In 1981, Harrison Ford thrilled movie buffs in his first turn as Indiana Jones, Reaganomics and the “age of excess” were taking hold, and the Go- Go’s surf-punk meets girl-next-door aesthetic wooed twinkle-toed school girls and top-40 devotees everywhere.
“Skidmarks on My Heart” is one of the group’s endearing love songs. Singer Belinda Carlisle laments the loss of a boyfriend who cared more for his car than he did for commitment. The track is a reminder that the Go-Go’s gave pop culture a lot more than cutesy fashion and catchy harmonies.
Gina Schock’s aggressive drumming, Carlisle’s quivering whine and the band’s edgy, but not necessarily virtuoso, rhythm section resulted in a sound that subsequent groups like the Bangles and Bananarama were too shallow to capture.
Clearly, the Go-Gos were the band those other female acts wanted to be. Plus they wrote their own music, something many current women in pop are shunning.
Even better: The Go-Go’s in the early 1980s weren’t as sweet as they looked. There is a reason this band – rounded out by Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey and Kathy Valentine – have become regulars on VH1’s all-nostalgia, all-the-time programming. After becoming a household name with “Beauty and the Beat,” and the inclusion of the hit “We Got the Beat” in the definitive teen flick “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” the Go-Go’s celebrated like true, steel-livered rock stars. Before their 1985 breakup, tales of trashed hotel rooms, substance abuse and internal drama were synonymous with Go-Go’s tours.
But considering the multitude of musicians from every genre whose post-rehab careers are marked by reunion tours and underwhelming follow-ups to groundbreaking work, it is impossible not to wonder whether the Go-Go’s should have stayed retired.
Critics point to the band’s 2001 album, “God Bless the Go-Go’s,” their first studio effort in 17 years, as fuel for the argument that these women were in need of serious career lifeboats. Now available online for less than a buck, the CD appeased die-hard Go-Go’s fans but failed to even hint at their inspired previous work. Songs like “La La Land” and “Stuck In My Car” are pure Go-Go’s garage rock. Others, “Unforgiven” and “Apology” among them, are sappy and lame, not unlike the 1990s solo material released by Go-Go’s members.
So while “Skidmarks on My Heart” and any number of Go-Go’s hits withstand the test of time, the question is whether the Go-Go’s, now two decades past their commercial success, have still got the beat onstage.
The Go-Go’s play the Paramount Theatre tonight with Plastic Parachute opening. Tickets: $39-$45 via Ticketmaster.
