There once was a quartet of young women from Los Angeles who wrote and performed wonderful music in the vein of The Byrds and The Beatles. They released an EP and a LP of incredibly charming power pop and the future looked bright. Then the worst that could happen happened. Their talent got them noticed and they became popular with their third release. And it was all downhill after that.
The Bangs become Bangles. The girls who had previously shared singing and songwriting duties turned into a front for the girl singled out by the record company as the "lead" singer and they began to have hits with songs by outside writers. Their own material was miles above the dreck that was foisted on them - the wonderful Prince-ly Manic Monday notwithstanding.
But enough on what went wrong. Those first two releases have nothing but right on them. Here is their first single from the EP Bangles released in 1982. The Real World is a miraculous reincarnation of the 1964 Byrds, with a dash of harpsichord to boot. When the harmonies come in I just swoon!
Songs Of The Week, 2024: 12/14-12/20
1 hour ago
2 comments:
Thanks so much for resurrecting this earlier sound of theirs -- I never heard them until the big commercial hits, which I liked well enough, but listening to this I sense I would have liked this stuff better (and, yes, felt let down when they went mainstream).
beautiful track, never heard it before!
I just stumbled on your blog and have been looking at posts over time. I think the Bangles are kind of the 1980s equivalent of The Raspberries. A hard working and really talented that don't get the respect they deserve because they had a moment of white hot success.
AP
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