The Runaways - classic or dud?

Just so you aren't talking to yourself... it's their cover of Roadrunner that got me hooked recently. No Cherie, oh well.

I'm not sure if I've heard that before, thanks.

I was in a department store earlier today and they were playing something in there that was a poor, poor, poor obvious ripoff and horrific diluted copy of the riff from Runaways "Is It Day Or Night?" and I was really disgusted and I vowed to post about it here. I don't know what this song was, but you can keep your modern music far, far from me.

I haven't finished, though. For I heard Duran Duran's Reflex in there too and if that isn't THE worst Duran song on earth...

I love playing with fiyah
fiyah

1st album is so great. goes for some money though! i found a nice vinyl copy for 10 bucks a couple years back, but gave it to my gf cuz i knew she'd like it. she does, but now i (greedily) want one of my own :(

http://youngmanhattanite.tumblr.com/post/37135660965/cryptofwrestling-the-runaways-visit-rush

Nobody mentioned "Heart Beat" yet. I'd failed to notice it until hearing the Bebe Buell cover version. Now one of my favorite things. The stitched together video here works well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwhAPNo5z8Y

harrowing stuff

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-lost-girls/

very much, if I were not at work I would be crying now

strong piece, heartbreaking story

obviously i had read about him being a nasty piece of work, but i had no idea as to this level of depravity.

Sounds totally fucked up about Jett and them as well.

wow @ that fowley zine ad

Scram zine interview with the publisher of Back Door Man in 2003:

Scram: What was the origin of the inside back cover ad in issue # 3 that has Kim Fowley soliciting a girlfriend?

Don: He paid for it.

Scram: Was he serious?

Don: I can only guess at his motivation. I think it’s obvious. (laughter). I’ve always thought of Kim as an eccentric uncle. He’s very funny when he’s not talking about his own projects. When he’s talking about his own stuff, its just bullshit on bullshit. I would watch him work the phones and come up with weird slang and say things like “Gram Parsons is just a guy who knew a lot of George Jones B-sides.” He’s a pig. I really must say that. A lot of women find him disgusting.

This story is horrifying. I wish I was more surprised by it, that I didn't feel like this was an inevitable revelation.

Ms. Fox is a sophisticated attorney who is surely-well advised (and was a dear friend of a managing partner at a BIGLAW office I for some dumb reason worked at). Kim Fowley was not well-connected or even well-liked toward the end of his life. I will be very interested to read Joan Jett's response.

Yeah, that was my reaction too. The stuff that was already known about Fowley in general and how he treated the band was bad enough to infer that there was more under the surface. Still awful to read the details. (btw -- story was written by a college friend of mine. good job, Jason!)

In terms of the behavior and culpability of the rest of the band, I think that's hard to assess. They were kids, there was all sorts of crazy stuff going on around them, there was obviously a weird dynamic within the band about Jackie's place in it. When I watched that Runaways doc a few years ago (the one Joan didn't participate in), I remember thinking that there was a thousand-yard-stare vibe to the whole thing. Even when they seemed nostalgic, there was a sense that they were survivors of something traumatic. That doesn't excuse them for not intervening or standing up for her afterward. But obviously Fowley was the main bad guy.

Fowley's divide-and-conquer strategy, as mentioned by Currie in the article, is pretty transparent in hindsight and from a great remove.

..

Warning: Braindump:

I can't judge Joan too harshly. I don't know the extent of Fowley's abuse of the rest of the band, but even emotional abuse at a young age can do a huge number on you, even in adulthood. And she stayed friends with him to the end, so her version of the past could well be pretty skewed.

But also, how the fuck *should* teenage girls handle seeing their bandmate assaulted by their manager. If she or Cherie blocked it out or laughed it off to get along they wouldnt be the first. There was not a single responsible adult influence in their lives at that time - whatever choices Joan or Cherie or Lita made were their own to survive the best way they knew how.

Joan has clearly put up a wall between herself & the past & she may never reckon with that part of her life. Maybe it's better for her if she doesnt. Joan survives; that's what she does best, and I think that wall is a lot of the reason why.

I cant and wont judge her b

Fair enough.

Hasn't Fowely's awfulness been well established for last 20 years or so? Wasn't there similar stories in Please Kill Me?

Wish the Twitter headlines for this had been more circumspect, and I bet I'm not the only one. If some social media intern realized that and decided in favor of clicks, god help them.

I now return you to discussion of the actual fucked up shit.

Real question (because I am old and dim) - is that what people mean when they say "trigger warning"? That reading the headline about the story can be traumatic? (Sorry, I know this sounds stupid but I've never really known what it means in context)

It means the content may be disturbing to some readers.

Booming post, VG.

Absolutely.

x-post; I guess I was wondering if Lukas means it can be upsetting reading the word in a headline, not knowing what the content is? Or were there some particularly graphic Twitter links? I am not being loaded with this - I guess I am wondering what the preferred way of linking to the story would be?

But also, how the fuck *should* teenage girls handle seeing their bandmate assaulted by their manager. If she or Cherie blocked it out or laughed it off to get along they wouldnt be the first. There was not a single responsible adult influence in their lives at that time - whatever choices Joan or Cherie or Lita made were their own to survive the best way they knew how.

VG super otm. not to mention that in 2015 there are still backlogs of rape kits waiting to be tested. not even the government is not doing its part to support victims of sexual violence who have done everything they were supposed to. and people want the runaways to answer for their silence? please.
there's a lot of work to be done wrt raising awareness of sexual assault and retroactively blaming joan, cherie, and/or lita for not acting on this horrific event is not a fruitful use of time or energy

this story upset me a lot.

(Sorry, another x-post)

Because I saw one person Tweet this: Incredible story: Jackie Fuchs, member of The Runaways, raped by Kim Fowley in front of witnesses with a link to the article...

And then a person in response Tweeted: this sensationalized headline is irresponsible, gross and triggering

Maybe I'm confused about the use of the word "headline"? The article's headline is The Lost Girls: One famous band. One huge secret. Many lives destroyed

Just trying to figure out where the first person went wrong in a way that was so upsetting to the respondee

I feel basically the same way as VG. I also respect whatever bitterness or betrayal Jackie feels toward the other band members. It's a bad situation all the way around.

One thing the story brings home (not that it's news, exactly) is how sleazy and exploitative so much of the "sexual revolution" was. Contraception and changing generational attitudes freed up women's sexuality, but it was still within the context of a culture where men had almost all of the real power. Which lots and lots of men freely abused, with little or no consequences.

It's horrible, I almost couldn't read it. It's irrational I know but it makes me annoyed about all those indie guys I used to know in Glasgow who thought this prick was really cool, some of them even played with him. The fact that he was a horrible prick was glossed over as him being a 'character'.

Story gave me the spins. I fucking hate men, just wipe us all out IMO. The hippie dream, the rock and roll dream, the sex lib dream, the mystical cosmic dream, they were all just opportunities for men to turn women and girls into property/victims/corpses all over again.

Little details that are fucking with me:

When she starts tearing up thinking about the last time she peacefully fell asleep *decades ago*

The replacement bassist listening to the band snickering about the rape

Fowley staying up all night pitching his custody arrangement to fox's mom

I apologize for the lack of emotional sobriety in that post

It just feels like maleness is this problem that's never gonna stop ruining everything and idk how to square it in my mind

one of the commenters on the article (in case you're wondering, the comments are somehow not awful) says that fowley allegedly tried to rape one of his band members in the '90s

I know that dude -- he's nuts, and it's not his story to tell. Not saying he's lying.

https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/619130877130481664

emily nussbaum Verified account
‏@emilynussbaum

It actually lends a lot of context to the supposed "anti-sex" bent of some 70s feminist thought.

Didn't know this about Michael Steele (later of the Bangles), who preceded Fox:

Steele's departure from the group has been given several interpretations—her own account being that she was fired by svengali-like manager Kim Fowley for refusing his sexual propositions and calling the band's debut single "Cherry Bomb" stupid.[10] Fowley would further denigrate her for blowing a chance at fame and not possessing sufficient "magic" or "megalo" to make it in the music industry.[10]

Horrible, ghastly stuff. Really upsetting. vg otm, the band seems to have existed in a constant state of terror and intimidation. All trapped in a place of utter powerlessness.

This guy is scum. We can pick apart what this means and what that means, is it the sexual revolution, or it is the power of the 70s rock n roll fantasy? Ultimately it is this one guy is a piece of shit, no excuses.

The quotes from magazine reviews were gross as hell.

So brave for her to come out w this. I can't help but think the more these type of stories come out the more people will actually try and do something about this.

I know that dude -- he's nuts, and it's not his story to tell. Not saying he's lying.

― Three Word Username, Friday, July 10, 2015 11:24 AM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I know exactly zero about that dude, just telling imo that the comments are not full of "how do we know this is true" but "here are more examples"

One thing the story brings home (not that it's news, exactly) is how sleazy and exploitative so much of the "sexual revolution" was.

yeah. the sexual revolutio wouldn't have happened without feminism but it was men who really profited from it and exploited it in the biggest way.

This guy is scum. We can pick apart what this means and what that means, is it the sexual revolution, or it is the power of the 70s rock n roll fantasy? Ultimately it is this one guy is a piece of shit, no excuses.

fowley was certainly *more* of a piece of shit than a lot of other guys, but there's no "ultimately" about it when women (and girls, and gay men, and trans people who identify however they identify, and yeah, a few straight men too) continue to be raped every day.

i keep starting to read this and then remembering that the last couple times i read in-depth stories about abuse it basically ruined my week and i spent the next few days unable to stop dwelling on the horrible details and thinking thoughts similar to the ones jon lewis describes.

i remember reading something similar to this about fowley years ago -- probably in please kill me. the details are dim since it's been probably 15 years since i read that book, but they nauseated me enough that i was kind of shocked to see a few ppl on my fb feed going "rip, what a cool guy!" when he died.

he was involved in some cool things/made some good stuff happen. he was also abusive and cruel and fairly evil. these are not mutually exclusive.

dude I got love for you but you know you make that point every time somebody's revealed to be a shitheel, right? like, everybody knows that, it doesn't mean they have to just go "oh, shitty people make great music a lot, whatevs"

I'm just sayin it explains why ppl said things like "RIP" when Fowley died

why would you want that guy to rest in peace though?

are we stuck in some sort of loop here

i can enjoy music without wanting its creator to have a pleasant afterlife, so no. i like a few things fowley did but he can rot in hell.

the sexual revolutio wouldn't have happened without feminism but it was men who really profited from it and exploited it in the biggest way.

???

I read the sexual revolution not as an outgrowth of capitalist patriarchy but rather the mainstream breakthrough of a variety of oppressed/suppressed perspectives from marginalized groups. The success of the sexual revolution is mass awareness and mass communication of these issues. These critical, marginalized perspectives are valid even - especially - in the face of patriarchal exploitation.

yeah can't really argue w that

ll otm

And what changes?

http://flavorwire.com/528083/pop-punk-keeps-forgiving-sexual-harassers-to-the-detriment-of-its-teen-girl-fanbase

Fuckin' Front Porch Step. There was another one from the Warped Tour crowd last week as well, I think.

this photo

https://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/front-porch-step-warped.jpg?w=728&h=489&crop=1

there was also the story recently from the bass player for Enabler, which is awful

http://www.metalsucks.net/2015/07/13/former-enabler-bassist-accuses-frontman-of-physical-and-sexual-abuse-band-goes-on-indefinite-hiatus/

That's what I was thinking of - Enabler. But regardless, searching "sexual assault" on the AltPress website brings up a number of recent allegations.

A few years ago (2011) I went on tour with the band A Day To Remember (Florida pop-punk with heavy parts) in the UK, for an AP cover story, and we talked a bit about the fact that the majority of their fanbase was 15-17 year old girls. They were very careful about how they spoke, and acted, with/around the girls. Never anything but polite and friendly. It was even weirder for me, since they were in their mid-20s and I was six months shy of 40.

how is McElfresh a real name?

and the previous generation is (with a few exceptions lol Ray Manzarek) largely despised and scorned for their gross "rock star" ways.

Which is especially rich given what a fucking sexist he was ("women shouldn't be in bands" or something to that effect)

I'm thinking back primarily to We Got the Neutron Bomb (which, btw, does include Fowley and the Runaways but does not, iirc, address Fuchs' rape) and once people like X, the Germs, Black Flag, the Weirdos, etc. were on the scene yeah it just doesn't seem like this creepy predatory sexual atmosphere permeated everything as it did a few years prior. a lot of the women are more assertive, openly hostile/aggressive in their own right, and there's a different kind of asexual/gender confusion/queer strain running through it, and the previous generation is (with a few exceptions lol Ray Manzarek) largely despised and scorned for their gross "rock star" ways.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, July 16, 2015 5:06 PM (Yesterday)

this is definitely the sense i got of the UK punk scene from jon savage's england's dreaming. i haven't read viv albertine's book yet but i'm curious what her perspective was.

THEY BEAT ME WITH A BOARD
IT HURT JUST LIKE A SWORD

oh my GOD.

As I was getting DUSTED
I happened to get BUSTED

you don't sing and dance in juvie, honey.