It was getting very grungy, particularly in Britain. By the second half of the 1970s, punk groups—the Sex Pistols, the Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Clash, Elvis Costello, Joy Division—had taken the anti-establishment messages of the 1960s and made them their own. Punks pierced their skin, put safety pins in their cheeks, ripped their black clothes and wore chains and military issue boots.
Disco—the antithesis of punk—reached its highpoint with the 1977 release of the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever, the John Travolta movie which made the Bee Gees its biggest stars along with Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor. Skirts were short and flouncy, shirts satin and there was lots of lycra and spandex even as Diane Keaton’s prissy, preppy look in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall was widely copied. But then so too were the bizarre costumes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which gained cult status all around the world.
At the close of 1979 Marianne Faithfull shook up the world with Broken English and Debbie Harry, Stevie Nicks, the Wilson sisters and Joan Jett were going hard. A young Pat Benatar had just scored herself a record deal and was poised to take the rock chick to new heights. Eleven fans were crushed to death at the Who concert in Cincinnati. Once again music was being blamed for society’s ills.
SUZI QUATRO
the Wild One
Suzi’s path into rock’n’roll began in Detroit, Michigan, in the 1960s. But it wasn’t until she moved to England in 1970 that her career kicked into gear. Suzi wasn’t about trying to fit into some accepted female model. She wanted to do her own thing—and that was playing rock’n’roll, hard, fast and loud, just like it should be.
She was as tough as she looked. Her signature outfit was a leather catsuit under which she was naked, much to the delight of her fans. Heavy boots, chains, tattoos (on wrist and shoulder) and a slap of lipstick (sometimes) completed the look. Suzi was a straight shooter with no feminine wiles. Her manner at times was described as brash. Many journalists branded her a tomboy, rough and ready. And that’s exactly what she was. For those who complained she lacked finesse, Suzi just laughed. ‘You can have class and ... excitement, but you can’t have them both together,’ she said. And Suzi was nothing if not excitement.
On stage she was a ball of frenetic energy, thrashing her bass and screaming into the microphone in a gruff, yet girly voice, backed by an all-male band. Other stars of the day—Marc Bolan, the Sweet, Gary Glitter, Mud—resorted to high heels, make-up and glamour costumes. But Suzi and her boys were hard-core rock: ‘I could play my instrument ... nobody has ever ... said you play OK for a girl.’
Susan Kay Quatro was born on 3 June 1950. The second youngest of five children of Art and Helen Quatro, Suzi spent her childhood in the affluent Detroit suburb of Grosse Point on the shores of Lake St Clair. The Quatro—originally Quatrocchio—family were a musical bunch, Art playing jazz when he wasn’t working in management at General Motors. Suzi was a huge Elvis Presley fan. From age seven, when she first saw him on TV, she knew rock’n’roll was the life she wanted.
when, at age seven, she first saw Elvis on TV she knew rock’n’roll was the life she wanted
Suzi made her professional debut with her father’s band when she was eight, putting in a spirited performance on the bongos. Trained in classical piano, by the time she hit her teens Suzi was losing interest in tinkling the ivories. She wanted a more active instrument.
The Quatro sisters put together the Pleasure Seekers, Detroit’s first all-girl rock group, in 1964. Suzi was designated bass player because no one else wanted the role. Once she started there was no looking back.
The bass, Suzi thought, was the most important instrument in any rock band, laying the foundation, along with the drums, on which the rest of the music was layered. Not only did she enjoy the thumping beat, but the weight of the instrument and the way she held its power between her legs was a real turn on. On stage in Detroit one night she had a sexual encounter with her guitar. ‘I was playing really low ... I felt this feeling come up and I had an orgasm right ... there.’
Suzi was more at home in jeans and T-shirt—even at the age of fourteen she was reluctant to play the stereotypical female role—but she was a realist. No one was interested in watching girls in trousers. So, along with her sisters, she put on a dress in order to get the band hired. But they were not demure or compliant. The Pleasure Seekers were loud, wild and showed that girls could rock as hard as the guys.
the reality of Vietnam was like a horror movie. Suzi and the band were encouraged to visit the hospital wards. ‘I saw ... horrific things,’ she said
Detroit was a hive of rock’n’roll activity. Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper were earning their stripes in the motor city. The Pleasure Seekers got their start at the Hideout, a club run by music promoter David Leone. Hideout Records, an offshoot of the club, gave young hopefuls a shot at the big time—artists including Ted Nugent, Glen Frey and Bob Seger recorded their first songs on the label.
The Pleasure Seekers released their first single, ‘What a Way to Die’/‘Never Thought You’d Leave Me’, in 1967. This led to an invitation from the American government to perform for the troops in Vietnam. Suzi and the gang were looking forward to the adventure, but the reality was like a horror movie. They were encouraged to visit the hospital wards. ‘I saw ... horrific things. I went out the ... door and fainted,’ she said. She was only seventeen.
Mercury Records picked them up and another single, ‘Good Kind of Hurt’/‘Light of Love’, was released in 1968 and received national airplay.
The Pleasure Seekers had various line-ups, but the core was Suzi on bass and lead vocals, her sisters Patti on lead guitar and Arlene playing keyboards, with drummer Nancy Ball. They spent nearly three years touring bars, clubs and some truly sleazy dives, singing everything from the Stones to Motown. It was hard going, performing multiple sets every night.
It was obvious that the Pleasure Seekers was never going to amount to anything but a club act. The band made a line-up change and reformed as Cradle. Arlene left to marry Leo Fenn, who had been the band’s manager and would later handle Alice Cooper—actress Sherilyn Fenn is their daughter. Suzi’s other sister Nancy joined as a vocalist. They began performing more of their own material and heavier rock, including Hendrix and Cream covers. But Cradle wasn’t destined for success anymore than its predecessor was. The girls began to lose interest.
The man who would change Suzi’s musical fortunes was at one of the last Cradle gigs in 1970. British record producer Mickie Most was in Detroit to work with Jeff Beck. Most had made his mark with the great Animals’ track ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and had formed RAK Records in London. When he caught Cradle at a local club, the band itself didn’t interest him. But the twenty-year-old bass player sparked his imagination. Mickie Most offered Suzi the chance to go to London to record a single. She didn’t hesitate. Those she left behind were furious.
Mickie Most offered Suzi the chance to go to London to record a single. She didn’t hesitate. Those she left behind were furious
The first long, lonely months in London were some of the blackest days of Suzi’s young life. Her first single was released in 1972. ‘Rolling Stone’, co-written by Suzi with Phil Dennys and the frontman of Hot Chocolate Errol Brown, was off the mark and didn’t take advantage of her rocking qualities. It didn’t make any impression on the charts, except in Portugal, where it went to number one.
To support the release of the single, and to earn her keep, she hit the road as a support act for British glam-rockers Slade with her newly formed band. The line-up featured Len Tuckey on guitar, Alastair McKenzie on keyboards and Keith Hodge on drums. Being on the road with one of the hottest acts in the country was a quantum leap from the days of touring with the Pleasure Seekers. At last, Suzi was getting a taste of the rock’n’roll life she was certain she’d been born to.
Suzi thought the bass was the most important in
strument in a rock band. And the weight of the instrument, the way she held its power between her legs, was a real turn on
The lacklustre performance of the ‘Rolling Stone’ single prompted Mickey Most to call on the songwriting genius of Australian Mike Chapman and partner Londoner Nicky Chinn, the talent behind hits for the Sweet and Mud. They came up with the catchy ‘Can the Can’ and the public gobbled it up. Released in 1973, ‘Can the Can’ became a solid gold hit for Suzi, making number one in Britain, Europe, Japan and Australia—a country that embraced Quatro and where one of her biggest and most loyal fan bases remains.
With ‘Can the Can’ came a new image. Gone was the soft-lens portrait of Suzi in blue jeans sitting in a field and looking dreamy—the photo used for the cover of ‘Rolling Stone’. The Suzi of ‘Can the Can’ was poured into a leather jumpsuit that showed every ripple of her athletic body. Soon critics were describing her as if she were a porn star. ‘Underwear is what Suzi Quatro doesn’t wear anymore,’ raved one reporter in 1974. ‘No bras or panties, just lots of chains and big boots ... and [her] bass thrust between her legs.’ Very British tabloid.
she declined Elvis’s invitation to Graceland. She couldn’t imagine being in the same room as the King
Another described listening to ‘Can the Can’ as a sexual experience: Suzi ‘rips your clothes off, licks your spine with her hot tongue, and then slices into your back with razor blades.’ Her uni-sexuality, as she described it—the word ‘androgynous’ would only enter the rock’n’roll vocabulary later, with Annie Lennox—was confusing, tantalising, mysterious and it was seriously sexy.
In the 1970s usually an artist released one single after another in quick succession before putting down a first album. ‘Can the Can’ was followed by ‘48 Crash’ and ‘Daytona Demon’, all written by Chapman and Chinn. Some reviewers dismissed Suzi as a lightweight. But the record-buying public disagreed. The second two singles both made it into the British top twenty, with ‘48 Crash’ reaching the top five. They were also chart hits across Europe and in Japan and Australia.
Her first album, Suzi Quatro, released in 1973, featured Suzi in leathers on the cover together with the boys in her band, including new drummer Dave Neal, in singlet tops. It was an image of a woman who was tough, played the game just like a man and was the undisputed leader of her gang. For once the publicity hype was true. Rumour has it that Hodge left the band because Tuckey won the heart of the lead singer. Neal was brought in to fill the gap left by Hodge’s departure. The album was a hit. Suzi and Tuckey collaborated on a number of songs on the album, including ‘Glycerine Queen’, which became a favourite.
In the space of twelve months Suzi had gone from virtual obscurity to sought-after chart-topper. She appeared on a number of European TV music shows and performed on German TV no less than three times that year. During the band’s choreographed routines Suzi would hold her guitar high above her head and dance in unison with her band mates, driving the teenage audiences wild. Soon Suzi Q clones began to spring up across Europe as young girls picked up guitars and squeezed into leather.
At times the attention was overwhelming. When Elvis Presley heard her cover of ‘All Shook Up’ on her debut album he invited her to Graceland. She declined. She couldn’t imagine being in the same room as the King. ‘I didn’t feel worthy to meet my absolute hero.’
Despite her growing notoriety, she was incredibly grounded. In the early days of the Pleasure Seekers her father had counselled his daughters that playing music professionally needed to be treated like any other business.
At a time when female stars in Britain were in the mould of Olivia Newton-John, Brenda Lee and Lulu—and Marianne Faithfull’s true self was still submerged—Suzi stood out like a wicked fox in among the chickens. The titillation factor inflated her status to pin-up girl and she was asked to pose as the centrefold in one of the girlie magazines. She accepted with one stipulation—she keep her clothes on. ‘It doesn’t take any talent to take off your clothes,’ she said. Suzi became the first woman to do a centre spread fully clothed. As one male reviewer said later, who needs clothes when you’re wearing liquid leather. Rock’n’roll may have been dominated by men but Suzi was changing the rules of engagement.
Suzi Q clones began to spring up across Europe as young girls picked up guitars and squeezed into leather
The 1974 ‘Devil Gate Drive’, penned by Chapman and Chinn, went straight to the top of the British charts—although back home in the USA Quatro was virtually unknown. The single was followed by ‘The Wild One’, which also made it into the top ten. ‘Too Big’, a single from her second Chapman and Chinn produced album, Quatro, became her third top twenty hit for the year. She made two tours of the USA supporting Kiss and Grand Funk Railroad. And when she came to Australia for the first time that year, folklore has it that the Hells Angels met her at Melbourne airport and escorted her into the city. Suzi’s third album in as many years, Your Mamma Won’t Like Me, contained another two Chapman Chinn British chart successes.
As her profile rose, the media sought to label her. But the tough-talking Yank from Detroit wasn’t going to let anyone tell her what or who she was or how she should act. She shot straight from the hip, leaving no room for her words to be misinterpreted. To complaints she was unladylike, she simply remarked, ‘If I swear too much, tough shit.’ Was she a lesbian? No. She drew criticism for her music, pundits suggesting Suzi Quatro was manufactured because she was from the Chapman Chinn stable. Suzi reminded them she had been rocking for nearly a decade before she came to London. She was a serious musician and if you wanted to see sparks fly all you had to do was challenge her on that point.
Having being labelled a ‘pop tart’ by rock bible Rolling Stone when she first hit the scene, Suzi made its cover in 1975. Her female contemporaries usually sang about love and wanting that man. Suzi was singing about male menopause, the shock value of wearing inappropriate clothing and what it feels like to discover another woman’s lipstick on your boyfriend’s mouth. She sang about the things people dealt with on an everyday basis, exposing the layers below the façade. She was interested in human emotions, not making political statements. ‘Politics and music don’t mix,’ she said.
That year she and the boys hit the road as a support act to Suzi’s old Detroit mate Alice Cooper on his six-month Welcome to My Nightmare tour of the USA. Cooper was riding the crest of a massive wave of popularity and he filled huge stadiums around the country. But even with this level of exposure, success stateside eluded Suzi. The Americans weren’t ready for female rock’n’rollers.
Suzi was singing about male menopause, the shock value of inappropriate clothing and what it’s like to discover another woman’s lipstick on your boyfriend’s mouth
Suzi lived to perform and motored through the monotonous days of travelling on buses and sleeping in a different bed every night with relative ease, armed with a bottle of gin, crosswords and a good sense of humour. But she had no interest in getting wasted.
Having determined not to return to the USA to live, Suzi bought a sixteenth-century manor house near Chelmsford in Essex, less than 100 kilometres east of London. It became her sanctuary where she could relax, write songs and chill out after months on the road. But Suzi spent more time on the road, in buses and on planes than she did in her adopted country.
Aggro-phobia, her fourth album, was released in 1977 and introduced a new member of the Suzi Quatro band, Mike Deacon, who replaced Alistair MacKenzie on keyboards. Produced by Mickie Most, the album was an eclectic mix, with the Elvis classic ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ included alongside Steve Harley’s ‘Make Me Smile’ and an Everly Brothers cover, ‘Wake Up Little Susie’. The one Chapman Chinn song, ‘Tear Me Apart’, became Aggro-phobia’s only single to make it into the British top thirty. Suzi also produced a live album which was recorded while she was on tour in Japan in 1977 in Tokyo and Osaka to feed the insatiable appe
tite of her Japanese fans.
New Wave punk was gathering momentum and Suzi didn’t fit the bill
Crossing the Atlantic again that year, Suzi tried her hand at acting. She appeared in the hugely popular American sitcom Happy Days playing Leather Tuscadero, the younger sister of Fonzie’s girlfriend Pinky and a character not unlike herself. The sitcom was a perfect audience for Suzi’s music. But mainstream American rock fans still weren’t moved enough to buy her records. Years later she stated that Mickie Most could have done more to push her records in the American market, but he released them on small labels that didn’t have much promotional power.
While Suzi was rocking her heart out in Britain and across Europe, rock chicks like Debbie Harry were slinking across New York stages taunting with a different kind of sexuality. New wave punk was gathering momentum and Suzi didn’t fit the bill.
Suzi and guitarist Len Tuckey, who had been together for some time, married in 1978, twice—first in England and then in a traditional ceremony in Japan. Maybe marriage had an effect, but If You Knew Suzi ... released that year introduced a new, softer edged rock chanteuse sans leather and tough-bitch attitude. Pictured on the album cover in jeans and a blouse, this Suzi was a heartbreaker not a ball-breaker. The album featured three new Chapman Chinn songs, including the top five hit ‘If You Can’t Give Me Love’. There were also covers of Ray Davies’ ‘Tired of Waiting’, Tom Petty’s ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Evie’ written by songwriting duo Vanda and Young.
Then at last, in 1979, Suzi had her first real chart success in America, hitting number four on the Billboard charts with the unlikely ballad, ‘Stumblin’ In’, a duet with Chris Norman from British band Smokie. And If You Knew Suzi ... became her highest charting US album, making it into the top forty.
at last, in 1979, Suzi had her first real chart success in America, hitting number four on the Billboard charts with the unlikely ballad, ‘Stumblin’ In’, a duet with Chris Norman
Rock Chicks Page 6