A lot of people counted out the gals from The Runaways when Kim Fowley’s manufactured girl group split entered in the late 70s. But those people had not taken notice of the considerable forces that are Joan Jett and Lita Ford. By 1984, singer/guitarist Jett had already established herself as the queen of a new generation of female rockers and lead guitarist Lita Ford was reinventing herself as a sultry heavy metal goddess who would give all of the male axe-slingers a run for their money throughout the golden age of the guitar hero.

Here below is Lita Ford with the official video for “Gotta Let Go,” the second single from her second solo album Dancing On The Edge.

When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the early ’80s, there was very limited access to heavy music. These were the days before MTV blew up with the whole hair metal, Headbangers Ball phenomenon. But on Sunday nights, there was a two-hour radio show that came from WOXY, the radio station of Miami University of Ohio, just across the state line in Oxford, Ohio. It was called Massive Metal for the Masses and I would wait all week for it to air. It was through this show that I was introduced to bands like Venom, Bathory, WASP, Michael Schenker Group, Slayer, and countless others. This Monday weekly column is my tip of the hat to that show. I call it Massive Metal Monday. Every week, I will pay tribute to defining moments by the artists that laid the groundwork for heavy metal to become the worldwide cultural bond for all of us metal heads.

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