Documentary on the Go-Go's

Cafe Society
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1

I just watched a 2020 documentary "The Go-Go’s (directed and produced by Alison Ellwood). I remember when they were really popular in the early 1980s. They had started out as aspiring punk rockers, but a producer observed that slowing their songs down made them into nice, catchy pop numbers. They were famously the first all-girl band to hit it big who played all their own instruments and mostly wrote their own songs.

I always thought they had some nice songs (especially on their debut album “Beauty and the Beat”) but the one that really blew me away was “Our Lips Are Sealed”. The chord progression in the chorus (over the words “doesn’t matter anyway, in the jealous games people play”) was very unusual–it plunks a Bb chord in the middle of a fairly conventional chord progression, in a song in the key of A.

The documentary reveals that the writer of the music (Go-Go Janet Weidlin; non Go-Go Terry Hall (a guy) wrote the words) wasn’t really knowledgeable about theory, so she made a choice that a more experienced songwriter probably wouldn’t have.

I was also reminded that I think Belinda Carlisle may have the most “beautiful female” voice ever. Not the most beautiful voice of any female singer, like Celine Dionne or Ella Fitzgerald. But her voice makes me picture the most beautiful woman imaginable. It probably doesn’t hurt that Belinda herself (still) ain’t hard to look at.

2

I happened to catch them live on stage a few months ago. They were fantastic! And they were clearly happy to be performing. Gina Schock was especially upbeat.

One of them mentioned that they no longer go on full tours, but they will do one-off gigs here or there when they feel like it. I was lucky to catch them on one of those gigs.

3

I saw them open for Madness before they released their first album and numerous times since. I watched the documentary a few years ago and the interviews all seemed a bit insincere. They are a notoriously fractious band.

4

I believe that’s the documentary I saw a couple of years ago. I’m not much into music in general or the Go-Go’s but I remember it as a good documentary telling me much more about the band than I picked up from conventional publicity back in their time.