Susanna Hoffs/Bangles...Walk Like an Egyptian.

[River_Hippie]

@WordMan

I love the look of Ricky’s. But their necks typically have a nut width of 1 5/8". Argh, so narrow (1 3/4" is more common and that 1/8" different is huge to folks like me with sausage fingers). I am sure her sig model has a skinny neck profile, too - she’s hot, but I couldn’t play her guitar!

Yes, I have a Japanese reissue Strat with a narrower nut width. Beautiful axe but that slight difference in nut width makes it harder for me to play. And I have relatively long slender fingers.

[GargoyleWB]

@WordMan

I love the look of Ricky’s. But their necks typically have a nut width of 1 5/8". Argh, so narrow (1 3/4" is more common and that 1/8" different is huge to folks like me with sausage fingers). I am sure her sig model has a skinny neck profile, too - she’s hot, but I couldn’t play her guitar!

I have a throw-away no-name electric at home that I want to salvage and restore specifically because it has one of the narrowest necks I’ve ever found, and I have tiny little hands and fingers that can barely cup a golf ball. I’ll have to measure it and see what it is. Didn’t know that about the Rickenbackers, makes me want it even more!

[Chimera]

This thread inspired me to download their best of album from iTunes.

[bytheway]

Rainy Day - I’ll Keep It with Mine

Give this a listen. Unfortunately, the girl in the video is not Hoffs, but she sounds amazing.

[River_Hippie]

@bytheway

Rainy Day - I’ll Keep It with Mine

Give this a listen. Unfortunately, the girl in the video is not Hoffs, but she sounds amazing.

I like the video but prefer my Susanna Hoffs backed by loud guitars and drums!

[River_Hippie]

BTW, I didn’t intend this thread to be Hoffs-centric. The other Bangles were certainly lovely and talented.

[River_Hippie]

@Little_Nemo

One factor that should have been trivial was her height. Hoffs was several inches shorter than her bandmates. So when the band posed for group shots, photographers often arranged the four of them so Hoffs was in front. The unintended effect was that it looked like Hoffs was the star and the other three were her back-up band.

Watching this 1986 concert video she is clearly much tinier than her bandmates.

[River_Hippie]

Also, not being that devoted of a fan back in their heyday, I always thought Hoffs was “the singer” but clearly they shared vocals quite a bit.

[HeXen]

I can tolerate some 80’s stuff that I once listened to but that old pop and glam rock …I just can’t do it. I noticed that style of music has made a slight comeback though.

[River_Hippie]

@leftfield6

Right before the whole Walk Like An Egyptian thing hit, I was a student worker at my college’s basketball/multipurpose arena. Best work-study job ever! Whenever we had concerts, I was ‘working’ the show. I have such a good Susanna Hoffs story, it still makes me swoon a little bit here over two decades later.

After the concert was over, the roadies are moving the equipment out to the truck, but the Bangles were not big time yet, so there were probably a total of 8-10 real roadies there. It was such a small time tour that a few of us locals were enlisted to help out.

So, most of the gear is loaded into the truck, and the band themselves have started coming out of the little dressing room area (the women’s locker room) and heading for the bus. A few of us college boys jumped at the chance to help them carry their things. Being the closest, I managed to wind up walking beside Ms Hoffs carrying her travel bag.
We get to the bus, and I get, as thanks, a nice little slightly bourbon-y kiss from Ms Hoffs. I think I may have just stood there slack faced for a good 5 minutes.o

4 months later, they were big, and no longer playing small college shows. But I still remember that kiss.

MMMmmmm, bourbon flavored Sussana.

I’ll be in my bunk.

[Tixenfleaz]

@Happy_Lendervedder

Hoffs only gets better with age, for reals. I’m not just saying that. The woman is a stone cold fox.

Oh yes. I stood a few feet away from her as she played at a fest last year. Made me grin like the giddy twenty-something I haven’t been in a long, long time. Which was nice.

[ExTank]

@River_Hippie

Yum!
Walk Like An Egyptian

So…are you just now noticing, thirty years gone?
Or is this a (very pleasant) stroll down memory lane?
Slow day at work?

[dropzone]

@River_Hippie

Agree, that is a much better song. I’ve liked ever since I saw Less Than Zero.

Oh, THAT’S the appalling-looking Robert Downey movie in the background. Makes it easier to (continue) to avoid it if it has a name.

Great song, though. And a band that taught me to not prejudge bands made up of beautiful women. I have their greatest hits and, unlike many greatest hits sets, they are nearly all hits. Or got enough airplay that I noticed them, which is the same thing.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@River_Hippie

Watching this 1986 concert video she is clearly much tinier than her bandmates.

Thanks for the link: I just clicked to take a look and was compelled to watch the whole thing.

[gigi]

@EinsteinsHund

I highly recommend the three cover albums she did with Matthew Sweet called Under The Covers (Vol. 1-3), where they interpret mostly songs with a power pop vibe from the sixties, seventies and eighties, respectively.

WHAT!! I have the first two but I did not know about the third one, and I am a teenager of the 80s! Off to amazon!

[Snooooopy]

No love for Michael Steele all this way into the thread? Can’t have that! The odd nom de rock always threw me a little, but a real looker all the same.

[GuanoLad]

@Snooooopy

No love for Michael Steele all this way into the thread? Can’t have that! The odd nom de rock always threw me a little, but a real looker all the same.

Hurrah! She should be played by Heather Matarazzo in a biopic.

[tripthicket]

@Snooooopy

No love for Michael Steele all this way into the thread? Can’t have that! The odd nom de rock always threw me a little, but a real looker all the same.

Not denying Ms. Hoff’s incredible, uh, charms, but I have to say “Me, too!” Michael was always my favorite, for some reason I never quite put my finger on. But HEY! It’s an excuse to go back and listen to all the old albums, refresh my memory on which ones Michael wrote and/or sang lead on. In the name of SCIENCE, of course.

[River_Hippie]

@ExTank

So…are you just now noticing, thirty years gone?
Or is this a (very pleasant) stroll down memory lane?
Slow day at work?

Alcohol+internet=me cruising YouTube for music videos and occasionally starting a CS thread.

[WordMan]

@Snooooopy

No love for Michael Steele all this way into the thread? Can’t have that! The odd nom de rock always threw me a little, but a real looker all the same.

At one point I was going to say you could see her ex-Runaways roots with her hard-ass stare. Far more punk rock. Solid player.

ETA: Can you imagine her looking from side-to-side? Um, no.