Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. Last night, yours truly had the pleasure of catching the mighty Girlschool for the first and unfortunately last time. Between their veteran status and the increased red tape that comes with touring the States for euro metal acts, these legendary ladies have opted to say farewell to their diehard American fans in grand fashion, busting out a setlist that leans heavily on their classic output of Demolition (1980), Hit and Run (1981), and Screaming Blue Murder (1982). Being the contrarian that I am, I’d argue this classic run extends one album further with the subject of today’s retrospective essay, Play Dirty (1983). Join us as we revisit Girlschool’s audacious voyage into the world of pop metal and explain why it should’ve been bigger.
The year was 1983 and metal was bursting out in a big way. After a decade of struggling with their distinctly euro metal stylings, Scorpions streamlined their sound and achieved arena headliner status. Rainbow had reinvented themselves into a glorified AOR band, scoring hits on both MTV and FM rock radio. Two of the biggest albums of the year, Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Quiet Riot’s Metal Health, signaled this shift, fusing hard and heavy riffs with poppy choruses and slick production, subsequently setting the standard for nearly every major label metal band to follow in the ’80s.
Girlschool were no exception to this ongoing change. While they managed to achieve success in their native UK, they had yet to break into the American market. To this day, I’m not exactly sure why. Their sound, while rough and ready, wasn’t any less accessible than that of Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, both superstars now in their own right. If anything, Girlschool could’ve been branded here, not as the female answer to Motörhead, but rather torchbearers of the flame lit by pioneering girl rockers The Runaways, now a distant memory of the ’70s. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think Girlschool’s American distributors, Mercury, came calling for a hit, and when that call came, the right measures were taken.
For one, they enlisted the help of Slade duo Noddy Holder and Jim Lea to produce their next album, Play Dirty. Slade themselves were experiencing a bit of a resurgence at the time, reinventing their dated glam rock sound to accommodate the ever-changing ’80s. Ironically, they’d achieve their greatest American success in ’84 with two Top 40 hits: “Run Runaway” and “My Oh My”. This, mind you, right off the heels of Quiet Riot’s massive cover of “Cum on Feel the Noize”.Taking all these circumstances into consideration, the pairing should’ve been a match made in hard rock heaven, resulting in a blockbuster album that sold tens of millions of units. Instead, it resulted in the cult classic we’re examining today, Play Dirty.
Play Dirty opens with one of the best songs in the Girlschool canon, “Going Under”. From the opening AOR synths, twin guitar harmonies, and reverb drenched drums, one can tell this isn’t the same Girlschool who tore onto the scene 4 years earlier with “Take It All the Way”. Whereas the Girlschool of ’79 were fine playing cramped, sweaty pubs to crowds of drunken hooligans, the Girlschool of ’83 were dead set on arena domination, and it shows in the delivery of this larger than life opener. Even at their most accessible, Girlschool are hungry as ever, showing the listener the importance of a riff, hook, and chorus that sticks.
“Going Under” is followed by the equally hooky “High and Dry”: My favorite Girlschool song of all time. That’s right, I said it. Now for context, this is technically a Slade cover, the first of two on this outing. I say “technically” because Slade’s version wouldn’t be released for another few months until December, 1983’s The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome. While both versions follow the same musical template, it’s Kim McAuliffe’s seductive vocals and the equally alluring vocal harmonies that forever five the Girlschool version the edge. Why Mercury didn’t release this as a single is forever a mystery.
If Pyromania‘s impact on the metal scene hadn’t been heard already, it most definitely was on the title track of this album. The riff, tempo, and chorus of this fist pumping anthem sounds like it could be the musical cousin of “Rock of Ages”. No, scratch that, a twin sister! As the old saying goes, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I’m not saying Girlschool were purposely trying to imitate Leppard here, but it definitely sums up the era. Now if only Leppard would start imitating Leppard again!
From there, we’re greeted with cover #2 of this affair, “20th Century Boy”. Originally performed by glam rock gods T. Rex, Girlschool’s spin is pretty faithful to the original, the only differences being a feminine spin on the lyrics (“20th century boy, I wanna be your toy” instead of vice versa) and a beefed up ’80s pop metal production. Considering the rapid evolution of hard and heavy music, this anthem released just a decade earlier was now seen as a golden oldie of yesteryear, its beloved author Marc Bolan having now been 6 years deceased.
Side A closes with the rowdy “Breaking All the Rules”. Musically, this is the closest we’ve heard on here thus far to Girlschool’s early output: Loud, raw, and unapologetically defiant in every aspect. The biggest difference is that big production, complete with those bizarre ’80s synth percussion noises thrown in for good measure. Strip that all back and this sounds like a rager one would hear on Demolition or Hit and Run. No rules for these ladies, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
As we flip over to side B, we’re treated to the album’s third and final cover (and second Slade cover), “Burning in the Heat”. This hooky little gem was originally released by Slade at their lowest point commercially in ’77. Had it been released a few years earlier, there’s no doubt it would’ve topped the charts. Instead, it failed to chart at all. Girlschool gives it the ’80s metallized AOR treatment and, just like with “High and Dry” before it, knock it out of the ballpark. Again, had this been released to rock radio, it would’ve been in constant rotation.
“Surrender” (not to be confused with the Cheap Trick song of the same name) is a rather standard ’80s hard rocker, emphasizing synths and chorus above all. Admittedly, it sounds less like Girlschool and more like Pat Benatar, but by no means is that a complaint. After all, by this point, Benatar was going through a bit of an identity crisis, having fallen off the synthpop deep end. If anything, Girlschool captures the power pop charm of Benatar’s early output on this one, which reminds me: Why did a Pat Benatar/Girlschool tour never happen? There’s lots of questions throughout this one folks.
“Rock Me Shock Me” continues the straightforward, steady driving, arena metal romp of the title track, Denise Dufort’s electronically altered drums and the band’s gang vocals hitting you in the face with pure attitude. Yes, these are tropes we’ve heard two zillion times in ’80s hard rock and metal, but Girlschool execute them in a way that makes them infinitely more charming than say, well, most of the glam metal crop come the late ’80s.
If “Rock Me Shock Me” is a follow up to “Play Dirty”, then “Running for Cover” is a follow up to “Going Under”. Both songs are masterclasses in melodic metal, grabbing the listener in with huge vocal harmonies, exciting guitar work, and a chorus that’s bound to live rent free in your brain for days, if not weeks. Closing it all out is one more blast of NWOBHM nostalgia circa ’81 (only a couple years earlier), “Breakout (Knob in the Media)”. No pun intended, this rager pushes the speed knob to overload, daring the naysayers to say they “sold out”.
While Play Dirty isn’t nearly as heavy or perhaps even as cohesive as the albums that proceeded it, I’ll argue everyday that it’s a classic of pop metal, arena metal, heavy AOR, hard rock…whatever you wanna call it! The girls would further tread down this radio friendly path for the rest of the decade, before returning to their humble roots with 1992’s Girlschool and walloping us with rambunctious pub metal ever since. Regardless of what the future holds for the girls of Girlschool, I salute them for 46 years of kicking ass and taking names, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. Keep playing dirty!