The Runaways - Queens of Noise (1977)

Released in the year following their debut The Runaways album, Queens of Noise displays something of a development in the sound of the band – albeit a fractured one – with, on the one hand Lita Ford’s more heavy rock style coming through which is counterbalanced by Joan Jett’s Quattro-esque rock and roll styling. Add to this vocalist Cherie Currie’s emerging penchant for more melodic (some may say cheesy) balladic efforts and Queens of Noise proves to be quite an interesting album! The album also marked the last studio release form the band featuring Cherie Currie and bassist Jackie Fox . . . which was a pity as they were both strong in their respective fields with Joan Jett soon to assume full lead vocal duties and Vicky Blu replacing Fox.

The opener, Queens of Noise, is one of the band’s greatest tracks and, whilst not penned by the band themselves, fits their style well – although it caused Jett and Currie friction over who was to sing the lead as Joan Jett was increasingly taking over the lead vocal role in the band which is evident on the album as a whole where vocals are largely shared between the two in equal measure. The track is quite a ‘heavy’ number for the band and features a strong chorus, good harmonies and another increasingly evident element in The Runaways, a Lita Ford guitar solo – something that was very much largely lacking on their debut release.

Take It Or Leave It is again a heavy number, opening with thunderous drumming from Sandy West and powerful guitar and Joan Jett on vocals. Again also there is a maturity about the track with strong vocal harmonies and powerful solo from Ford and the track is definitely sign of Jett’s song writing beginning to blossom.

More as a vehicle for Cherie, Midnight Music (with some really clichéd Kim Fowley lyrics) is ok as a track – quite melodic and middle of the road and Cherrie Currie gives a good performance . . . but, this isn’t The Runaways proper, it lacks their spirit and rough around the edges approach that defined their sound.

Born to be Bad follows and almost sounds like Showaddywaddy or Mud during its intro section which is only partly saved by an unusually mellow vocal from Jett! There is also a phenomenal amount of reverb on West’s snare which largely knocks -out the subtlety of the piece which is a shame. It’s a very slow number and features a rather ill-advised ‘rap’ from Jett midway through and is more reflective of manager Kim Fowley’s influence on the band than being reflective of their true preferred style.

Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin is my personal favourite form the album and is a crunching heavy rock track driven by a great slow riff from Lita Ford at the intro that suddenly leads into an up-tempo shuffle of a track with Currie’s vocals outstanding. Jackie Fox has stated that “Neon Angels was our concession to Lita’s heavy metal ones” but it was a worthy concession in my opinion and Ford’s solo is great too. See the video clip below of this track being performed live in Japan which, apart from Currie’s vocals cracking on the second verse, is strong.

I Love Playin’ With Fire opens with a powerful ‘metal’ riff once more and is an up-tempo number with Jett once again on lead vocals. Although penned by Jett, the track has a very hard rock edge to it and affords Lit Ford the opportunity to solo through the mid-section.

California Paradise was co-written by Kim Fowley, Jett and Sandy West and sung by Cherrie Currie and is one of the more well-known Runaways tracks. It’s a stomping rock track with Currie’s lower-register vocals working well and harmonising with Jett on the chorus/hook. Lead guitar/solo duties are split here between Jett and Ford with Jett providing the first part before Ford adds a speedier approach for the latter.

Hollywood is a Jett/Fowley/Fox composition and is one fo the weaker on the album and features a Joan Jett lead vocal.

Up next, originally a track written by Jackie Fox and Lita Ford about Joey Ramone, Heartbeat suffered at the hands of manager Kim Fowley (as did the band!) who re-wrote it with Joan Jett into the form heard here with input from Currie rewriting the track to be about Bowie unbeknown to Fox – and freezing Fox out of the twin lead vocal role she had originally envisaged for her and Jett . . . always appeared to be a bit of a drama within the band!

The closing track on the album is Johnny Guitar penned by Ford and Fowley which sounds like it was recorded in a cellar – in fact the reverb throughout the album is appalling to be honest – and is a rather doom-laden attempt at a slow blues number. Fox has later questioned the wisdom of this approach – “Why anyone thought that five teenage girls could play the blues is beyond me” – and I guess that it was a chance for Ford to noodle a lot on guitar but it doesn’t really work. Ford’s soloing is hardly of the emotionally-fraught variety associated with the blues and the whole thing really falls flat on its face.

Despite its shortcomings, Queens of Noise is an 8 out of 10 album for me and shows a real development from their first album – unfortunately a development curtailed by the departure of Currie and Fox following its release whereupon the band continued but in a slightly different direction. Sadly, the Runaways never really enjoyed any commercial success and their short career was a tale of misery and exploitation from start to finish but this album is definitely worth a listen . . . in fact, quite a few listens and with a film biopic due out shortly, it might be best to get to grips with the band prior to any Hollywood hype that will ensue following its release!

• Cherie Currie – Vocals
• Joan Jett – Guitar/Vocals
• Lita Ford – Guitar
• Jackie Fox – Bass
• Sandy West – Drums

The Runaways - The Runaways (1976)

The debut release from legendary all-girl US rock group the Runaways, recorded when the members themselves were in their teens, is a very ‘raw’ affair – in terms of production, performance and song writing. Whereas it’s often stated that the Runaways ‘paved the way’ for later groups such as Phantom Blue and Vixen etc, the short-lived band had a very basic sound and approach which was very much a product of their time. This is no more evident than in this, their debut release from 1976.

Cherry Bomb opens the album and has a distinctly Stooges flavour to it – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but lyrically and vocally it is a relatively naive number (and apparently voted 52 in a VH1 poll of the greatest rock songs ever!) and for You Drive Me Wild we are in distinctly Suzi Quatro territory – a bouncy rock number, with some nice vocal harmonies, but hardly groundbreaking or memorable.

Is It Day Or Night shows more promise and is a really stomping mid-tempo track penned by manager/producer Kim Fowley which is followed-up by Thunder; mediocre but palatable mid-70s rock fare. A cover of Lou Reed’s Rock & Roll lifts proceedings slightly and the band turn-in a reasonable performance driven by the twin guitars of Joan Jett and Lita Ford with a pulsing cowbell from West throughout.

Lovers is firmly in bubblegum rock territory as is American Nights: not bad tracks as such but pale somewhat compared to Blackmail which, as with many of the tracks, is lyrically and vocally simplistic but this time it works better put to a ‘heavy’ rock and roll number with Lita Ford finally letting rip with a guitar solo.

The final two tracks – Secrets and Dead End Justice – are the only two tracks co-written by vocalist Cherrie Currie and I personally think are two of the strongest on the album with the latter featuring some good guitar work from Ford (and some mildly amusing lyrics about drug-addled teens) and musically I would put the track down as the strongest on the album. There’s even a section featuring a ‘conversation’ where the protagonist of the track is in discussion with a fellow inmate when imprisoned for drug-related activities – more teen angst and even prison break plotting!!

This album is not a failure as such but I for one, don’t quite get The Runaways – whilst I appreciate that they were very young at the time of its recording, mostly in their mid-teens, and that band members Joan Jett and Lita Ford would go on to enjoy successful solo careers in the 1980s that, unfortunately, doesn’t make the music here any the better. At best, the album drifts around a Quatro-Stooges-early Ramones vibe with bubblegum vocal hooks and lyrics and whilst I’d recommend a cursory listen, for me it will only at best be of more curiosity value – albeit and endearing one – as one of the pioneering all-girl rock albums and due to the various band members it contained. To really hear The Runways to good effect I’d recommend their follow-up Queens of Noise where they really began to blossom both musically and in terms of songwriting, a review of which can be found elsewhere on this website.

• Cherie Currie – Vocals
• Lita Ford – Guitar
• Joan Jett – Guitar
• Sandy West – Drums
• (Jackie Fox – Bass)*
• Nigel Harrison – Bass

*Blondie bass player Nigel Harrison played on the album