The Go-Go's, a new documentary about the first multi-platinum instrument-playing all-female rock band, is premiering on Showtime this week on August 1st, so I thought I'd look back at their catalog here. 

The Go-Go's deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Can't Stop The World

2. Tonite

3. Skidmarks On My Heart

4. This Town

5. How Much More

6. Automatic

7. Lust To Love

8. We Don't Get Along

9. I Think It's Me

10. Girl Of 100 Lists

11. The Way You Dance

12. It's Everything But Partytime

13. You Thought

14. I'm The Only One

15. Beneath The Blue Sky

16. Forget That Day

17. Mercenary

18. Screaming (live)

19. Blades (live)

20. Fun With Ropes (live)

21. Beautiful

22. Talking Myself Down

23. Daisy Chain

24. Here You Are

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from Beauty And The Beat (1981)

Tracks 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 from Vacation (1982)

In addition to the documentary, I feel like I've seen a lot of Go-Go's songs popping up in different places this summer. Superchunk released a cover of "Can't Stop The World," Tanya Donelly released a cover of "Automatic," and the original version of "Vacation" by Kathy Valentine's earlier band The Textones was the theme song to the new Starz series "Hightown." 

The Go-Go's had kind of a brief fun, only three albums as a big pop act, breaking up when I was too young to experience their fame firsthand. So I mainly remember them making the rounds as a nostalgia act in the '90s, when they reformed to tour and release the compilation Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go's. I remember the band talking about their punk roots when promoting Return in 1994 -- specifically I remember John Lydon's syndicated radio program Rotten Day, where he reacted to that claim with derision, mockingly singing "We Got The Beat" in a Johnny Rotten wail. But then I watched the band's episode of "Behind The Music" and really warmed up to them. I also got a crush on Jane Wiedlin and picked up her 1988 solo album Fur from a used bin, pretty good record. And then my old band Zuul that had a really strange repertoire learned a cover of "We Got The Beat" that we played at shows. I think we might have also practiced "Head Over Heels," which is probably my favorite Go-Go's song.  

The most popular Go-Go's deep cut on streaming services, "This Town," has a cool tricky 7/8 time signature on the verses, but there's a lot of gems here. I particularly think Talk Show is a strong album, deserved better than being the underperforming follow-up that preceded their breakup, "I'm The Only One" and "Beneath The Blue Sky" are some of their best tunes. And "Forget That Day" has the funky electric piano sound from "Head Over Heels" that I always loved. 

The Return compilation has a bit of everything, hits and b-sides and live tracks and some newly recorded 1994 songs, including "Beautiful." But the really interesting part of that record is the punkier early Go-Go's songs captured in rehearsals and club shows in 1979 and 1980. "Screaming" and "Blades" and "Fun With Ropes" never made it onto a proper album but definitely show you what the band might have been if they hadn't polished up their sound and become America's sweethearts. 

When The Go-Go's finally released a 4th album in 2001, obviously music had changed a lot in 20 years and they adopted a more modern rock sound, and they worked with some outside writers including Billie Joe Armstrong, who co-wrote the lead single. I thought it was cool that "Talking Myself Down" was co-written with Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles, a little solidarity among the big girl groups of the '80s (Vicki Peterson from The Bangles also toured with The Go-Go's in the '90s when Charlotte Caffey was pregnant, and both bands were briefly labelmates on I.R.S. Records in the early '80s).