The Runaways..Yay or Nay?

batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
edited January 2015 in Strut Central


I used to get hit over the head BITD by a Rocker Sista friend of mine that loved them.
Or at least stated how important they were to her as a female Rocker.
Is is just good Pop Rock? Were they on the last end of Glam/Garage Rock before Punk knocked that shit out?
When they flamed out were there obvious examples of how they "influenced" the game?
In 1978 and later, who benefitted from their groundbreaking..immediately?

These arent droids your looking for?
Have we discussed this already?

Im watching the flick and this along w/ Over The Edge, Foxes, Dazed & Confused, Saturday Night Fever ,and Virgin Suicides gives me that 70's teen rebellion shit.

  Comments


  • Yay. Like a lot of Joan Jett's solo stuff, too.

    And RIP Kim Fowley, who died just the other day.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    They were great, I was buying their records as they were coming out bitd. It's still weird to think how unusual it was in the mid/late 70s for an all female band to play their own instruments and write their own songs.

    Pretty much any all female rock band that came after had ground broken for them by the Runaways - The Slits, Raincoats, Sleater Kinney etc.

  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
    Yay, most definitely. The records were uneven for the most part, but they had a few joints that were cool in that Hollywood proto-punk style that was hot for a minute around '75/76. I saw them at Eric's in Liverpool on their first UK tour in '76. I was at an age where I'd probably only have been slightly disappointed if they'd turned out to be garbage, but they were fucking terrific - great, ragged fun, particularly if you happened to be an adolescent boy at the time. I had a major crush on Joan Jett for years afterwards.

    I never saw the biopic with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, although I thought putting them in the movie was an inspired bit of casting. Vicki Blue, who replaced Jackie Fox (far left) on bass after the second album, later made a flawed but watchable documentary about the band a few years back called Edgeplay. It was hampered from the jump by Joan Jett's refusal to take part or to approve the use of any of the band's music, but there are some hair-raising interviews with the rest of them. Lita Ford was the only one apart from Joan who had any kind of post-Runaways career, and she came across as grateful and a little surprised to have got out at the other end in more or less one piece. Sandy West (RIP) seemed to have hit a pretty nasty downward spiral after the band split, and Cherie Currie was clearly still at war with Kim Fowley when she was interviewed. After Fowley died, I read somewhere that he and Cherie had recently finally reconciled, and that she'd spent a lot of time looking after him when he was dying.

    This is the only footage of the o.g. line-up that they could clear for that doc, presumably because it wasn't an original. There's a lot of stuff out there of varying quality. Some of it's a bit sloppy, but they were teenagers so it hardly matters. They were always a better band than they were given credit for.


  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Is it too soon to derail this thread?

    The question I guess is about rock. And all the answers are essentially rockist.
    Either, they were great and influenced everyone because they rocked.
    Or, they suck, girls can't rock.

    But in R&B, soul, I can't think any with the stature of the Runaways.
    Fanny, Isis. Only Fanny was a rock band. (Pre-Runaways)
    Isis was sorta rock/funk/horn outfit.
    I guess in soul, where vocals were more important than guitar solos, the idea of an all woman band didn't hold the same appeal.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Soul/R&b girl bands dont factor into this.

    Berry was already in LA creating an acting lane for Ross by '76.

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,779 Posts
    Their self-titled is a total banger. It's a well recorded album for playing at high volumes (preferably in a residential neighborhood).



    Especially this tune:



    :beerbang: ;blap:

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Where was Heart during this?

    Were they just singers in front of dudes?

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    batmon said:
    Where was Heart during this?

    Were they just singers in front of dudes?

    Not exactly.

    They wrote a fair amount of their material and Nancy was a respectable guitarist, enough to be
    unusual and ahead of their time.

    But they had an all male backing band and were definitely more of a corporate product.

    Bonus points because they can still bring it.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Werent the Runaways put together by a corporate dude?

    Its not like they were together 3 years, shopping their demo, and landed a deal.

    Just sayin.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    batmon said:
    Werent the Runaways put together by a corporate dude?

    Haha, read up on Kim Fowley, don't think I'd describe him as a corporate dude.

    And of course they weren't seasoned veterans who had been plugging away for years, they were 15 - 17 years old.

  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    Kim Fowley > Runaways

  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    Runaways are cool, I dig their records.
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