Tuesday, February 16, 2010

that's where I fell for the leaders of the pack...


I love bad girls. Who wouldn't love them? They make life so easier and funnier, just by watching them in their devil-may-care attitude, facing up the bad boys. And it doesn't hurt if they have great style and sing too. There has been many girls that tried to be bad, or at least sassy, but I don't think they've never pulled it off like the original bad girls of rock, the Shangri-las.

Their bad girl image wasn't exactly an image per se, they WERE bad girls and had the cred to prove it: the trio grew up in a rough neighborhood of Queens, giving them enough tough skin to set them apart from their contemporaries. They even held up rumours of risky escapades, the most famous one being that lead singer Mary Weiss (blonde one) attracted the cops by transporting a firearm across state lines. Nevermind their cred, what about their singing? They weren't exactly Maria Callas reborn but their melodramas and "death" stories were far beyond their time.

MP3: The Shangri-las - Remember (Walking in the Sand)
MP3: The Shangri-las - Leader of the Pack

Several years went by since the Shangri-las split and the bad girls were not exactly moping about themselves, but about holding their own in a man's world, which is even harder. There is where the next set of bad girls (The Runaways) came in. Though they had a relatively short career, the teen group left an impact simply because they could rock as hard and as fast as the others. They designed themselves to emulate their heroes (David Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Queen's drummer Roger Taylor, etc), formed alliances with the hottest bands around and at one point they became the forth imported act in Japan, only behind Led Zeppelin, ABBA and Kiss.

MP3: The Runaways - Cherry Bomb
MP3: The Runaways - Queens Of Noise

Ps: be sure to look up the next biopic on The Runaways, starring Kirsten Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherrie Currie. Here's the trailer.
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