Old Enough to Forget

Your Mama Won't Like Me was released in 1975 and was her third album in three years, as well as the follow-up to '74s Quatro. Yes, I know most of that sentence is clunky, but it says what I wanted it to say. Once again she partnered with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who produced the album and wrote three of the songs. The balance of the material was written by Suzi and Len Tuckey, except for the cover of "Fever," initially made famous by Peggy Lee and since covered by everyone from Elvis to Madonna. Suzi's band was still anchored by Suzi on bass and Len Tuckey on guitar. Dave Neal was on drums, and Alastair McKenzie was on keys. This was the same lineup as 1974's Quatro . It's strange they weren't credited on the cover ... I guess we were supposed to recognize them from their pictures. Speaking of credits, the album didn't have a lot of them, but they included Chris Mercer (tenor sax), Mick Eve (tenor sax), Steve Gregory (tenor sax), Bud Beadle (b...

Suzi ... and Other Four Letter Words was another in a long line of Mike Chapman produced albums for Suzi Quatro. It's a mystery as to how Mr. Chapman found the time to work in Suzi when he had been working with The Knack and then Blondie on their breakthrough albums that same year.  I never really kept up with Suzi Quatro in real time. I was less than a casual fan and aside from when I heard "Devil Gate Drive" as a kid, didn't know any of her songs. The little AM station in my small town seemed to play it over and over back in 1974. Of course the reality was this all likely happened over the course of a week ... but hey, time is different when you're young. Other than Happy Days and that one song I really didn't know much about her, other than she looked good in black leather. 1979 was the height of new wave (disco was still huge too, but let's pretend it wasn't), Suzi Quatro dropped a glam infused collection of tight pop songs that were honestly a ...

Well, I am a little ashamed to admit that 11-year-old me generally didn't think girls should sing rock songs. I mean, I liked some Olivia Newton-John songs I heard on the radio, and I'll even admit that when Helen Reddy sang "I Am Woman" in 1972, I sang along. It was catchy, shoot me. Our shitty AM radio station where I grew up would occasionally play rock songs, and for what seemed like an eternity, "Devil Gate Drive" got special treatment and was played over and over and over. I really liked it. I remember my mum turning off the radio - that just made it better. I mean, it wasn't B.T.O., but she had a growl and she was killing it. I don't think I ever really thought about it again after that brief period of time. Sure, like a lot of other kids, when she showed up as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days it was like, "Ooh." In hindsight, I think this pushed her into the realm of caricature and used up any rock credibility she had accumulated. Th...