Sonic Slang - Music and Culture

Retro Girl | 2-28-05
Still The Warriors: Patty Smythe and Scandal
by Amy Wagner

All hail VH-1! Once the red-headed stepchild of MTV, VH-1's progeny are now poised to inherit the throne of music television. With the advent of their must TiVo series "Bands Reunited" the black sheep is turning snow white and the underdog is going up, Up, UP.

VH-1ï¿½s ability to get band members who spent decades apart (wishing all things murky and murderous on each other) to play and sing in the same room was a remarkable feat. It made for laughter, tears, bitter recriminations and nasty catfights - everything that we have come to expect and love about rock n' roll. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, lightning struck! Some of the reunited bands really did feel the love again and decided to carry on past the VH-1 sponsored one-off shows. One of these VH-1 success stories hitting the road together again are 1980s rockers "Scandal." Led by lead singer, Patty Smythe's powerful vocals and stage presence that was both sexy and sneering, the band rocketed to the top of the charts only to self-implode a few years later. The reunited band (even if they are now billed as Patty Smythe and Scandal) was set to play New York's Irving Plaza - their first New York City club date in over 20 years. Were they ready? Would they be the same?

After an hour spent defending (itï¿½s all in the elbows) my dead-center position at the front of the stage and watching a recycled sequence of trippy clips from "Fear and Loathing Las Vegasï¿½ featuring Johnny Depp in a pimp daddy white suit, the lights dimmed. Smythe and the guys of Scandal (guitarist Zack Smith, guitarist Keith Mack, keyboardist Benjy King, drummer Thommy Price and Meatloaf bassist Kasim Sulton, who was filling in for original/deceased bassist Ivan Elias) took the stage and the crowd sighed in collective relief. They still looked good! Fans who were 16 in 1983 when the band's popular Warrior album dropped, quickly shed 20 plus years. Hey, if Smythe and the guys looked great than we all did by association!

Scandal sounded tight and energetic as they kicked out a couple of band standards before Smythe stopped to chat with her adoring crowd. Dressed to impress (in the popular understated way) in a white tank-top, perfectly ripped jeans and snake skin and sequined heels, she described the vibe of the newly reunited band.

"We really love each other, but we still kick the shit out of each other sometimes." Yup - Scandal was back!

About halfway through the set, the crowd was dripping in sweat and the band was feeling rowdy. Smythe tossed off her shoes and threw them over her back at drummer Thommy Price. She said he had a foot fetish and I had no problem believing that he probably had several fetishes (but I think thatï¿½s a band requirement). When Smythe mentioned that the discarded heels were her "Warrior" shoes, there was no cooling anyone down. The first crowd sing-along of the night kicked into gear as Patty pogoed around the stage selling Scandal's hit tune "The Warrior," not only to the back of the club, but also out the door and down the block.

The popular cry of "Bang! Bang!" in the chorus of the tune also led to one of the night's more eclectic moments. Did we, in the crowd, dare shape our hands into a gun and point finger/gun barrel while "bang banging" out the lyrics?

Would we be immediately arrested?

Have we become so politically correct that the most popular and natural of concert gestures would be shuffled off into antiquity? The Irving Plaza Gallop Poll would read about 50 percent for shooting away circa 1980s, versus 50 percent who were living in the current climate of fear.

The crowd cooled down for a pair of slow songs, one of which, "Wish I Were You" Smythe dedicated (gushingly so) to husband John McEnroe for letting her do "the rock thing" while he minded the kids ï¿½ theyï¿½re raising six together (a combo of his, hers and theirs). Well, Mama Smythe was definitely ready to be let out of the kitchen as she fired up the crowd with the giddy pop hit, "Goodbye to You."

After coming down from that high, the upbeat fierce set began to limp towards the finish line. Encore "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough," originally a Patty/Don Henley, was a mega adult radio hit in the 1990s. It works fine as a solo song too, but it was seriously breakin' my rockin' stride. (I would have thrown it in with the slow songs). An even stranger encore choice for a band fronted by a powerful female singer was a cover version of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," which has to be the most anti-women's lib song in music history. Smythe introduced it as a "silly song" and said that she had met Wynette once. (I would have liked to be a fly on the wall for that one).

But then the evening took another swing in the right direction. A rumor that Smythe and the guys would be signing autographs after the show was swirling through the crowd. About 20 minutes after the show ended, rumor turned to fact as Scandal popped in to sign T-shirts and CDs for the fan faithful who had stuck around (or shall we say ï¿½ refused to be kicked out). Smythe apologized for the wait, saying she had all her family at the show. Drummer Price kept it scandalous by claiming that they were late because he was having sex with Smythe. She laughed it off, giggling that "he's been waiting for 20 years."

Well, I hope it was good for Price because it was so good for those of us walking out with our signed (and only slightly overpriced) merchandise.

FAVORITE TRACK: With Valentine's season upon us, Dan Carvaki of Toledo, Ohio would like to know more about his girlfriend Shaynaï¿½s favorite song, The Crystalsï¿½ "Then He Kissed Me" (Philles Label/1963 ï¿½ available on 1992 CD The Best of The Crystals). Dan, hereï¿½s what I know! The original five members of The Crystals (Barbara Alston, Dee Dee Kennibrew, Mary Thomas, Merna Girard and Pat Wright (LaLa Brooks would later replace Girard) got their start as teenagers singing in basements in Brooklyn, New York. When producer Phil Spector first heard them sing, he quickly took the group under his wing. Members came and went over the years, but the original members re-teamed for the recording of ï¿½Then He Kissed Me.ï¿½ The song, written by hit songwriting team Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich along with Spector, hit number six on the pop charts in 1963. Itï¿½s also recognized as the song in which producer/writer Spector perfected his ï¿½Wall of Soundï¿½ recording style. For those of us of a certain age, who might have watched the movie Adventures in Babysitting at slumber parties, this is the song that Elisabeth Shue dances around to before being stood up by her preppy boyfriend.

(Do you have a favorite track from the 1960s, 70s or 80s that you want to know more about or canï¿½t bear to see fade away into obscurity? Tell me what it is and Iï¿½ll feature it here and tell you what I know. [email protected])

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