Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXVIII--The Runaways: Cherry Bomb

Because of (mostly) Joan Jett and (a little) Lita Ford, I was familiar with The Runaways by name...and thanks to No Thanks! The 70's Punk Rebellion I am now familiar with their most successful tune, which becomes the second entry from that album to join the exalted (or not) ranks of Friday Night Jukebox...

The Runaways formed in 1975 in Los Angeles, and while their time together may have been short, they certainly made their mark.  Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, Sandy West, and Jackie Fox would be the most famous incarnation of the band (there were a few replacements along the way) that would last until 1979.  During that time they released four studio albums, 1 live album, and in the years since, have released 8 compilation albums.   Their standing as the first all girl metal band is firmly entrenched, though the band had very little commercial success outside of Japan (Japan absolutely adored this week's featured tune and gave them a Beatlesque welcome to The Land of the Rising Sun--so many cool kids in Japan!).  After their break-up, Joan Jett had a great deal of success with several top ten hits, and eventually was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.  Lita Ford had a top ten hit with a duet with, of all people, Ozzy Osbourne.  The other members remained in music or left the music industry for other careers (Fox became a lawyer).  Sadly, Sandy West passed away in 2006 from complications from lung cancer.  Their influence on female bands and artists (including the Go-Go's Courtney Love, the Donnas, and White Flag), as well as on the punk and alternative movements, is widely acknowledged.

"Cherry Bomb" was released as a single in 1976 from the Runaways quite aptly named debut LP The Runaways.  Neither the album nor the single had much commercial success, though the single did make it to #106 (with a bullet!) on Billboard's "Bubbling Under" (the Hot 100) chart.

"Cherry Bomb" was originally written by Joan Jett as a vehicle for Cherie Curie to audition for the band's lead vocalist (the band didn't know the song Curie actually wanted to do--oh the joys of youth).  The song is your basic "I'm not Mommy and Daddy's little girl anymore" tune (none of The Runaways were out of their teens when the song was released), and Curie sings it with all the exuberance you would hope for from a liberated teen.  Ford (lead guitar) and Jett (rhythm guitar) play off each other well and produce a staccato effect (with help from West on drums) that gives "Cherry Bomb" the bad ass feel that the song's protagonist is projecting.  And when you throw in a catchy as all hell chorus, replete with a head banging stutter, we have a winner.  In the end it's a stellar piece of youthful exuberance, made all the more powerful by the fact that it's an all female rock band from a time when women were fighting like hell to be accepted into virtually every male dominated profession in America, including rock and roll musicians...and The Runaways succeeded quite nicely.

Lyric Sheet:  "Hello Daddy, hello Mom/I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XLI--The Breeders: Cannonball

Some years ago I read a piece (no idea where, though I think it might have been written by Dave Marsh) wherein the author claimed that rock and roll lyrics were more or less vapid, and we listened to such tunes for the music.  While I wouldn't say I buy into this theory, it does have some merit.  For instance, I have loved "Cannonball" by The Breeders for a number of years now, and until I looked up the lyrics today I had absolutely no fucking clue what the hell they were singing.

Of course, I still don't know what they're singing about, but at least now I know they're using actual words....

I came a little bit late to "Cannonball"--like about a dozen years after its release (better late than never...).  I was watching some VH1 top 100 songs of something or other sometime in the 2000s when it came up on the list and as I listened it turned into one of those "How the hell did I miss this one?" moments.  Turns out The Breeders were a hiatus project for Kim Deal of the Pixies (a band that, oddly enough, I also came to sometime after the fact).  Formed in 1990, The Breeders have stayed together (more or less) in several different incarnations until the present, though outside of Last Splash (the album that spawned "Cannonball") the band has not enjoyed a wealth of popular success.  "Cannonball reached #44 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Cannonball" starts with a chant that's sounds like it came from the mouths of the Wicked Witch of the West's Winkie Guards (and who the hell knew they were called Winkie Guards?  Certainly not me, at least until about five minutes ago).  It quickly morphs into a bass line that is a wicked rat-a-tat-tat, to which a guitar solo is added which can best be described as what walking through a House of Mirrors would sound like musically.  Next in are some power chords, by which time if you're not shaking to the music you're probably in a coma.  And it's only then that Kim Deal's vocals come bounding in, and they're a cross between the pop sensibilities of The Bangles and the throatiness of Joan Jett.  The bass and guitars continue echoing around the vocals, with a few false stops thrown in, until the end--all in all, the best description I can give of the song is that it sounds like a roller coaster feels.  And just like a roller coaster, it's about four minutes of unbounded exhilaration.

Embarrassing Factoid:  While I'd love to use the line "The bong in this reggae song" as this week's lyric link, I have to admit that until just a couple of months ago, I thought the band was singing "Shimmy shake, shimmy shake" when they were actually singing, "In the shade, in the shade."  And my coolness quotient sinks like a rock....

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee