Take a Bite

When I first started listening to Girlschool, 5 years ago, I would always say they had the distinction of being the longest-running all-woman band, with a career spanning nearly 40 years. By now, they have been around for over 40 years, an achievement rivalled by very few bands, period. I notice that in the past, I was wont to single out their "femininity", whatever that meant, for special praise, as a unique, rarely seen quality. Today I am a little embarrassed at that judgment, which nears insult. Girlschool, despite the (almost comically) delicate, precious band name, has never relied on selling femininity -- or selling much of anything -- except pure rock & roll.

In the middle of the '80s, Mercury Record certainly made them attempt selling out as such for the record Running Wild, which, indeed, entailed selling a lot of things deemed rather outré (not to mention simply lame) today: synthesizers, excessive eroticism, tight leather. This was no success, and involved a sacrifice of dignity too harsh to recover from at once. Instead, Girlschool stayed firmly in the lane of party rock for its next two albums, but discarded the frills and baggage that are normally attached to that genre. There were no synthesizers, no silly publicity stills, no MTV spots. They wrote two albums of fun, charming, sometimes even (lyrically) challenging songs that remain my favorite compendium of party hits. The first one, Nightmare at Maple Cross, was well-reviewed, but not at all successful -- the bad production might have contributed. After its financial failure, Gil Weston Jones, long-time bassist, left the band, taking up a more lucrative career. The remaining members hired Tracey Lamb of Rock Goddess (the other all-woman NWOBHM band) and went to work on a new album, which is as energetic and fun as its precursor but more balanced and rounded.

I had scarcely listened to metal or rock music for a year or two when I found this CD among some other forgotten possessions in my parent's house, and gave it a spin, for auld lang syne. What I heard surprised me immensely, almost from the first note -- I was almost instantly struck with an excitement I hadn't felt since my teenage years. What had surprised me was not the time capsule to the '80s of WASP, Mötley Crüe and Dokken, but the quality of songs in that time capsule. Riff after riff hits the mark, and song construction is just clever enough to avoid monotony and keep you in the game all the way. Its opening song, "Action" is simple enough in theme: "I want action, give me satisfaction", the chorus goes. What Girlschool brings to these simple tunes, though, is conviction, deeply felt and heartily expressed. In their classic song "Yeah Right" from their sophomore albums, the then young girls had summarized the endless chorus they received as "You can't do that, you can't do that", and the first album reverberated with the enthusiasm of young women on the loose, slightly rebelliously. Love at First Bite is also teeming with the energy of young women who have broken free from shackles, and are so happy to celebrate their freedom and vigor, but the situation is rather different. "Action" implies that attempts at commercial success were boring and "a drag", calling a man who thinks he's "got it made" because he is a minor "celebrity" and has "money to burn" a "traitor", with too little time to enjoy the fruits of his success until it is too late. This album is a celebration of the band breaking free from another form of authority -- big labels and their crushing demands -- and once again being on the loose. It's not hard to figure out what they are doing: songs like "Up All Night" and "Tear It Up" spell it out quite clearly.

It is, on the other hand, hard, in the course of this album, not to get swept up with the joy and party spirit yourself. If ever an album makes me feel like leaving the house and going to a party, this is surely it. It's free from drags too: no ballads, nothing too sugary. The cover of "Fox on the Run" nears the schmaltzy, but strays just enough from it (naturally, this is more the fault of the original song, too). There is no song really off here, nothing that raises an eyebrow -- at least not out of discontent. The title song "Love at First Bite", which shares its name with a rather inane parody movie, certainly surprises. Why exactly Nightmare at Maple Cross and Take a Bite have these horror themes is unsure, but fun is certainly had with it in what I suppose is the title song, which feature the famous laugh from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and a bite sound effect that suggests more of a sort of aggressive kiss. I am among those unlucky ones who have once bitten someone fortunate enough to receive a kiss; perhaps the song is best understood as an ode to bad kissers.

Normally I would be wary of reusing a word often in such a short review. This time, though, I have little problem with my numerous uses of "fun". Its really is the most apt word for this album. It got me back to listening to heavy hetal and rock & roll, what more could you want? The next album, Girlschool would return to their classic sound, then get progressively heavier; their recent material can only be called heavy metal. This, though, is party rock, and what a party it is!