December 15, 2015

I.R.S./Capitol Records | US | 2xCD | 2011 | 5099902702728

Go-Go’s: Beauty + The Beat DLX RM 2xCD US [2011]

Disc 1 – Album

1. Our Lips Are Sealed
2. How Much More
3. Tonite
4. Lust To Love
5. This Town
6. We Got The Beat
7. Fading Fast
8. Automatic
9. You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can’t Sleep)
10. Skidmarks On My Heart
11. Can’t Stop The World

Disc 2 – Live @ Metro Club, Boston – August 20, 1981

1. Skidmarks On My Heart
2. How Much More
3. Tonite
4. Fading Fast
5. London Boys
6. Cool Jerk
7. Automatic
8. Lust To Love
9. Can’t Stop The World
10. This Town
11. You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can’t Sleep)
12. Our Lips Are Sealed
13. Let’s Have A Party
14. We Got The Beat
15. Surfing And Spying / Beatnik Beach
16. [Remember] Walking In The Sand
17. Vacation

Last August, I bumped into an old friend who I knew from 34 years ago. I couldn’t help but notice that they’d had some work done. Namely, DLX remastering! I have to admit that in 1981, as soon as it was released, that the Go-Go’s debut album, Beauty + The Beat” was on almost constant rotation throughout the rest of the year. It seems hard to believe it now, but an all-female band in that time period was just fresher than more guys in jeans and Converse hi-tops®. I had heard the Stiff single version of “We Got the Beat” from the time of its release, so I was primed for more of Go-Go’s. I.R.S. Records was making big waves in my New Wave world at the time, so having them sign to Copeland’s label made much sense. Apparently, he had courted them for a year, but they were holding out for a “bigger” label, only to never link up with one. For the usual sexist reasons.

Having Richard Gottehrer produce the album made perfect sense since his production credits for The Angels and Blondie [their first two albums] showed a firm grasp of both classic and post-modern girl group tropes. The man knows how to get it down in the studio, for certain. It was amazing to read the interviews with each member of the group in the accompanying booklet. Charlotte, Gina, and Jane mentioned how shocked and disappointed the band were when they heard the final result. Gottherer had slowed down their 90 second punk songs to mine the 2:30 pop nuggets within them most effectively. Charlotte was less uncomfortable with this because she admitted that she was the pop person who came into this punk band and had felt a bit intimidated by her relatively advanced playing chops!

The album began with the classic top 20 single “Our Lips Are Sealed” and it was a pleasure watching this winning pop number move from obscurity to its rightful place in the US top 20. Its clean guitar lines were abetted by subtle keyboards from Charlotte Caffey, pulling double duty on lead guitar as well. The synths definitely took a back seat here, and that helped the album avoid the taint of trendiness that would mark many a 1981 recording as dated [though personally beloved by me] years later. The song that Jane Weidlin brought to the table, as co-written by Terry Hall of The Specials, was an engaging pop look at a romance with an “us against the world” outlook. That it really happened between Weidlin and Hall when their bands were touring together in the UK in 1980, gives it plenty of verisimilitude!

“How Much More” was a holdover from the Paul Wexler five track demo that two cuts had surfaced on a year prior as the original “We Got The Beat” British 7″ on Stiff Records. The new recording here hewed closely to the original arrangement, albeit given a higher budget production. The guitars and tambourines still jangled, but the drum break that Gina Shock proffered definitely was one of two great ones that producer Richard Gottehrer nailed down on wax that year [the other one being on the Holly + The Italians album].

I always liked the melodrama of “Lust To Love,” a great song of the “Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” variety. The backing harmonies here were a real treat, as was the morse-code guitar of Charlotte Caffey. When followed by “This Town” with its moody rhythm guitar of Jane Weidlin, the album reached some sort of downbeat peak here. I just love the loaded lyric

“Discarded stars like worn out cars,
Litter the streets of… this…town” – This Town

it packs along with the rhythmic pauses dropping the title on an off beat in the tune.  Jane wrote in the liner notes to “Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go’s” that she laughs at the jaded, world-weary tone of the lyrics; written when she was about twenty. After that side ended, it was time for the big hit single at pole position as the first track on side two.

As seen on the mean streets of Asheville’s sidewalks…

“We Got The Beat” climbed up to number two on the US charts; held at bay by the juggernaut of “I Love Rock And Roll” by Joan Jett + The Blackhearts. It was a sweet victory that had taken almost a year as the band went from college radio to top 20 and higher. The album version of the cut had the added new, and improved middle eight call-and-response section in lieu of the simple drum break [not that there’s anything wrong with that] of the UK 7″ version from 1980. I would imagine that the middle eight had been beefed up in concert and when it was time to re-record it, it was ready to go. In any version, it remained a great 2:30 slice of giddy dance rock.

“You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep [If You Can’t Sleep]” was a complex title stuffed into a fast moving shuffle with a Bo Diddley beat. Side two also offered the campy metaphors of “Skidmarks On My Heart;” the one tune here with Belinda Carlisle lyrics. Ms. Shock’s mighty backbeat was a real winner here. For the most part these songs were from the pens of Charlotte Caffey and Jane Weidlin, but new member Kathy Valentine penned the closing track “Can’t Stop The World.” She was lucky that Charlotte Caffey stumped for her song to be included even though it was written during the sessions and not part of their road-tested live repertoire. This meant that she received songwriting royalties on a double platinum selling album of classic New Wave pop. This album still goes down easily today and in spite of hundreds of listenings over the decades, I would agree with Ms. Caffey’s assessment of it in the liner notes to this 30th Anniversary edition.

“Thinking about it now, I don’t find a bad song in the bunch. It was a moment of time in our lives and we all connected to make this record that, 30 years later is still great.” – Charlotte Caffey

So that much was unchanged in 30 years. How would disc two stack up? In a word, iffy. The live album as recorded at Boston’s Metro Club in August 20, 1981 and it sports what can be called near-bootleg sound. With the album and its first single just out in the world, the set list includes each of the eleven album tracks as well as the B-side of “Our Lips Are Sealed,” Ms. Caffey’s nifty instro “Surfing + Spying” which other surf bands should have revived by now. [checks] Yessss! Japanese instro surf band The Surf Coasters have recorded their rendition. I can sleep soundly tonight as there is some semblance of justice in the world.

The program was salted with early cuts that have surfaced elsewhere [see: “Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go’s“] in other recordings. Songs like “London Boys,” and covers like Wanda Jackson’s “Lets Have A Party” or the Shadow Morton classic “[Remember] Walking In The Sand.” The appearance of “Cool Jerk,” which was long a part of their early live set, telegraphed where they were going on “Vacation” when it showed up on that album. That makes me think that maybe material for the sophomore album might have been thin on the ground, to rely on musty covers from their early set lists. Other tracks from “Vacation” were included here, including the ace title track and “Beatnik Beach,” which was performed as a medley with “Surfing + Spying.”

Several of the tunes here sport new wrinkles. “Our Lips Are Sealed” had an entire verse here that never happened in their studio rendition but might have been included in the Fun Boy Three version. It’s been over 30 years since I’ve heard that one, so I’ll plead the fifth. The closing tune “Vacation” also had not yet been hammered out and had different lyrics and arrangement.

The live album is worth a spin if you’re a fan and missed out the first time. I know that there were few bands I was as keen on seeing in 1981, but it never happened for me. Go-Go’s never came closer than Tampa to me so I never got the chance. The recording really sounds as if it might have been a soundboard mix where the balances are all skewed. In some cases, severely. Jane’s vocal during the middle eight in “Our Lips Are Sealed” is all but inaudible. It was only through the generosity of mic bleed from other singer’s rigs that she can be barely heard at all. Though her harmonies on the song’s outro shone through fairly strongly. Is it worth buying if you already have a copy of “Beauty + The Beat?” I’m on the line there. I feel that I can live with my original pressing of “Beauty + The Beat” and I also have “Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go’s” which has almost more “archaeological” material than a casual fan like myself even needs. So I can see the day when I unload this copy to someone who may need it more than I did, since there’s an infinite want list and decidedly finite cashflow.

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