passed over a few tracks that would have HAD to be included on a single CD compilation by any other artist: ANY of the tracks from her performance with Nirvana members at The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the original version of Crimson & Clover which we both agreed no one needs to hear again. It’s probably being beamed—via radio waves—into one of your fillings, as I type this. And finally, there’s the original version of I Love Rock & Roll backed by The Sex Pistols: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyFmvSiSQzQ
I feel that Joan has had such longevity because she’s always been herself, and she’s had Kenny Laguna & his wife to support her (emotionally AND financially, at first) and hold her to that ideal.
I included tracks on this sampler from one of my favorite albums by Joan; NOTORIOUS. It’s an album I’ve read Joan’s not fond of because she caved into pressure to be more feminine in the photos—to great effect. I find the album has the feel of The Beatles REVOLVER/RUBBER SOUL period—which are also my favorite BEATLES albums.
Allmusic’s review of NOTORIOUS says there are “several ultra-slick ballads that help remake Jett in a more traditionally feminine image, although she retains some of her independent spirit in her collaboration with Paul Westerberg (Backlash) . It’s competently executed and fairly consistent, but overall, it’s not simply not what makes Jett compelling or invigorating.”
I disagree. There are some tasty guitar parts that smack of RUBBER SOUL-era George Harrison on it.
In fact, Jon and I are putting together a JON-KY compilation of songs from albums that the artist themselves disavow, that we ourselves love. So expect another cut from this album in the future as well as one from The Ramones’ SUBTERRANEAN JUNGLE!
In the words of James Brown; “Rock on with your bad self(selves!”)
Thanks very much, Stinky! This is really cool! I really love Joan Jett.
ReplyDeleteCheck out this record from France in 1975 that sounds remarkably similar to Joan Jett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_eD_qBzM_U
ReplyDeleteWow, it sure does. Thanks! I guess the title "Flipper Story" refers to pinball. Vicky Fury and Joan Jett both sound like Suzi Quatro.
DeleteThat and the cover make me guess the same thing; I took Spanish in high school so I'm lost with the language. There's another one from this period that anticpates the Clash: Roger McGuinn's "Rock and Roll Time," which sounds like "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" six years early.
DeleteVicky Fury doesn't seem done anything else but this one single (at least according to Discogs). She even had a stage name that would have worked with us punk rockers in '77. And Plastic Bertrand in '78 showed that the audience was open to French language punk. I suspect the story is one of those "record label didn't know what they were doing" stories, but forty years out, we're probably never going to learn the story.
And yes, Quatro is (at least now in retrospect) a huge influence on the young women who started punk bands. In the Bay Area, neither Quatro (or glam in general...) made much of an impression. It was more influential in Los Angeles.
Maybe glam was bigger in LA because of Rodney's English Disco? You know I love early Bay Area punk. It seems odd to say it, but the GLAM influence in LA is different somehow from the DRAG influence in SF.
DeleteI'm not quite sure what it was, but the evidence is strong. Bowie's 2-night stand at Winterland in '72 was a flop; only a few hundred tickets sold. It was so bad that on the '74 tour...he skipped San Francisco entirely...no show at all....but played seven shows in Los Angeles at the 5,000 seat Universal Amphitheatre. My own anecdotes aren't evidence...but I bought Mick Ronson's first solo LP before I bought any David Bowie LPs. The closest we came to glam was Mott The Hoople.
DeleteI’m not a gambling man, but I’d have bet money that Vicky Fury was Joan Jett singing in French, Draftervoi—and we all KNOW she can do it!
ReplyDelete- Stinky
In July '78 I was having a beer with my cousin in the pub outside The Lyceum in London before a Talking Heads show. Joan Jett was sitting with her lookalike friend Gaye Advert from The Adverts and Gaye's partner TV Smith. We managed to rest our beers on their table and everyone moved up to make room for us.
ReplyDeleteAfter a couple of minutes Joan leaned forward and asked me "Are you somebody?" I was about to answer, "no, not really," but my cousin interrupted and said "He's the singer with The Rubber Johnnies". This caused great mirth at the table except for a mystified Joan, who when the reason for the crack-up was explained by Gaye, gave us the stink-eye until they left about twenty minutes later. Nevertheless we put her on the guest list for a few gigs but she never showed.
P.S. Our song American Queen was definitely not about Joan.
Joan Jett and Gaye Advert in the same place at the same time???
DeleteGreat story! If you had said you were the singer for the Coney Island Whitefish, Joan would have gotten the joke, but Gaye might have been mystified.