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IVH: The Go-Go's / Beauty and the Beat [1]

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Date: 2024-09-26  

Tonight’s selections from the Go-Go’s debut LP, Beauty and the Beat. First published in 2021. Updated this week.

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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