Oh, Solid Gold. MY GOD! Does anyone remember the BLISS that this ‘80s syndicated pop music variety show brought? Dreamboat Andy Gibb (the cocaine-addicted baby brother of BeeGees Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb) hosted with 5th Dimension singer Marilyn McCoo, and anybody who was anybody in the late ’70s/early ’80s music scene stopped by to lip-sync their latest hits. There were the legendary Solid Gold Dancers – Who. Were. BEYOND. BERSERK, mind you –in their outrageously sexy lamé thongs, disco dancing feverishly to songs that weren’t even REMOTELY danceable (The Commodore‘s “Three Times a Lady,” say, or Air Supply‘s “All Out of Love”). SO BRILLIANT. SO WTF.
It’s hard to say whether it’s a relief or a cryin’ goddamn shame that those dancers didn’t accompany the Plasmatics in their Solid Gold performance, but either way, the very fact that that appearance even happened is amazing. This was in 1981, the year that multiple arrests for indecency made the band’s singer Wendy O. Williams notorious outside of underground music circles, and Solid Gold was a broad appeal, all-smiles show that usually aired during the family hour. But despite the general family-friendliness of the program, nothing particularly set this performance of the Metal Priestess track “Black Leather Monster” apart from any given Plasmatics show except for a lack of breast exposure. Williams shrieked, danced suggestively, and chainsawed an innocent Les Paul while the band made a spastic punk spectacle of itself. And the segment is followed by a preposterous and wonderful interview—Williams chats (or rather, haltingly reads cue cards) with ventriloquist Waylon Flowers’ famously raunchy dummy Madame. (via Dangerous Minds)
Yes, yes, definitely stick around for punk legend Wendy O Williams “interview” with Madame. It’s pure early ’80s NUTTINESS. Camp BEYOND camp.
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