John Peel’s compilation album of choice through late 1992/early 1993 was a multi volume series called Girls in the Garage. Released through Romulan Records and described as “A collection of girl garage and girl groups from the 60s”, the series had just issued an EP labelled Volume 6 1/2. Future blog posts here will hopefully be able to bring you more of the selections Peel played from some of the volumes including tracks with such alluring titles as I’m Gonna Destroy That Boy as well as a 1965 cover of a Shangri-Las b-side which appears to have invented The Jesus and Mary Chain.
To begin with though, let us take you to an alternative vision of pop-life. The 1950s saw an explosion of songs about cars, predominantly from a male point of view in which they not only offered the invitation of a ride in their cars, but also plenty of lovingly described detail about the physical make-up of their cars. Gleaming bodywork, powerful engine, plush interior - the Freudian inferences about sexual and romantic fetishisation of their cars are inescapable. The car was both a status symbol and an expression of their identity. As a result, listeners were invited to consider automotive expressions of masculinity such as Buick 59 (The Medallions) or aspiration as in Somethin’ Else (Eddie Cochran). In the 60s, and especially with the emergence of Surf music, the car song would soar to greater heights. What’s your favourite?
But while the men obsessed over their cars, what of the women? Well, while the likes of The Delicates did sterling work in expressing female love of cars, The Darby Sisters were speaking for every woman who found themselves fighting an unequal battle with a car for their lover’s attention. Written by the sisters as a b-side to their 1959 debut single, Misunderstood, Go Back, Go Back to Your Pontiac sees the sisters giving their lover an ultimatum to choose either the car or them. It’s all quite charmingly lo-fi with the cowbell sounding like the clank and clatter of engine repairs serving as a backdrop to the laments about late arrivals to dates because the needs of the 1933 Pontiac superseded those of the sisters. Listening to it with my greasepaint hat on, I wondered if it may have been a favourite track of playwright, Alan Ayckbourn, whose repertoire of plays through the 70s and early 80s specialised in family dysfunction whereby wives lost their grip on their sanity due to being married to men who spent more time exploring the world under the bonnet of their car instead of within the heart and mind of their wives.
Alas, Peel had little sympathy for the sisters’ plight. Being an enthusiastic petrolhead, he agreed with the sleevenotes to the album in that, given the choice, he too would probably fall for the charms of a ‘33 Pontiac ahead of a socialite.
Video courtesy of oldolds53
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