In A Cheap Run Down Teenage Jail

Don't hold off do it, I need your lovin'
I'm getting so hot, I'm cooking like an oven

I’ve always been a bit conflicted about the Runaways, were they strong young female pioneers operating in that murky intersection of punk, glam and rock? or a cynical jailbait marketing scheme put together by a Svengali sex offender with a taste for young flesh?* or did one arise phoenix-like from the hellfire of the other? does it even matter, especially when it gave us Joan Jett?

I bought The Runaways last year and I really like all 32 minutes of it. Released in 1976 to a deafening thud in the USA but acclaim elsewhere** it is one of those LPs which has a greater reach now than it ever did, chiefly due to ‘Cherry Bomb’ appearing anytime anyone ever wants to soundtrack a rebellious schoolgirl.

Recorded with the original line-up of Cherie Currie on vocals, Joan Jett on rhythm, Lita Ford on lead, Sandy West on drums^ and Jackie Fox on, well, nothing yet – the bass was played by Nigel Harrison^*. All were 16, a fact noted carefully/salaciously on the LP’s back cover, apart from Lita Ford, who at 17 was virtually a Methusalette in this company.

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The Runaways kick down the doors with ‘Cherry Bomb’, of course they do! One of those tracks that I have heard so many squillion times that I barely listen to it, I am a real sucker for its urgent sped-up Suzi Quatro stomp and bad girl vocals. It is excellent and I like the way that it keeps getting rediscovered.

For me the next track is better, the sexy pared-down T-rex glide n’ slide of ‘You Drive Me Wild’, a solo Joan Jett writing credit, it features a great guitar solo from Ford and a great line about an oven. The slinky ‘Is It Day Or Night’ is nocturnal enough, if a little lightweight.

I have more time for ‘Thunder’ which has some great shuffling drum work by West and all the guitars merging just right, to distract from some pants lyrics. Hats off to Nigel Fox/Jackie Harrison too on this one.

I think the band’s cover of VU’s ‘Rock And Roll’ is kinda crap and kinda excellent simultaneously, both these things can be true. This version definitely owes something to the Lou’s own Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal version.

The second side of The Runaways lacks any big hitters initially, but I have a soft spot for the grubby FM radio rock of ‘American Nights’, as well as the sore throated glam bang of ‘Blackmail’. To me ‘Secrets’ sounds like a lightweight KISS track, lacking a bit of grit for me.

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Where am!?
You're in a cheap run down teenage jail that's where
Oh, my god!
Yeah, blondie your gonna be here till your 18

The crowning glory of The Runaways for me is the 7-minute epic closing cut ‘Dead End Justice’. Where to start with this? It’s a bit like a high school band drama class putting on an a play in assembly about teen rebellion, based around Alice Cooper’s ‘The Ballad Of Dwight Fry’; its at least two separate song ideas bolted together, I reckon.

I'm a blond bombshell and I wear it well
You're momma says you go straight to hell
I'm sweet sixteen, a rebel queen
And I look real hot in my tight blue jeans 

We start off ‘stealing cars and breaking hearts’ and get thrown into juvie, basically. This is where it gets great, Currie and Jett trading awesomely teenage lines like ‘Behind the fence, there is no defence’ and, personal fave, ‘On the planet sorrow, there is no tomorrow’. They make a break for it but, like all rock and roll jailbreaks, it doesn’t go well: Spoiler alert*^.

It’s just great, in a really self-conscious yet gauche fashion, which is a pretty damn teenage conundrum.

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I really enjoy The Runaways. My take on the band, for what its worth, is that they were thrown together under the auspices of a rapist with an eye for dollars and fresh flesh^^, but after riding that train a while they mostly seized their chance and took control of their own fates. They became nobody’s puppets, but like a lot of good things, wholly out of step with their times. They quickly proved brilliantly inspirational later to lots of wonderfully uncompromising women.

(Incidentally, this is a reductive summation of the Runaways story, it cuts out the role of Kari Krome in the formation and guidance of the band, in the same way Fowley folded her out of the history. I encourage you to read/watch around the subject there is a lot out there on the band.)

As always we are left with the music and it’s average to great here, Kim Fowley receiving the most writing credits, with Joan Jett just behind, chasing him down. I love this short era of rock/punk/glam crossover before music shook itself down and got a bit more genre specific.

There is a whole lot of bravado here whether dealing with sex or delinquency and that very teenage sense of trying out roles for fit. I find it quite endearing and is perhaps one of the reasons that so many young girls continue to discover The Runaways. Plus they just rock!

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My copy of The Runaways is a fancy pants Vinyl Me Please version on turquoise vinyl. My copy is 1977 out of 3000; I think that’s cool.

1240 Down.

*women’s sexuality being used and exploited to sell records, imagine that.

**the Runaways were archetypically big in Japan, greeted with full-on mania.

^the Runaway most likely to be forgotten during a quiz answer.

^*later of Blondie, clearly drafted in here to provide some much needed no-holds-barred nothing’s-off-the-menu Princes Risborough hedonistic glamour to the affair.

*^that is where the spoiler alert goes isn’t it? you know, afterwards.

^^I refer you to numerous accounts of Jackie Fox’s rape at his hands. This one from Huffington Post probably tells you all you will ever need to know about the assault, it is an excellent, if horrible read. Simon Reynolds book on glam Shock And Awe also doesn’t pull any punches about Fowley. Plus it is just an excellent book.