Suzi Quatro may be forgotten by the young 'uns of today but for a lot of girls who eschewed bubble gum rock of the 70s (and yeah, even the 80's) the cool Ms. Quatro was the shit. Hell, even the bad ass Joan Jett has said that Suzi was not only an influence on her but on The Runaways as well (and you can't get any more awesome than that).
But we are talking about the 70s here people and girl rockers still had a hard time getting played on air, seen and/or generally respected (even Heart had issues). So for Quatro, relocating to England to pursue her music for a more welcoming audience (a move that some of the more talented chick rocker/singers have made in order to return back home to America as a star: Think Chrissie Hynde), seemed to be a wise move considering she began churning out songs like
Can the Can,
48 Crash and personal fave,
Daytona Demon that brought her the recognition that she so richly deserved (and a bad assery that would later be inspirational to the riot girrl movement of the 90s).
Of course fame can be a double-edge sword, for most of John Q Public the name Suzi Quatro doesn't exist, but say Leather Tuscadero to those of us in our late 30s to mid-40s and trust me, that
Happy Days reference still makes the boys come a 'runnin. The hard glitter/glam rocker appeared a few times as Fonzie's girlfriend's (Pinky Tuscadero) younger sister Leather, a tough singer in a band (that weirdly enough had Joanie Cunningham in it if I remember correctly) after Gary Marshall (the producing god of TV and Movies) saw a picture of her hanging on the wall of his daughter's bedroom.
Which in return made her a household name.
But let's face it even with that level of sitcom-related fame the show helped to bland down her image leaving her audience a bit, well, confused. Add to that the infiltration of Punk and New Wave making it's way into the younger generation's LP collection and soon Quatro sunk into the footnote of pop culture consciousness (at least here in the states).
But her story is far from over, Suzi is still active in music and acting back in England (where she has lived since the 70s) kicking ass and igniting some serious music appreciation for those girls smart enough to seek her out (her autobiography
Unzipped is pretty sweet if you're interested).
After the break is the song that made me a life-long lover of Ms. Quatro so check it out and afterward, if you dig it, download her stuff.
You'll be glad you did.
Read more »![]()
