PowerPop: Joan Jett Explains It All For You

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Joan Jett Explains It All For You

Seriously, this is just fucking awesome.

A Replacements cover that improves upon the original? Wow. Plus she's totally hot in the video.

[h/t Doug Watts]

13 comments:

Douglas Watts said...: Joan's cover of this Paul Westerberg song reveals to me her massive skills as an interpreter (being totally hot doesn't hurt) and Paul's as a latter day Tin Pan Alley songwriter and lyricist. Note here how Joan enunciates clearly every single word, most of which Paul slurred to hell in his original. What a stirring antidote to this shithole fundamentalist O'Lielly world. It makes you feel clean and hopeful just listening to it. Much of it is Joan. How can you not love this woman !!!

thx. steve.; 10/11/2007 12:19 AM
steve simels said...: God only knows what most Replacements fans made of this song back in the day.

Seriously -- this was on the same album as "Answering Machine" and "Gary's Got a Boner."

And "Unsatisfied." And "I Will Dare." And a cover of a Kiss song that finds some depth in the original.

There are days I think it's the greatest record ever made.

And they were kids when they did it.; 10/11/2007 12:24 AM
refinnej said...: That was awesome :) I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts live about 25 years ago. Great show, and it's nice to see that she's still out there doing her thing :); 10/11/2007 12:26 AM
Anonymous said...: Joan Jett as librarian/teacher is like a few 8th grade fantasies come to life.

Hey, John Doe! Awesome!; 10/11/2007 2:09 AM
NYMary said...: Her cover of Crimson and Clover was a total, perfect reimagining of that song as well.; 10/11/2007 7:59 AM
Anonymous said...: In about 1980 – give or take – I was at First Avenue to see X, who came through town a lot in those days. Every few months, trundling off to see X. Opening were the Replacements, about whom I cared very little, as they seemed unrelated to my constant search for the same wham I got from the Grateful Dead. (I was evolving though – I did love X.)

So I’m standing in the middle of the largely empty First Avenue main floor, watching the Replacements. And I look over and I’m standing right next to Exene, who’s about four and half feet tall, also holding a beer and really grooving to the Replacements. “Hi Exene!”

She really loved the Replacements. “Oh yeah these guys are great.” So she had noticed them, and I hadn’t. Of course that was her field, pop music that is, whereas I spent my days on radical community organizing.; 10/11/2007 11:15 AM
Anonymous said...: Sweet.

I'm going to borrow this; 10/11/2007 1:54 PM
TMink said...: I do like the clear and unaffected manner in which she sings. I do not like the way her cheekbones and lips look, well, weird and a bit artificial.

I agree, it is always great to see John Doe! It seems like Joan is getting a preachy quality from the original that I missed, she sets the video as her teaching the children, an outreach if you will.

I took the original as more of a vignette than anything like a manifesto or call for change.

But then maybe this is why Joan did the remake.

Trey; 10/11/2007 2:26 PM
steve simels said...: I took the original as more of a vignette than anything like a manifesto or call for change.

But then maybe this is why Joan did the remake.

Trey

I think you're right. I don't think Westerberg was consciously making a larger political point, but it's implicit in the song nonetheless.; 10/11/2007 2:54 PM
TMink said...: I agree Steve. I think part of the difference was the lilting cadence that Paul used in the song. Joan is more rhythmically straight ahead in her version.

Trey; 10/11/2007 3:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Well speaking purely for myself, I think she looks gorgeous. I love the cheekbones and everything else. She did a fine job with the song, too.; 10/11/2007 4:26 PM
Stealth said...: I could not love her any more. I had a fantastic encounter with her last Saturday (see my blog under Oct. 8) and she was so lovely and gracious. She is so awesome!; 10/11/2007 8:40 PM
TMink said...: We agree about the song and how she does it, but I think she looks a little to comfortable with those nip and tuck folks. She is after all, 49. Yep, 49. I would say it was all the clean living that makes her so youthful, but I cannot quite make myself type that!

Which is not to bag Joan or the song. I just wish she had let herself look 49, I think it would suit her better.

Trey; 10/12/2007 10:52 AM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)