THE DONNAS vs. THE RUNAWAYS

[Guy Herremerre]

Hi everyone,

The Donnas get often compared to the Runaways. For my part, I think that the Donnas evolved in a much more natural way than the Runaways and therefor I prefer the Donnas.
Have any of you some thoughts to share about this?

 

[a_fan]

Don't know much about the Runaways to be honest.
But isn't those comparisons mostly a case of the usual - oh, two all girls band. They must be the same. No matter how different they are in reality.

 

[Guy Herremerre]

I am fully aware that all comparisons are tricky business, especially between The Donnas and the Runaways.
Surely you must know Joan Jett with "I love rock'n'roll" and Lita Ford. The point I want to discuss is that the Runaways were put together by their svengali Kim Fowley and that they burnt out very quickly - maybe also because the time wasn't ripe in 1976 for a full blown "chick" band - , while the Donnas did everything on their own terms and I like that a lot more; the Donnas made infinitely more interesting records for it in their latter stages. Also, the fact that Spend the night is still my favourite album (because it is so unique and mindblowing) doesn't mean that it wasn't right to follow it up with Gold medal; in fact, this was the best thing for the Donnas to do: to change. In that respect, I was very disappointed that a paper like the NME only gave that album 4 or 3 out of 10; maybe I would have given Gold medal less than Spend the night, but the mark NME gave that album was really harsh, although it was probably inevitable (the NME is reknowned for such tactics, in spite of their denial, telling that there are different journalists with different views working at their paper).
As for the Runaways debate: I quite like what Lita Ford did afterwards. And I definitely don't think that all girl bands are the same because they are all girl bands. Surely, Warpaint (another favourite band of mine) are not the Donnas, and Warpaint, the Runaways, the Donnas are different from Fanny or Tribe 8...
Well, I stop giving arguments to join this debate here; it's just a bit of fun.

 

[Guy Herremerre]

http://www.last.fm/user/Musilov
this is another site of me

 

[sk]

The Runaways sure had a much faster and crazier rider than the Donnas and sadly the burned out very quickly.

The Donnas background is very solid and I wonder if you can have better ground to build a band on.
They could grow into their fame more slowly and with both feets on the ground at all time. While the runaways seemed to sky rocket to the top and they lost their grip all too soon.

I've heard many times how the Donnas tells young kids that want to start a band to do it with close friends instead of the best musicians.
Thinks that's an excellent advice. Could the runaways had done better if they were best friends from early childhood? I like to think so anyway.

 

[Guy Herremerre]

Yeah, I believe that as well - and I think that music is a lot healthier than it was in those days; often, older music fans like me complain about music not being as good as it was then, but in that respect, I believe that things have gone for the better now. Still, I think the Donnas are quite unique in the kind of music they chose to make (well, ok it's very American!) and also in the way they made it. There is a new band called Cherri Bomb that just started, but I don't know I will like them as much. Another band I liked a lot too was Betty Blowtorch, who came to a halt in a very unfortunate way. And this leaves the Donnas as the last band of their sort...

 

[a_fan]

I missunderstood what you was talking about Guy, sorry.

How would you guys compare the bands fame?
Was the runaways a more known band back in their days than the donnas was at their peak?

More fame oftens means more pressure and demands for fans, labels and others which inevitable makes it harder to keep it together as a band.

 

[Guy Herremerre]

The Runaways were very popular in Japan; their only live album was recorded there. I don't know if they were more popular than the Donnas - their popularity was of a completely different nature, I think. One of their members, Joan Jett got more famous afterwards, worldwide with a song called "I love rock'n'roll" and became somewhat of a figurehead for female rockers. Another of their members, Lita Ford , was managed by Sharon Osbourne, and carved a nice niche for herself in American hard rock (if you like Alison's guitar solos, Lita's are great as well!) . I think the pressure for the Runaways was more that they were almost the only female rock band in those days and they were pressured to do better than their male counterparts, using sexuality as a plus as well. I think this kind of big label pressure had lessened considerably when the Donnas came on the scene. But by then, punk and postpunk had replaced hardrock in the hearts of younger music fans, especially in Europe, and this made the Donnas quite a unique proposition.

 

[a_fan]

Thanks for all the info Guy.
I do know about Joan Jett of course, 'I love rock 'n' roll' is a favorite. Haven't really heard much of Lita Fords stuff though.

Japan seems to like all female rock bands. Wasn't the donnas popular over there early in their career too?