A thread specifically for the Go-Go's

Pleasant Gehman's new podcast "The Devil's Music" opens with a lively chat with Belinda Carlisle featuring tales of the early LA punk demimonde and the Go-Go's in their starvation days

Thanks for the recommendation!

new Showtime doc is great

Psyched to see that after reading Kathy Valentine's book. The Go-Go's story seems more incredible the more you look at it and put it into perspective.

it really is

Biggest surprise for me (SPOILER ALERT) was that the last-second replacement Go-Go, Paula Jean Brown, wrote Belinda’s first big solo hit.

And it’s funny, I vividly remember hearing Casey Kasem on American Top 40 introduce “Head Over Heels” by talking about how the Go-Go’s had cleaned up and gotten sober prior to recording Talk Show. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.

Just check out that Cinemax special I linked to upthread, because Belinda showing off her Troll doll collection and Kathy giving an interview in full evening wear while riding an exercise bike is totally sane and sober behavior.

If my friend Melissa Henry were to ever Google herself I really hope she lands on this thread, because she is without a doubt the biggest Go-Go's fan I've ever known and would be able to make lots of helpful contributions to this thread. And she has absolutely been raving about the Showtime documentary for DAYS.

I recreened URGH!: A Music War for the umpteenth time last week. The Go-Gos clip is one of the numerous highlights; you can already tell they were gonna be huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaZiYv5Chio

n 2020, a documentary movie about the band premiered at Sundance, directed by Allison Ellwood after the band saw her work on the 2013 History of the Eagles documentary. In the US, the movie was seen on television on Showtime. The documentary features the formation and rise of the band through the 1980s breakup, skipping the lawsuits and reunions through the 1990s-2010s, ending with a 2019 reunion. On July 31, 2020, the Go-Go's released their first new song in 19 years, "Club Zero," which is featured in the documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL_ZxNpPejE&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL_ZxNpPejE&feature=emb_title

let's try this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23_LkaLE29k

really great doc

Has Kathy Valentine’s book been discussed?

Yes, I see it has been mentioned.

I love this band more in the last few year than I ever did.

So much so that you made a vary rare- for you- typo.

How vary?

Ha, not very rare for me though

Watched the doc today. It was good. For some reason I always perceived Charlotte as the goody goody of that band, but I was obvs pretty off the mark. Kinda feel bad about even listening to Talk Show now considering how destructive it was for everyone involved.

At least I learned "Mad About You" was originally going to be a Go-Go's song, which makes a ton of sense. It's pretty atypical of Belinda's solo repertoire.

For a thread specifically for the Go-Go's, there is a distinct absence of Go-Go's.

(Unless you're all using fake names. Fess up, gals!)

I was so impressed with how each member came off like her own person. I didn't know Wiedlin and Schock dated! And Kathy Valentine, as I suspected, is as smart and sharp as her songs.

i loved their manager, she seemed so cool & smart! i mean, saving them from giving up publishing alone. #hero
many stories go differently with bad early managers. was genuinely moved by how much she seemed to care about them before they gave her up

and i would watch a whole doc about their tour of England w the Specials

I didn't realize until a few years ago that every Go-Go except Belinda wrote songs. Talk Show boasted every combination, and they could all write.

yeah that was a fascinating detail

No song doctors or studio musicians.

I think a couple of future Go-gos accompanied Terry Graham on the Sex Pistols tour of the Southern States. Think he went out with one for a while, certainly hung out with some of them in the Masque days of LA punk.

In hindsight something seems a bit rash about the Go-Go's original breakup. Though it's idle speculation I wonder what a Wiedlin-less 4th Go-Go's album in 1985 would've sounded like. Charlotte says they had no songs at that point, but if Paula Jean had "Mad About You" maybe she had others. Was Belinda already fully committed to a softer sound or would Kathy have fought back to keep it hard-edged à la Talk Show. Or would it have been some kind of hybrid compromise.

If they had allowed Weidlin to sing lead on a couple of the songs that she had written she might not have quit, then they could have continued without Belinda Carlisle she she went off for a solo career. A Belinda-less 4th album sounds better than a Wiedlin-less one.

I thought the story about "Forget That Day" was an urban myth

It is in that new documentary.

I've ordered Kathy Valentine's book but it's not here yet. Fully intend to watch the doc too.

I've always loved them, but I secretly suspect that part of the spark for reawakening interest might just be the renewed presence of Bill & Ted (onnaconna how Jane Wiedlin played Joan of Arc, donchaknow, omg I am an OLD)

Kathy Valentine emerges as the best songwriter.

Every tune that Kathy had a hand in writing is a good one.

That said, "Vacation" is a textbook example of turning a good song (that Kathy brought) into a classic after Charlotte wrote a new chorus and Jane rewrote the opening lyric. That plus the group's fantastic arrangement and Gottehrer's production.

No quarrel with that. I think Charlotte's best contribution remains "Head Over Heels."

which is also like one of the best songs in existence, so.

and Valentine co-wrote it

I'd love to go back in time and see them again -- tied for the loudest show I've been to, louder than Sunn O))), louder than Faust.

Wiedlin's first solo album is a bit of drag, but I'll vouch for Fur and Tangled pretty unreservedly.

Belinda's albums were never not spotty, but some damn good singles.

Charlotte's album as The Graces isn't phenomenal or anything, but "Lay Down Your Arms" is one of the best singles by anybody in the Poppy Bush Interzone.

Never heard House of Schock, but I probably should.

I don't remember the rest of Wiedlin's first album (which I picked up for 99 cents in a cutout bin a few years after it came out), but "Blue Kiss" is a fine tune.

Oh hey, House of Schock is pretty good (but not sure I had high expectations, so gauge accordingly).

Let us not forget Cool Places

Remarkable to me how late into Vacation the chorus arrives. I mean it's not *that* late but ..further into the song than most bands would put it.

Extraordinary how little attention the recieved over here, none of their big hits went anywhere, and even Beauty And The Beat did nowt.

https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4803/go-gos/

And once the chorus in Vacation arrives the song doesn't ever return to the verse, just the "One week without you..." bridge-y part. This is another change from Kathy Valentine's original version.

I'm slightly obsessed with this Rockpalast video from 1982. (For the curious, "Vacation" starts around 35 minutes in; "Our Lips Are Sealed" about 46; "We Got the Beat" at 56.) Everything one could plausibly say about this band is true. Pop or punk? Yes. Serious or fun? Yes. A live act or a studio creation? Yes.

I didn't see them live in this period (partly because I was 10 years old). I did see them much later, on one of those nostalgia bills with Psychedelic Furs and B-52s. Fun, but it must have been quite something to see them when they were at their peak.

Extraordinary how little attention the recieved over here, none of their big hits went anywhere, and even Beauty And The Beat did nowt.

https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4803/go-gos/

― piscesx, Thursday, September 10, 2020 7:43 AM (

yet y'all loved Belinda Carlisle! Go figure.

There is something in their aesthetic that seems very American, but it would be hard to define precisely.

Like, a cheerful surface sheen with teeth beneath. Vs. I guess a more British mode of the time is a surface of purported gloom, with joy beneath (lots of Cure and Smiths has this aspect).

As soon as I type that I realize it's riddled with exceptions and caveats so I should probably just shut up.

That Rockpalast show is awesome. IIRC, at some point Caffey fumbles the opening riff on one of the songs, and you can see Carlisle quickly hop over to her and kind of pat her shoulder.

C. Grisso/McCain, I love it all so much. For all her dorky white-girl arm-swinging, Carlisle has a determined, possibly tired, air. Caffey is self-critical and precise. Valentine and Schock are solid professionals at this point. Weidlin alone appears to be having a good time, bopping about in furry boots and a swishy skirt, then her tone is so greBt in the bridge of "Our Lips Are Sealed." I love seeing seemingly effortless performances that nevertheless reveal how much fucking WORK went into them.

xpost It was really difficult for new bands to get popular on both sides of the Atlantic back then. Devo, B-52s, Psychedelic Furs etc did next to nothing in the UK, while bands that were huge in the UK like Specials, Human League, Squeeze etc couldn't do anything in the US.

“couldn’t do anything” perhaps not quite the right assessment of the Human League’s US chart career: two #1 hits, one more that went top 10, plus three lower-charting top 40 hits.

(they only had one UK number one!)

So I have the Valentine book and am reading it. So far my favorite thing is meeting Jane Wiedlin.

Jane is described as elfin - but not metaphorically, as in, impish or cute, but actually frickin dressed as an elf. Like literally, in green felt with a pointy hat and curly shoes.

I loved that frosted album that Jane did.

Was pleased to see it's on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2wYTkj39bBAvQcOtpJJ4fW?si=zk5tpz_lRKKEiLNxtNt6JQ

I had it on cassette back in the day but got rid of them all about a year ago.

Oh shit I'd completely forgotten about Frosted

I never really payed much attention to Vacation (the song) before but I've been more or less obsessed with it lately. Someone upthread mention the time it takes for the chorus to arrive and I think this is enhanced by the fact that it has not one but two pre-choruses.

It goes:

intro - verse - pre-chorus #1 - verse - pre-chorus #1 - pre-chorus #2 - chorus - bridge (same as intro) - pre-chorus #2- chorus

And it still manages to be just under 3 mins long!

Yay! I just scored a copy of Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's!

unless I remember incorrectly, Vacation was the very first cassingle ever produced.

that would be very appropriate

daavid, that's a unique take on Vacation, I'd notate it as:

intro
verse 1 ("Can't seem to get my mind")
verse 2 ("When you looked at me...")
prechorus ("A week without you...")
chorus ("Vacation's all I ever wanted") repeat 2x
intro reprise
prechorus reprise
chorus repeat 3x
outro

But I do agree it is unusual in that it opens with 2 verses back-to-back without ever returning to those progressions or structure.

Yes, my ears hear the section "now that I'm away..." as distinct (maybe because there is a change in chord progression?) but I guess it's not technically a prechorua if it's not followed by a chorus.

unless I remember incorrectly, Vacation was the very first cassingle ever produced.

in the US, apparently it was. not the rest of the world though

i've been learning to play the drum part of "how much more" and it's sooooo fun

Yes, my ears hear the section "now that I'm away..." as distinct (maybe because there is a change in chord progression?) but I guess it's not technically a prechorua if it's not followed by a chorus.

― daavid, Wednesday, September 23, 2020 2:27 AM (nine hours ago)

Ah... now I hear what you're saying.

One thing that happens at the end of (what I call) the 2nd verse is instead of ending upbeat on the V (B-major) like the first verse does ("you won't be IN"), the 2nd verse instead ends in the minor ii (F#-minor... "time would TELL")... which is a fantastic cue to the listener that things have changed and forecasts the melancholy/longingness of the prechorus, the backing vox on this part are also such a great touch.

Sorry to get all "Inside Baseball" on this song, "Vacation" is one of my karaoke faves and I've probably sang it dozens of times.

I had not noticed that. Yeah, that change really bridges the transition into the prechorus. This really is some top-notch songwriting!

The band uploaded their 1982 performance on The Tube to their official (You)Tube today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YZlKQXERK8

Vacation Deep Cuts!