Taking In 16 Year Old Runaways

For the longest time, I was a bit resistant when it came to female fronted bands. I grew up with Joan Jett and Lita Ford, and as I got deeper and deeper into Metal, they didn't bring enough aggression and angst to meet what I was looking for. My musical tastes have expanded a bit since those days as a young and angry teen, and lately I've been looking to discover some long lost gems that I've been missing out on...and ironically, one of those bands features Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

I really wasn't familiar with The Runaways, and I can't remember what it was that pushed me to finally check them out. I'm sure that Doug was an influence...and falling in love with Girlschool's Hit And Run certainly helped as well. Once I'd checked out a video over on youtube for Cherry Bomb, it was all over...I was in love. The song kicked ass, and with the singer, Cherie Currie, strutting around in lingerie and looking cute as hell, I needed to find out more about this band. Oh fuck...she was only 16 at the time.

This album is a lot of fun and the songs straddle a line between raucous rock and roll and punk rock. These girls must have been tough as nails to pull this off back in '76.

For the young at heart...

I feel like simply owning this album, with this gatefold sleeve, is going to get me on a list in some database somewhere. I may want to hold off on picking up a first press German copy of Virgin Killer from Scorpions. Owning both of these records could lead to trouble.