“Captures our attitude”: The best Go-Go’s song, according to Belinda Carlisle
Despite the varying twists and turns throughout her career, Belinda Carlisle has always been particularly drawn to disruptors. While this might be no surprise, considering how the Go-Go’s spawned from inherently punk rock circles, it also means she knows not only how to spot authentic anarchism but also understands the value in standing tall above the crowd, even in the face of adversity.
For this reason, among many others, Carlisle’s tastes were initially more drawn to those who knew how to do this with confidence and charm. For instance, one of the reasons she enjoyed The Clash so much wasn’t just how they challenged the mainstream but how they did so by blending melodic musical elements: “It was driving rock, punk rock,” she said, “But also very melodic, and I loved the lyrics.”
However, she also said she appreciated their political messaging, explaining how all of these “captured a moment” when a lot was going on in society. In many ways, the Go-Go’s achieved the same feat. Maybe not in precisely the same way, but the Go-Go’s smashed the glass ceiling in the 1980s when it came to women’s expectations in rock, charging forth with a fervour that eventually primed them for the mainstream.
This pivot might have left some with a bitter taste in their mouth—as often happens when bands move on from the community that made them—but in the case of the Go-Go’s, it proved that women didn’t have to box themselves in to make it, even if they came from a scene that churned out noise as fast as it appeared. This wasn’t just any band, though—they carried a rawness in writing their own songs that placed them in an entirely different league.
‘Lust To Love’ was the turning point that saw them move from their roots to pop mainstream, with producer Richard Gottehrer helping them to adopt a smooth transition into longer, more considered pop melodies. In the studio, there were some slight reservations about going down this route, but things swiftly moved forward when they each realised it was exactly what they wanted to do.
And while some elements of the production weren’t exactly what they were happy with, the entire project supercharged their career, marking a turning point when the Go-Go’s were suddenly on everybody’s radar. This is likely also why, when asked about the best song they ever created, Carlisle opted for ‘Lust To Love’, describing it as one that adeptly captured what they were about at the time.
“The lyrics to ‘Lust to Love’ are amazing and it captures our attitude towards romance in those early days, when we were in our late teens and early twenties,” she told Vulture. Continuing, “And I love the chord progression, how it drops out in the beginning and then kicks in. It’s probably my favourite song to perform live.”
Gottehrer might have put commercialism first, but writing their own songs meant they kept authenticity while making the turn into pop, maintaining authentic expression as they changed mainstream success. It was a risk for anyone to take, but one that paid off well and proved that, above all else, women in all musical spaces could achieve what they wanted without having to remain loyal to their roots.
