Joan Jett – Two Minutes Fifty-Nine

Pride Month is rapidly passing and this weekend it’s Chicago’s turn to celebrate, so I thought I’d ponder the connections between punk rock and the LGBTQIA+ community.

First, I talk about Joe Strummer and the band’s support for the community, starting with “The Right Profile” from London Calling. “The Right Profile” is a song about the legendary but closeted actor Montgomery Clift. The song is clearly empathetic, but it focuses on Clift as a tragic figure, which, indeed, he was; but this shows how many allies viewed queer people back then — as sad, lonely people who led sordid lives as a result of societal pressure and rejection. However, Joe’s empathy and support for the community grew and evolved from there, to the point where, some twenty years later in “Diggin’ the New,” Joe celebrated LGBTQIA+ people not as tragic figures but just as people. And, notably, he embraced the trans community long before most straight, cisgender artists did.

But the connection between punk and the queer community is much more than a song or two. To that end, I refer to two fascinating pieces on LGBTQIA+ punk: Jayna Brown and Tavia Nyong’o’s 2020 NPR story, “Queer as Punk: A Guide To LGBTQIA+ Punk”; and Mark E. Moon’s 2022 article “Check Out These 10 Queer Punk Bands” from the Dallas Observer.

More broadly, though, I talk about the way punk welcomed all comers, especially outsiders of every stripe — including LGBTQIA+ people. Though far from perfect, the world of punk rock gave so many of us who didn’t fit in anywhere else a time and a place to breathe, to be ourselves even if we didn’t know who or what we were. And that was and always has been especially important for queer people.

I also highlight some of the more influential queer and queer-supportive punk acts, like the Buzzcocks, the Slits, the B-52s, Tom Robinson, and the great Joan Jett. (By the way, the B-52s song I mention, “Dirty Back Road,” is from the Wild Planet album released in 1980).

Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”

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In honor of Women’s History Month, this episode is dedicated to the great women in punk rock, many of whom have been overlooked and not given their due in what often seems like a traditionally “male” musical genre.

But first, I revisit a discussion from last week about Joe Strummer’s “your dollar bill is your vote” philosophy and the fact that making and listening to music is a give-and-take proposition. In short, as much as I admire and genuinely love a lot of artists, I don’t and never will believe in hero worship. So, it’s okay (and sometimes good!) to disagree with your favorite artists.

After that digression, I talk about the many women who influenced punk and made great punk music despite the odds and despite the perception that punk was, in a sense, men’s territory. Among the bands I listened to and re-acquainted myself with in preparation for this week’s show: L7, the Donnas, the Slits (who famously toured with the Clash in the late ’70s), Wendy O. Willams and the Plasmatics, Veruca Salt, and the great Joan Jett.

Speaking of whom, Joan Jett is this week’s selection for the Great Artist, Good People segment, and I take a long look at her career with the Runaways and the Blackhearts, her longtime collaboration with producer Kenny Laguna, and her latest album with the Blackhearts, the very solid acoustic LP, Changeup.

And, as promised, here is my Women of Punk playlist:

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, “Bad Reputation”

L7, “Pretend We’re Dead”

Wendy O. Williams, “It’s My Life”

The Donnas, “Too Bad About Your Girl”

The Slits, “Typical Girls”

Veruca Salt, “Seether”

So please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments. And as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”