Thursday, September 6, 2007

Valley Girls - 'Marina Men'

"Yeah, I learnt quite a while ago not to be afraid to wear fashion underwear"... is, I would think, my favourite song line ever. It's the last phrase from the Aquavelva Geek before the fantastic 'Marina Men' (mp3) by the Valley Girls fades out, recorded in 1982 and issued as a 12" on Rhino Records. Deleted, of course. If I only had a scanner I would be able to share with you the wonderful back of the sleeve, which in fact is described as the 'Val Talk To English Dictionary'. The description of the Aquavelva Geek for example reads as thus: "(ak' wa vel'va gek) n. : Distasteful individual hailing from Marina Del Ray area; frequently divorced and on the make." Next to this there is a little comic-style drawing of the Geek with clothing details described below: "1. attempted perm on balding head, 2. fake gold chain, 3. unbuttoned white collar shirt, 4. chest hair wig, 5. Casio alarm watch w/ Pac Man game, 6. Ultra-suede jacket, 7. doubleknit pants, 8. Justin boots. "

The Valley Girls were Chrissy Peters (16), Sonia Gordon (16) and Pamy (18). If I only knew where they are now that we need them ....

Hate me for it, but I love this record. Enjoy .... and let me know what you think about it, please.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey... I have been trying to find the mp3 for this song for a really long time.. can you re-post? I'd love to hear it.

Dirk said...

Hi Anonymous,

the link is working again ... and I always thought I'd be the only person in the world who adores this song ....

Cheers,

Dirk

Dan the Man said...

I have the song from the Valley Girl soundtrack Disc 2...great song, email me if you'd like a copy?

Anonymous said...

Hi Dirk,
This is PAMY from the Valley Girls! Someone sent me your blog, so I thought I'd give you an update: I'm now a writer/radio talk-show host in California. I'm still in a band. We play mostly rock standards (not my song Standards!) at charity functions.
I'm so glad you like the Aquavelva geeks line, since I actually came up with it!

Dirk said...

Dear Pamy,


great stuff: this is good news indeed!! Glad to hear that you're enjoying your life. Actually I received a post from a nephew of one of you a year or so ago, I asked him whether he could possibly provide me with a lyric sheet of 'Marina Men' (I must admit I still can't figure out all of the lyrics, some 25 years later, which drives me nuts ... blame it on my bad English).

Would you be able to help me out, I wonder?

Many greetings to the rest of the girls and again: thanks for one of the finest records in our time!

Dirk

Anonymous said...

Hi Dirk,
This is PAMY again. I'm getting in touch with the producer to see if he has a lyric sheet.

By the way, did you know that Heather Locklear starred on the Marina Men rock video? She's running on the beach.

Dirk said...

Dear Pamy,

actually I didn't even know that there was/is a video at all!! I tried to track it down on youtube, but failed to do so: could you provide me with a link, becaue - as you might imagine - I'm desperate to see it!

Cheers,

Dirk