But which other ’80s artists deserve a nod? Who should be in the Class of 2027? That’s an eternal question, of course, so today I am re-running this vintage Totally ’80s podcast episode featuring an expert panel of special guests, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lol Tolhurst of the Cure (Class of 2019) and Gina Schock of the Go-Go’s (Class of 2021). Like the Go-Go’s’ T-shirt says, “It’s about fucking time!”

“It was sort of bittersweet recording some of these songs. It brought back a lot of memories, singing these songs that I used to listen to as a young girl,” muses Belinda Carlisle. The eldest of seven kids, Carlisle endured a “very chaotic” childhood, growing in various parts of Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley with an absentee father and alcoholic stepfather. But she always had her music — that mellow gold played by the Real Don Steele and Wolfman Jackson on AM radio stations like KHJ.

So, now the Go-Go’s frontwoman is paying tribute to that era on Once Upon a Time in California, a collection of covers of classics by the Youngbloods, the Hollies, the Association, Harry Nilsson, Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot, and other artists that she says “inspired me to want to be a singer.”

“Music for me back then was an escape from my typically dysfunctional family,” Carlisle says. “In fact, my escape was going to my best friend’s house, Christina. Her mom worked and she was a latchkey kid, and we would just lay every day in summer from 8 AM to 6 PM in front of the big speakers and blast all the radio stations. For me, it was a total escape. I was really good at creating fantasy for myself, because of my upbringing and wanting to just leave the family behind. I was really good at fantasy, and I was going to be a big, famous singer one day.”

As Carlisle recalls, her family “had no money — I wouldn’t even say we were lower-middle-class, I would say that we were poor” —  so it’s interesting that while she dreamed of a glamorous and globe-trotting rock-star life, she got her start in the scrappy first-wave L.A. punk scene, where bands dressed in trash bags and Goodwill rags and it was considered uncool to admit to any grand aspirations. “But I still had my little Dior bag that I ate oatmeal for a month to able to buy,” Carlisle chuckles. “I did have a little bit of a fashion thing going on, even in the punk days. … And even then, I remember [Go-Go’s guitarist] Jane [Wiedlin] and I living at the Canterbury Apartments, which was a punk-rock commune almost, and running down the back stairs of the building yelling, ‘We’re going to be rich and famous one day!’ Even though you weren’t supposed to say that. As [Go-Go’s drummer] Gina [Schock] says in our documentary: ‘What are you doing this for? Do you want to stay in clubs forever and be struggling forever?’”

And the pop sound that Carlisle picked up from listening to ‘60s and ‘70s SoCal radio also made its way into the Go-Go’s’ music from the start. “We always felt like we belonged [in the punk scene], even though our songs are melodic. But after a while, other people didn’t think that we belonged so much, because we had ‘sold out’ or we weren’t ‘punk’ or whatever,” she says. “We couldn’t play our instruments, but they actually were songs with melodies. Even in the early Go-Go’s, on the stuff that it didn’t even make the first album. We had songs like ‘Vicious Circle’ that was like, ‘I go playing with blades,’ about suicide. They were very, very melodic, very sort of uplifting, but we have these dark lyrics. … My preference for the music is I love that contrast of dark lyrics with a beautiful melody, and lot of the Go-Go’s songs are just that.”

While Carlisle doesn’t cover the Beach Boys on her new album, in many ways this project goes back to that formative band, since the very first album she ever owned was the Cali classic Pet Sounds (“I won it at a softball tournament, and it completely changed my life”), and in 1996 she recorded the song “California” with none other than her idol, Brian Wilson, who clearly appreciated her pop sensibilities.

“He used to come to Go-Go’s shows and to my solo shows with Dr. [Eugene] Landy, and I sang background vocals on a couple of his solo albums,” Carlisle reveals. “I remember when I would sing backgrounds on his album, he would stand in front of me and conduct me, and it was amazing. He was such a character. And then from my album A Woman and a Man, we had this song ‘California,’ and he’d be perfect on it. So, we asked and he said yes, and he came to the studio and sang over this little cassette player. … He was singing over the track, and I didn’t quite understand where he was going with it, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to have to tell Brian Wilson that we can’t use his part!’

“So, I was kind of freaking out, and the producer said, ‘Let’s let him go into the vocal booth.’ And then all of a sudden, it was like a symphony. It was so emotional. I get really emotional just thinking about it, because he was layering these parts so that it was a symphony. Watching him work and doing that, for me, that little girl that had worshiped him and the Beach Boys, he’s like Mozart. So, he sang for a couple hours on the song, and then when he left, we just sat there — like, mute. Nobody could say anything because it was so emotional, and we called it a day. He was an amazing, amazing human being. An amazing artist, of course. [His death] was a big loss for me, for sure. It felt like part of my childhood had gone with him.”

Carlisle, who grew up in the shadow of the Watts riots, reading “a lot of Joan Didion books” and obsessing over the Beach Boys-associated Manson murders (“I used to sneak the Herald Examiner when my mom would go out the room and read the testimony from Susan Atkins or Squeaky Fromme”), gravitated towards darker. melancholy songs when choosing covers for Once Upon a Time in California — like the Carpenters’ “Superstar” (“I had no idea that song was about a groupie!”) and “Reflections of My Life” by Marmalade, which closes the album.

photo: Albert Sanchez

“I can bring my myself back to a moment with that song. I remember when it came out and I was living in Burbank. I was in the garage where I’d dress up and put elaborate makeup on and have twigs that I’d use for [pretend] cigarettes and sing. I remember that hearing that, and I just thought it was the weirdest song, because it didn’t fit in with a lot of the other material that was coming out then. It’s a little bit odd, but I loved it, and every time it would come on, I would just turn it up and actually be waiting to hear that song again. … When I decided I wanted to do that one and dig into the lyrics, I was like, ‘Wow, how amazing that I get to sing these lyrics being this age, and experiencing so much of life and love and loss,” says Carlisle, now age 67.

Carlisle also chose songs that she thought would  best fit her voice, and while she was always “a singer, not a screamer — as cool as screaming is,” even in the punk days, Once Upon a Time in California definitely showcases a crooner/torch-singer side to her vocals rarely heard. “I wasn’t [vocally] trained, but after I heard the second show the Go-Go’s played, at the Rock Corporation in the Valley, someone had a cassette tape of it, and I thought I was hot, like the best thing since sliced bread — and then I heard my voice and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m horrible! I have to do something about this!’ So, I was saving my money to go to vocal lessons, and I started that after I heard that cassette,” she explains. “But I never really took my voice that seriously until after I got sober. I used to smoke and drink and carry on all night, and then get up onstage the next night. I don’t know how I did that, but I did. So, I never really took care of it. But now, for the past 20 years or so, I’ve really, really take care of it, and I’m serious about it. And I think it shows in the album.”

Interestingly, Carlisle says it was actually when she finally quit alcohol and cocaine for good, at age 47, that she started having vocal issues. “It started happening when I got sober, ironically. … I went to my doctor, who I still have, and I said, ‘What is going on? All these years of carrying on, and now that I’m really good and diligent about taking care of myself, I have problems?’ And he goes, ‘It happens to all singers. They clean up, then the problems start.’”

Carlisle underwent surgery last year for a vocal-cord node (“I did a whole tour singing that way; I could tell something was wrong”), and now, thanks to that as well as her breathing exercises and pranayama yoga practice, she’s sounding better than ever. Which of course begs the question if she and her on-and-off Go-Go’s bandmates, who recently reunited for this year’s Coachella and Cruel World festivals, have any new music in the works. “I’ve learned so many times, over and over again, never say never with that band,” she laughs. “Because something always comes up, always. … We have no plans to do anything, not even thinking about it. But I’m sure that something is going to come along again. It always does.”

However, a long-rumored Go-Go’s biopic seems to finally be happening, although Carlisle isn’t confirming much about that either. “I can’t really talk about it, but it’s definitely in the works,” she says. “Those kinds of things, they have a very small chance of ever getting made. … But if it happens, I think it’s going to be great. It’s being written right now, so it’s still in the very early stages.”

And as for who would portray her in this cinematic California saga, Carlisle wants Florence Pug —  even though Pugh is reportedly being considered for a Madonna biopic. “I think she’d be much better playing me, although she’d be great playing Madonna,” says Carlisle. “I think that we have a lot of energetic similarities and also physical similarities. … But I really hope that this does happen.”

This interview originally ran on Gold Derby.

The Go-Go’s in 2018: Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Belinda Carlisle, and Gina Schock. (Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Female music fans of a certain age can probably remember the exact life-changing, magical moment when they first discovered the Go-Go’s.

Maybe it was via the quintet’s cheap and cheerful “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video (released less than a month before MTV made its August 1981 debut), in which the Go-Go’s cruised the streets of Hollywood in a Rent-A-Wreck Buick convertible; shopped at Trashy Lingerie; and naughtily frolicked in a public water fountain without any concerns about smearing their makeup, flashing their skivvies, soaking their secondhand mini-dresses, or getting arrested.

Maybe it was the group’s garish, parlor-pink Beauty and the Beat album art, depicting the ultimate rock ’n’ roll spa day with the bubble-bath-ing, facial-masked Go-Go’s indulging in bon-bons, booze, party-line chatter, and pulpy page-turners.

Or maybe it was that debut album’s brash, bratty, brilliant girl-gang anthems. When frontwoman Belinda Carlisle saucily sang, “Bet you’d live here if you could and be one of us” in the L.A. ode “This Town,” or “I want to be that girl tonight” in “How Much More,” basically every girl in America agreed with her. Every girl in America wanted to be in the Go-Go’s’ girl gang, wanted to be the sixth Go-Go, wanted to be Belinda’s best friend.

The Go-Go’s were the coolest girls in the world in the ’80s. They were the original squad goals.

For some fans, the most indelible Go-Go’s memory has to be from 1982, when they learned — probably via Casey Kasem’s top 40 countdown show — that Carlisle, guitarists Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey, bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock had made musical history. That year, Beauty and the Beat hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it stayed for six weeks; this established the Go-Go’s as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top that chart. The Go-Go’s still hold that record. That never happened again.

Considering what an impact the Go-Go’s had, it’s incredible that their initial run was so brief: They formed in 1978, put out Beauty and the Beat three years later, and by 1985, after releasing two more albums (1982’s Vacation and 1984’s Talk Show), they’d already broken up. However, their legacy lived on. And since the Go-Go’s first reunited in 1990, even more fans — male and female — have discovered or rediscovered their effervescent, irresistible garage-pop.

40th Anniversary pic.twitter.com/SsLaq0qzTs

— The Go-Go’s (@officialgogos) May 17, 2018

But now, as the Go-Go’s celebrate four decades in the business (they played their very first live show at legendary Hollywood punk club the Masque, opening for the Dickies, 40 years ago this week), they’re entering a new chapter in their life — reuniting with Valentine (with whom they acrimoniously parted ways in 2012) and creating a Gwyneth Paltrow-produced musical using a bunch of their songs, Head Over Heels.

Yahoo Entertainment got together with Wiedlin and Caffey to reflect on the Go-Go’s’ legacy — from their punk-rock past to their whirlwind success — and discuss sexism, ageism, and why the Go-Go’s really belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Yahoo Entertainment: The Go-Go’s were the first female band that wrote all their songs and played their instruments to have a No. 1 album in the U.S. And you’re still the only all-girl band to hold that honor. When that happened, did you realize at the time that you were making history? 

Jane Wiedlin: Sort of. I mean, we were really proud that we were the first. I think it became even more significant later, because we had this assumption that everything was going to change. But everything didn’t change. We thought there’d be hundreds of all-female bands playing their instruments and writing songs, and it just never really happened that way — or those bands out there didn’t seem to achieve the success we did. Of course, we were very lucky.

Charlotte Caffey: I remember being told it went to No. 1 and it was really exciting, but as far as sitting there and saying, “Wow, this is historically significant!” — that wasn’t something I was thinking. When we got back together [in 1990], five years after we first broke up, that’s when it really struck me. I remember the very first gig, I believe it was a benefit for the environment, at the Universal Amphitheatre. Seeing these grown men crying in the audience, I was like, “OK, that’s kind of amazing.” I understood in that moment: “OK, we really did something cool.”

Yahoo Entertainment: So now you know!

Caffey: Yes, now I know. But I guess the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn’t know.

Yahoo Entertainment: Wow. The Go-Go’s have never even been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Caffey: Nope! Look, we’re not sitting around waiting or losing any bits of our lives worrying about it. But it’s just obvious [that we’ve been snubbed]. Whatever protocol there is, I don’t understand.

Yahoo Entertainment: Which sort of goes back to Jane’s point, that the Go-Go’s’ success didn’t kick down as many doors as people might have hoped or assumed. Any theories why?

Wiedlin: Well, change comes slowly — and sexism is still alive and well in America.

Yahoo Entertainment: What sort of sexism did the Go-Go’s experience back in the ’80s?

Wiedlin: It’s kind of hard to explain. Things were different then. People were not PC. Radio people would be very vulgar with us, and people would ask us who we had “f***ed to get to the top,” to which the answer was “nobody.” I think [industry] men made a lot of assumptions about us, and a lot of men were threatened by us, because the five of us together was a pretty powerful force. We used to call it the “five-headed monster,” because it was pretty intense to be around us as a pack.

Yahoo Entertainment: Do you think this sort of chart-topping success that the Go-Go’s had — a female rock ’n’ roll band, doing things totally their own way — could happen in 2018?

Caffey: Well, I believe it would be a huge feat of magic or something. For us, it was completely organic. I believe there will be a little sprouting scene somewhere in the world that will bring forth more organic music. I always hold that hope, because I’m old-school. That, to me, is the way I like music: people just organically doing it.

Yahoo Entertainment: What do you think has changed most for women in music between 1981 and 2018?

Wiedlin: What I’m noticing right now is a large percentage of the women performers out there — most of whom don’t seem to be musicians or songwriters — are manufactured and hypersexualized. And I think most of them, when they’re asked about it, there’s this pat answer: “I’m doing this, nobody’s making me do this! I’m a feminist and it’s my choice to be dressing like a stripper!” I don’t know, I find it a little bit difficult to look at, because it’s just so cliché and boring. But whatever. It’s not my career.

Caffey: We were just a group of girls, like any other group of girls. I think that was our appeal, and I’m glad about that. We were just in our thrift-store clothes that we’d been buying for years. That was just who we were.

Wiedlin: For many years, we always just wore thrift-store clothes. It wasn’t until towards the end that we started having money and wearing more designer-y clothes. It was really different then. I see these young performers today and they have Valentino and Gucci dressing them, and I’m like, “Wow!” We had Goodwill and the Salvation Army dressing us.

Yahoo Entertainment: But that definitely was part of your appeal — like in the “Our Lips Are Sealed” video, which seemed unchoreographed, unscripted, and charmingly cheap.

Wiedlin: We got the money for that video out of a video budget left over from the Police. [Editor’s note: Miles Copeland, president of the Go-Go’s’ label, I.R.S. Records, and brother of Police drummer Stewart Copeland, managed the Police.] It was $6,000 that we spent. We were kind of just driving around L.A., very informally, and we figured if we jumped into the fountain that was at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd., that maybe the cops would come and arrest us and we could film it, and it would be like this great ending to the video. So we were jumping around, jumping, jumping, jumping — but the cops never showed up. But it’s still kind of a cute ending. The fountain’s still there. We probably would get arrested if we tried to do it now.

Yahoo Entertainment: Let’s go back even further. I think some more casual fans might actually be surprised to know that the Go-Go’s came out of the late-’70s Hollywood punk scene that spawned bands like the Germs, the Weirdos, and the Bags. What was that era like?

Wiedlin: It was a great scene to be part of. It was very small, and everybody knew each other. It was friendly and inclusive. There were girls in bands, people of color in bands, gays and lesbians in bands — and it was all okey-dokey. It wasn’t a big deal. It was kind of the perfect breeding ground for our little band to come into existence.

Caffey: It was a very creative scene. It was people openly expressing themselves in any which way. Very exciting. I was very fortunate to be a part of that and have that experience.

Yahoo Entertainment: That’s interesting, because I think the stereotype or assumption about the L.A. punk scene was that it was very aggressive and male-driven, and that a girl group would not have been accepted.

Caffey: It wasn’t like that when we were there. It became more like that later. There were a lot of guys, sure. But I didn’t sit there thinking, “Oh wow, these are all guys.” It’s just like, “They’re musicians.” And that’s why, when people ask the question “What’s it like to be in an all-girl band?” — you don’t think that. I’m a musician. We’re musicians. Yes, we happen to be women, and yes, we did put together an all-female band, because, as Jane once put it, that’s all the people that were left! But it’s not really a gender thing. It seems unique [to be all girls], but it’s not really when you’re just doing what we do. We are just musicians, putting in the work.

Yahoo Entertainment: When the Go-Go’s made it big, did any of your L.A. punk peers disavow you, or accuse you of “selling out”?

Caffey: Of course! When you have the band that’s “your” band from your town and then they all of a sudden start going global, you feel like you’re abandoned. But I think it was cool, because there was no one else like us. It was a great thing to have happen.

Wiedlin: Maybe some people from that scene were supportive and happy for us, but I remember at the time that it was more like we were the big sellouts — which happens to everybody, by the way. You take it personally at the moment, but then later realize that it happens to literally any band that gets successful, if they come from a tight scene like we did. … But when [the scene] started getting really male-driven, with all the violent mosh pits and stuff, after a couple years, we were turned off to it anyway. So we didn’t have such a problem moving on.

Yahoo Entertainment: How did the band’s sound evolve from punk to the more powerpoppy sound you became famous for?

Wiedlin: It started when Charlotte joined the band, after we’d really been together for just a few months. Charlotte and I started writing together, and she had a little bit more of a pop sensibility, even though we had all been raised on ’60s pop music. As time went on, we sort of gravitated towards the more melodic songs than the angrier first songs that we had written. And then … we got our record deal and were produced by Richard Gottehrer, who was a ’60s songwriter. [Editor’s note: Gottehrer’s Brill Building hits included “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Hang on Sloopy,” and “I Want Candy.”] So he brought even more of an element of pop to our sound.

Caffey: I can’t say I changed the sound. What I did was I brought in a song, “How Much More,” that was completely pop and girl/boy — or girl/girl, or boy/boy, or whatever it may be. You know, it was relationship-oriented. I took a big risk by doing that, because bands [in the scene] then were playing things that were a little more hardcore in a sense, like more punky-sounding. But the thing is, we still sounded the same way, we just had a more pop melody to work with.

Wiedlin: [Gottehrer] slowed us down too, because we played everything at like a breakneck speed. We found it hard to listen to when we heard the finished product. We were horrified!

Caffey: When he heard the first mix of [Beauty and the Beat], we hated it! We were crying and cursing it. It was like the worst thing ever.

Wiedlin: We made him speed the tapes up, actually — so when people try to play along to that record, they say, “The keys are really weird.” And we say, “Well, that’s because we sped the tapes up!”

Caffey: Richard, in his brilliance — which we didn’t understand till months later — he featured the song. He wanted the song and those lyrics to shine. [That’s why] he asked us to slow the songs down a bit. Then, when we got songs on the radio, we understood why he did that. And it was the smartest thing ever.

Yahoo Entertainment: Were you prepared for the massive, mainstream success that followed?

Caffey: It was very disruptive. It’s not normal, you know? It’s very exciting, but it’s very disturbing too. We were ordinary people, having an extraordinary experience. And sometimes that’s hard. It was very difficult for me. It was just overwhelming. I didn’t know how to balance things out back then. … And I think it was escalated by what happened to the band. It just provided us a carte blanche to everything … but coming home and drinking is not the answer. You need to balance it another way.

Yahoo Entertainment: How did you get past that?

Caffey: I got sober. I’m 31 years sober. I’m proud of it and talk about it all the time. I’m very open about it. That’s how I managed to crawl out of that place that I was in. But it’s not just about stopping drinking. You change your life in many ways.

Yahoo Entertainment: It seems like your sort of success would be even more difficult to handle in this day and age.

Wiedlin: I liked the career that we had, in the time that we came up. It was a fun time, and it doesn’t look very fun to me when I see the artists of today. They just seem to be under so much more pressure — the intense focus all the time, with social media and paparazzi. It’s really out of control. I don’t see how that could be fun. The level of scrutiny is so ridiculous. I don’t think I could have handled it. … I probably would have killed myself, and I am not even joking. It amazes me, what people put up with, the amount of hate on the internet.

Yahoo Entertainment: Do you guys get any hate on the internet now? Ageism, sexism, anything like that?

Wiedlin: Not really. Sometimes, I guess. So, people think we’re old, yeah. Whatever. Guess what, everybody? Everyone is going to get old!

Yahoo Entertainment: What about the idea of “growing old gracefully”? That someone like you, at age 58, shouldn’t still be dyeing her hair bright blue?

Wiedlin: F*** that! I’m gonna do what I want. Actually, when you get older, it’s the perfect time to dye your hair. When your hair starts turning white, you can just slap any color on it that you want. You don’t even have to bleach it or anything.

Yahoo Entertainment: We’ve talked a lot about female artists coming up today and the obstacles they may face. What advice would you giving rising young female musicians?

Caffey: Stay true to yourself. If you really believe in yourself, and you believe in what you’re doing, don’t give up. Because that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t give up. We wanted to along the way, because sometimes it was so hard. But we’d talk each other out of it: “No, no, let’s keep going till September, and then we can break up!” And then we’d keep going. Really, it’s about tenacity and surrounding yourself with like-minded people.

Yahoo Entertainment: And finally, what influence do you think you’ve had on women in music? Do you have any female musicians telling you that the Go-Go’s have been important or inspirational to them?

Wiedlin: Sure. Veruca Salt, for instance, have said they’re fans, and that’s amazing, because we are huge fans of theirs. But you know, it’s not just girls. Guys liked us too. Like, Billie Joe Armstrong cites us as a reference, and so did Kurt Cobain. And I don’t think it gets any better than that! If I could have anybody say that they were influenced by us, it would be those guys.

This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.

Strolling through the aisles of Hollywood’s Record Parlour store, sifting through bins crammed with more than 50,000 vintage vinyl albums, comedian/musician/TV host/rabid music fan Margaret Cho heads for the comedy section and excitedly grabs a copy of 1983’s What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most, by her comic idol and Fashion Police predecessor, Joan Rivers.

“This is the best. This is a classic. A classic!” Cho exclaims, clutching the album to her bosom. “This should belong in any comedy fan’s arsenal. This is very, very important and very influential. She was a huge inspiration. And then she became my friend, my mentor, and was always there for me — like if I had a bad night or a bad show or something. She was always very, very supportive.”

Some might be surprised to find out that barbed-tongued Rivers, who took no prisoners when it came to her comedy and harsh fashion critiques, was such a sweet mother figure in real life. But Cho got to see a softer side of Rivers, who passed away in 2014.

“It was a healing force that she had, this incredible softness to her that people just don’t really understand,” Cho recalls fondly. “People sort of think of her as hard and mean — this kind of very cruel, biting tongue. But she was so gentle and loving and warm. She was so generous to me. She would do absolutely anything I asked. She was always just incredible.”

Cho — who cites her childhood “imaginary friends” the Go-Go’s as the main musical influence that “changed the way I thought about feminism … they gave you confidence to do whatever you wanted to in life” — was up for a Best Comedy Album Grammy this year for her second full-length release, American Myth. Other nominees included fellow modern-day female comic trailblazers Tig Notaro and Amy Schumer, and Cho tells Yahoo Music, “I do think that the comedy industry has become much more female-centric. [Rolling Stone just put out] ‘The 50 Best Standup Comedians of All Time’ list, and Wanda Sykes and I were on it, along with a lot of other great, incredible women — which is really important.”

Cho didn’t win the Grammy, but since she hosted the Grammy Awards’ pre-telecast ceremony, she was able to give her acceptance speech anyway. It consisted of three words: “F*** Donald Trump!” And she says she “would love to do a political album” someday. “The time for it is now, certainly,” asserts Cho. “What I noticed growing up is that rock ’n’ roll really flourishes during difficult times. I was in the ’80s going to tons of ‘Rock Against Reagan’ shows, where you were seeing the Dead Kennedys, Flipper, Black Flag. And then later on, there was a lot of punk-rock stuff, like grunge was happening during the first President Bush. And during the second Bush, we saw more of a rise of hip-hop. So I feel like music is getting more politicized, especially last year, with the entire Black Lives Matter movement being really pushed up by musicians like Kendrick Lamar. So I would love to do a protest record, but also in the theme of great mighty protest songs from the ’60s.”

Take a journey through the record crates with Margaret’s vinyl shopping list, in which she reveals the other strong women, besides Joan Rivers and the Go-Go’s, who have rocked her world (Diana Ross, Juliana Hatfield, Tegan and Sara, the Human League, the Divinyls); her affection for other late legends (David Bowie, Prince, George Michael); that time Lady Gaga and Katy Perry opened for her in concert; and the fashion inspo she has taken from Marc Bolan and Bananarama.

The Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat

“These girls were my imaginary friends. I didn’t have a lot of friends in school. But when I got home and I could put this record on, I had friends. It showed me that women could rock out. This is the first concert I ever went to … it was like what I imagine what a Taylor Swift show would be today. Or even, let’s say, a Spice Girls show.

“This record, I mean, it changed everything. It really changed the way that I thought about rock ’n’ roll. It changed the way I even thought about feminism, you know? They were the first big girl group who played their own instruments, wrote their own songs.

“The Go-Go’s used to live at an apartment complex in L.A. they called Disgraceland — making ice cubes out of their own pee, throwing them at guys they didn’t like. This is a whole punk-rock legacy. The average bear would not necessarily know that they were rock stars from the very get-go, you know. But Led Zeppelin has nothing on them. Nor does Mötley Crüe. These girls were decadent. They lived really hard and were around really intensely male scenes, and still held their own.

“They gave you confidence to do whatever you wanted to in life — that if you wanted to go into this field that was male-dominated, it gave us all permission to do this and do our dream the way we wanted. And for that, I will be eternally grateful to the Go-Go’s.”

Wham!, Fantastic, and George Michael, Faith

“I love Andrew Ridgeley and of course, the mighty, mighty George Michael. The gorgeousness of this guy. It’s crazy how beautiful he was, how beautiful his voice was. [On Fantastic], they had this weird kind of shouty thing, kind of almost like a 1950s-James Dean look, but their songs were almost what we now know as hip-hop. There was a kind of a hip-hop fusion, melding genres. It’s very electric and poppy, but also there’s a soul element to it.

“My favorite George Michael song has gotta be ‘Father Figure.’ And I love ‘Freedom,’ I love ‘Too Funky’ — all of these songs that came out of a lot of angst. ‘I Want Your Sex,’ which I loved, when he was trying to be straight, when he had the Asian girl in the video, his girlfriend. Usually I think when you have an Asian girlfriend, that’s the last stop to gay. I’m serious! So many guys that I’ve been with have become gay!

“I remember, it was 1992 or something, and I had just done a movie. And I was at the premiere, and George Michael was there. I saw him from across the room. He saw me, because he had just seen me in the movie. And we had this moment of, like, looking at each other. And we started walking towards each other. And then somebody grabbed him and whisked him away. And I never got to meet him. I’ve met a lot of my heroes, like a lot of people I really, really admire and love. But I never got to meet him.”

Prince, Sign o’ the Times

“I’m actually in a Prince cover band called the Purple Ones. They’re so hard, these songs, like ‘Get Off,’ which is the hardest song to sing. I can’t even do it now, I’m so out of practice. I just can’t even say how much I love this record, Sign o’ the Times. I mean, this has got so many great songs, like ‘Ballad of Dorothy Parker,’ which is my second-favorite Prince song. My very, very favorite Prince song is off of 1999, it’s called ‘International Lover.’ I don’t do that one, but I do ‘17 Days’ and I do ‘Darling Nikki.’

“I never got to meet Prince either, because I was too afraid. I was always so intimidated when he was in the room. The last time I saw him was at the Golden Globes. I looked out in the audience and I saw him, and he had the big natural [hair] and his glasses, the third-eye glasses. And then I was backstage with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and he came around the side, and he was talking to them. I was so scared, I couldn’t say anything. I was so intimidated. I could have spoken to him. I just didn’t, out of sheer terror.

“I don’t even know what I’d say if I meant George Michael or Prince. It’s almost like too much to put into words. I think, just the way that they made me feel, the way that they helped me out, you know? And also the way that they colored the rest of my existence — through their voices, through their songs, their sound. I think my life became so much richer for their work.”

David Bowie, Best of Bowie

“I love David Bowie. I was able to meet him because I wrote his press releases. It wasn’t actually a press release; I had written blog posts all about David Bowie and his life and what he meant to me, and I had put them up on my blog. He didn’t like doing press, so for the Reality tour, he would take parts of my blog and just send them out, because he really loved it. So he invited me to come to a bunch of shows. He was such a great, beautiful man. We took pictures together and I was crying. This was before selfies.

“The most meaningful Bowie song is ‘Life on Mars,’ I think, because that’s a song that has been with me ever since I was a teenager. I think it’s just so beautiful, so majestic. It shows off the piano at its best. [I’ve covered] ‘Moonage Daydream,’ which is a great one, because it’s all over the place: ‘I’m an alligator, I’m a mama-papa coming for yooooou.’ You get this crazy alien thing happening. That’s a good song for me to cover; I actually have a similar register as him, so I can do some of his songs OK. So that’s one that I really love.”

Billy Joel, Glass Houses

“This is an incredible album. This is where Billy Joel was trying to break out — as you can see from the cover, he’s trying to break out — of sort of the ‘Piano Man’ ballad troubadour. He was gonna go into this very rock ’n’ roll thing. … You know, I think he was battling a lot with depression. I look back at this and I go, ‘Oh, this is a bipolar record.’ I don’t know if he is bipolar, but this is what it sounds like to me. Like it’s sort of got all of this obsessive sexuality. Like on ‘All for Leyna,’ he is so in love with this girl and he’s gonna stalk her, and he doesn’t care about how he’s doing in school or what anybody thinks; he just wants to be with Leyna. ‘Sometimes a Fantasy,’ I remember the video — it was him basically obscene-phone-calling this woman and her getting into it at the end.

“I remember getting this album and thinking, ‘Wow, like I understand. I understand music.’ I was probably 8. Half of my family live in Toronto, so I was there for the summer, and it was real trippy because it was like all these Korean kids speaking French. And we played this record to death, we just loved it so much. I even bought the complete sessions. This is one of those records where every song is perfectly curated. When I make albums now, I try to lay them out the way somebody would do like if they were putting it out in the ’70s.”

T. Rex, Tanx

“Marc Bolan from T. Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex — he’s incredible. He was just such a beautiful man, so stylish. I love his hair. [Tyrannosaurus Rex band member] Steve Took was so glam too. He was so glam-rock that he died choking on a cherry pit. That’s true! He choked on a cherry pit and died, which is the most glam-rock way to go. I mean, it’s like the flip side of Mama Cass and the ham sandwich.

“I get a lot of fashion ideas from Marc Bolan. He had a television show on the BBC, and on the show there’s this one part where he’s actually onstage with David Bowie, and he’s so glam-rock, and then he falls offstage and disappears. It’s so funny, I love it! [The show] had these weird dancers, like the ‘Marc Bolan Dancers’ — they were almost like a precursor to the Solid Gold Dancers, but a little more tame and not as sexual, not as feline. But that’s a great show for fashion.”

Tegan and Sara, The Con

“This is my breakup soundtrack. I like the early stuff, and their later stuff too — but I love the album that has ‘Nineteen.’ It’s a healing song. That song has ibuprofen in it. I really think it does.”

The Human League, Dare/Fascination!

“I’m obsessed with the Human League. Like, I am crazy about them, because they do this weird thing where they have the girls establish a beat. All of their songs have these very strange, kind of somber tones, set by these girls, and then there’s this crazy, soaring male vocal on top. Phil Oakey and the Human League had been around for a long time, but they didn’t get to where they are until they had the two girls. The girls really brought them into another territory, and then they became so successful relatively overnight with this new formation of the band.

“Their makeup is so good. In the ‘Mirror Man’ video, you see them jooshing up their hair and their makeup, their little short haircuts. They’ve really got this Princess Diana thing going on, which is so fabulous. They all come up onstage with their fur coats and then they take them off, and they have their synthesizers sort of in a circle. It’s just so ’80s, and so cool.”

The Tubes, The Completion Backward Principle

“This is art rock. This is San Francisco rock, I think, at its best. You know, a lot of people say the San Francisco sound is Janis Joplin or Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead. And all that is very important, of course. But I love the Tubes. Their sound is so clean and so not like the sort of prog-rock beginnings that they had. This is where they really shifted into high new-wave gear. Their sound is just so synthetic, in the very best way. Everything about this is curated so beautifully.

“They were super-weird. The closest band comparison would be when Peter Gabriel was still in Genesis. They were super-weird. They were sort of in the same league as the Residents, who are also from San Francisco. Very strange, very orchestral, not so pleasing to the ear, but I love this record. I actually have this on cassette and on vinyl.”

Divinyls, Divinyls

“It was really sad when [lead singer] Christina Amphlett died. The day she died, I was in Perth, Australia. The Divinyls are a very, very iconic, very important Australian band. Before I came out [onstage], I blasted ‘I Touch Myself,’ and people were screaming and crying and shouting out. It was phenomenal.”

Megadeth, Dystopia

“My favorite thing of the entire day hosting the Grammys pre-telecast this year was presenting Best Metal Album to Megadeth. This is their 13th nomination in this category, and they very much were the Susan Lucci of metal. And they were so excited. I know Dave Mustaine, and I know that this was something he had really wanted. And this is something they really deserved.”

Lady Gaga, The Fame

“I think I would love to sing karaoke with Lady Gaga. I think she’s great. I just think she’s an amazing singer, and she’s kind of fun. She’s in a weird sort of music box; she can do anything. I haven’t met her before, but you know, I did a show, and Katy Perry and Lady Gaga both opened for me. I was the headliner, oddly. This was many, many years ago, of course.”

Roxy Music, Roxy Music

“The one song that is my anthem is probably ‘Virginia Plain.’ I love that song. There’s something about it that is just so quirky and so interesting. I think of all the songs, I’ve listened to that song more than anything else. Bryan Ferry is a very nice man, too. I met him [backstage at a concert] … and he was so beautiful, just like you think he’s gonna be, just this majestic guy with his tuxedo tie untied, beautiful. I love him.”

Diana Ross, The Greatest

“Diana Ross is an icon. People forget all of her accomplishments. Like, you think about the Supremes, but there’s so much more. So much disco. So much rock ’n’ roll, actually. So much soul, so much R&B. She’s her own genre in a lot of ways. She’s also such a movie star. Her image and everything is so fabulous.”

M, New York · London · Paris · Munich

“This is pop, pop, pop music. It’s sort of in the vein of the Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star.’ This is like when we were listening to synthesizers for the first time. This was around the same time as Tubeway Army and Gary Numan. So there was like this weird, robotic, sonic thing, like, ‘We’re gonna show our love of these weird giant computers and cars’ and all this stuff.”

Information Society, Information Society

“This is interesting, because this is when the ’80s were starting to fade into the ’90s. And so this is sort of like where they were using sampling, they were programming, using synthesizers, but they were much more aggressive-sounding. So you had a lot of these percussive textures that now you understand. This is a very influential band.”

Malcolm McLaren, Fans

“Malcolm McLaren, of course, is a very famous manager, a sort of impresario of the Sex Pistols and Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow. This was opera, but it was also, I think, the very beginnings of electronica. I think the children of this record probably would be what Underworld does. And also, that horrible Enigma song. It’s like a Gregorian chant, but they turn it into some weird sex music, very ’80s sex music. This is what started all of that. And then the father to this would be ‘A Fifth of Beethoven,’ when they disco’d Beethoven up. But this is great. I love Malcolm’s track ‘Madam Butterfly’; it’s probably the one song that was used most during fashion shows in the ’80s and ’90s.”

The Belle Stars, The Belle Stars; Bananarama, Deep Sea Skiving; and Scandal, The Warrior

“I love the ’80s. Like, I love Scandal, with Patty Smyth. They really have that look of American Apparel: off the shoulder, a sweatshirt dress with a belt, leggings, pointy, pointy heels. It’s a very, very good look.

“I also love the way that the Belle Stars dressed. They were very New Romantic, like when Bananarama was New Romantic, that sort of Deep Sea Skiving look with the crazy hair and the big black hat and the paper-bag jeans and moccasins. The Belle Stars were like that, but amped up. They almost looked like they could be Prince protégés, but mixed with New Romantic.

“You know, I still do a huge giant hat. I’ll wear it towards the back, like Boy George, sometimes with another hat under it. Maybe a scarf and then a hat. It’s very Pete Burns, who I loved. I loved the eye patch. I would wear an eye patch, but it makes me have a headache. I also love the lace-over-the-eye look, like Prince Be in P.M. Dawn.”

The Afghan Whigs, Gentlemen; Blake Babies, Sunburn; The Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray; Sugar, Copper Blue; and Failure, Fantastic Planet

“I am such a huge fan of bands like Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield — all of Juliana Hatfield’s bands. I love the Lemonheads. I love Sugar. I was for a long time following the Afghan Whigs on tour, and I was also following Failure on tour. The ’90s to me were so important. The music at that point was so loud! Like, I feel I got the most of my hearing damage then — I can trace it back to a 311 show that I went to. [Laughs] And I went to so many Afghan Whigs shows and blew out my ears.”

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.