Bangles "All Over The Place"

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#693 in the Series) is The Bangles, All Over The Place

I remember when this one was just released. It was too early in the girl-band genre to admit that a 26-year-old male was a fan.  It still had to be a guilty pleasure that you played when no one was around. Heck, I even remember when I bought the first Pretenders album. I looked around the record store to make sure none of my buddies were watching, and that wasn’t even a girl band.

The Go-Go’s had much to do with that. Yes, they were a very good band, but they were marketed very much for the young girl record buyer.

The Bangles were much different. No, they would never tell a young girl not to buy their albums. Heck no, but their sound was different.  They had a little more bite, a little more edge to them. While they did have a pop sound to their songs, they also had a little punk in them as well. Like I said, they indeed had some edge. That edge would lessen with future releases when they did become more of a pop band, yet the music was still good.

All Over the Place has some great songs on it. Most of it was written by the band’s guitarist Vicki Peterson. I believe it might have been the lead track “Hero Takes a Fall” that first exposed me to The Bangles and of course Susanna Hoffs as well.  I’m pretty sure it was the first single. It’s hard to tell by looking around the ‘net since none of the songs made the charts. That is surprising since they did get a decent amount of exposure on MTV.  This was ’84 remember. MTV was just starting to be the kingmakers, and they liked The Bangles.

Vicki also shared a large amount of the lead vocals at this time. She showed her talents in another great track, that being “Going Down to Liverpool.” I never knew until just recently that this was a Katrina and the Waves cover tune. I think I’m glad I didn’t know that before! It was much easier to like.

The song “James” was also high on my like list. Susanna was on lead vocals here as well.  Vicki did led the “Fleetwood Mac-type”  harmonies during the bridge. It was very Lindsey Buckingham-like at times.

Drummer Debbi Peterson and bassist Michael Steele provided a nice rhythm section. They need to be mentioned as well.  Unfortunately when The Bangles reformed in 2011, Michael took a pass.

— Larry Carta

 Track listing

All songs written and composed by Vicki Peterson except as noted.

1. “Hero Takes a Fall” (Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson) 2:54
2. “Live”  (Emitt Rhodes) 2:36
3. “James” 2:36
4. “All About You” 2:26
5. “Dover Beach” (Hoffs, Peterson) 3:48
6. “Tell Me” (Hoffs, Peterson) 2:15
7. “Restless” (Hoffs, Peterson) 2:41
8. “Going Down to Liverpool” (Kimberley Rew) 3:41
9. “He’s Got a Secret”  2:42
10. “Silent Treatment”  2:07
11. “More Than Meets the Eye”  3:19

Personnel

• Susanna Hoffs – rhythm guitar, vocals
• Vicki Peterson – lead guitar, vocals
• Debbi Peterson – drums, vocals
• Michael Steele – bass guitar

Links

Here’s more cool albums from 1984 to check out.

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