They deserved more from us
I discovered Girlschool back in those early MTV days where the station would play any clip they could get their hands on. The two they played to my rapturous attention were Race With the Devil and Hit and Run.
The band formed in 1978, originally called Painted Lady and their sound was a mix of punk, hard rock, and metal. They reformed under the name Girlschool, inspired by the B side of Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre single. Their big break came when Lemmy from Motörhead heard the song Take It All Away and asked the band to be the opening act on tour in 1979.
The band became part of the British metal movement in the early 80s, which included Judas Priest, Saxon, and Def Leppard, which led to tours with Black Sabbath and Rush in the UK and Canada.
But what about America?
In the mid-80s, their label pushed the band to be more like Heart, AOR pop rock with more feminine, fantastical outfits to appeal to us stateside. Cute but tough Kelly Johnson, already exhausted from four years of nonstop touring and image polishing, thought enough was enough and quit.
Girlschool never really achieved widespread success in the US after their initial splash. Johnson died of cancer in the early 2000s. Yet, the band presses on as a festival favorite in Europe while maintaining their musical integrity, as Creem noted in 1982: “They don’t pimp their gender” by relying on sex appeal as a gimmick.
Cute story early in our relationship: I had been searching for the album Hit and Run for years. Dave, eager to show off his musical prowess, assured me he would find it.
I dared to doubt him.
He brought me to Grand Rapids on a road trip date, and we went to Vinyl Solution, where he found a British import copy for $3. If he had asked me to marry him on the spot, I would have. Instead, I allowed him to buy it for me, then we went to Classic Stereo. This particular date is so him.
No comments:
Post a Comment