August 27, 2025 • 28 mins
On this week's In Service Of Go-Go's lead singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Belinda Carlisle takes co-host Steve Baltin on a journey back to the 70a and the music of her childhood as she discusses her wonderful new covers album.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, Hey, it's Steve Balton.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Then on this week's In Service House, I sit down
with Linda Carlisle to talk about her brilliant new solo album.
It's a wonderful collection of covers of songs she grew
up on Parkens back to a similar time, and we
had a lot of fun discussing these songs, what they
mean to her, and why these songs are so important today.
So I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as
I did.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thanks, certainly. My taste is very eclectic. I mean from
Miles Davis too. I still listen to Wallaboo, the sex
(00:51):
Pistoles to the Buzzcocks. You know, my taste is all
over the place. It always has been.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But now I have to ask you before we come
onto the album, what is the one AUSI song you
would cover?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The one AUSI song that wasn't we to cover?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, that you would do Sabbath.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I have to I have to think about that. I
have to think about that one gone God. I can
think of the name of it, but we used to
do a tribute to it in the Go Gos during
Walking in the Sand, and I can't think of it.
But he's yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So it's interesting. You know, it's so funny. I talk
with artists about all the time about how things can
turn out to be prophetic. You don't even know it
at the time, but it's funny this album is being
released now when everybody in the world needs a break
from the fucking world.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I'll say I'll say yes as a throwback to
a time that was a lot more innocent, a lot simpler.
And it's funny because somebody said the same thing. It's
it's music is like kind of like a breath of
fresh air and an escape from all the crap going on.
(02:08):
So I mean, I think music is supposed to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you know, it's funny though
us I think about it just finding the Devil's Advocate
for a second, because I never thought about this. Was
it a time that was much simpler or was it
that you were younger because during Vietnam all that. I mean,
but it is interesting because I talked to Patty Smith
a couple of years ago and she said she's never
(02:33):
seen the world be as divided as it is now.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think that I was thinking about that. I was
thinking about that. Actually the other day, whether it's because
it was always this much of a mess and because
the world is smaller in the age of information and
social media, that were exposed to a lot of a
lot more of it and it's in our face. Whereas
(02:56):
before we were kind of buffered by it, you know,
really you just had to really make the effort to
watch the news. But now because of social media and
every it's just like bombarded by it every day, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, which is why you need that break more than
ever though. So I mean there is that you know,
and that makes funny because these songs you know, but
it's so interesting. I mean I talk about this with
artists all the time too, Right, you can know a
song forever and then when you cover it, you discover
the nuances of it, you become it comes different. The
other thing, of course, too, is you change your relationship
(03:31):
with music changes. Like it's funny. I did get to
interview Gordon a few years ago before he passed, and
for some reason during COVID, I just fell in love
with that song again, like I've known it my whole life,
but it's like it's one of the greatest fucking songs ever.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Written ever, ever. I mean, I mean I always loved it,
of course it was. That was one of the reasons
why it was on my list. But singing it and
those lyrics are like, I mean, you don't really realize
how amazingly ricks are sometimes until you actually get to
sing them, and it was I mean, that was the
case with that song. And for me also everybody is
(04:12):
talking the lyrics to that, it's I you know, I
fell in love with them all over again. So yeah,
I mean, it's it's funny when you get to cover
these songs, your relationship with the song changes too, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So, but it's interestingly as well, did you find that
you know, even before you covered them, when you decided
to do them, were those songs that you look back
on because of course, Look, the other thing is that
you still host a podcast called People Have the Power
where we talk about protest songs, right, And it's like,
for example, if you're six years old, you hear Living
in the City or What's going on, You're like, oh,
that's a cool song. Then you get older and you
(04:49):
understand the lyrics and you understand the message, and you
realize what a vital song is because of the message.
So where these songs here like again like if you
could read my mind, you can hear that when you're
six years old, they go, that's a cool song, you
know you heard on a radio in the seventies. And
then you realize how complex it is and what it's
talking about, you know, after you've been through those experiences yourself, right.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I think the song that really is, you know,
for me, really was amazing to sing was the Marmalade song,
the last song on the album Reflections of My Life,
which as a ten year old eleven year old girl
listening goes, oh, I love that's the song. It's so pretty,
but I didn't really understand now as a woman, an
(05:36):
older woman with experience of life and loss and love
and all that, and singing those lyrics, it was pretty profound.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I have to say, interesting right now to ask for
the other songs in that era that you would have
loved jotan that either didn't make it or didn't fit.
Like I remember talking Brian Ferry when he did the
Dylan Covers album and it's like, there are just certain
songs that you may love, but you cannot.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Say then exactly. That was the one song that comes
to mind that didn't work. There were few was Holiday
by the Beg's and it's such a weird song, and
I really was like, you know, we have to make
this work. And we tried and we tried, and it
sounded horrible and it was just one of those songs
(06:20):
that that wasn't gonna happen. Uh what was what was
the other one by the Turtles I'm Happy Together that
didn't work out. But there's always those songs. I mean exactly,
you don't really know why it doesn't work, but it
just doesn't work. It doesn't know it happens.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And I mean it's more a matter of like for me,
it's a way of finding out, you know, whether there's
songs you want to even sport. I grew up in
kind of the same era and so some of these songs.
And it's funny how when you get older you go
back to songs like one for me that has been
recently is Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jackson.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Got so good, that was right, everite.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Songs as a kid, and then it's like you get
older and it's like this is a great song.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, And same with the Jordy Mitchell song. Both sides
now as singing hearing those lyrics as a young girl,
it's a pretty song, but I mean singing singing along
to it as an older woman, it's like really melancholy,
you know, very sad.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh my god, did you get seen he or do
it live in the last few years?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
No, but I've seen it online and it was amazing.
And who was singing those songs that she sung as
a young woman, they completely changed for me.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, no, because I happened to be at the board
show and I've literally seen five thousand shows, and I mean,
I think that's the best single song I've ever seen
in my life.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure, I'm because when.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You see someone singing like you say, like you know,
as twenty two, it's like it's you know, it's wonderful.
But then when you're seeing someone who's eighty years old,
who nearly died, it's like the death of that song
is a credib.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It goes from whimsy to melancholy and like, you know, sadness.
I think, I mean, that song is really sad, but
at the time, you know, being a young woman singing
and I'm sure she didn't well, who knows what she
thought when she was singing it as a young woman,
but yeah, definitely changes with age.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So what were some of these songs for you that
had like really changed in terms of like you said,
reflections but where the other one said like again or
maybe that you just said like you said, you know
you understood differently, because again I go, actually, if you
can read my mind, but I was a or a
song like Superstar having lived a whole life on the road.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Who yeah, I mean that really changed for me. I
mean I well, actually I didn't understand what that song
was about when it was a hit, when the Carpenters
had it out, and I've heard all the different versions
and I still didn't get it until I decided to
sing it and include it on the album. I sang,
I had to see what the song is about, and
(09:01):
it's about a groupie and I didn't know that, and
I was that so that took on a whole different meaning.
And it actually isn't a very nice love song at all.
You know, it's it's like wow, you know, like it's
like you you know, it's it's yeah, it's like a
(09:21):
lover spurned. You know. It's not very nice.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, but it's funny because sometimes you know, those songs
are so necessary, you know, and it's like they pay
so much and it's like, you know, I mean that's
interesting though. Also of the lyrics again, because I've never
you know, I've always loved the song.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Oh no, it's about a one night stand. You know,
girls sing a rock band and she thought, you know,
they have a one night stand or whatever, and you know,
I fell in love with you. For the second show.
Your guitar sounds so sweating. I mean, it's it's about
a groupie. Yeah, it interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, I mean it's funny to you because you know,
that's another one. As you get older, you realize Karen
Carpenter was just as badass as any singer who ever lived, the.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Best, the best singer ever. I wasn't when I did
that song. I didn't, and I've heard the different versions.
I didn't want to even like go, you know, touch that,
because you can't. She had probably the one of the purest,
most beautiful voices ever. I think her and Maria Callis
or the two that come to mind.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Interesting. Yeah, no, I love her voice, but you know
it's funny, and then of course you come on to
happier stuff. I get together, which again you know I've
seen where you talked about that. It's like, yeah, I mean,
you cannot find a more appropriate song for the sage.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah. Well, yeah, it's it's very timely. And I always
loved this song. And I remember that was, you know,
out during the Vietnam War, you know, and all that
all that crap that was going on. So and it's
just as timing now as it was then.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but I mean it feels like even more so now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah. I mean, everything is so fractured. I you can't
say anything anymore about being attacked, and it's it's just
really sad. You know. I think that probably America is
a cent is an epicenter of craziness and that in
that way and that respect, but it's it's everywhere, you know,
(11:30):
people just can't Everything is so fractured.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Well, it's interesting because you know, again, you know,
we started talking about like a simpler time, you know,
And it's funny because I mean I specifically think about
the seventies as being you know, probably closer now because
of Vietnam and all that, you know. But it's interesting
because now I'm thinking about it, It's like, you know,
(11:54):
obviously when you were coming up in the when you
were at your biggest success in the eighties, it does
be like it was even though there was a Cold War,
didn't feel like that was like an immediate going on
every day. So it does feel like maybe that was
a little simpler time and people were more open.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, But I do think like when I was trying
thinking backward, things always this much of a mess. They
probably they, I don't know. I mean they might have been.
It's just we weren't exposed to it like we are now.
We were exposed to everything, you know, and it's just
it's too much.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So it's such an interesting thing. I mean, I talk
about these people all the time now. I'm just curious.
I mean because I remember Lindsey Buckingham telling me, right,
He's like, we could have never made rumors in the
internet age. He's like, without everybody paying attention, He's like,
we never would have made that album. So it's funny.
I mean, do you feel like, if you were an
artist coming up today, would you feel like, I guess,
(12:56):
would you want to be an artist? So I'm just curious,
and I've thought about it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I don't know, everything is so sexualized now and I'm
just not I mean, you know, with women in music.
I mean it's I don't know, I don't know if
something so organic as like the Go Gos could happen,
could happen now, Uh, I don't. I don't think so.
(13:19):
I mean, I I CA can come from the punk
rock background and d I Y when things were really
super authentic and it was about the music, and now
it's it doesn't seem to be about the music so
much anymore as it is about sexuality or or if
you're a woman, or or just how you know, or money,
(13:42):
you know, how you know how much money you can
earn the big corporation. So it's I don't know, it
doesn't it doesn't feel as as as well for me,
it's not as interesting as it used to be. There's
not a there are some interesting bands coming up, but
not you know, not like it was in the early
(14:02):
eighties when you had all the different genres that punk
and new romantic and new wave and whatever. But now
it's I don't know, it just feels kind of toxic
to me.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So how do you keep it fun for you by
just going back and doing stuff that like you've always loved,
stuff that you.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, I just stick to what I want to do
and if it if it's if people want to listen
to it, that's amazing. If they don't, I mean, my
last two my last well I did, My last thing
I had at was Kismet, the Diane Warren project. But
before that, I had a Mantra album which you know
I liked, but how many people heard it? And then
(14:45):
I did the French album before that, and that was
the first time I ever worked in a way that
I worked from the heart and I did what I
wanted to do with it made me happy and didn't
really have well the first time. I was really off
the hamster wheel of having to produce something for a
big you know, a big record company. So that's the
(15:06):
way I'm all. You know, after that experience with my
French album, I bowed that was the only way I
was going to work. And you know, I'm never worried
about the results of the work. I'm just having a
good time doing it and it's fun to put it
out and see and whatever happens happens.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, well, that's there's a feeding
first of all of being older, and then second of all,
once you've got success, it's like you don't really need
you all right, well you're not spending on it for
your livelihit anymore.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Chasing it? Yeah, I mean it's it was like from
age well when the go gos, from that first album
to pretty much through age forty. You know, it was
just like you know, because I had to chase the hit.
You know, it was like because I was there was
like always pressure to to you know, come up with something,
(15:53):
come up with a hit. So and that was the
way my life. My life was like that for years
and years. So yeah, I'm older, wiser, and you know,
I've had that kind of success and now just do
this for the love of music. Really nice.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Well, I have to ask you about Jim coaching saying
because he's one of my favorite artity. But before we
do that, you know, it's funny we're just talking about
Joni both sides now and to me, like she's such
template for what you're talking about, just doing music the
way you want to do it and not following any
sort of But it's funny. I talking about Sweep all
the time. All the great artists have always done that. Bowie,
(16:31):
you know, Joni, like you said, Miles Davis. You know
what you would call disruptives or are the people that,
as you get older, you really look to and admire
for the way. You know, I mentioned Patti Smith. She's
definitely a here of my those people who just do
the thing they want to do and they've been able
to evolve successfully by just being themselves.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, I think Patti Smith is a perfect example of that.
I mean, and you can see the joy and the
happiness and her face as well. And you know who
else am I thinking of that? Well, there's plenty of
artists that do that. They reach a certain point in
their career and and you know, they're not chasing that
hit and they're just doing what makes them happy and
(17:16):
you can hear that in their recording and you can
see it on their face.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
All right. So I'm trying to talk about, you know,
songs changing and having different meaning and I mean, man,
imagine being six years old here in time in a
bottle and then being an older person who's bringing a
memories of of course m Croachy tragically has a plane crash, right,
and when everything that's associated with.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That song, I remember that like it was yesterday when
he was when you know, that song was everywhere. I mean,
that song was everywhere, the biggest song probably of that
year or even you know, five years, who knows, but
it was everywhere. And so I remember that. I remember
being kind of sick of it because it was not
all the time. But I remember when he died in
(18:10):
the plane crash, and that was, you know, that was
it was horrible when I when I was looking at
the list and I looked that song of that I
don't know, I don't know, And then I listened to
the lyrics again and the lyrics were just so magnificent
and so romantic, and I thought, well, I want to
(18:34):
get I do want to give it a shot and
see if I can just bring a different sort of
take on it, which I think we did, and I
think I think it didn't. It did nothing to hurt
the integrity of the song, you know, but it is
a different version of it. And I loved singing it.
It was so much fun to sing and you know
it and of course you know, while singing it, it brings
(18:57):
back memories of that time, so very specific memories.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So uh, well, I had most of this album was
like a time capit for for.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
You, I think, Yeah, I mean I could. I remember
there's like certain boring would be boring to anybody else,
certain things when I was growing up, like when a
Ma marmalade song, I remember, you know, being and you know,
my family's garage and there's a piano and singing along
and trying to play piano with a marmalade song on
(19:26):
the transistor radio. So there's like little sweet memories like that,
but for me that are that are throughout the whole,
the whole entire album.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's so funny. I'm a friend who close to
my age. You just mentioned this the other day and
I haven't thought of it so just now, but you
know it kind of the way it's set up, it
kind of feels like a k Tel album in the best.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Way I did. I did a fake Ktel commercial actually
that that with that we have, I don't know if
we'll ever put it out because it is funny. It's
like I walk towards the camera, I lean on a pedestal.
These are some of my favorit write songs and I
look oft into the distance as I mime time in
a bottle. But yeah, we did the whole k TELL
(20:06):
commercial for it. I think it's so it's so funny,
but it's it's definitely of a time. You know, it's
like a certain age bracket would get it. A lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I'm not gonna say those get it.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, it's so funny, it really is. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, like I said, it's funny because this is up
the other day and someone's asking, it's like, you know,
I mean, now, of course you have now that's what
I call wh whatever, But I mean, you know, the
Skates albums were such a big part.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Of you know, huge, huge elem Alone with Chia Pets. Yeah,
the two the two infomercials or the two early infomercials
that you would see on TV.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Right, what would you call the Skates album?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I don't well, I mean I'm calling it's it's the
album is sort of like a k telum. So I
guess Once upon a Time in California is a perfect
name for it. But I probably have to simplify it
my songs, you know, my favorite things. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, all right, Well, before I let you go there,
I do have to ask because the podcast compartent is
called in Service Off, and it talks to different people
about giving back. It's really funny because you know, I
was looking back at the interviews I did with Ozzy
yesterday and one of the last interviews we did was
about his philanthropy thing he was doing, and he said,
(21:34):
this industry has been so good to me. He's like,
I love being Ozzy Osbourne. Of course I have to
get back, and I think the older you get, more
successful you are, you feel that you have to do
that anyway. And it's funny though, because when you talk
with musicians, right just doing an album like this that
allows the world to escape in the time when everybody needs,
you know, a mental health break, that right there is
(21:57):
being in service of But for you to talk about
giving back what it means to you and you know,
especially as you gets me an older artist, you heard
so many stories and been around where you've heard like
this song saved my life, the song changed my life. Whatever.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, Well, I mean I always say that my job
as a service is I'm blessed to have it, and
it is service work because I do when I do
the shows, I see you know, people's faces. I do
think it's important, you know, And I've been an animal
advocate on my life. I have my project that I
co founded in twenty fourteen Animal People Alliance and one
(22:36):
hundred thousand animals later. We're expanding into Mexico. So that's
kind of my other you know, I guess philanthropic work
that I do. Like I said, I've always been an
animal advocate. I do what I can. I think it's important.
I think it's important to talk about issues, although it's
a little bit scarier these days because you know, no
(22:59):
matter what say, you're going to be attacked. But I do,
you know, I feel like I do my part. I
feel good about my contribution, you know, as far as
that goes.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's so funny though It'll let you go in and say,
but I mean, you know, I talked about this with
people all the time. Yaw comes up because, like you said,
about being attacked. But at the same time, I mean, like,
you know, I was just talking Monday with Hugh Evans
from Global Citizen, and he was talking about the fight
ten poverty and it's like, there are certain things do
you feel like chances end politics? And yeah, said he said.
(23:35):
It was so funny we were talking about and he's like,
you know, the only way you wouldn't want a kid
to get a thirty cent immunization is if you're a
fucking psycho, you know. And I feel like most people
are just gonna be like, all right, we love animals
no matter what.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, well that's that's yeah, exactly exactly. But I mean yeah,
I mean I I do when I can sort of
getting political, that's all cool.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Our last question, I let you go. But now I'm
curious because I was just doing a story for The
Times with the Doors and this was like the most
fun thing ever. I interviewed, of all people, a palaeontologists
who was telling you this crazy story about being in
Patagonia and excavating dinosaur bones. While listening to writers on
the story, He's like, we hired these gauchos who literally
were pulling dinstaur bones with horses. And I was like,
(24:26):
that's the coolest story ever. And I was selling Robbie
and John, who both loved the story. And as I've
been interviewing people, everybody has these crazy stories. Maybe not
quite that Raiders of the Lost Ark. But your music
travels to places you can't begin to understand. So what's
the craziest place you've heard of a Go Go song
being played?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I think on my I guess I go to Turkey
I quite a bit for actually archaeological reasons. And I
heard a Go Go song at Istanbul, which is I
would never have thought that it would have traveled. But
I mean, I hear all the time from people saying
I've heard your song in Egypt, or I heard your
(25:07):
song and you know, Russia. Whatever, But it happens quite
a bit, and I love that. Of course, the weird
the better.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, I was gonna say, did you ever imagined ever
that you have your songs, one of your songs, any
songs at the Pyramids?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
No, I know I would never imagine that. And I'm
a big, you know, archaeology buff, so something like that
would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah. Then I've asked what do you listen to when
you're on a dig?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
What do I listen to? I listened to a lot,
you know, I'm I love French pop. So today I
was listening to Benjamin Bola. I listened to a lot
of opera. I listened to Miles Davis. I listened to
punk rock Walla Voodoo. I said, go back to my
Walla Voodoo album. So my taste is I mean, lately
(26:01):
it's been a lot of French spot and devotional Hindu
devotional music I had too, kurtin.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Nice, all right, cool? What do you want to add
the didn't not ask you about?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I think you covered everything I think you did.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You're amazing, Thank you, always very to talk to you,
and a lot of fun. And by the way, now
I have to ask, as a fan of this music,
the beas I grew up with the two, any sharing
plans or any like one off shows.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, I have some East Coast dates at the end
of the year and then I'll probably do some shows
early next year and the West coast. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, you know, I talked to so many people too,
and this will be the last question, but I have
to ask, who say when they start a project like this, right?
They like lights of Fighter in them? So you know
there were one hundred plus Ksel albums. Is their volume
two coming?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to
do next, if I'll even do anything next. I haven't
have little ideas. I don't know. I'm sure something something.
You know, Usually when I like ah, I have that
moment and then I've become obsessed with it. But I
haven't had that idea yet. Where it becomes obsessed with it.
So who knows. Could be a Spanish album, could be
(27:10):
another French album. I don't know, we'll see maybe a
Turkish album. Maybe. I love Turkish pop. Seventies Turkish pop
is the best.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I've never heard of seventies circus pop song.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It is great, So.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Best Turkish pop song. Listen start.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I know, I don't know. I can't even pronounce, you know,
I can't even pronounce the artists or the songs. But
I'm just looking right now my on my Spotify list,
and there's one guy, well you can't tell that he's
a man or a woman, but he's huge. But I
can't I can't find it now, but I would really
(27:54):
recommend it. It's very cool.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, thank you so much. All Right, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Thanks, thank you. By by Say
Yeah, Hey, it's Steve Balton.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Then on this week's In Service House, I sit down
with Linda Carlisle to talk about her brilliant new solo album.
It's a wonderful collection of covers of songs she grew
up on Parkens back to a similar time, and we
had a lot of fun discussing these songs, what they
mean to her, and why these songs are so important today.
So I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as
I did.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thanks, certainly. My taste is very eclectic. I mean from
Miles Davis too. I still listen to Wallaboo, the sex
(00:51):
Pistoles to the Buzzcocks. You know, my taste is all
over the place. It always has been.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But now I have to ask you before we come
onto the album, what is the one AUSI song you
would cover?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The one AUSI song that wasn't we to cover?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, that you would do Sabbath.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I have to I have to think about that. I
have to think about that one gone God. I can
think of the name of it, but we used to
do a tribute to it in the Go Gos during
Walking in the Sand, and I can't think of it.
But he's yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So it's interesting. You know, it's so funny. I talk
with artists about all the time about how things can
turn out to be prophetic. You don't even know it
at the time, but it's funny this album is being
released now when everybody in the world needs a break
from the fucking world.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I'll say I'll say yes as a throwback to
a time that was a lot more innocent, a lot simpler.
And it's funny because somebody said the same thing. It's
it's music is like kind of like a breath of
fresh air and an escape from all the crap going on.
(02:08):
So I mean, I think music is supposed to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you know, it's funny though
us I think about it just finding the Devil's Advocate
for a second, because I never thought about this. Was
it a time that was much simpler or was it
that you were younger because during Vietnam all that. I mean,
but it is interesting because I talked to Patty Smith
a couple of years ago and she said she's never
(02:33):
seen the world be as divided as it is now.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think that I was thinking about that. I was
thinking about that. Actually the other day, whether it's because
it was always this much of a mess and because
the world is smaller in the age of information and
social media, that were exposed to a lot of a
lot more of it and it's in our face. Whereas
(02:56):
before we were kind of buffered by it, you know,
really you just had to really make the effort to
watch the news. But now because of social media and
every it's just like bombarded by it every day, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, which is why you need that break more than
ever though. So I mean there is that you know,
and that makes funny because these songs you know, but
it's so interesting. I mean I talk about this with
artists all the time too, Right, you can know a
song forever and then when you cover it, you discover
the nuances of it, you become it comes different. The
other thing, of course, too, is you change your relationship
(03:31):
with music changes. Like it's funny. I did get to
interview Gordon a few years ago before he passed, and
for some reason during COVID, I just fell in love
with that song again, like I've known it my whole life,
but it's like it's one of the greatest fucking songs ever.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Written ever, ever. I mean, I mean I always loved it,
of course it was. That was one of the reasons
why it was on my list. But singing it and
those lyrics are like, I mean, you don't really realize
how amazingly ricks are sometimes until you actually get to
sing them, and it was I mean, that was the
case with that song. And for me also everybody is
(04:12):
talking the lyrics to that, it's I you know, I
fell in love with them all over again. So yeah,
I mean, it's it's funny when you get to cover
these songs, your relationship with the song changes too, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So, but it's interestingly as well, did you find that
you know, even before you covered them, when you decided
to do them, were those songs that you look back
on because of course, Look, the other thing is that
you still host a podcast called People Have the Power
where we talk about protest songs, right, And it's like,
for example, if you're six years old, you hear Living
in the City or What's going on, You're like, oh,
that's a cool song. Then you get older and you
(04:49):
understand the lyrics and you understand the message, and you
realize what a vital song is because of the message.
So where these songs here like again like if you
could read my mind, you can hear that when you're
six years old, they go, that's a cool song, you
know you heard on a radio in the seventies. And
then you realize how complex it is and what it's
talking about, you know, after you've been through those experiences yourself, right.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I think the song that really is, you know,
for me, really was amazing to sing was the Marmalade song,
the last song on the album Reflections of My Life,
which as a ten year old eleven year old girl
listening goes, oh, I love that's the song. It's so pretty,
but I didn't really understand now as a woman, an
(05:36):
older woman with experience of life and loss and love
and all that, and singing those lyrics, it was pretty profound.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I have to say, interesting right now to ask for
the other songs in that era that you would have
loved jotan that either didn't make it or didn't fit.
Like I remember talking Brian Ferry when he did the
Dylan Covers album and it's like, there are just certain
songs that you may love, but you cannot.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Say then exactly. That was the one song that comes
to mind that didn't work. There were few was Holiday
by the Beg's and it's such a weird song, and
I really was like, you know, we have to make
this work. And we tried and we tried, and it
sounded horrible and it was just one of those songs
(06:20):
that that wasn't gonna happen. Uh what was what was
the other one by the Turtles I'm Happy Together that
didn't work out. But there's always those songs. I mean exactly,
you don't really know why it doesn't work, but it
just doesn't work. It doesn't know it happens.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And I mean it's more a matter of like for me,
it's a way of finding out, you know, whether there's
songs you want to even sport. I grew up in
kind of the same era and so some of these songs.
And it's funny how when you get older you go
back to songs like one for me that has been
recently is Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jackson.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Got so good, that was right, everite.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Songs as a kid, and then it's like you get
older and it's like this is a great song.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, And same with the Jordy Mitchell song. Both sides
now as singing hearing those lyrics as a young girl,
it's a pretty song, but I mean singing singing along
to it as an older woman, it's like really melancholy,
you know, very sad.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh my god, did you get seen he or do
it live in the last few years?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
No, but I've seen it online and it was amazing.
And who was singing those songs that she sung as
a young woman, they completely changed for me.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, no, because I happened to be at the board
show and I've literally seen five thousand shows, and I mean,
I think that's the best single song I've ever seen
in my life.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure, I'm because when.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You see someone singing like you say, like you know,
as twenty two, it's like it's you know, it's wonderful.
But then when you're seeing someone who's eighty years old,
who nearly died, it's like the death of that song
is a credib.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It goes from whimsy to melancholy and like, you know, sadness.
I think, I mean, that song is really sad, but
at the time, you know, being a young woman singing
and I'm sure she didn't well, who knows what she
thought when she was singing it as a young woman,
but yeah, definitely changes with age.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So what were some of these songs for you that
had like really changed in terms of like you said,
reflections but where the other one said like again or
maybe that you just said like you said, you know
you understood differently, because again I go, actually, if you
can read my mind, but I was a or a
song like Superstar having lived a whole life on the road.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Who yeah, I mean that really changed for me. I
mean I well, actually I didn't understand what that song
was about when it was a hit, when the Carpenters
had it out, and I've heard all the different versions
and I still didn't get it until I decided to
sing it and include it on the album. I sang,
I had to see what the song is about, and
(09:01):
it's about a groupie and I didn't know that, and
I was that so that took on a whole different meaning.
And it actually isn't a very nice love song at all.
You know, it's it's like wow, you know, like it's
like you you know, it's it's yeah, it's like a
(09:21):
lover spurned. You know. It's not very nice.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, but it's funny because sometimes you know, those songs
are so necessary, you know, and it's like they pay
so much and it's like, you know, I mean that's
interesting though. Also of the lyrics again, because I've never
you know, I've always loved the song.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Oh no, it's about a one night stand. You know,
girls sing a rock band and she thought, you know,
they have a one night stand or whatever, and you know,
I fell in love with you. For the second show.
Your guitar sounds so sweating. I mean, it's it's about
a groupie. Yeah, it interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, I mean it's funny to you because you know,
that's another one. As you get older, you realize Karen
Carpenter was just as badass as any singer who ever lived, the.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Best, the best singer ever. I wasn't when I did
that song. I didn't, and I've heard the different versions.
I didn't want to even like go, you know, touch that,
because you can't. She had probably the one of the purest,
most beautiful voices ever. I think her and Maria Callis
or the two that come to mind.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Interesting. Yeah, no, I love her voice, but you know
it's funny, and then of course you come on to
happier stuff. I get together, which again you know I've
seen where you talked about that. It's like, yeah, I mean,
you cannot find a more appropriate song for the sage.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah. Well, yeah, it's it's very timely. And I always
loved this song. And I remember that was, you know,
out during the Vietnam War, you know, and all that
all that crap that was going on. So and it's
just as timing now as it was then.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but I mean it feels like even more so now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah. I mean, everything is so fractured. I you can't
say anything anymore about being attacked, and it's it's just
really sad. You know. I think that probably America is
a cent is an epicenter of craziness and that in
that way and that respect, but it's it's everywhere, you know,
(11:30):
people just can't Everything is so fractured.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Well, it's interesting because you know, again, you know,
we started talking about like a simpler time, you know,
And it's funny because I mean I specifically think about
the seventies as being you know, probably closer now because
of Vietnam and all that, you know. But it's interesting
because now I'm thinking about it, It's like, you know,
(11:54):
obviously when you were coming up in the when you
were at your biggest success in the eighties, it does
be like it was even though there was a Cold War,
didn't feel like that was like an immediate going on
every day. So it does feel like maybe that was
a little simpler time and people were more open.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, But I do think like when I was trying
thinking backward, things always this much of a mess. They
probably they, I don't know. I mean they might have been.
It's just we weren't exposed to it like we are now.
We were exposed to everything, you know, and it's just
it's too much.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So it's such an interesting thing. I mean, I talk
about these people all the time now. I'm just curious.
I mean because I remember Lindsey Buckingham telling me, right,
He's like, we could have never made rumors in the
internet age. He's like, without everybody paying attention, He's like,
we never would have made that album. So it's funny.
I mean, do you feel like, if you were an
artist coming up today, would you feel like, I guess,
(12:56):
would you want to be an artist? So I'm just curious,
and I've thought about it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I don't know, everything is so sexualized now and I'm
just not I mean, you know, with women in music.
I mean it's I don't know, I don't know if
something so organic as like the Go Gos could happen,
could happen now, Uh, I don't. I don't think so.
(13:19):
I mean, I I CA can come from the punk
rock background and d I Y when things were really
super authentic and it was about the music, and now
it's it doesn't seem to be about the music so
much anymore as it is about sexuality or or if
you're a woman, or or just how you know, or money,
(13:42):
you know, how you know how much money you can
earn the big corporation. So it's I don't know, it
doesn't it doesn't feel as as as well for me,
it's not as interesting as it used to be. There's
not a there are some interesting bands coming up, but
not you know, not like it was in the early
(14:02):
eighties when you had all the different genres that punk
and new romantic and new wave and whatever. But now
it's I don't know, it just feels kind of toxic
to me.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So how do you keep it fun for you by
just going back and doing stuff that like you've always loved,
stuff that you.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, I just stick to what I want to do
and if it if it's if people want to listen
to it, that's amazing. If they don't, I mean, my
last two my last well I did, My last thing
I had at was Kismet, the Diane Warren project. But
before that, I had a Mantra album which you know
I liked, but how many people heard it? And then
(14:45):
I did the French album before that, and that was
the first time I ever worked in a way that
I worked from the heart and I did what I
wanted to do with it made me happy and didn't
really have well the first time. I was really off
the hamster wheel of having to produce something for a
big you know, a big record company. So that's the
(15:06):
way I'm all. You know, after that experience with my
French album, I bowed that was the only way I
was going to work. And you know, I'm never worried
about the results of the work. I'm just having a
good time doing it and it's fun to put it
out and see and whatever happens happens.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, well, that's there's a feeding
first of all of being older, and then second of all,
once you've got success, it's like you don't really need
you all right, well you're not spending on it for
your livelihit anymore.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Chasing it? Yeah, I mean it's it was like from
age well when the go gos, from that first album
to pretty much through age forty. You know, it was
just like you know, because I had to chase the hit.
You know, it was like because I was there was
like always pressure to to you know, come up with something,
(15:53):
come up with a hit. So and that was the
way my life. My life was like that for years
and years. So yeah, I'm older, wiser, and you know,
I've had that kind of success and now just do
this for the love of music. Really nice.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Well, I have to ask you about Jim coaching saying
because he's one of my favorite artity. But before we
do that, you know, it's funny we're just talking about
Joni both sides now and to me, like she's such
template for what you're talking about, just doing music the
way you want to do it and not following any
sort of But it's funny. I talking about Sweep all
the time. All the great artists have always done that. Bowie,
(16:31):
you know, Joni, like you said, Miles Davis. You know
what you would call disruptives or are the people that,
as you get older, you really look to and admire
for the way. You know, I mentioned Patti Smith. She's
definitely a here of my those people who just do
the thing they want to do and they've been able
to evolve successfully by just being themselves.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, I think Patti Smith is a perfect example of that.
I mean, and you can see the joy and the
happiness and her face as well. And you know who
else am I thinking of that? Well, there's plenty of
artists that do that. They reach a certain point in
their career and and you know, they're not chasing that
hit and they're just doing what makes them happy and
(17:16):
you can hear that in their recording and you can
see it on their face.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
All right. So I'm trying to talk about, you know,
songs changing and having different meaning and I mean, man,
imagine being six years old here in time in a
bottle and then being an older person who's bringing a
memories of of course m Croachy tragically has a plane crash, right,
and when everything that's associated with.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That song, I remember that like it was yesterday when
he was when you know, that song was everywhere. I mean,
that song was everywhere, the biggest song probably of that
year or even you know, five years, who knows, but
it was everywhere. And so I remember that. I remember
being kind of sick of it because it was not
all the time. But I remember when he died in
(18:10):
the plane crash, and that was, you know, that was
it was horrible when I when I was looking at
the list and I looked that song of that I
don't know, I don't know, And then I listened to
the lyrics again and the lyrics were just so magnificent
and so romantic, and I thought, well, I want to
(18:34):
get I do want to give it a shot and
see if I can just bring a different sort of
take on it, which I think we did, and I
think I think it didn't. It did nothing to hurt
the integrity of the song, you know, but it is
a different version of it. And I loved singing it.
It was so much fun to sing and you know
it and of course you know, while singing it, it brings
(18:57):
back memories of that time, so very specific memories.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So uh, well, I had most of this album was
like a time capit for for.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
You, I think, Yeah, I mean I could. I remember
there's like certain boring would be boring to anybody else,
certain things when I was growing up, like when a
Ma marmalade song, I remember, you know, being and you know,
my family's garage and there's a piano and singing along
and trying to play piano with a marmalade song on
(19:26):
the transistor radio. So there's like little sweet memories like that,
but for me that are that are throughout the whole,
the whole entire album.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's so funny. I'm a friend who close to
my age. You just mentioned this the other day and
I haven't thought of it so just now, but you
know it kind of the way it's set up, it
kind of feels like a k Tel album in the best.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Way I did. I did a fake Ktel commercial actually
that that with that we have, I don't know if
we'll ever put it out because it is funny. It's
like I walk towards the camera, I lean on a pedestal.
These are some of my favorit write songs and I
look oft into the distance as I mime time in
a bottle. But yeah, we did the whole k TELL
(20:06):
commercial for it. I think it's so it's so funny,
but it's it's definitely of a time. You know, it's
like a certain age bracket would get it. A lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I'm not gonna say those get it.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, it's so funny, it really is. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, like I said, it's funny because this is up
the other day and someone's asking, it's like, you know,
I mean, now, of course you have now that's what
I call wh whatever, But I mean, you know, the
Skates albums were such a big part.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Of you know, huge, huge elem Alone with Chia Pets. Yeah,
the two the two infomercials or the two early infomercials
that you would see on TV.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Right, what would you call the Skates album?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I don't well, I mean I'm calling it's it's the
album is sort of like a k telum. So I
guess Once upon a Time in California is a perfect
name for it. But I probably have to simplify it
my songs, you know, my favorite things. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, all right, Well, before I let you go there,
I do have to ask because the podcast compartent is
called in Service Off, and it talks to different people
about giving back. It's really funny because you know, I
was looking back at the interviews I did with Ozzy
yesterday and one of the last interviews we did was
about his philanthropy thing he was doing, and he said,
(21:34):
this industry has been so good to me. He's like,
I love being Ozzy Osbourne. Of course I have to
get back, and I think the older you get, more
successful you are, you feel that you have to do
that anyway. And it's funny though, because when you talk
with musicians, right just doing an album like this that
allows the world to escape in the time when everybody needs,
you know, a mental health break, that right there is
(21:57):
being in service of But for you to talk about
giving back what it means to you and you know,
especially as you gets me an older artist, you heard
so many stories and been around where you've heard like
this song saved my life, the song changed my life. Whatever.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, Well, I mean I always say that my job
as a service is I'm blessed to have it, and
it is service work because I do when I do
the shows, I see you know, people's faces. I do
think it's important, you know, And I've been an animal
advocate on my life. I have my project that I
co founded in twenty fourteen Animal People Alliance and one
(22:36):
hundred thousand animals later. We're expanding into Mexico. So that's
kind of my other you know, I guess philanthropic work
that I do. Like I said, I've always been an
animal advocate. I do what I can. I think it's important.
I think it's important to talk about issues, although it's
a little bit scarier these days because you know, no
(22:59):
matter what say, you're going to be attacked. But I do,
you know, I feel like I do my part. I
feel good about my contribution, you know, as far as
that goes.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's so funny though It'll let you go in and say,
but I mean, you know, I talked about this with
people all the time. Yaw comes up because, like you said,
about being attacked. But at the same time, I mean, like,
you know, I was just talking Monday with Hugh Evans
from Global Citizen, and he was talking about the fight
ten poverty and it's like, there are certain things do
you feel like chances end politics? And yeah, said he said.
(23:35):
It was so funny we were talking about and he's like,
you know, the only way you wouldn't want a kid
to get a thirty cent immunization is if you're a
fucking psycho, you know. And I feel like most people
are just gonna be like, all right, we love animals
no matter what.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, well that's that's yeah, exactly exactly. But I mean yeah,
I mean I I do when I can sort of
getting political, that's all cool.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Our last question, I let you go. But now I'm
curious because I was just doing a story for The
Times with the Doors and this was like the most
fun thing ever. I interviewed, of all people, a palaeontologists
who was telling you this crazy story about being in
Patagonia and excavating dinosaur bones. While listening to writers on
the story, He's like, we hired these gauchos who literally
were pulling dinstaur bones with horses. And I was like,
(24:26):
that's the coolest story ever. And I was selling Robbie
and John, who both loved the story. And as I've
been interviewing people, everybody has these crazy stories. Maybe not
quite that Raiders of the Lost Ark. But your music
travels to places you can't begin to understand. So what's
the craziest place you've heard of a Go Go song
being played?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I think on my I guess I go to Turkey
I quite a bit for actually archaeological reasons. And I
heard a Go Go song at Istanbul, which is I
would never have thought that it would have traveled. But
I mean, I hear all the time from people saying
I've heard your song in Egypt, or I heard your
(25:07):
song and you know, Russia. Whatever, But it happens quite
a bit, and I love that. Of course, the weird
the better.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, I was gonna say, did you ever imagined ever
that you have your songs, one of your songs, any
songs at the Pyramids?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
No, I know I would never imagine that. And I'm
a big, you know, archaeology buff, so something like that
would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah. Then I've asked what do you listen to when
you're on a dig?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
What do I listen to? I listened to a lot,
you know, I'm I love French pop. So today I
was listening to Benjamin Bola. I listened to a lot
of opera. I listened to Miles Davis. I listened to
punk rock Walla Voodoo. I said, go back to my
Walla Voodoo album. So my taste is I mean, lately
(26:01):
it's been a lot of French spot and devotional Hindu
devotional music I had too, kurtin.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Nice, all right, cool? What do you want to add
the didn't not ask you about?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I think you covered everything I think you did.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You're amazing, Thank you, always very to talk to you,
and a lot of fun. And by the way, now
I have to ask, as a fan of this music,
the beas I grew up with the two, any sharing
plans or any like one off shows.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, I have some East Coast dates at the end
of the year and then I'll probably do some shows
early next year and the West coast. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, you know, I talked to so many people too,
and this will be the last question, but I have
to ask, who say when they start a project like this, right?
They like lights of Fighter in them? So you know
there were one hundred plus Ksel albums. Is their volume
two coming?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to
do next, if I'll even do anything next. I haven't
have little ideas. I don't know. I'm sure something something.
You know, Usually when I like ah, I have that
moment and then I've become obsessed with it. But I
haven't had that idea yet. Where it becomes obsessed with it.
So who knows. Could be a Spanish album, could be
(27:10):
another French album. I don't know, we'll see maybe a
Turkish album. Maybe. I love Turkish pop. Seventies Turkish pop
is the best.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I've never heard of seventies circus pop song.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It is great, So.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Best Turkish pop song. Listen start.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I know, I don't know. I can't even pronounce, you know,
I can't even pronounce the artists or the songs. But
I'm just looking right now my on my Spotify list,
and there's one guy, well you can't tell that he's
a man or a woman, but he's huge. But I
can't I can't find it now, but I would really
(27:54):
recommend it. It's very cool.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, thank you so much. All Right, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Thanks, thank you. By by Say
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.