I'm a fan of the 20th Century Masters releases for the inexpensive albums, chalked full of classic songs. However, I hate that none of the tracks are remastered and in a lot of cases I find that the whole album tends to have a flattened sound.
That being said, I picked up one of The Runaways releases for my daughter for Christmas. Ashlee has had the movie for a couple years, which I have yet to watch for some odd reason, so I figured she finally should own a CD.
This 20th Century album is the first major exposure I've had to The Runaways aside from the track Cherry Bomb. It's a shame I didn't get into them earlier because they are really good, but what do you expect when you have Lita Ford and Joan Jett in the same band, which isn't to take away from those that aren't as well known. So, with the exception of rotating bassist, Cherie Currie, piano and vocals, as well as Sand West, drums and vocals, are two names you should also know.
Before I get into the songs themselves, there are a few things I feel I should cover from the get go. Almost, but not all songs, are at least written by Joan Jett. Eight out of twelve to be specific. The only other person to have close to as many writing credits is producer Kim Fowley. I'm not going to say that all these songs are stellar, but Joan is a fantastic writer.
Next I want to cover that Lita Ford is an underrated lead guitarist. I'm not saying that she's some killer, shred it like Steve Vai guitarist. She' not Tony Iommi or Angus Young either, but she deserves a nod of the head, because she can still play better than many guitarists in much more over rated bands.
Cherie Currie knows how to work the vocals in a way that makes it clear she's a real Rock vocalist, and not just some girl.
The drums on pretty much every track are steady, and are nothing special. Sandy West does exactly what a drummer needs to do and she does it well. She plays fills, but doesn't rely on it, and instead of going the fancy route opts to keep it simple. The album opens with Cherry Bomb which I've covered before. It's bad ass, full of attitude, and proof that girls can rock just as hard as guys can. The only thing that ever hurt this band was the fact they didn't have penises. Also it's nice to hear girls be just as naughty as the guys. "Hey street boy what's your style / Your dead end dreams don't make you smile / I'll give ya something to live for / Have ya, grab ya til your sore / Hello Daddy, hello Mom / I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb / Hello world I'm your wild girl / I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb". If only girls today had these type of balls.
After that comes the song Blackmail wich has a great bad girl attitude, and a wicked guitar line. This is a boogie woogie Blues kind of track that Lita Ford gets to rip into, like she should on a song like this. I would say this sounds like some classic Aerosmith in principle, but only if they decided to start sounding like early Motorhead.
Andria said she thought Secrets sounded a bit like Alice Cooper's No More Mister Nice Guy and I can hear it in there. It's not in the entire song, and it's not like they ripped off any riffs or anything, it just has a bit of that vibe, but I can hear other things in there too. Musically I think this song has a cool selection of diverse sounds, but over all it's not a track I'm overly fond of.
This album is devided into quarters. Every three tracks represents one of four albums. The first three come from The Runaways, released in May 1976. I'm not sure if I would pick up that album based on just the first three songs, but it may be worth it.
The next three tracks are from Queens Of Noise, released January 1977. The first song from the next three tracks is I Love Playin' With Fire, which is great. The music matches the content, and gerenal vibe of the song, and the lyrics are totally singable, especially the chorus. "I love playing with fire / And I don't wanna get burned / I love playing with fire / And I don't think I'll ever learn".
Born To Be Bad is one of those songs that's jagged, artisit and very raw. "Bodies without minds / I hear you're the one with the bleeding heart / Blue and bittersweet / You tear my dreams apart / Cause I was born to be bad / I'm not sad / And I'm glad I did it / Born to be bad / I'm not sad, why don't you all get with it / The damned don't cry / Cry out when they're betrayed / Bodies slam they scream / As the keynotes fade / Cause I was born to be bad / I'm not sad / And I'm glad I did it / Born to be bad / I'm not sad, why don't you all get with it / I called my mother from Hollywood the other day / And I said "Mom, I just called to tell ya I joined a rock and roll band / And I won't be coming home no more" / You know what she did? / She started crying and weeping and whimpering like all mothers do / She woke up my father and told him about it and he said / "There ain't a damn thing we can do, that's the way she is / Hey, you know she was just born to be bad" / I want you to bring me his ears / To satisfy my mad desires / And if he bites the dust / We'll just have to miss my fire / Cause I was born to be bad / I'm not sad / And I'm glad I did it / Born to be bad / I'm not sad, why don't you all get with it". Musically the song is either pretty and soft, like a good girl should be, or it's rough and tumble like someone born bad would be. I'm not sure if this song is for everyone, but it is pretty damn cool. I'm really fond of when Ford opens up with the solo. It sounds like she's channeling David Gilmour on Comfortably Numb, only a year before The Wall saw the light of day.
Take It Or Leave It is the weakest of the second quarter songs. It's a totally kickin' track, that bullets along with a ton of sexual tension that just gets your heart thumping. It's just that it's a bit atypical for this band. Once again Ford lays down a good solo as well. I don't care for how it's held back in the mix, but it's all good. I also like the double up on the two guitars at the very end.
Queens of Noise is the first track to cover the Live In Japan album, which was only released in Japan, Australia and Europe in 1977. The production sucks, and I would like to hunt down a studio version of this track to see if it's better. To be honest I think I would probably pick up the Queens Of Noise album, since I really dug the three songs before this. However, I have a feeling that this track whether live or not might leave me a bit on the blah side.
After that comes You Drive Me Wild, which is okay, but it's stock to me. A basic Rock track.
Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin is back to that cool boogie woogie I liked from Blackmail. I also like that Lita opens up on this live track a bit more than on the others. Of the three live tracks in the third quarter this would be the one I like best. I don't think I'd ever pick up the album these tracks come from, but this song gives me one more reason to get Queens Of Noise.
The last three tracks are the post Cherie Currie songs. The last quarter comes from the Waitin' For The Night album, which now has Joan Jett on vocals. You can tell a little, but not that much that the vocalist has changed. Jett's approach is a bit more straight foward punk, where as Cherie's had been more Rocker bad girl. If she was a guy I'd say bad boy.
Wasted is the first track and it's the music that I dig on this one. The vocals are okay, but on the whole the lyrics don't do anything for me. The music on the other hand is a huge saving grace that keeps this song from turning stock. I have the same opinion of Wait For Me.
The album finishes with Waitin' For The Night which is also the longest song on the album. It has that soft/hard, gentle/powerful style and format to it. It you took out all the soft parts this would be a pretty strong track, with some great music. Without doing that you get a song that's a decent closer on a collection. I find it a bit cheesy lyrically, but for the most part it's not a bad song.
There was one more album that this collection didn't cover and based on the last three songs on here I can predict why.
I would suggest this album as a starter if you are interested in that little taste of what The Runaways are about, and based on this album I would go looking further into this band for my own enjoyment. There are also other collections out there that may be better and worth more of a look than this collection offers.
6/10 - content
5/10 - production
7/10 - personal bias
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