Valley Girl
Notes and Comments
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SHIP ARRIVING TOO LATE TO SAVE A DROWNING WITCH Valley Girl Notes and Comments |
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Moon Zappa lead vocal |
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| The final track was a composite of six vocal tracks recorded. It was more like early evening when we started. | ||
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Valley Girl She's a Valley Girl Valley Girl She's a Valley Girl Okay, fine . . . Fer sure, fer sure |
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| Fer Sure - Phrase. Definitely. ie. "Do you want to meet Duran Duran?" "Fer Sure!" http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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She's a Valley Girl In a clothing store Okay, fine . . . Fer sure, fer sure She's a . . . Like, OH MY GOD! (Valley Girl) Like - TOTALLY (Valley Girl) |
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| Totally - Another way to stress what one is saying. "That is totally tubular". -or- "School is totally uncool". http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
| Totally Awesome - Adj. Something truly exceptional, not flawed in any ways. "That was like, totally awesome." http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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Encino is like SO BITCHEN (Valley Girl) |
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| CA 91416. A condominium of life in the Heart of San Fernando Valley evenly spread around intersection of interstate 405 and state 101. | ||
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There's like the Galleria (Valley Girl) And like all these like really great shoe stores |
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| The Sherman Oaks Galleria - famous teen mall docked between a corner of Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards on the south and Camarillo St. (believe it or not) on the north. That's a south-east corner of Encino, CA. | ||
| Anyway, read a nice article about G. undergone further modification in 90s. | ||
| http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/html98/vall_19990308.html | ||
| Posted at 08:48 a.m. PST; Monday, March 8, 1999 | ||
| Valley Girl icon is all, like, totally . . . | ||
| by Deborah Hastings The Associated Press | ||
| LOS ANGELES - The Sherman Oaks Galleria, nationally recognized cradle of the Valley Girl, is all, like, closing. Like, totally going out of business. | ||
| Ohmigod, is the Valley Girl dead, too? | ||
| Probably. | ||
| And does anyone still talk like this? | ||
| Fer shure. | ||
| The Galleria, a cosmic bubble of gleaming escalators and 999,000 square feet of retail space, was immortalized in the 1980s teen flicks "Valley Girl" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." | ||
| In 1982, Frank Zappa took his teenage daughter, Moon Unit, into the recording studio, where she parodied the Val Speak slang and monotonous cadence of her schoolmates. "Valley Girls" became a best-selling single. | ||
| Sample lyric: | ||
| "Like, ohmigod! Like totally! Girls like the Galleria. And, like, all these, like, really great shoe stores." | ||
| The Galleria was the architectural icon of a teenage generation conspicuous - some say vacuous - in its thirst for clothes, stereos and compact discs. | ||
| Now the mall is nearly deserted; a victim of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which forced it to close for repairs; repeated ownership changes; and failure to keep up with the times. The few stores still open are plastered with signs - "Liquidation Sale. Everything must go." On April 1, the Galleria closes for an extensive overhaul. | ||
| It's scheduled to reopen in about two years, a reincarnation heavy on office space but also featuring 18 movie theaters and an open-air ground floor of nothing but restaurants. Not food-court, Hot-Dog-on-a-Stick outlets, but real, sit-down restaurants. | ||
| Among Western malls, the Galleria has become somewhat of a white elephant, an enclosed monolith whose only outside views come from skylights. Newer malls are more apt to feature stores with individual entrances, united by a street that fosters a feeling a community, retail experts say. | ||
| Besides all that, the Valley Girl has grown up. | ||
| "Right now she's 35 and about to be a senior partner in a downtown law firm. She's morphed into something much more important," says state historian Kevin Starr, a professor and author. | ||
| Starr disagrees with popular sentiment that Valley Girl equals vapid. He notes that presidential paramour Monica Lewinsky, once proclaimed a Valley Girl, was later described as savvy and composed after testifying at the impeachment trial of President Clinton. | ||
| "Valley Girls are nobody's saps. They're not seduced and abandoned. They're not sitting around waiting for someone to give them a life," Starr said. "She's done rather well for herself. | ||
| "She represents the triumph of the middle class," he added. | ||
| Or at least the triumph of the Chanel suit and matching chain-strap bag. | ||
| The entertainment industry, in the go-go decade of the 1980s, took life in the suburban San Fernando Valley and California's stereotype of cute-but-clueless and turned both into national phenomenons. | ||
| The etymology of "groddy," "groddy to the max," "gag me with a spoon" and "fer shure" trace to the Zappas' father-and-daughter collaboration. | ||
| Most terms are now horribly outdated, but there remain grown men and women who cannot construct a sentence without the word "like," as in "I'm, like, really mad." Nor can they avoid the double whammie of "like" and "all," as in "I'm all, like, really mad." | ||
| Occidental College public policy professor Peter Dreier says the Valley Girl has been replaced by the superficial but sensitive Cher of 1995's "Clueless," directed by Amy Heckerling, the woman who made "Fast Times," and based - no way! - on Jane Austen's "Emma." | ||
| "Even though she's from Beverly Hills, she's characterized as a Valley Girl, which means California airhead and conspicuous consumption," Dreier said of the "Clueless" heroine. | ||
| "But the 1990s are really very different from the 1980s. Teen-agers have to work now," he said. The Galleria and Valley Girls were the epitomes of an era in which "selfishness was celebrated." | ||
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I love going into like clothing stores and stuff I like buy the neatest mini-skirts and stuff It's like so BITCHEN cuz like everybody's like |
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| Bitchin' - Adj. Superb, excellent. ie. "That's a bitchin' Camaro." http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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Super-super nice . . . It's like so BITCHEN, like . . . On Ventura, there she goes She just bought some bitchen clothes Tosses her head 'n flips her hair She got a whole bunch of nothin' in there Anyway, he goes are you into S and M? I go, oh RIGHT . . . Could you like just picture me in like a LEATHER TEDDY |
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| Like - Used as a modifier, really has no definition. ie. "I was all like, No Way" Used mostly in Valley Girl speak, it was the most widely used aspect of this stereotype. http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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Yeah right, HURT ME, HURT ME . . . |
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| Most probably Culture Club reference. | ||
| See also | ||
| THING-FISH. He's So Gay | ||
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I'm sure! NO WAY! |
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| No Way - (1)Excl. Not going to do that. "Do your homework!" "No Way!" (2)Excl. Disbelief. "I got tickets to Duran Duran." "No Way! http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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He was like freaking me out . . . He called me a BEASTIE . . . |
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That's cuz like he was totally BLITZED |
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He goes like BAG YOUR FACE! |
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I'm sure! She's a . . . It's really sad (Valley Girl) Like my English teacher He's like . . . (Valley Girl) He's like Mr. BU-FU (Valley Girl) We're talking Lord God King BU-FU (Valley Girl) |
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I am SO SURE He's like so GROSS |
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| Gross out/Grotesque - To make someone sick. Most of the time - not literally. http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
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He like sits there and like plays with all his rings And he like flirts with all the guys in the class It's like totally disgusting I'm like so sure It's like BARF ME OUT . . . |
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| Barf Me Out - You might of heard this come from a Valley Girl after you've said something offensive to her. Also used to describe something you do not particularly like. http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
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Gag me with a spoon! |
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| Gag Me With A Spoon - A typical Valley Girl response to something you dislike. Not meant to be taken literally. http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
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So like I go into this like salon place, y'know And I wanted like to get my toenails done And the lady like goes, oh my God, your toenails Are like so GRODY |
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| Grodie - Adj. Disgusting. ie. "That garbage pail looks grodie." http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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It was like really embarrassing She's like OH MY GOD, like BAG THOSE TOENAILS |
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| No scientific explanation. Probably the same idea as in BAG MY FACE | ||
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Fer sure, fer sure She's a Valley Girl And there is no cure Like my mother is like a total space cadet (Valley Girl) |
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| Any additional comments except it's being a title of Dweezil Zappa' single? | ||
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She like makes me do the dishes and (Valley Girl) CLEAN the cat box (Valley Girl) I am sure That's like GROSS (Valley Girl) BARF OUT! (Valley Girl) OH MY GOD (Valley Girl) Hi! Uh-huh . . . (Valley Girl) My name? My name is Ondrya Wolfson (Valley Girl) |
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But like, I don't know, it's going to be cool, y'know So you can see my smile It'll be like really cool Except my like my teeth are like too small But NO BIGGIE . . . It's so AWESOME |
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| Awesome - Adj. Something extremely good, and exceptional example. ie. "That movie was awesome." http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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It's like TUBULAR, y'know |
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| Tubular - Something that is cool. Something overwhelming. "Tubular, totally tubular." http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
| Totally Tubular - Adj. A really cool move in skateboarding. http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
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Well, I'm not like really ugly or anything It's just like I don't know You know me, I'm like into like the clean stuff Like PAC-MAN and like, I don't know |
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| Some nice info from a site dedicated to this very game totally:-)) | ||
| http://videogames.gamespot.com/features/universal/hist_pacman/p4_01.html | ||
| One evening a young Namco game designer named Tohru Iwatani went out for pizza with some friends. After the usual chatting and sipping of drinks, their large pizza arrived. Tohru removed the first slice and brought it to his watering mouth. He causally glanced at the shape of the pizza that was left. Cells in his brain fired. His mind raced. What if? | ||
| Believe it or not, it's true. Pac-Man is based on a pizza with a slice missing. | ||
| Namco of Japan originally called him Puck-Man but wisely decided to change his name before release - the American penchant for graffiti wouldn't have helped the company's advertising any. Before long, Pac-Man was as ubiquitous as the swastika in Nazi Germany. You couldn't enter a shopping mall without seeing Pac-Man games, T-shirts, bedspreads, and lunch boxes - or an arcade, either. | ||
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Like my mother like makes me do the dishes It's like so GROSS . . . Like all the stuff like sticks to the plates And it's like, it's like somebody else's food, y'know It's like GRODY . . . GRODY TO THE MAX |
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| To The Max - Adj. Used in conjunction with any adjective that you want to emphasize. ie "That chick is annoying to the max!" http://www.80snostalgia.com/80sterms.html | ||
| Grody - really, really gross. Sometimes used with: Grody to the max! Max being a degree of grossness. http://www.tripletsrus.com/80s/slang.htm | ||
| Also some general notes about the song | ||
| [A letter from Moon to FZ] | ||
| Hi! I'm 13 years old. My name is Moon. Up until now, I have been trying to stay out of your way while you record. However, I have come to the conclusion that I would love to sing on your album, if you would like to put up with me. I have a rather nice voice. For further information, contact my agent - Gail Zappa - at 650-4947. I'm available day or night generally speaking. I would like to do my "Encino Accent" or "Surfer Dood Talk" for you. Later days dood!! | ||
| Love, Moon XXX OOO | ||
| [A letter from Moon to YOU] | ||
| ONCE AND FOR ALL: | ||
| Once upon a time I slipped this note under the studio door. Time passed. | ||
| My father woke me up late one night, and taking me up on my very generous offer, led me downstairs to the VOCAL BOOTH. Terror seized my body and cotton mouth took over. (After all it was my BIG BREAK... ) | ||
| I managed to improvise several tracks saying the first thing that came into my head, reciting things I'd heard people REALLY talk about and elaborating on subjects which amused my father. (When he was laughing I knew I had something there... ). He edited the tracks together and my life has never been quite the same. | ||
| I have received letters from all around the world confirming that VALS exist everywhere. For them it is a state of mind and a way of life. For me it's a way to make the ones around me, that I so dearly love, LAUGH. | ||
| (In other words, folks, I'm not really like that.) | ||
| XXX M | ||
| FZ: "(The song) started off at the end of an overdub session, just me on guitar and Chad Wackerman on drums. The tape sat around for months when I did a tour. Then I sat down and wrote some lyrics, and the tape sat around again. One day at a vocal session, I got out the track and ahd the guys in the band sing this chorale thing I'd written, so now we had guitar, drums, and chorale background. A few days later, I woke up Moon in the middle of the night and had her come down and do a monologue. She did five separate ones, all of which I ping-ponged together to make the one version that's on the record. Finally, the bass was added last." | ||
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| FZ: "(the song) was a hit from the minute it went on the radio. They played it on KROQ, the phones exploded. Next thing you know, they had an acetate. It wasn't even released. It was something that people wanted to hear. The worst thing about that record is that nobody really listened to it. They listened to the slang in there, it has a reasonably good beat, a couple of nice chords init, but it's a monologue record. People didn't even listen to what the song was saying. The whole coverage of the song barely mention(ed) what the song was really saying, that these people are airheads." | ||
| FZ: "It's not my fault - they didn't buy that record because it had my name on it. They bought it because they liked Moon's voice. It's got nothing to do with the song or the performance. It has everything to do with the American public wanting to have some new syndrome to identify with. And they got it. There it is. That's what made it a hit." | ||
| FZ: "You have to understand that I'm not too thrilled with the Valley as an aesthetic concept. You know, I mean the San Fernando Valley, to me, represents a lot of evil things. I probably shouldn't be saying that because a lot of people think that this is a nice, cute, harmless song. But I don't like the valley. I shouldn't say anything more than that." | ||
| MICHAEL GOLDBERG: Why? | ||
| FZ: "I don't want to spoil anybody's fun. It's better that they should think it's a nice little song." | ||
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was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. FZ lost to Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger." |
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| So, my techs and I would experiment with different string brands, and I swear to god, we never settled on anything. I'd always break strings during shows (one of my many trademarks. Break a string on stage at your own risk. I have lawyers standing by.) which would force us to have sometimes four different brands on one bass. That's how I got that weird tone on all the early 80's recordings. Valley Girl in particular. | ||
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| Q: On "Valley Girl" there's some red-hot guitar way back in the mix. Why didn't you mix it up higher so that it could be more easily discerned? | ||
| FZ: Because it conflicted with the vocal part. And that red-hot-sounding guitar was just me and the drummer jamming at three o'clock in the morning. That track was the basis for the song. It was a riff that started off at a soundcheck about a year before, and I had been piddling with it for a long time. One night, we finally did it, saved the tape, and little by little we added all of this other stuff to it, and we got "Valley Girl." | ||
| Q: The bass line was written later? | ||
| FZ: The bass line was never written. It was the last thing that was added to the track. The track didn't even have a bass part; it was just guitar and drums. And when Scott Thunes came in to do it, it was at a point where I thought if we left the guitar up high enough in the mix it would probably be thick enough where we wouldn't even need a bass. But the engineer, Bob Stone, said, "Aw, go ahead and put on a bass line." We were just about ready to go out and do a tour, and I brought Scott up to the studio one night after rehearsal. It took about an hour and a half, the same way as with Arthur Barrow on "No Not Now" --I said, "Play this: Boop, boop, boop," and he did it. He was playing the bass through a Vox amp, and that's what gives it that particular sound. | ||
| Q: After returning from your European tour, how did you feel when you found out that "Valley Girl" had become a big hit? | ||
| FZ: There are a couple of things about "Valley Girl" being a hit: First, it's not my fault -they didn't buy that record because it had my name on it. They bought it because they liked Moon's voice. It's got nothing to do with the song or the performance. It has everything to do with the American public wanting to have some new syndrome to identify with. And they got it. There it is. That's what made it a hit. Hits are not necessarily musical phenomena. But as far as my feeling about it goes, I think that if that amuses Americans, well, hey! I'm an all-American boy, and I'm here to perform that function for you. Since that time, we've hired a guy to make merchandising deals on that song. And you wouldn't believe what kinds of things will be coming out with the words "Valley Girl" on them. You name it, everything from lunch boxes to cosmetics, including a talking Valley Girl doll in February. | ||
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Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
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Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2001 You could download, copy and redistribute this material freely as long as you keep copyright notice intact and don't make any profite on it. |