Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are an American rock band led by artist Joan … Read Full Bio ↴Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are an American rock band led by artist Joan Jett. After The Runaways split in 1979, Jett pursued a solo career to explore the same aggressive punk style and met Kenny Laguna. Jett soon released her self-titled debut.

Shortly after that, with Kenny's assistance, Joan formed the backing group "The Blackhearts" with three obscure New York area musicians: Gary Ryan on bass, Eric Ambel (replaced shortly thereafter by Rick Byrd) on guitar and Lee Crystal on drums. After almost a year of touring, Joan's first album with The Blackhearts, entitled I Love Rock'N'Roll came out in December of 1981. The album included a version of "Little Drummer Boy" on the pre-Christmas editions. The album's impact on the music scene was immediate with the LP reaching the Top Five, while the single "I Love Rock'n'Roll" hit the very top of the Billboard's Charts on March 20, 1982 and stayed #1 for 7 weeks. Joan Jett had come back from nowhere.

A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with The Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. Jett was the second American act of any kind to perform behind the Iron Curtain, the first one being Blood, Sweat & Tears in Romania in 1969. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Forced label changes in the 80's led to a decline in popularity. Despite the follow-up albums "Album" and "Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth" being praised by her devout fans, neither got the attention or radio play the first two albums received.

After receiving her own MTV New Year's Eve special, Jett beat out a number of contenders to appear in the movie Light of Day with Michael J. Fox. It was about this time that Ryan and Crystal left the Blackhearts. They were soon replaced by the powerful rhythm section of Thommy Price and Kasim Sulton. Later that year, Jett released "Good Music", which featured appearances by The Beach Boys, The Sugarhill Gang and singer Darlene Love. The album only spawned two minor singles which received little airplay. This label decided the band had to either take in outside help or they would lose their contract.

And so they did. Her next release, Up Your Alley, went multi-platinum and was followed by "The Hit List", which was an international hit. Popular songwriter/producer Desmond Child was brought in, resulting in the release of album "Up Your Alley". This album brought the band a resurgence in popularity, with top 10 singles "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and "Little Liar".

This return to the spotlight would be short-lived, however. Follow-up album "The Hit List", an all-cover songs release, spawned only a minor hit with Jett's version of AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds".

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out ever.

1991 and 1994 had two more releases, "Notorious" and "Pure & Simple". But radio had started looking to grunge by this time, and neither album got the attention they deserved.

In the 1990s, Jett and Laguna released "Flashback", a compilation of her career so far on their own Blackheart Records. Her next release, "Notorious" (which featured The Replacements' Paul Westerberg) was the last with Sony/CBS as Jett switched to Warner Brothers.

In 1994, the Blackhearts released the well received Pure and Simple, which featured tracks written with Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland), Donita Sparks (L7) and Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill).

While a slew of hits packages, some with an occasional new or previously unreleased track were released following this, it would be 10 years before a new studio album would appear.

This would be 2004's "Naked", and thus far has been a Japan-only release. The album sees Jett returning to a more raw and experimental sound, closer to that of her first 4 releases than the polished material that began with "Good Music".

Failing to get "Naked" released in other markets, Jett released on a more international level "Sinner" in June 2006, on Blackheart Records, her own label.. This album featured many remixed tracks from "Naked", and a complete rewrite of "Stuck in the Middle" to new version "Riddles". Lead-off single and video was a cover of "A.C.D.C." by Sweet.

To support the album, the band appeared on the 2006 Warped Tour, and embarked on a Fall 2006 tour with Eagles of Death Metal.

After a long break from recording, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released a 6-song EP of new material, "Mindsets," in June 2023.

Wynnewood

Long Time
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's nice of you to say
We can still be friends
But what I need the most
Is never gonna be again
Sure I always knew we were worlds apart
But that don't help the sadness in my heart
It's gonna take a long time
To get you off my mind

Love like yours is hard to find
You'll never be mine
It's gonna take a long time
1234

Oh when we were together
Life was so complete
An' then you met that girl
An' I could not compete
Oh you are like a magnet with your ways
An' that's what I remember everyday
It's gonna take a long time
To get you off of my mind
Love like yours is hard to find
You'll never be mine
It's gonna take a long time
1234

Love is so complex
That's why I'm upset
Cause I'm no good for you
But still I can't forget
You can always wake the beast in me
That's the thing that never lets me be
It's gonna take a long time
To get you off of my mind
Love like yours is hard to find
You'll never be mine

It's gonna take a long time
1234

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' song Long Time explore the pain and sadness of a failed relationship. The singer acknowledges the kindness of the other person's offer to remain friends but admits that what they truly need is to move on completely. They reminisce about the good times they shared, but those happy memories are tainted by the knowledge that the relationship fell apart when the other person met someone else. The singer recognizes that love is a complicated emotion, and even though they know they're not right for each other, they can't help still feeling deeply attached.

The song communicates the internal struggle of trying to let go of someone they once loved while grappling with the reality that they're no longer together. The lyrics reveal the pain of unrequited love and the raw emotions that follow a breakup. Despite wanting to move on, the intense attraction and love that the singer feels make it incredibly challenging to do so. The phrase "It's gonna take a long time" is repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the difficulty of the situation and the time it takes to heal a broken heart.

Line by Line Meaning

It's nice of you to say
I appreciate your kind words

We can still be friends
But we can only be friends and nothing more

But what I need the most
What I truly desire

Is never gonna be again
Is something I can never have again

Sure I always knew we were worlds apart
I was aware that we were fundamentally different

But that don't help the sadness in my heart
But that realization doesn't alleviate the pain I feel

It's gonna take a long time
It will require a significant effort

To get you off my mind
To stop thinking about you

Love like yours is hard to find
Love that matches the intensity of what we had is rare

You'll never be mine
We can never be together

Oh when we were together
When we were in a relationship