All I Ever Wanted

A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir

Kathy Valentine

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781477324660
• eBook ISBN:
  9781477320747
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

"Recounts in vivid detail the gloriously debauched path of the Go-Gos through early rock success... and the darkness that such freedom can breed." — Los Angeles Times Runner-up, Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction At twenty-one, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go's and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go's became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their debut, Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured the hit songs "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed." The record's success brought the pressures of a relentless workload and schedule culminating in a wild, hazy, substance-fueled tour that took the band from the club circuit to arenas, where fans, promoters, and crew were more than ready to keep the party going. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took Valentine from her childhood in Texas—where she all but raised herself—to the height of rock n' roll stardom, devastation after the collapse of the band that had come to define her, and the quest to regain her sense of self after its end. Valentine also speaks candidly about the lasting effects of parental betrayal, abortion, rape, and her struggles with drugs and alcohol—and the music that saved her every step of the way. "An epic tour of honest storytelling. All I Ever Wanted is a raw look at the highs and lows of being high and low. Long live the Go-Gos!" —Amy Poehler

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Prologue: Hullabaloo
• 1. The Stars Start Falling
• 2. Magic Cloak
• 3. Liquid Forget
• 4. Vacation
• 5. Teenage Babylon
• 6. Just Do It
• 7. Greenbriar
• 8. Earthquake
• 9. Carnations
• 10. Clubland
• 11. Throwing Shapes
• 12. Virtuosity
• 13. Red Head
• 14. Nut Whites
• 15. Tropicana
• 16. Chino Jam
• 17. Regular Format
• 18. Good Mojo
• 19. Wild Jokers
• 20. Unforgiven
• 21. Next to Merle
• 22. Balance the Buzz
• 23. Little Scissor
• 24. Private Jet
• 25. Don’t Leave
• 26. Tutus and Tiaras
• 27. Bash and Crash
• 28. Giant Baby
• 29. Diversions
• 30. Helicopter
• 31. Convertibles
• 32. Shrinking, Sinking
• 33. Let’s Have a Party
• 34. Falsity
• 35. Camouflage
• 36. The Same Union
• 37. Queen Bees
• 38. The Right Way
• 39. Gold and Platinum
• 40. Cheerleader
• 41. Fried and Raw
• 42. Cookies
• 43. Ultras
• 44. Thingy in the Sky
• Epilogue-a-Go-Go
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Sources and Identifications
• Index