Saturday, January 30, 2016

January 30 - Please Don't Touch

This next little oddity is a nice little pop song - delivered by Motörhead and Girlschool. I know, I should really wait with this until February 14, because it was originally on the St, Valentine's Day Massacre EP, but I really can't wait until then - plus I am thinking I'll be more traditionally romantic that day.

Girlschool was one of the few female hard rock/heavy metal bands in the early 80s. They were considered part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which also included Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Saxon, to name but a few. There is some discussion about  Motörhead's place in this musical movement, but there is no discussion about their influence on the bands - and especially Girlschool, who was asked to support  Motörhead on their Overkill tour.

Motörhead and I start with Jan Are. I have mentioned him before, as he really helped me explore new music, and  Motörhead was one of the bands he introduced me to. He had the coolest tape ever released - and I actually believe that holds true to today:  Motörhead's No Remorse. Not only were the songs on it top notch - it is a great compilation - but, wait for it... It actually came in a leather sleeve with their Snaggletooth logo on the front. What could be better than that? Both the vinyl and the cassette release of No Remorse came with a leather sleeve - talk about being true metal...!

At the same time, Arve's father had cable tv, which was pretty new in the part of Trondheim I lived in the mid 80s, and on Sky Channel, there was a show that was called Monsters of Rock. We had just got our first VCR, and I asked Arve to tape Monsters of Rock for me on a fairly regular basis, and one of the videos that was on heavy rotation was an original track from No Remorse: Killed by Death, featuring Lemmy with a green spotlight on him as he drives a motorcycle up from his grave. So with influences coming from Jan Are with support from Arve, I started liking  Motörhead quite a bit - and for some reason, the collaboration with Girlschool really stuck with me. It is a cover of a song by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, released in 1959: Please Don't Touch



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