Suzi Quatro was Glam’s very own badass,  a rock chick version of Emma Peel from The Avengers, with the same taste in black leather catsuits.

I’m not sure the word ‘badass’ was invented back in 1973 but with her skintight black leather zip-through catsuit and her low-slung bass guitar, Suzi Q was the eptome of a badass rock chick.

A German journalist once inquired why she had chosen the bass guitar as her instrument. Suzi said she liked the sound and “the vibrations went just where I need ’em.”

48 Crash followed hot on the heels of Can The Can. It starts a stomping drum beat and a massive guitar riff, then some barrelhouse piano comes in. Quatro screeches some unintelligible gibberish, and there’s a great chorus, embellished by some neat fills by her guitarist and husband, Len Tuckey. What more could a boy want from Chinn and Chapman?

According to my source (Wikipedia) the song “has long been assumed to be about male menopause.” Not by me; I never gave it that much thought. And frankly, at that age I didn’t know what the menopause was – male or female.

However, according to the esteemed critic DJ Taylor: “Pop aficionados often hazard that its true origins like in a challenge issued to Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who had bragged that they could write ‘a song about anything’ to come up with a treatment of the 1848 United States economic crisis.”

Not that you’d know it from the lyrics: “The 48 crash come like a lightning flash / And it’s a silk sash bash.” Me neither. I was too mesmerised by Suzi in her black leather jumpsuit and silver stack heels.