Chords for THE BANGLES - Interview ('Be My Baby' 2006)

_ _ _ 80s girl groups had big skirts, big hair and big attitude.
But one group had guitars as
well.
Hang on, a girl group with guitars?
It's like [D#] feeding street vendors, [E] that's if you're a man you pull it off.
Flex hard you know the way off.
Strike a pose on the [F#] Cadillac.
If you wanna find all the cops we're hanging out.
[A] _ _ [C#] Bangles, it's feel good, it's well constructed [B] pop, it's brilliantly presented. _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#] I think the Bangles are noteworthy because they're a real band first and a girl band second. _
_ _ [E] Helped very very much by the fact Susannah Hoffs is drop dead gorgeous.
[B] Or black and Egyptian. _
[E] They threw out the rule book and they decided they just wanted to rock as hard [D] as the boys. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ The Bangles came from the [C#] comfortable suburbs of LA, California.
[G#m] Sisters Vicky and Debbie
Peterson played guitar and drums in their garage [D#] and in 1981 they put out an ad to find a singer.
_ [A] _
Susannah came in and worked in really [Fm] well with us on [B] all the harmonies.
[D#] The first night that I met them, wouldn't you say?
We just like went, [C#m] we just went to
these parts and it was there and we kind of all went, [A] oh what just happened?
The old hair sticking [G#] up on your arm kind of thing.
In [C#m] Susannah Hoffs they found a shared [B] love of 60s retro [A] pop.
[B] And [G#] _ _
_ [N] _ Mitchie, we're getting [D#] kind of itchy just to leave the folk music behind.
_ Sol and Danny, working for a penny, [N] trying to get a fish on the line.
Their sound came from 60s California pop and the band was completed by a girl with a boy's
name, Michael Steele.
They were now a band and headed out on the local [A] rock circuit.
_ _ _ [C] _ _
[F] _ _ [A#m] _ _ _ _ _ [C#]
My [E] _ first picture of them in my mind is back when they were still the Bangs and they were
wearing 60s type clothes, the sink, these [F#m] girls covered in sweat and just playing 60s [B] music.
_ _ [F#] _
Peter Philbin, the man who signed Springsteen, took them to the giant record label Columbia.
_ They were not [G#] a very good band, [D#] but they were a real band.
I wasn't out to sign a girl [F#m] group,
I [C] signed the Bangles. _ _
[D] In 1982 their first album divided rock fans.
Some weren't quite ready for girls with guitars.
The [A] idea that you can just be a band [A#] and be all women, _ why not?
And it never occurred
to us that that would be a problem.
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ They did not look foolish with their instruments, they didn't look scared of their bass guitar
[B] and they were [G] sexy.
_ But the band needed to be accepted as cool, so Susanna Hoff sent a copy of their record
[F] to Pops Man of the Moment.
_ _ [A#] _
_ _ [B] Somehow he discovered it, [A#] had seen the video and really liked the band and kind of started
to [A] just appear at our shows, [A#] randomly.
Like all of a sudden there'd be like a little tap
on the shoulder and it'd be like Prince is [A] here and he'd like to jump on stage with you
guys and we're like, [E] okay. _ _ _
_ _ [A#m] I think he liked petite, dark, [D]
slow-eyed women.
[Em] Shut up.
_ _ I think that he liked the fact that on stage we really rocked.
I think he appreciated
that we weren't [F#] a girl group in the sense of we didn't stand there in evening gowns
and just sing, we like really [A] played.
_ The next thing I know we're looking for songs for the second album and he sends in Manic Monday.
_ _ _ [D] _ Prince's [D] song Manic Monday was [F#] a crossover hit.
[D] The Bangles had made it.
[G] _
From then on it was just [D] this strange thing [G] of like turning on the radio [B] everywhere we
went and hearing that song.
Then the real [F#m] craziness started [D] to happen I think after that.
There was pressure to be more like a traditional girl [G] group.
You know, pull the singer out,
[D] make her a star.
Plus it was [E] the age of the pop video.
[D] Girls had to be pouty and preened.
_ [E] Sue, from my point of view, is the primary voice.
[C#] It's got the little girl [D] element.
Again, it's kind of a Diana Roston.
_ _ _ But the [G] Petersons, [D] their harmony sound is really the [B]
key part of this band.
_ _ Lead singer Susanna was happy to play to the cameras, but the sisters were being pushed
into the background.
_ Sue [C#m] has more pop sentiments.
There were [F#] multiple photo sessions, which Sue [Em] Hoffs was more than
[G#] happy to be there for and Vicki Peterson I think had to be talked into it.
Vicki _ was
less happy with photo shoots [A] than she was with [F#] performing live.
_ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ [F#] There was a pressure to be fashion models and we're [B] not.
There [F#] was a point in our career
where we would just look at each other and go, I'm just [A] so sick of putting makeup [E] on
and I just don't want to look at my face in the mirror anymore.
[A#] Why can't we just [G] play? _
_ [A] For the moment, their differences were lost in the [G] whirlwind of fame and photo [B] shoots.
The winners are the [Em] Bangles. _
[C] _ _ [D] _ _ [Em] _ Thank you all very much.
[D] It means a lot.
_ [Em] _ _ _ _
But while the hits kept coming, success was [B] taking its toll on their friendship.
[G] _
_ _ Two people in the band were [A#] wanting to go one direction at that time.
It's a long story,
but it felt like things were falling apart.
It felt like the fun and the spark and the
love had gone out.
[G]
Susanna Hoffs began working with other songwriters and came up with this little ballad.
[G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [D] _ By now, they weren't even speaking to each other, [C] never mind singing together.
They recorded
Eternal [Em] Flame separately.
[B] Somebody was doing a lead vocal that day, [Em] the rest of us didn't show up.
[A] So there started
to be this feeling of separation.
[D] _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[F] _ Although [G] Eternal Flame was [C] their biggest hit, it wasn't enough to keep them together.
[D] In
1991, [Bm] Susanna went solo. _
[C] _ You know, I just wanted [N] to keep working.
She's on her own with my side of the bed.
Welcome, Susanna Hoffs!
_ But Susanna's solo [B] wasn't quite the same.
This song limped into the charts at number 44.
[G] _ I _ _ _ _ [D] _
want to show [Bm] you the picture.
[E] She and I had a conversation.
I said, you're going to go [Em] from being the band of the moment
to one of 30 girls recording [G] albums here.
_ Soon after, Susanna Hoffs stepped [G] out of the [A] public eye and married Hollywood [E] director
Jay Roach, [G] the man who gave us Austin Powers.
In 2002, he gave his wife a cameo in Goldmember.
[E] But despite her famous friends, she hadn't spoken to the other Bangles [F#] for nearly ten years. _
While the band members [B] raised their children, offers of reunion tours [A#m] were declined.
But
then they decided to write together [F#] again.
There was a new album in [B] 2003.
The Bangles have been playing ever since.
[F#] Pop's most rocking
girl group are back in harmony.
We've been able [A#] to make the Bangles fit into our lives rather than trying to fit our lives
into the [D] Bangles.
Higher in L.A. you know [F] where that's at.
_ [B] No one's getting fat [Em] except Mama Cass. Totally [B] unremarkable.
_ By taking up guitars, the Bangles