The Go-Go's Lingo 4 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Oconomowoc

Jane Wiedlin was born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and 20 years and nine days later, Jane premiered with The Go-Go's on (Mon) 29 May 1978 at the Masque in Hollywood, California.

"Oconomowoc" is an Algonquian word of the Native American Potawatomi tribe and means "where the waters meet" or "river of lakes."

Was the letter O a hint for the correct choice because it's five of the ten letters in "Oconomowoc" (50%)?

Answer: Party Pose

Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey wrote the song "Party Pose" on the album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" in 1994.

"Party Pose" was one of The Go-Go's previously unreleased songs but in 1994, The Go-Go's included an early rehearsal of "Party Pose" from 1979 on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's."

Party on, Jane! The Go-Go's released three songs with the word "party" in the title: "Party Pose," "Let's Have a Party" and "It's Everything but Party Time." The Go-Go's also wrote fourteen words synonymous with "party" in the lyrics of their songs: dance (21×), play (14×), fun (12×), good time (3×), blast (2×), pleasure (2×), surprise (2×), thrill (2×), celebrating, cloud nine, disco, excitement, gathering and happiness.

Answer: Prime Time

The Go-Go's released their second video album "Prime Time" on (Fri) 1 Feb 1985 with a runtime of 25 minutes. Twenty-five minutes seems brief for an album but "Prime Time" contains the music videos of the seven chart hits from The Go-Go's first three albums: "Our Lips Are Sealed" (14 charts), "Vacation" (11 charts), "We Got the Beat" (eight charts), "Head over Heels" (four charts), "Get Up and Go" (two charts), "Turn to You" (two charts) and "Yes or No" (one chart).

According to Discogs, The Go-Go's released "Prime Time" on two formats in two countries: LaserDisc in Japan and VHS in the US.

Fun video formats! MCA introduced DiscoVision in 1978 and after Pioneer purchased the majority stake of the technology, Pioneer marketed the optical disc as LaserDisc in 1980. The 12" reflective aluminum LaserDisc provides an analog video resolution of 425 TV lines or the digital equivalent of 560 × 486i. Although a laser reads the data on a disc, the data is encoded as an analog frequency. Meaning, LaserDisc provides an analog video. After 22 years, nine months and ten days, Pioneer discontinued the LaserDisc in 2001.

JVC introduced VHS in 1976 and its 1/2" magnetic tape within a plastic cassette provides an analog video resolution of 240 TV lines or the digital equivalent of 320 × 486i. After increasing the luminance bandwidth of VHS, JVC introduced Super VHS in 1987 with 420 TV lines (+ 180) or the digital equivalent of 560 × 486i. After 32 years, two months and 22 days, companies discontinued manufacturing VHS cassettes in 2011.

Answer: Peter Case

Peter Case co-wrote the song "Tonite" with Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey on the album "Beauty and the Beat" in 1981.

In 1976, Peter Case, Paul Collins and Jack Lee formed The Nerves and according to Power Pop News, "The Nerves changed the course of pop history. One could argue that they were the originals, the precursor to today's online, independent rock bands. With no contract and no major (or minor) record company backing, they toured the midwest on a tour budget of 0. Zilch. Nada. And they made enough of an impact to have a hit song, albeit performed by Blondie" (Rossi, 2011).

Answer: Terry Hall

Terry Hall co-wrote the song "Our Lips Are Sealed" with Jane Wiedlin on the album "Beauty and the Beat" in 1981.

Gloomy lips? Terry Hall's later band, Fun Boy Three, recorded a version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" on the album "Waiting" in 1983 and according to Jane's interview with Songfacts, "They did a really great version of it, also. It was a lot gloomier than The Go-Go's version" (Wiser, 2007).

Answer: Unforgiven

Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey and Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song "Unforgiven" on the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" in 2001.

"Unforgiven" ranked on the US Billboard Adult Top 40 chart for 12 weeks from 14 Apr-6 Jul 2001 peaking at number 22.

According to AZLyrics, 30 artists released 32 songs with "unforgiven" in the title. The disparity is Metallica, which released the trilogical songs "The Unforgiven," "The Unforgiven II" and "The Unforgiven III."

Answer: Abby Travis

Although not an official member, Abby Travis played bass guitar for The Go-Go's.

After Kathy Valentine injured her wrist in May 2012 during The Go-Go's Mini Spring Tour, Abby stood in on bass for the remaining 18 shows. After Kathy officially quit The Go-Go's nine months later to sue her former bandmates, Abby remained The Go-Go's bass player for the next 65 shows.

From 24 Aug 2012 to 30 Aug 2016, Abby was The Go-Go's bass player for four years and six days, played on five tours and performed 83 of The Go-Go's 777 shows (11%).

Answer: Daisy Chain

Jane Wiedlin, Kathy Valentine and Jill Sobule wrote the song "Daisy Chain" on the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" in 2001.

"Daisy Chain" tells the highs and lows of The Go-Go's story from "Punk rock girls with some noise to make, Hollywood 1978" to their "falling apart" in 1985. In the lyrics, "Babe [Belinda] said, "let's start something great"..."Char [Charlotte] said, "I've gotta go nonstop" [drug addiction]..."KV [Kathy Valentine] burned out like a shooting star"..."Been brought down by a broken heart" [Gina's heart surgery]...and finishes with "we never even said 'goodbye sweet Jane'" [Jane quit].

The Go-Go's, however, would reunite in 1990 and live happily ever after...albeit Kathy would later quit and sue The Go-Go's in 2013.

Answer: Fading Fast

Charlotte Caffey wrote the song "Fading Fast" on the album "Beauty and the Beat" in 1981.

Of The Go-Go's 61 original songs on seven albums and 17 singles, "Fading Fast" has the second most-words in the lyrics at 260. The Go-Go's song "Lust to Love" from the same album has the most words at 317.

The most words don't make the longest song. Although "Lust to Love" ranks first for the most words, "Lust to Love" ranks third for duration at four minutes and four seconds. Although "Fading Fast" ranks second for the most words, "Fading Fast" ranks 11th for duration at three minutes and 41 seconds. The Go-Go's longest song is "Forget That Day" at four minutes and 25 seconds but ranks 18th for the most words at 200.

Answer: Gina Schock

Gina Schock was The Go-Go's second drummer.

Elissa Bello was The Go-Go's original drummer but after one year and six months, The Go-Go's replaced Elissa with Gina.

According to Jane's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's" (2020) "Elissa was very, very eccentric. I don't know if she was shy or an introvert, but she was never really part of the gang. She always held herself apart. We definitely needed to bring somebody in that wanted to be there."

According to Gina in the documentary, "I happened to meet the girls at a party one night...they said, 'Oh, we're looking for a drummer.' And I said, 'Great. I'll try out for the band.'" Jane follows up in the documentary, "I don't even know how to describe the difference. It was really, like, ta-da!" (Ellwood, 2020).

Gina made her onstage debut with The Go-Go's on (Wed) 4 Jul 1979 at the Hong Kong Café in Los Angeles.

Of The Go-Go's 61 original songs on seven albums and 17 singles, Gina co-wrote nine for 6% of the lyrics for The Go-Go's. According to the Billboard Database, Gina co-wrote two song to rank on the Billboard Hot 100. Miley Cyrus' song "Breakout" from the album "Breakout" ranked for four weeks from 9 Aug to 30 Aug 2008 peaking at number 56, and Selena Gomez & the Scene's song "Falling Down" from the album "Kiss & Tell" ranked for six weeks from 12 Sep to 17 Oct 2009 peaking at number 82.