Monday, July 25, 2011

Ladies Gone Wild Tour back soon !

Okay, I've not been able to attend any shows but I've watched every video kindly made available on the net. So I'm gonna post some thoughts nobody cares about, but hey, that's my blog, whatever, I do what I want !

- Using the "how to dance like the Go-Go's" video as an intro was a brilliant move ! This is so funny.
- Vacation, Our Lips Are Sealed and We Got The Beat sound greater than ever this year, keep it up !
- How Much More and This Town seem a little too slow, it makes them kinda boring. Why not speed them up again or play other songs instead ?
- Mother's Little Helper rocks less than the 2009 version, too bad. Hope you girls have time to rehearse a brand new cover.
- What about this brand new song Jane promised us ?
- Playing the original arrangement of Lust To Love is a good move to me. What about trying that with Automatic and Fading Fast as well ?
- Cool Places : one of the best songs of the shows, it got even better and better as the first leg of the Tour progressed. Bravo girls !
- Head Over Heels might sound even better if played a little slower.
- Skidmarks is not a very shining moment of the show this year, what about ditching it in favour of a Vacation or Talk Show song for a change ?
- Get Up And Go and Mad About You are very good, don't change anything !

Thank you girls for reading this and applying every change I'm suggesting XD

Monday, July 18, 2011

Paula Jean Brown compilation (vol. 1)


I'm a curious guy. So I made research about Paula to see if she'd released any solo record or something. No solo record, but she's been in her ex-husband Howe Gelb's bands Giant Sand (1986-1991) and The Band Of Blacky Ranchette (1986), playing bass and occasionally providing backing vocals. She even gets the lead singing part in "The Chill Outside", a beautiful song she co-wrote. I collected all the tracks Paula could be heard in. As a bonus, I added some MySpace tracks Paula put online in the late 2000's.

All songs are by Giant Sand except tracks 10-11.

01. Thin Line Man (1986)
02. The Chill Outside (1986)
03. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory (1986)
04. The Weight (1988)
05. The Replacement (1988)
06 .Can't Find Love (1990)
07. Neon Filler (1991)
08. Romance Of Falling (1991)
09. Satellite (1999)
10. Bottom Of The Ocean (2006)
11. Patsy's Song (2009)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

2011-06-07 @ Westbury Music Fair, Westbury (full show)


01. intro
02. Vacation
03. Tonite
04. How Much More
05. Get Up And Go
06. Mad About You
07. Lust To Love
08. Mother's Little Helper
09. Automatic
10. Fading Fast
11. Cool Places
12. This Town
13. Unforgiven
14. The Whole World Lost Its Head (feat. Duke)
15. Our Lips Are Sealed
16. Skidmarks On My Heart
17. We Got The Beat
18. stage talk
19. Surfing And Spying / Beatnik Beach
20. Head Over Heels
21. encore
22. Fun With Ropes

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Focus on... Walking In The Sand

As you all know, this song is a Shangri-Las cover, originally released in 1964 :


Some sources claim that the song originally lasted 7 minutes and was faded out sooner to fit radio standards.

Lyrics of the Shangri-Las version :

Seems like the other day
My baby went away
He went away 'cross the sea
It's been two years or so
That's when my baby go
And then this letter came for me
It said that we were through
He found somebody new
Oh, let me think, let me think, what can I do?
Oh no, oh no, oh no no no no no

(Remember) walkin' in the sand
(Remember) walkin' hand in hand
(Remember) the night was so exciting
(Remember) smile was so inviting
(Remember) then he touched my cheek
(Remember) with his fingertips
Softly, softly we'd meet with our lips

Whatever happened to
The boy that I once knew?
The boy who said he'd be true
Oh, what will happen to
The life I gave to you?
What will I do with it now?

(Remember) walkin' in the sand
(Remember) walkin' hand in hand
(Remember) the night was so exciting
(Remember) smile was so inviting
(Remember) then he touched my cheek
(Remember) with his fingertips
Softly, softly we'd meet with our lips


Walking In The Sand is the very first cover the Go-Go's made, and they started performing it in their very early days :



The band had already made the song theirs, taking it very far to the original even though Belinda still sings it quite the same way as the Shangri-Las did.

Lyrics of the Go-Go's version :

Seems like the other day
My baby, he went away
He went away across the sea

It's been two years ago
That's when my baby go
That's when this letter it came to me

It said that we were through
He'd found somebody new
Oooh, let me think
Oooh, let me think
What can I do?

Oh no
Oh no
Oh no no no no no

Walking in the sand
Walking hand in hand
The night was so exciting
His lips were so inviting

Whatever happened to
The boy that I once knew
The boy who said he'd be true
What will happen to
The life I gave to you
What will I do with my heart now

(Remember) walking in the sand
(Remember) walking hand in hand
(Remember) walking in the sand

As you can see, the girls cut out the end of the chorus.

As the Go-Go's sound evolved towards pop-rock, they still performed a very punk-rocky Walking in The Sand in 1981. And they had progressed greatly as musicians :


After the Beautify America Tour, Walking In The Sand was dropped from the setlists. Fans had to wait until the 1990 Reunion Tour to see them play this song again, in a more... melodramatic way.


Then again, no more Walking in The Sand for more than 10 years. But the song came back in the 2000's and has been performed regularly since then, starting with an emotional intro only to blast into an amazing harder-than-ever version :


Has this song been recorded during the Beauty And The Beat sessions ? It seems not, but I can't give up the hope to see a studio version see the light of day...

Many others artists have covered this song :






Louise Goffin, who made the song "No Trespassing" with Charlotte, also covered this song in 1979. If anyone has it please contact me because I would like to get it.