I always liked Joan Jett. Unlike so many of her female peers of the early `80s, Joan didn’t seem to waste a lot of time trying to make herself seem ludicrously sexy. Sure, towards the middle part of her career, there was a bit of a step towards a slightly glammier image (I’m thinking of the big hair and form-fitting spandex circa 1988’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You”), but upon her solo debut (after the implosion of the Runaways), she was just being herself -– effortlessly sexy, all the same -– but in an entirely organic way. Regardless, Joan wasn’t trying to be sexy, she was trying to fucking rock. And handily succeeding.
I remember hearing a live recording of “Bad Reputation” from around `81 or so and first thinking it was the Plasmatics (which would have been sort of a huge leap, being that as much as I absolutely loved the Plasmatics, they simply were not capable of crafting anything that immediately catchy). After that song finished, I heard the vocalist grab the mic and emphatically assert, “THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS I LIKE….BUT THERE’S ONLY ONE THING I LOVE…” and then I realized exactly who it was.
Heresy time: I have never really liked the song “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” I just thought it was too populist and too dumb, but not in a cool way. I realize Joan didn’t write it. I can’t say I’ve ever listened to the original (by a band called the Arrows), but I doubt I’d like that, either. It basically could have been a song by the Ramones (who Joan also loved), but for some reason, it just never clicked for me. “Bad Reputation” was fast and punky and her cover of Tommy James’ “Crimson & Clover” (arguably her finest hour, for my money) was equally in your face, but “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” felt like she was sucking up to the Billy Squier and Pat Benatar crowd. I wanted her to say with the `Pistols and Ramones crowd. Oh well.
Anyway, overlooking of my misgivings for that particular single, Joan Jett is, was and e’er shall be entirely cool. The only reason I’m bringing it up now is because in the wake of my post about Vazac’s Horseshoe bar and its many cameos in movies and tv shows, I started to re-address a question that I’d always meant to post here but never got around to. What bar is the video for “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” filmed in?
Let’s watch again, shall we?
Before we dive in, I’d love to note this passage from the song’s own Wikipedia page…
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll"'s black-and-white music video received heavy play from the just-launched MTV network. In it, Jett and the Blackhearts travel to a small, dingy bar and proceed to excite the drunken crowd by performing the song and yelling out its chorus. A snippet of Jett's 1981 "Bad Reputation" is featured at the beginning of the video. The video was originally in color, but it was converted to black and white because Jett was ultimately displeased with the look of her red leather jumpsuit in color.
I love that the only reason it was later switched to the now-iconic black and white version was because Joan thought her leather jumpsuit looked shitty.
In any case, as much as the bar in question seems to be set on a corner (much like Vazac’s Horseshoe bar on the corner of East 7th Street and Avenue B), the layout of the room just isn’t the same. The bar where her henchmen in the Blackhearts are seen loitering like louche lotharios appears to be perpendicular to the entrance, which negates it from being 7B. This all said, it certainly looks like a genuine bar (and not a stage set), especially given the fact that Joan is seen entering off what looks very much like a New York City street.
There’s also the big picture window behind the stage…
Any guesses?
ANSWER: THE SOLUTION IS REVEALED HERE.
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