{"id":7484,"date":"2015-09-29T10:47:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T09:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2015-10-09T14:12:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T13:12:36","slug":"the-runaways-scenester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/the-runaways-scenester\/","title":{"rendered":"The Runaways – Scenester Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Runaways<\/strong> (Cherry Red Records CDMRED 237)<\/p>\n

Girl groups are nothing new, and this was also true back in the mid-70\u2019s, when a gang of teenagers kicked their way through the walls of the male-dominated music industry and staked their claim to rock immortality. Managed by the notorious Kim Fowley, equal parts Svengali, hustler and guide, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox, Joan Jett and Sandy West strapped on their guitars and took the boys on at their own game. Numerous line-up changes followed in their brief career, but it\u2019s the first US LP our friends at Cherry Red have reissued here, and it\u2019s this CD reissue I\u2019ll confine my comments to.<\/p>\n

The girls hit the ground running with \u2018Cherry Bomb\u2019, a lurking, threatening rocker that refuses to take \u2018no\u2019 for an answer, turning from a slow tease in the first three verse lines, to the haggard screech of a crone in the last. Ecstatic moans punctuate the song, ending on a glorious, Sweet-style metallic echo.<\/p>\n

The hard, aggressive blues opening to \u2018You Drive Me Wild\u2019 leads into a straight ahead rock \u2018n\u2019 roller penned by Joan Jett, full of one-on-one sexual promise, an alternating riff and spiced up with plenty of yelping vocals and more and\u00a0more ecstatic moans.<\/p>\n

The glam racket of \u2018Is It Day or Night?\u2019 is another winner, from the pen of Kim Fowley, portraying the low-life ennui in the aftermath of a night \u2013 or a lifetime \u2013 spent pursuing life\u2019s more hazardous pleasures. With lyrics like \u2018Novocaine Lips\u2019 and some great, crashing false endings, what other decade could this song have come from?<\/p>\n

Proving that the basic rock riff always holds good, \u2018Thunder\u2019 takes us on a classic journey through love, drawing on age-old imagery of natures\u2019 indomitable powers, held together with an insistent bass riff and Cherie\u2019s voice handling the melody well.<\/p>\n

Mention 70\u2019s sleaze and the blue mask of Lou Reed makes its spectral appearance on the studio wall. The Runaways\u2019 fine take on Lou\u2019s eternal \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll\u2019 has some surprisingly funky elements thrown in for good measure, nice bass runs, cowbells and some dry-throated screams to take it far enough away from the original to make it a true cover version, and not the usual obligatory tribute.<\/p>\n

Cherie\u2019s voice is loaded with suggestion in \u2018Lovers\u2019, a demanding, teasing song from Jett and Fowley, with a kiss-off that demands a reply.<\/p>\n

Lou seems to have been implanted into the band\u2019s DNA, if \u2018American Nights\u2019 is anything to go by. A distant relative of \u2018Sweet Jane\u2019, with fuzzy guitars proving a nice touch, in a characteristic song of youthful, dangerous adventure.<\/p>\n

The basic two-note riff and Joplin-style shriek which opens \u2018Blackmail\u2019 gets your attention without any effort. A hard and nasty fuzz guitar solo in a song as literal as it is effective, Cherie\u2019s voice ranges from a rough growl to a hacking cough as she spells out the terrible fate her former lover will face.<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones\u2019 style opening riff of \u2018Secrets\u2019 sets the scene well, a tale of deceit and double lives with a whiff of the forbidden about the relationship. The feedback lead out is subtly handled, and a first on the LP.<\/p>\n

A great, chugging bass line and a nasty\/sexy voice opens The Runaways\u2019 \u2018Dead End Justice\u2019. Basically a 1950\u2019s style female juvenile delinquent film script, set to high-octane 1970\u2019s rock music, with lyrics as hard as cheap nails; it\u2019s the perfect (getaway) vehicle. Even the imaginary film title hides in the lyrics, \u2019Dead End Kids In The Danger Zone\u2019 as our teen protagonists go from teasing the boys in their skin tight jeans and provoking fights, all in one brew and pharma-fuelled night. The inevitable come-uppance lands the pair in jail, at the tender mercies of police, wardens and other prisoners. Our girls plot their escape their voices a low whisper, but\u2026 Well, I\u2019ll let you guess the rest if you\u2019re too mean, or too snobbish, or just too plain dull to buy the LP. It\u2019s a magnificent way to end, full of the 70\u2019s ambitious stage-stylings, youthful swagger and later, the desperate nostalgia for an era they were too young to remember, and the girls bring it off brilliantly for the age it was minted in.<\/p>\n

GRAB YOUR COPY HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Scenester<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Runaways (Cherry Red Records CDMRED 237) Girl groups are nothing new, and this was also true back in the mid-70\u2019s, when a gang of teenagers kicked their way through the walls of the male-dominated music industry and staked their claim to rock immortality. Managed by the notorious Kim Fowley, equal parts Svengali, hustler and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,79,128,71,106,80,74,86],"tags":[1194,1196,1193,1195,1197,1192],"series":[],"class_list":["post-7484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-glam","category-hot-plugs","category-music","category-picks","category-punk","category-reviews","category-rock","tag-cherie-bomb","tag-jackie-fox","tag-joan-jett","tag-lita-ford","tag-sandy-west","tag-the-runaways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7514,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions\/7514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}