Suzi Quatro: The star who inspired The Runaways
There’s always been some question as to why so few women have become rock and roll icons in the genre’s prime. As much as Tina Turner and Janis Joplin could hang with the biggest names in rock, they always felt like the one exception to the rule whenever they were next to fellow icons like Mick Jagger or Jim Morrison. Although The Runaways helped smash down those boundaries when they embraced punk rock, they would have been nothing if not for Suzi Quatro.
Because looking at what The Runaways brought to rock and roll, none minced their words for a second. Joan Jett and Cherie Currie may have still been finding their feet as musicians, but listening to a song like ‘Cherry Bomb’, there was no way that anyone was going to mess with them once they got off the stage.
But while they were still cutting their teeth, the biggest female names in rock were still being looked at for their presence rather than their playing. Stevie Nicks had been known for embracing her inner Welsh witch whenever she performed, and even though Joplin could belt her lungs out, many people were coming to the show for the sheer power of her voice rather than whether she was hitting every note correctly.
When Quatro debuted alongside them, though, she made the bravado seem mandatory for any female with a guitar in their hands. As she pumped out the best bass riffs she could, hearing her voice was also a change of pace. She wasn’t as heavenly as the Wilson sisters from Heart, but hearing some of that gravel in her voice meant that there was room for a woman who could sing with the same gusto Mick Jagger could.
Quatro may have been following her muse half the time, but she never realised what she had until she talked to Currie later, saying, “I was talking to my friend Cherie Currie from The Runaways over the phone from LA afterwards, and I said, ‘I just realised something – by me doing what I did, I gave permission to women all over the world to be different.’”
That wasn’t even the first time that Quatro’s influence was shown, with Jett telling Sounds at the time, “She’s my idol. When I first heard her in 74 I thought, ‘GODDAMN! A girl playing rock n roll!’ Then when I went to see her I couldn’t believe it!” And looking at where Jett took her music, it’s hard to think of Quatro as the only godmother of that, especially in the way she grabbed her audience by the throat when making songs like ‘Bad Reputation’.
Because looking at the long line of women in rock and roll, it’s easy to draw a straight line from Quatro to everyone else. Considering how well the Runaways worked off each other, the lineage from Quatro to Joan Jett has extended to everyone from Sleater-Kinney to Debbie Harry to Chrissie Hynde.
But beyond the music, Quatro had a message to send to anyone who thought that women couldn’t play as well as men could. And for anyone still holding onto that argument, listen to ‘Devil Gate Drive’ and correct your mistake.
