Tonight’s selections from the Go-Go’s debut LP, Beauty and the Beat.
Rock music was in a strange place in 1981. The initial wave of punk rock had already peaked and crashed back to shore, but it's influence was felt in every other form of popular rock music from the Rolling Stones to Phil Collins. Crossover acts like Blondie had shown that the public was all too eager for someone to take the spirit and energy of punk, but set it to pop music. Enter The Go-Go's, at the time of this record's production Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Charlotte Caffey (guitar/keyboard/vocals), Jane Wiedlin (rhythm guitar/vocals), Kathy Valentine (bass), and Gina Schock (drums). Originally a punk band in the vein of X, this Los Angeles group of women had already made a huge impact at clubs like the Whiskey A Go Go and The Masque, but no one could have foreseen the success the group would acquire after signing to IRS Records and releasing their debut album, Beauty and the Beat.
With their squeaky-clean image and their pop-punk hooks, the album was a huge success, hitting number one on the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks and eventually selling excess of 2 million records, largely off the backs of the two lead singles "Our Lips Are Sealed", and "We Got the Beat". And what magnificent singles they were, the former co-penned with The Specials frontman Terry Hall (note: actually fronting Fun Boy Three, post-Specials) becoming an inescapable hit during 1981 with it's sunshine pop outlook on new wave music. The irony of course was the sexual themes underlying the song and their music in general, despite their squeaky-clean public image at the time as a group of All American girls making happy pop music. The latter single was as close to punk that the Go-Go's would ever be on record, with a driving drumbeat and elastic guitar bouncing all over the place while the girls laid out their heavenly harmonies (perhaps best remembered for the opening of the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High).
But it would be a shame to dismiss the Go-Go's as a one or two hit wonder, because their debut album featured those same uncanny power pop hooks as seen through new wave sunglasses (big, goofy, grand ones at that) around every corner, from the bittersweet love song "How Much More" to the explosion of subtle tension that is the magnificent "Lust to Love". — Sputnik Music
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Our Lips Are Sealed [1981]
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"Everyone we hung out with were all in a band and they weren’t any good," Wiedlin later told Sounds. "So we figured if they could do it, why couldn’t we?" Inspired by the Buzzcocks’ pop-punk, they wore dresses made of garbage bags and wrote noisy, shambolic songs that celebrated BDSM, taunted music critics, satirized pretentious poseurs, and extolled the grimy hedonism of their digs. "I wanted to throw up on stage, rip my clothes off, and dye my hair," Wiedlin told Flipside in 1979. Olavarria just wanted to "spit at Valley girls."
Down the street from The Canterbury was The Masque, a ramshackle, heavily graffitied DIY venue in the basement of a porn theater on Hollywood Boulevard where, in May 1978, the Go-Go’s played their first show. Missing at that debut gig was Charlotte Caffey, who they had invited to join as lead guitarist. Caffey, who had previously played bass in the L.A. punk group the Eyes, had never played lead before. Yet her presence in the band was transformative, and not just because, as the band often joked, she was the only one who knew how to plug a guitar into an amplifier. Caffey brought in a pop sensibility, and she and Wiedlin quickly became a writing team; as the Go-Go’s became more technically proficient, their music evolved from punk to pop. "One must admit that the wildly amateurish musical approach of their early days has been replaced by a very competent barrage of near melodic tunes and singing," one Slash magazine critic noted in May 1979. — Pitchfork
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This Town [1981] (Live ‘82)
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Having long believed that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was as irrelevant as irrelevant gets, I found it hard to believe that anyone would invest the slightest bit of energy into a campaign to gain entrance to such a thoroughly corrupt institution. I hope the Go-Go’s get the call and tell the Hall they can shove the award where the sun don’t shine.
That won’t happen because The Go-Go’s are a group of Second Wave feminists who fought for inclusion within the current system and not Third Wave feminists who advocated revolution against the patriarchy (Belinda Carlisle made this very clear in the documentary). Second Wave feminists (like Hillary) wanted to prove that “anything men can do we can do.” The Go-Go’s did that with Beauty and the Beat: the first album by an all-girl band who played their own instruments and wrote their own songs to top the charts (for six weeks, no less).
Let me be clear: that was a big deal. There wouldn’t have been a Third Wave if it weren’t for the women who had the courage and patience to break the endless maze of glass ceilings that constitute the patriarchal structure. The Go-Go’s proved that girls could do it, inspiring an entire generation of women to fulfill their potential in the field of music. Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill singer, riot grrrl pioneer) said it best: “As a young girl, going into a space where women own the stage, and own it unapologetically, like they were born to be there — to me it represented a moment of possibility.” There is no question that the female rockers who followed the Go-Go’s owe them a debt of gratitude; ergo, they qualify for induction under the loosey-goosey standards set by the Hall itself: “Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.” I happen to think that clearing the way for more than half the human population was pretty damned significant. — AltRockChick
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We Got the Beat [1981]
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Something I think about more often than seems reasonable is album track sequencing patterns. Beauty and the Beat is one that follows a “standard” pattern in my view. Let’s assign songs values based on strength (***** being strongest to * being weakest). To be clear, I mean rock or pop rock albums here. LPs or cassettes (jazz or classical albums and CDs don’t fit this construct). The ideal rock album sequence goes something like this:
Side One
Track 1 *****
Track 2 **** or ***
Track 3 *** or **
Track 4 ** or *
Track 5 ****
Side Two
Track 1 *****
Track 2 *** or **
Track 3 ** or *
Track 4 *** or **
Track 5 ****
Of course some albums have more than 10 tracks. And double and triple albums (or concept albums) are different beast as well. But generally you want to start each side as strong as possible. Hit singles or strongest songs first on each side. Then end each side with the next strongest songs to encourage a listener to flip the record (or cassette) to listen to the other side.
Seems reasonable to me, if you have a stinker (or “filler”); hide it near the end of side one or in the middle of side two. Again, just something that I find kind of fun to think about when listening to music. Maybe sequencing patterns are something to think about next time you listen to an album. Let me know ~!
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Can’t Stop the World [1981]
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For *pattern* reference:
Side One
01 Our Lips Are Sealed
02 How Much More
03 Tonite
04 Lust To Love
05 This Town
Side Two
01 We Got The Beat
02 Fading Fast
03 Automatic
04 You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)
05 Skidmarks On My Heart
06 Can't Stop The World
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Alessia Cara
Jimmy Fallon: Simu Liu, Ruth Negga, Big Sean & Hit-Boy
Stephen Colbert: Bruce Springsteen (R 10/25/21)
Seth Meyers: Paul Rudd, Jared Harris, Nate Smith
James Corden: Salma Hayek, Keith Urban
Trevor Noah: Halle Berry
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
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One from Charlotte Caffey’s pre-Go-Go’s band, Eyes. From the TAQN EP (which is reportedly an acronym for “Take A Quaalude Now”).
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Eyes :: Disneyland [1979]
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Speaking of Disneyland, a spoken word piece about the Monsanto ride by L.A. scene queen Pleasant Gehman. I’ve always enjoyed this one. There is always that one ride at any amusement park or midway.
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Pleasant Gehman :: Monsanto [1999]
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PICKS
NCAA: Grizzlies, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Cincinnati
NFL: Baltimore, San Francisco, Dallas, Arizona, LA Chargers
LAST WEEKS POLL: U.S. RIVER
Arkansas 0% 0 votes
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Columbia 27% 3 votes
Mississippi 27% 3 votes
Missouri 9% 1 vote
Ohio 9% 1 vote
Red 0% 0 votes
Snake 0% 0 votes
Other (Let us know below) 27% 3 votes
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One more. This was rerecorded for Beauty and the Beat (side one, track 2 if you’re keeping score)
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How Much More (Original Stiff Single Version) [1980]
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