Joan Jett brings messages on womanhood

Joan Jett brings messages on womanhood

By Andreas Harsono

JAKARTA (JP): Singer-guitarist Joan Jett proved that she is
one of rock'n'roll's most dedicated and hardest-working
performers.

Clad in a black catsuit and red court shoes, Joan Jett & the
Blackhearts performed an 80-minute show at Hard Rock Cafe on Jl.
Sudirman, Central Jakarta, early this week in the first leg of
her Asian tour.

Opening the show singing her beloved song Spinster,
the 34-year-old singer with the raunchy voice sang and danced
together with hundreds of her admirers to the rhythm of the song.

"I'm a spinster. No one telling me what to do," the singer
cried along with the sound of powerful electric guitars and
heart-breaking drum beats.

Some of the audience waved their hands, some headbanged and
sang along with the singer, kissed their lovers while others
swayed with ignited lighters in the darkness during some of
Joan's sweet songs.

"Rock'n'roll movement is related to breaking down the norms,
breaking down the rules, but it's not necessarily breaking the
law," she said during a press conference here on Monday
afternoon.

"It's not about destruction, but about not following the
rules," she said when asked whether she still believed the anti-
establishment spirit of rock music.

Joan, who is naturally left-handed but plays the guitar right-
handedly, introduced some songs from her latest album Pure and
Simple, such as Go Home, Eye to Eye, Activity Grrrl,
Rubber & Glue, Spinster as well as one of her signature songs
like As I Am.

Western music critics observed Joan's 1994 Pure and Simple
album as her most socio-political effort to date, in which only
two out of 13 tracks dealt with personal relationships.

Other songs are about social acceptance and single womanhood
seared with the classic three-chord rock'n'roll passion that Joan
loves so much.

Activity Grrrl talks about women speaking up about abuse,
about being put down, while Spinster is about being a single
woman and choosing not to get married.

Guitarist Tony Bruno, drummer Thommy Price and Kenny Aaronson
playing bass guitar helped Joan bring back the memories of Cherry
Bomb, I Hate Myself for Loving You, I Love Rock'n'Roll and even
Have You Ever Seen the Rain of the Credence Clearwater Revival.

Alcoholic

During the press conference, as if referring to her own
experience, Joan told reporters about her view on feminism, about
how women are treated unfairly in her community.

When she was 15 years old, Joan was the creative mainspring of
the renowned all-girl rock band, the Runaways, which scored a
number of top-selling albums in the United States and European
countries in the 1970s.

Yet sad to say, an unstable teenage life, plus the following
disappointing record sales and audience interest, led to the
break up of the band by the late 1970s, leaving a frustrated Joan
to turn to alcoholism and drug addiction.

"No record company wanted to touch her. No one took a female
rocker seriously," said her manager, Kenny Laguna, who helped
Joan recognize her talent and produce new records.

Joan fought her internal demons and with a combination of
perseverance and just plain luck, she overcame her drug
dependency and the related anti-social behavior to become one of
the most exciting solo performers of the 1980s.

Now in the 1990s, Joan has transformed herself into a socially
aware lady rocker, enthusiastically showing a video clip of Go
Home, which is attributed to Mia Zapata, a well-known singer of a
local band in Seattle, United States, who was brutally raped and
murdered on July 7, 1993.

She bluntly said that women should learn simple techniques of
self-defense, such as gouging a rapist's eyes, in case they are
trapped in a sexually dangerous situation.

"I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain," she sang her
anthem, while leaving her fans in Jakarta to observe Joan's
message about womanhood.

Joan will also perform at Hard Rock Cafes in Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur and Taipei.