Latest / DISGRACELAND / The Go Go’s: Serial Killers, Drug Addiction, an Historic Album, and “the Rumor”

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The Go Go’s: Serial Killers, Drug Addiction, an Historic Album, and “the Rumor” · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: story about the darkness and the light, about serial killers
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and seriously killer pop hits. It's about high heels and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: trash bags and leather jackets and sex tapes before we
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: had a name for them. It's about the greatest girl
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: group to ever hit the charts, one of the greatest
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: groups ever. Actually, it is about the Go Gos. And
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you know what the Go Gos did. They made great music,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Unlike that music I played for you at the top
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Jerry Lee did it first?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Not you MK one? I played you that loop because
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to Centerfold by the Jay
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Giles Band. Why would I play that specific slice of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: woffle goofa Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the number one song in America on March sixth, nineteen
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: eighty two, And that was the day that the Go
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Gos album Beauty and the Beat also went to number one,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: marking the first time in the history of pop music
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  Speaker 1: that an album written by a group of all women
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: had gone to number one on the charts. On this
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: episode Girls on Top serial Killers a sex tape in
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Young women have been turning up dead in the hills
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: outside Hollywood for the past two years, and when they
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: finally caught the psychopath who was responsible, it turned out
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that there were actually two men doing the killing. The
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: serial killer Capital of the World got a little darker
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that day. Welcome to Los Angeles, nineteen seventy eight. The
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Hillside Strangler or Stranglers rather kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: ten women and held the city, especially its women, in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the grip of fear for close to a year. For
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Angelino's at the time, this somehow did not seem out
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: of the ordinary. In the late nineteen seventies, fear blanketed
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the city with an oppression as familiar as its notorious smog.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: La was dark figuratively and literally. The Hillside strangled were
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: not alone. There was the Freeway Killer, the skid Row Stabber.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Violent Chicano gangs controlled the streets on the East Side.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Quick to kill bloods and crips were transforming South Central
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: into a war zone. Down on the wrong side a sunset.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Long haired freaky people convinced kids to run away from
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: their parents and get religion. Charlie's girls shaved their heads
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and kept the canyons. Culty doune buggy assassins ran drugs
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: out of death Valley bikers and what was left of
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the Black Panthers kept the squares. Freaked out greasers ripped
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the strip and killing machine muscle cars and the scientologists
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: were just getting started down off Hollywood Boulevard on Cherokee.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Outside the Canterbury apartments, Paramedics were wheeling out the dead
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: body on a gurney, and no one knew how long
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: this resident of the Canterbury had been dead. No one cared.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: She was a washed up starlet from a long ago
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Hollywood era. Certainly her retirement plan did not include this.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: A run down apartment building inhabited by debased delinquents, debauchery,
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  Speaker 1: an open air drug market, vice, grime and squalor, filth
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and fury American style young men and women engaged in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: all manner of revolt. Their natural post pubescent rebellion turned
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to nihilism by the extreme violence reflecting down on them
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: under the big black sun that blanketed LA. Good Morning,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Midnight America. Do you know where your lost children live?
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: They live here, runaways, suburban castos, spoiled rich kids on
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the other side of their expiration dates, and all of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: them moving to the sound of souped up classic cars,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: surf guitars, and subversion punk rock. West Coast style was
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: amalgamating on its own and in its own way, three
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: thousand miles from New York City, down in the dingy
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: basement of LA's Canterbury apartments, where a new band was rehearsing,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: The Go Gos. Their guitar player, Canterbury resident Jane Wyland,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: led their sound with an irrepressible energy that belied her
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: city's gloom. Similarly, the signature outfit of Gogos singer Belinda Carlyle,
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  Speaker 1: literal trash bag clinched with a thrift store belt, could
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: not suppress her natural beauty. The Go Gos were young, raw,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and fresh off their first show at LA's The Mask,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the West Coast answer to CBGB's, a tiny subterranean punk
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  Speaker 1: rock club beneath the skin Flick House where early LA
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: punk bands X, the Bags and the Germs got their start.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Blinda Carlyle sat behind the drum kit for the Germs
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: back in the day before graduating to become front woman
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  Speaker 1: for the Go Gos. One of Belinda's Germs bandmates was
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Pat Smear, who would go on to join Nirvana and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: then the Foo Fighters. Darby Crash fronted the Germs. Darby
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: would go on to become a punk rock casualty worse
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: rock and roll cliche, dead of a heroin overdose at
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: just twenty two years old. The Go Gos formed with
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Jane Wiland and Belinda Carlisle, as well as the excellent
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: musician and songwriter Charlotte Caffey, bassist Margot Olavaria and Elisabello
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: on drums in nineteen seventy eight. They were just beginning
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: their journey to not become punk rock casualties, or worse,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to become rock and roll cliches. Like most punk rock
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: bands worth of dam the Go Goes aimed for authenticity.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: For them, that meant balancing the darkness of LA and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of LA's punk scene with the natural, bouncy, idealized vision
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of the West Coast that the band members had grown
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: up in. Frankie Annette, Jan Dean and the Brothers Wilson
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: before Manson taught them out and never learn not to love.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Being authentic meant drawing on your own influences, not some
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: prescribedunk rock dictum stating what a young punk band could
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and couldn't sound like. Guitarist Jane Wiland's taste spanned beyond
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the obvious impact of the Ramones and the Buzzcocks to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: sixties girl groups. Singer Belinda Carlisle was California to her
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: core surf music, the Grassroots, and guitarist Charlotte Caffey grew
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: up obsessed with all kinds of music. The Beatles, Stones Genesis,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Patti Smith and Moore. A new drummer Gina Shack, who
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: joined in nineteen seventy nine after coming up through the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: ranks of the Baltimore trash scene behind the kit for
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the John Waters star Edith Massey and her Edie Lee
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Eggs group. Gina was a throwback to another generation of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: workhorse drummers, steeped in the sounds of John Bonham and
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Keith Moon. The Go Gos were not simply a group
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of girls trying punk rock on for size. As the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: latest successory content to grapple with the obvious influences of
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the all girl group The Runaways or New York's female
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: front a Blondie No The Go Gos from their inception
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: were as serious minded musically as the serial killers, who
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: proud their shared streets were murderous on stage. The Go
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Gos killed off stage. They nearly killed their career because
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos were hell bent on staying true to themselves,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: on being authentic, on not becoming rock and roll cliches.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And to do that, they needed to do the one
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: thing every adult, every professional, every male record executive told
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: them they shouldn't do, write their own songs. It sounds
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: ridiculous now, but back in the early nineteen eighties, the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: idea that a group of women could write their own
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: hit songs was radical, And maybe radical is the wrong word.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Heretical is more like it. It was heresy in the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: late seventies early eighties music industry to believe a group
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of girls could write hit songs. The Runaways had a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: male Svengali Kim Foley behind them, and Blondie's Debbie Harry
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of dudes in her band, The Supremes.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: The Pointer Sisters LaBelle their hits were all written by others.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Same goes for all those Phil Spector produced girl groups
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: of the sixties that the Go Gos love. There simply
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: was no model for a group of women writing their
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: own hit songs. And you know what that's like when
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: something hasn't been done before, No matter how simple or
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: obvious the task. For the majority of people in the world,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: that something seems impossible. People who are governed solely by reason,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: who need to witness physical or historical evidence before they
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: can put their faith into something, generally speaking, are averse
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  Speaker 1: to risk. By contrast, the Go Gos because they insisted
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: on writing their own songs. Well. The Go Gos, therefore,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: in the record industry's eyes, were a risk themselves, and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: they couldn't get a record deal no matter how many
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: times they packed the whiskey of Go Go on the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Sunset Strip, which was exactly what the Go Gos were
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: about to do, except they needed a bass player. Kathy
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Valentine was holed up in her friend's la dark room
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: as her friend developed photos. Kathy contemplated the cocaine he
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: was selling, and her friend contemplated, Kathy, should he get
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: high with this girl? She was young, just twenty one,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and from out of town, Texas and now here in LA.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: He wanted a freebase, though was she hardcore enough for that?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Was she ready? She was a musician, she claimed so,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: perhaps yes, And the smell of chemical fumes overpowered Kathy.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: That was nothing compared to what was about to happen
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: on the radio in the dark room. The news came
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: through with zero passion. John Lennon was dead, murdered outside
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: his apartment in New York City, and Manhattan wasn't about
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to be outdone by LA's darkness. New York City had
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: its own creeps too there at the end of nineteen eighty,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and one of them had just gunned down the coolest beetle.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Kathy couldn't help but cry. She didn't care what her friend,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: slash drug dealer thought about that, and her friend no
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: longer cared whether Kathy could handle freebasing. If there was
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: ever a time to freebase, it was now. So that's
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: what they did. And then Kathy Valentine took her cocaine
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: back to her apartment and proceeded to smoke her rock
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  Speaker 1: and roll grief away until a couple of days later,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: pulling herself together and heading out to the Whiskey to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: see X play on Christmas Eve. It was there in
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the Dingy Rock Club's bathroom where Kathy met the rest
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of her life, Charlotte Kathy, the Go Gos guitarist. Charlotte
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: knew Kathy could play, and Charlotte needed a bass player
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to fill in for Margo during the Go gos upcoming
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: fortnight headlining stint at the Whiskey. Charlotte asked Kathy if
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: she'd be interested in the gig as the fill in
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: for the Gogs bassist. Kathy said yes on the spot,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and there was only one problem. Kathy couldn't play bass.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Kathy was a guitarist, but that didn't stop her. Kathy
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: didn't reason her way out of her destiny. She had
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: faith in herself as a musician, so she spent the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: next forty eight hours hold up in her apartment, snorting
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: lines of cocaine and learning how to play the Go
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Gos set on the bass guitar. When it came time
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: for the shows eight shows and four days, two shows
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: per day, Kathy was ready and she killed it, and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: by the time the shows were over, the gig was
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: permanently hers. Kathy Valentine at Outshine Margo Olaveria and the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Go Gos knew a perfect fit when they saw one.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Kathy was asked to join the band, and of course
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: she did, with the Whiskey shows triumphantly in the rear view.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Now the Go Gos could focus on writing hits for
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: their debut album, but the problem was no record label
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: would sign them due to the Go Go's insistence that
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: they write their own songs. And that was exactly what
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Charlotte Caffey was busying herself with. On New Year's Day,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: squirreled away up in her La apartment, word of that
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: murdered girl Jane King being broadcast from the local news.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Jane was hanging out at the Mask when the Go
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Gos played their first show. That it is Jane hung
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: out at the Mask before the Hillside stranglers got their
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: hands on her. Charlotte ignored the news and cut up
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: some cocaine. She had a job to do. Writing songs
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was work like anything else. The drugs, though, were not helping,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and neither was the television. Charlotte did another line anyway,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and then she changed the channel. Yes, exactly what she needed.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: The annual New Year's Day Twilight Zone television marathon. Charlotte
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: let herself get sucked in on the TV The Black
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Leather Jackets Episode three, aliens disguised as greasers, pompadours, motorcycles,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: black leather denim, beyond cool walking down the street with
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: an eerie but irrepressible beat. Charlotte stared into the black
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and white haze of the television and eventually passed out.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: When she woke up, she had it the beat, just
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: like the dudes and the Black Leather Jackets from back
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: in the day. Back then they did the pony, they
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: did the watusi. It put them all on a trance.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Charlotte was looking for a beat bassed song and here
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: it was, courtesy of cocaine and Rod Serling. See the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: people walking down the street, fall in line, just watching
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: all their feet. They don't know where they want to go,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: but they're walking in time. They got the beat. Charlotte
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: pulled from her deep well of musical influences and brought
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: some light to the darkness surrounding her. The darkness from
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: her growing drug addiction, from the eerie television show, from
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the local news, from the danger on the streets outside
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: her apartment. Charlotte laid down a perfect West Coast guitar
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: riff over an imagined heavy tom beat. It wasn't punk,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't pink either. It was nasty link rain
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: notes hammered over her sexually charged Dennis Wilson day at
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the beach. It was LA's dark streets waking up the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: light of another perfect day. It was We Got the Beat,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: a perfect pop song. We Got the Beat was emblematic
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: of who the Go Gos were and where they had
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the potential to go as a group, as was the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: romantic bop Jane Wiling created with her tune Our Lips
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Are Sealed. These were not the songs of a modest
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: punk rock band, because the Go Gos were not a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: modest punk rock band. To pretend so would be inauthentic
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: at the expense of their La punk rock credibility. The
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Go Gos did what came naturally to them. They wrote
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the only songs they knew how, songs that were potentially
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: giant smash pop hits born of punk rock, but far
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: from being punk rock. Nobody had seen, though, saw that potential.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Nobody believed that five women could write their own hits,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: even when those hits were blaring back into their face.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Nobody in America would believe it. That is, but across
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the pond Miles Copeland, brother of the Police's drummer Stuart Copeland,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: manager of his brother's band and head of IRS Records,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: he did see the potential and the Go Gos from
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the strength that we got the beat and our lips
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: are sealed. That potential should have been obvious to anyone
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: with ears about to mention the fact that the Go
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Goes look great on stage. They had a style that
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: was totally their own, a mix of thrist store chic
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: punk rock, nihilism and old Hollywood glam and I mean,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: come on. Belinda Carlisle was their front woman. She was
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: an incredibly charismatic singer who was impossible to take your
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: eyes off of. No wonder, Miles Copeland signed them to
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: his record label. He knew that Go Gos couldn't miss.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: All they had to do now was put their incredible
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: songs on tape and make a record. But doing that
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: meant that the Go Gos would have to leave LA's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: darkness behind and eventually moved past their own darkness. We'll
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: be right back after this. We're We're we're destroying a
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: hotel room for a rock and roll band is a
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: rite of passage. Doesn't matter if that man is a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: bunch of dudes or the Go Gos. The difference with
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos was that after they destroyed their hotel room,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: they clean it up. It wasn't because there were women
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and inherently nicer than their male counterparts. No, I think
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: it had more to do with the fact that they were,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: at their core punk rock kids and punks. A lot
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: of them anyway, despite their nihilistic tendencies, actually have a
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: conscientious side to them. But I'm betting the deep down Jane, Belinda, Kathy,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Charlotte and Gina, I'm betting they couldn't help but think
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: about the poor minimum wage worker whose job it was
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to clean up after their rock and roll circus left out.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And that's why they cleaned up them to themselves. By
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, the Go Gos were entitled to their
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: rock and roll trappings. Their debut album, the excellently titled
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Beauty in the Beat, was racing up the charts. On
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the backs of the group's two masterful singles We Got
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed. The Go Gos
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: were on tours supporting the Police, who at the time
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: were a much bigger band. This was a stadium tour.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: The Police were capable of packing stadiums with or without
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos supporting them. The gig for the Go
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Gos was about promoting their record, and it was working.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: One night in Atlanta, while the girls and the Go
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Gos picked at a Deli tray backstage, Sting burst into
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: their dressing room with two bottles of champagne to celebrate
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the fact that the Go Gos had just passed the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Police on the charts. Things were about to change for
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the little punk rock band from Los Angeles. It wasn't
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: just a shine. The Go Gos took off the Police
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: by opening for them every night. The Go Go like
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the Police, and like Duran, Duran and Blondie, were being
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: played on MTV constantly. The Go Gos, despite their disdain
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: for the inauthentic video making process, were naturals on camera.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: That modern West Coast vision of a tough but hot
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: thrist store girl group was novel. Kids on the other
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: side of the television set ate it up. I know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: because I was one of them. All of a sudden,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos were to early eighties mall culture what
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the Beach Boys had been to sixties surf culture. The
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Go Gos had transcended punk, transcended even rock and roll,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and they were now something bigger. The Go Gos represented
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a modern take on what the Blasters Dave Alvin called
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: American music. The Go Gos projected something different, a new
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: neon eighties Americana. Back in Los Angeles, in those dingy
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: clubs that the Blasters were filling alongside the Go Gos,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: other contemporaries the make of Beauty and the Beat were
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: falling out of favor as their fame cemented itself into
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: national prominence. It didn't matter that the Go Gos had
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: helped build the La Punk scene. It didn't matter that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Jane and Belinda were such a core part of La
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Punk that they literally played and lived alongside members of
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the Germs and the Bags, and both the notorious Canterbury
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Apartments and the infamous flophouse known as Disgraceland. Hold up,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: It's time to address the tiny elephant in the room.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland the name of the flophouse Belinda Carlisle once lived
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in in Los Angeles, a dingy dive on Los Palmas,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: where reportedly everyone who was anyone in the LA punk
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: scene lived or partied at one point in the early eighties, including,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of course the Go Gos front woman. Now did I
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: know about the LA punk scenes Disgraceland when I named
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: this podcast? Yes? I did. Did I get shitited from
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: angry punk rockers from that scene when they heard about
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: my podcast? Yes? I did. Did I care or do
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I now? No? I do not. These same LA punks
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: stole the name Disgraceland from Jerry Lee Lewis just like
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I did. Should I have given the La Disgraceland punk's
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: credit when I took the name, as some of them
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: have suggested and angry Facebook messages also No. In all
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: my research of the LA punk scene, I've never once
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: heard or read anyone mentioned the original Disgraceland, which was
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Jerry Lee Lewis's home in Nesbit, Mississippi. I've been clear
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: about where I got that name from the very beginning.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Go back and listen to episode one to disgrace Land
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: and you'll hear what I'm talking about. Am I concerned
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: what old school LA punks will think of the name
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: thing when they listen to this particular episode I am
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: a little I love some of those bands, X, the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Blasters and of course the Go Gos, and I have
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: nothing but respect for the scene and its contribution to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: music history. So with that said, back to our story.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Falling out of favor with hometown scensters was the cost
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: of doing business for the Gogs in the early eighties,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: signed to a record label and change their sound. They
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: signed a record deal, an independent record deal mind You
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: with IRS Records, and recorded with Blondie's producer Richard Gotter,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and proceeded to put down on tape the same sound
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: they've been tooling together since their early days in the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: basement of the Canterbury apartments. Their sound had evolved, which
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: is what happens when any group of great musicians and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: songwriters continue to apply their trade. It's just that the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Go Gos were so damn good at their trade that
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: their sound evolved into massive pop hits. To create anything
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: different would have been inauthentic, which is the one thing
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: in punk rock that you absolutely cannot be. So the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Go Gos, in staying true to themselves, in staying punk,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: alienated the punks. They also garnered a Grammy nomination in
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two for Best New Artists, and words spread
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: quick the Go Gos had sold out. They were all
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Grammys and glitz, which, of course was total bullshit. Along
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: with the Thrist store addresses and self styled hair and
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: make up the girls brought to the Grammys for an
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: award they ultimately lost to Sheena Easton. The Go Gos
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: brought along their demons as well. For Charlotte this meant
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: masking in an intense heroin habit that threatened to break
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: up the band. For Jane, Belinda, Kathy and Gina, they
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: had their own drug and alcoholic demons to deal with,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: But for the entire band, there was nothing to threaten
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: their current status at the top of the pop mountain
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: as much as the rumor. Were the Go Gos kind
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of bubblegummy yes? Were they beautiful? Yes? Were they super happy,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: fun time West Coast vibes kind of music? Yes? Were
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: they also dark, depraved sexual deviance? Perhaps this is what
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: made the rumor so delicious. The contrast that same dichotomy
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that had been at the heart of the Go Goos
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: since their inception. Like Los Angeles, they appeared to be
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: one thing, and they were that thing, But they were
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: also the opposite. By day, Los Angeles shined bright Forever
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: seventy two and sunny at night, serial killers proud the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: streets and left bodies up in the hills. During the day,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the Go gos sunny vision of West Coast teen culture
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: blanketed the airwaves. At night, the go Goos conducted drug
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: fueled orgies with male groupies that would have made led
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Zeppelin blush or so when the rumor. At first, you
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: hear whispers in the hallway at school. You're seventeen. You've
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: heard some shit before. After all, you've got a job
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: at Bergerson's Burgers, and not just a job, you're a manager,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a single successful guy. If you're lucky, mar McAuliffe will
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: let you get under her shirt this fall when you
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: take her out to the spot in your cruising vessel.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: But back to the whispers. At first, they're just a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: random collection of words dancing with the sounds of slamming
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: lockers and sneakers squeaking on the high school linoleum floors. Blowjob,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Spanish fly. You've heard all these words before, of course,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: and they're no surprise. But the frequency you're hearing them
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: now is a little more intense, and now there are
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: more words. Party tape, sex tape, and then Belinda Carlisle. Yeah, man,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: jacking off? Wait what from the Go Gos? There's a
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: sex tape? A sex tape of the Go Gos? What
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: it's all over school. It's all anyone in your eleventh
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: grade class can talk about, and not just the dudes,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: the girls too. And you thought Pat bennettar was the freak.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Turns out it's Belinda and the fucking Go Gos. What
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: are they actually doing on what is quickly becoming known
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: as the Go Gos skin flick or the party tape?
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Is it the entire band having sex together? No, there's
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: male roadies involved. That's the word. Okay, okay, okay. What else? Well,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: it's not the whole band, it's just Belinda and Kathy. Okay,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Belinda and no Jane. That sucks, but you can take it.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Blinda Carlisle is likely the hottest singer you've ever seen,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and Kathy Valentine looks like she'll hurt you, but in
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a seriously sexy way. So you're all in on the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: party tape. You have to know more, and the rumors
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: won't quit. They're all over the halls and the cafeteria
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: in the locker room that day. You're not actually convinced though,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: that anyone you're talking to has actually seen this tape
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: where it is some senior named Harry has an older
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: brother in college whose friend's girlfriend works at a cutting
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: house over in Burbank, and that the owner's ex boss
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: as a kid whose girlfriend is friends with the dude
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: over in the valley, whose cousin writes for a horror
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: movie magazine, and that guy supposedly saw a copy at
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: a party that some publicist from West Hollywood threw over
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the weekend. But wait, are Belinda and Kathy from the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Go Gos actually having sex on tape with their roadies. Worse,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: they're supposedly forcing them to have sex. Really, no, not really.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: When this news gets back to you by the end
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of the day, your perviass is bummed, but not totally bummed,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: because the party tape might not be a full on
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Go Goos orgy, but it is Kathy and Belinda coercing
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: some dude into masturbation, and they're wasted pills supposedly, and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Kathy wants to make an art film and Belinda seems
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: to just want the roadie dude to get hard and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: get off, and Belinda Carlile wanting that and voicing her
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: desire nearly makes your head pop off your shoulders and
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: roll down the hall into sixth periods study hall. If
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you can't get sex, and the purpose thing for you
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to do is to jack o jack jack. There was
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: no sex tape, just some grainy footage of Belinda Carlile
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and Kathy Valentine wasted on pills and booze trying to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: talk some dude who was too high on ludes and
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: jerking off into a heart on. It didn't work, but
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the rumor was the rumor, and to say it was
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: an embarrassment for the girls and the go Gos would
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: have been an understatement. They'd done what all the experts
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: said could not be done. They'd succeeded as women who
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: wrote their own songs, and now they had the number
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: one record in America. That's right, Beauty and the Beat
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: had gone to number one and had stayed at number
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: one for six weeks. It was the first number one
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: record by a group of girls who wrote their own
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: material ever, and it still is. And this was a
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: remarkable achievement. And there the go Gos were in their
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: moment of shining glory, with all their darkness on full
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: display for the rest of the world to see. Little
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: did anyone know that the darkness on that so called
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: party tape was just the tip of the iceberg. Opium
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: is a dark, sticky substance. Picture a tar like wad
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of gum that smells floury but pungent. It's highly addictive.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: It's the main addictive substance in heroin, in oxy you know,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in the bad drugs that destroy lives and bands. And
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: it was this dark, sticky substance that the girls and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos were currently shoving up their asses in
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the backyard of some fans house in Washington State. Imagine
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: that you're eighteen nineteen years old. You score tickets to
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: see the Go Gos at your local colisseum or whatever.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: They got the number one record in the country at
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the moment. Somehow, you and your handsome friends get the
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Go Gos to come back to your place for a
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: party afterward. And now Jane, Kathy and the rest of
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the girls are in your backyards squatting alongside you and
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: your friends with their pants around their ankles, shoving sticky
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: opium up their buttholes to get high with you. Life
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: is weird, but this behavior wasn't all that weird. For
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the Gogos. Drugs had been a part of the band
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: since before they had written the songs for their hit record,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: and all of them dabbled in the hard stuff. But
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Charlotte had a serious heroin addiction, one that had been
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: growing in secret since back before The Go Gos recorded
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Beauty and the Beat. As the band embarked on recording
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and touring and supported their follow up album, Vacation, Charlotte's
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: heroin addiction had become almost all consuming Personally. This was,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of course disastrous professionally. This was the type of addiction
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: that could kill a band, given that Charlotte was the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: group's main songwriter. Yet this band would not die. The
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: band members pushed on through their demons. Their second album
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: was not quite the follow up smash that a monster
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: hit like Beauty and the Beat demanded, but it did
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: well enough, largely on the strength of the Kathy Valentine
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: penn title track Vacation, which Jane and Charlotte contributed to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the time time the Go Go's third album, Talk Show,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: hit the shelves, the wheels were coming off. Gina had
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: developed a hole in her heart that required surgery, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the band sent Gina off with a drug binge and
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: palm springs. The five of them hold up in a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: hotel room like vampires, doing every drug that could get
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: their hands on, but keeping the cocaine away from Gina's
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: ailing heart, of course, And when they weren't high, they
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: were paranoid and jealous. Money. What to do with all
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: of it? Who got how much? For writing which songs
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and which parts? Money was a constant source of tension
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: in the band. Charlotte was the main songwriter, but Jane
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Widland and Kathy Valentine contributed nearly as much to those songs,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and Melinda Carlisle and Gina Shock lent considerable style and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: attitude to the music, so the question of authorship was
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: no easy matter to settle, especially under the haze of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: drugs and the fears fight over songwriting, credits and royalties
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: caused Jane to quit while on tour in support of
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: their third album, Drugs Excess. Squabbling over their largesse, the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Go Gos had become the one thing their punk rock
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: instincts had driven them not to become cliches. The only
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: thing left for them to do was to overdose and die.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And in Rio Dejaneiro at the Rock and Rio Festival
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty five, Charlotte Caffey was doing her best
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: to make that happen. On the bill with the go
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Gos were ACDC, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Queen, the B
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: fifty two's, and other major acts. The show drew a
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: crowd that was estimated at nearly half a million people.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: And back at the hotel where the artists were staying,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the party was on. Rock stars, roadies, groupies, dealers, hangers
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: on all pool side and in and out of hotel
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: rooms getting high. Cocaine was everywhere. The girl from Ipanima
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: blasted on repeat beautiful bronze bikini clad women in droves.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Charlotte bounced between Rod Stewart's and Ozzy Osbourne's hotel rooms.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Rod was pissed off at her for some reason she
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: couldn't figure out, and the B fifty two's were avoiding
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: eye contact with her. Ozzy Osbourne was in no mind
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: to deal with her, and her own band was nowhere
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: to be found. Charlotte drank more. Charlotte did more drugs.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's manager thought that now was a good time to
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: bring up rehab. Charlotte blocked out her manager, smoked more,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: snorted more, shot more heroin, shot more tequila, shot after
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: shot after shot on stage in front of the biggest
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: assemblage of people she'd ever seen. Charlotte sweated through the
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: motions after the set, back to the hotel for more
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: drugs and more drink. To this day, no one knows
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: what exactly happened, but whatever Charlotte did that night resulted
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: in none other than Ozzy Osborne kicking her out of
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: his hotel room. How fuck do you have to be
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to have Ozzy Osborne think you're too fucked up to
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: hang out with? Really fucked up is the correct answer.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: It was one of many last straws for the Go Gos.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Charlotte wasn't going to be a rock and roll casualty.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: She wasn't going to be a punk rock cliche. Charlotte
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Caffey checked herself into rehab, and soon after she followed
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Jane WiLAN and quit the Go Gos. Sobriety in a
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: rock and roll band is a hard road, and frankly
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: not one that Charlotte needed to travel. Why live in
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the dark when there's so much light? The Go Gos
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: did what they said couldn't be done. They succeeded at
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the highest levels of the music industry as women who
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: wrote their own songs. In twenty twenty one, they were
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Getting
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: there and surviving their excesses nearly killed them, But in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the end the band avoided becoming a rock and roll cliche,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and in doing so, avoided disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan. This
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: is Disgraceland, all right. Thanks for hanging with me and
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the Go Gos in this episode. Apple Podcast listeners, make
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: sure you have auto downloads turned on so you never
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: miss any episodes. Guys, this week's question of the week
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: is which girl group is the greatest girl group? And why?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Is it? The Go Gos? Is it the Runaways? Is it?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You tell me I've been doing too
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: much talking. Six one seven nine oh six six sixty
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: three eight. Leave me a voicemail, send me a text
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: with your answer, and you might hear yourself on the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: after Party Bonus episode coming up right after this. Leave
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a review for Disgraceland on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: win some free merch All right, I gotta return some videotapes.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Here come some credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com Slash Membership.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Members can listen to every episode of disgracelam Ad free,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, in early access
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com Slash Membership
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: for details, rate and review the show, and follow us
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod and on
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod. Rock a
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: rolla