CD Odyssey Disc 1204: Girlschool

Welcome back to the Odyssey! For the second month in a row we get to delve into some Girlschool. Yeah!

Disc 1204 is… Hit and Run

Artist: Girlschool

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Our four leather-clad heroines survey the damage to a brick wall after they ran their rather large sedan into it. Think they’ll be reporting it? The album title suggests…not.

How I Came To Know It: I just (Disc 1191) told the story of how the 4 CD set of Girlschool albums came to be in my collection so I won’t recount that again.  I will note that I originally came to know Girlschool through their guest appearances on a Motorhead compilation.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Girlschool albums, and I am putting “Hit and Run” in at number one, baby!

Ratings:  4 stars

“Hit and Run” is fast, furious and full of rebellious life; the musical equivalent of being punched in the teeth and yet somehow enjoying the experience.

This is Girlschool’s second album and their most commercially successful. In this regard a bit of context is important; it achieved #5 in the UK but only #50 in Canada (although it did go gold, so we loved them in our way). It had no real big hits, which is perhaps fitting for a record that doesn’t have a single so much as a solid mass of standout songs that deliver a consistent energy throughout.

Girlschool were Motorhead protégés and the influence is strong. Like Motorhead they straddle the line between punk and metal. Here you will get a lot of basic songs without a lot of chords played in the frenetic style of punk music. Like a motorcycle that has a front wheel vibrating ominously through a fast turn, Girlschool sounds like they are on the edge of losing control but never do.

Helping centrifugally balance the turn are churning metal riffs that would be at home on many an eighties metal album in the decade to come. The title track has a killer groove that sits down somewhere between the pomposity of KISS and the driving groove of Judas Priest. This time the song isn’t about bragging about lovin’ and leavin’, but the hurt feelings of the left behind. Girlschool doesn’t wallow, though, “Hit and Run” is a rallying cry to reject self-pity that raises a middle finger to fate and circumstance alike.

My early music experience is more metal than punk and the more crunchy riffs of songs like “Future Flash” appealed to me more than the punk flavours, but all of it is good. In both its incarnations, this is simple rock and roll, played with spit and spite. While I would tune in from time to time to the lyrics, it would be a mistake to look for a lot of complicated messages. Just let the visceral experience wash over you.

The band does a great cover of ZZ Top’s “Tush” filled with Motorhead-esque industrial crunch. It is great, but the fact that it isn’t even one of my favourite tracks is even more telling about the album’s quality. I’d rather here Girlschool blast their own stuff. When you can stand like that side by side with a hard rock classic you’ve got a classic or two of your own, chart topping be damned.

Listening to “Hit and Run” I could also hear the echoes of history, as the record feels like the natural ancestor to many all-girl bands that followed. L7 comes to mind, and – more recently – Bad Cop Bad Cop.

This particular edition of the record has a bunch of “bonus tracks.” While I liked the covers of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ “Please Don’t Touch” and Motorhead’s “Bomber” there were three more tracks that made the experience a bit bloated, and didn’t sufficiently add to the record. If you are going to put bonus tracks at the end of a CD (and I generally wish you wouldn’t) then limit yourself to two.

That’s a minor quibble though on one of the truly great metal albums of the early eighties, and one I expect to be in regular rotation for years to come.

Best tracks: C’mon Let’s Go, Kick It Down, Following the Crowd, Hit and Run, Watch Your Step, Back to Start, Future Flash

CD Odyssey Disc 1191: Girlschool

I was up early this morning to feed a friend’s cat and I’ve decided to make the most of this pre-football time by getting in a music review. If this posts after the game starts do not be alarmed; I have PVR. I will miss nothing my beloved Miami Dolphins may do.

Disc 1191 is… Screaming Blue Murder

Artist: Girlschool

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover? Blue smoke was a common feature of early eighties metal, and Girlschool embraces it here. This cover looks like it was shot on the set of a high school musical. Perhaps these are the ghosts of that musical’s stars, who were all tragically killed when the giant iron frame they’re hanging onto crashed down on them.

The school’s handyman had repeatedly warned that it was unwise to hang a frame from the lighting track, but no one would listen. Now the ghosts of the four dead girls haunt the school’s theatre, planning their vengeance…

But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: I first learned about Girlschool through their appearances on 2000’s double CD compilation “Best of Motorhead.” I didn’t buy any Girlschool for the longest time and then I saw a box set of their first four CDs in my local record store, Ditch. I dithered on whether to buy it, as I kept promising myself to check the band out online first and then forgetting over and over again. Finally, about a year ago I did check them out and I liked what I heard.

Unfortunately the box set had sold. Ditch said they could order me another one so I accepted. Months passed, and they managed to get in a stand-alone copy of “Screaming Blue Murder”. However it was $27 and wasn’t even the record in the set I wanted most, so I demurred. Finally I gave up and cancelled the order, and ordered it online through an English seller on Amazon. Turns out that fell through as well..

I was about to give up when the guys at Ditch said they could take another try to get it. A week later, there it was. “Screaming Blue Murder” is the third disk in the box set.

How It Stacks Up:  Those four albums in the box set are my only four Girlschool albums. Girlschool put out 13 albums and I’ve listened to most of them online, but those first four are the only “must haves” for me. Of the four, “Screaming Blue Murder” is third, but only because the two in front of it are really good.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“Screaming Blue Murder” is an unapologetic collection of songs about hard livin’, hard rockin’ and not giving a damn. It is best played loud and late at night, but I also enjoyed it just walking around in the day.

Girlschool are an all-woman metal band from England that sound a lot like their oft-times collaborators, Motorhead. Both bands have a crunchy, driving energy that mixes the recklessness of punk with the anthemic power of metal. “Screaming Blue Murder” is their third album, and at this point the band is starting to incorporate some more mainstream elements, resulting in a bit less crunch.

These mainstream elements skirt uncomfortably close to the edge of kitschy, but I think they are subtle enough to not detract from the album’s power overmuch. It is a shift in their sound, but the shift stays on the right side of the line (they wouldn’t go too far until their next record, “Play Dirty”). While I prefer Girlschool’s first two albums, I like what they are going for on “Screaming Blue Murder” and overall they stick the landing. There is still plenty of fury and metal mayhem to be had.

Rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe and lead guitarist Kelly Johnson share lead vocal duties, and I couldn’t pick a favourite between them. Both have plenty of snarl. The real star of the band is the guitar work. Johnson’s lead guitar is classic British heavy metal, peeling out with furious solos but always staying tastefully within the song’s melody.

McAuliffe’s work on rhythm is equally brilliant. Song with these kinds of churning riffs need the rhythm guitar to sit down in the pocket, giving the song their energy without drawing too much attention to themselves. Johnson does this masterfully, sitting slightly at the front of the beat and giving the songs a little urgency with their groove.

My version of the album has a bonus track, “Don’t Stop” which was the B-side on the single release of “Wildlife”. I actually liked it more than the single and I love having it (B-Sides should always be on the LP).

Even with this addition the record is only 11 songs and 33 minutes long. Girlschool waste no time – they get in, get on it, and get out. It was over so quick it left me wanting more. Good thing I’ve got three more of their albums that are just a dice roll away!

Best tracks: Screaming Blue Murder, Live With Me, It Turns Your Head Around, Don’t Call It Love