Runaways - Mercury Albums Anthology
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CD Details
Artist: RunawaysEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-03-16
Music Label: Hip-O Select
Soundtracks:
- Cherry Bomb
- You Drive Me Wild
- Is It Day Or Night?
- Thunder
- Rock & Roll
- Lovers
- American Nights
- Blackmail
- Secrets
- Dead End Justice
- Queens of Noise Live
- California Paradise Live
- All Right You Guys Live
- Wild Thing Live
- Gettin' Hot Live
- Rock N Roll Live
- You Drive Me Wild Live Live
- Neon Angels on the Road To Ruin Live
- I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are Live
- Cherry Bomb Live
- American Nights Live
- C'Mon Live
- Queens of Noise
- Take It Or Leave It
- Midnight Music
- Born To Be Bad
- Neon Angels on the Road To Ruin
- I Love Playin' with Fire
- California Paradise
- Hollywood
- Heartbeat
- Johnny Guitar
- Little Sister12, Wasted
- Gotta Get Out Tonight
- Wait For Me
- Fantasies
- School Days
- Trash Can Murders
- Don't Go Away
- Waitin' For the Night
- You're Too Possessive
Music reviews of Mercury Albums Anthology
Music Review: Terrific collection of The Runaways four Mercury albums
Rating: 5 Stars
With the Runaways biopic getting a major market push, it was a no-brainer for their oft-ignored catalog to get a fresh reissue. Contained in this set are the three studio albums the group recorded for Mercury (The Runaways, Queens of Noise and Waitin' For the Night), and a live album originally released as an import (Live in Japan). This represents the heart and soul of the Runaways' catalog, and though a post-Mercury album (And Now... The Runaways), an odds `n' sods collection (Flaming Schoolgirls) and prehistoric demos (Born to Be Bad) can be found, they're the province of completists. For those new to the group's repertoire this four-LPs-on-two-CDs set will tell you everything you need to know - if not a bit more - about the group's recorded legacy.
The Runaways' self-titled 1976 debut tells most of the story: five girls who are both a legitimate rock group and puppets of their Svengali producer, Kim Fowley. The dynamic of teenage hormones, rock `n' roll dreams and jailbait marketing gave the album both muscle and sexual sizzle. Joan Jett proved herself a songwriter with an uncommon touch for evoking mid-70s Los Angeles teendom, and she and Cherie Currie sang with a conviction that couldn't be faked. The band's playing could be plodding and clumsy in spots, but it was still surprisingly powerful. The group's 1977 follow-up, Queens of Noise, followed the same template, but within it you could hear the group was a year wiser to the perils of rock `n' roll. Abused by their managers and worn down by the road, they were staring at the madness that would cause the band to implode.
The group's live album, recorded before an enthusiastic audience in Japan, shows how well the act translated to the stage. As on their debut, the playing isn't particularly refined, but Currie shows herself to be a commanding front-woman, and Sandy West holds down the beat with power and authority. The Runaways' final studio release for Mercury, Waitin' For the Night, saw the band reconfigured: Cherie Currie and Jackie Fox were gone, and with them went some of the band's overt sex appeal. The former's vocal spotlight fell to Joan Jett, the latter's bass playing to Vicki Blue, and the focus to the band's music. Jett seized the opportunity to assert herself as group leader, rising to the challenge of writing most and singing all of the album's tracks. In the album's wake Jett proved, at least to listeners, if not immediately to the record industry, that she was a star in the making. Lita Ford's two metal-tinged originals also pointed to post-Runaways commercial success.
If you're new to the group and not ready to invest in the anthology, the self-titled debut album is the place to start. If you want to get a feel for their career arc, the short collection 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Runaways or the out of print The Best of the Runaways effectively sample their catalog. But if you're hooked and want to hear it all, there are winners to be found on all three of their studio albums, and the live release fleshes out the picture of rock `n' roll life on the road circa 1977. The Runaways weren't the greatest rock band of their era, but they were trailblazers whose albums captured a time and a place from a young, female perspective that was, and remains to this day, theirs alone. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]
Description of Mercury Albums Anthology
Theirs was a story truly born on the streets of Hollywood and left for all to review in the annals of recorded music. The history of the Runaways, now coming to life again on the big screen (with Kristen Stewart in the role of Joan Jett), is one of discovery, strong determination, bravado, teen lust and what would later become, to some, "a can of worms."But what we have to reflect back on are four albums: The Runaways, Queens of Noise, Live in Japan, and Waitin' For the Night. All 42 songs that were included on those original albums made for Mercury are contained on two CDs and available now from Hip-O Select.
In 1976, after making several personnel changes since their seminal formation just a year prior, the newly assembled, five-member, all-female, L.A.-based band--all underage minors at the time--and their Svengali-like producer, Kim Fowley, caught the attention of Mercury Records and, soon enough, the dotted lines were signed. In a span of under three years, with different band members and collaborators, they generated three studio albums and one live recording, taped at performances in front of enthusiastic crowds with their biggest fans present in Japan. The phenomenon of this early grrl band may have been lopsided with their spotty, regional appeal, but they broke the mold and set the trend for future female rockers to come.
Comprised of teenagers using various "stage names," the original members often referred to as "jailbait rockers" within the industry--Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox--had stars in their eyes and a fire in their bellies. And they learned their instruments on the fly while developing their songwriting skills under the supervision of Fowley, who maintained his role of producer as tensions mounted over a few short years and the band, since all was not rosy below the surface, inevitably began to disintegrate and change course. That's happened to a lot of groups for various reasons if you check the record books. With the Runaways, it, too, was probably a matter of time--but their time is certainly now.
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