Belinda Carlisle的传记（来源：Belinda Carlisle官方网站http://www.belinda-carlisle.com/）
How can you not remember Belinda Carlisle? Queen of the Bon Jovi-esque power chord, she's delivered as many memorable rock numbers as Madonna, established herself as one of the most enduring presences in the popular-rock scene and, at age 43, become the second oldest woman to ever pose for American icon Playboy.
Front-woman of legendary 80's punk rockers The Go-Go's, and solo star in her own right, Belinda Carlisle's career now covers 4 decades. From humble beginnings playing with The Germs on the LA punk scene of the 70's to becoming one of the juggernauts of rock with her breakthrough radio hit 'Heaven is a Place on Earth,' there isn't a whole lot Belinda Carlisle hasn't done.
So whether you're a hardened Belindaphile or a fresh-faced newbie, enjoy the story of one of the legendary ladies of rock...
The Early Years
Belinda Jo Kerzeskhi Carlisle was born to carpenter Walt and seamstress Joanne in Hollwyood, California, on August 17, 1958. With six siblings (Butch, Sarah, Mary, Joe, Josh and Hope), and 50's Hollywood lacking the glamour it boasts so confidently today, Belinda's up-bringing was described by herself as 'lower middle class.'
She shared her few toys with her siblings, and her clothes were often 'hand-me-downs.' Belinda looks unfavourably upon her childhood, which was marked by her father deserting her family, and her mother remarrying the strict and uncompromising Duke.
Belinda was naturally rebellious. She was the first girl in California to play on the boys' basketball team. She used to play, and beat the boys at football. And often she started (and won) brawls with these boys at school.
This rebelliousness brought Belinda into constant conflict with Duke. Their continued fighting brought Joanne close to a nervous breakdown at one point.
From an early age, Belinda struggled with her weight. Her schoolmates nicknamed her 'Ber-limpa,' but by the time she attended Hollywood's Newbury Park High School she resolved to transform her image, and became a member of the cheerleading squad.
When she graduated high school in 1976, she immediately left home, unable to suffer any longer the restrictiveness of her estranged step-father.
At the age of 19, Belinda packed her bags and left home, vowing to become a star.
Go-Go's Land
In 1977, Belinda was immersed firmly in the LA punk scene, often getting strung on that scene's narcotic of choice - cocaine. Modern punk retrospectives place her firmly as a contributor to such acts as Metrosquad and The Germs.
In fact, it was while she was chasing Freddie Mercury's autograph that young punkette Belinda Carlisle was discovered by The Germs' manager and enlisted to drum. She rehearsed with the band, but fell victim to mononucleosis and retreated home for months of rehabilitation.
When she finally returned to the scene, she met Jane Wiedlin and Margot Olivarria at a party in Venice, California. Since everyone they knew was in a terrible band, they decided they could be in one too. They picked up Elissa Bello on drums.
In 1978, these punk-rock girls with some noise to make made plenty in The Masque - a popular punk venue in the basement of an LA porn theatre. They played 'Overrun,' then 'Robert Hilburn' (a dis of the LA times music critic, who was a "boring old fart"), and then for an encore they played 'Overrun' again.
Belinda recalls their reception: "Everyone in the audience was either horrified or laughing hysterically."
by 1979, Charlotte Caffey and Gina Schock had replaced Margot and Elissa as lead guitarist and drummer respectively. Jane recalls Charlotte's contribution to the group: "She new how to do all these cool things, like the names of chords and how to plug guitars into amps!"
The next two years was spent touring with Madness in the UK, and surfing the changing trends from punk to new-wave pop/rock.
Upon returning from the UK, the Go-Go's found new popularity after their album Beauty and the Beat was released under fledgling label Stiff Records in the UK. They could sell out any concert venue in Los Angeles, but struggled to get a record deal.
Soon, Kathy Valentine was enlisted to the band, and The Go-Go's were signed to IRS in the United States in 1981. Beauty and the Beat went straight to no.1 in the US, marking a musical milestone: The Go-Go's became the first ALL-girl band to top the Billboard album charts in the United States.
From 1981 to 1984, The Go-Go's were every American's favourite band. And Belinda Carlisle was every American's favourite Go-Go. Achieving success across the globe in Europe, Asia and Australia, The Go-Go's were the new juggernaut of the rock world.
But while The Go-Go's bad-girl nature was coloured by the record executives' portrayal of them as all-American girls next door, something a lot more rock 'n' roll was happening back stage.
From the inside, The Go-Go's were on a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, and it was killing them. After the release of the critically acclaimed Talk Show in 1984, The Go-Go's were go-gone.
Belinda and Charlotte, on the way to the studio to record their fourth album had a realisation - The Go-Go's weren't fun anymore. The band imploded and Belinda followed Charlotte into rehab - but not before she met Morgan Mason - a senior advisor to President Ronald Raegan. They met on a blind date, and Belinda moved in with him the very next day.
The Go-Go's were finished, and the media placed the destruction of America's sweethearts firmly on Belinda's shoulders.
Heaven on Earth
After Belinda and Morgan married in April, 1985, she was signed to IRS records as a solo act.
Her 1986 debut, Belinda was released to moderate commercial success and was generally received well by critics. The album went Gold in the United States, and it's single Mad About You hit no.3 on the US charts. It didn't perform quite so well in territories such as Australia and the UK (where her main market would eventually be), but she was a solo hit in the United States.
In early 1987, the short, chubby punkette was gone. In her place was a sleek, beautiful Ms. Belinda Carlisle with a ravishing new image. A clerical error allowed her to escape her restrictive contract with IRS, and she was signed to MCA records in the US, and Virgin in Europe, UK, Australia and Japan.
The resulting opus, the multi-million shifting Heaven on Earth established Belinda Carlisle as a solo superstar. The single Heaven is a Place on Earth rocketed to number 1 across the planet, with the singles I Get Weak and Circle in the Sand in the top 10.
Belinda toured the planet in 1988, releasing more singles in the UK than the US - a trend that would be repeated over the coming years. For a time, Belinda Carlisle made every other popstar on the planet bar Michael Jackson and Madonna look like very small potatoes indeed.
In 1989, Belinda returned to the studio to record Runaway Horses - which sported a more mature, polished sound than her previous two solo efforts. Runaway Horses established Belinda Carlisle as an enduring presence in the British and Australian music scenes. But simultaneously, it showed the first signs that her audience was shrinking in the United States. The album charted at no.40, and none of its singles - not even the George Harrison collaboration Leave a Light On - made the top 10 in the US. However, the album was double platinum in Britain and Australia. Leave a Light On reached no.4 in both territories, and the singles Summer Rain, La Luna, Runaway Horses, and Vision of You charted well into the top 40 - with Summer Rain reaching no.7 in Australia, and (We Want) The Same Thing was no.2 in the UK. The album itseld went double platinum.
Again, Belinda toured the globe, in 1990, and sold out London's historic (and enormous) Wembley Stadium twice during the tour. Meanwhile in the US, the rising star that was Belinda Carlisle's solo career was falling.
New Directions
Critically acclaimed and universally loved, solo Belinda Carlisle became a force in the soft-rock world - except in the USA. She released Live Your Life Be Free to mixed reviews, and equally mixed commercial success. It lacked the chart success of its previous albums in the UK - but still managed an impressive position at no.11, as did its title track.
In the US, however, suspicions that solo Belinda Carlisle was finished were confirmed. The album performed dismally in the United States - failing to reach the top 100. And the singles didn't do much better.
In 1992, MCA terminated Belinda's 4 album contract by releasing Her Greatest. Now, Belinda was signed to Virgin on both sides of the Atlantic.
In April of this year, Belinda gave birth to her son, James Duke Mason. The middle name was given to him as a means of reconciling her differences with stepfather Duke.
Born on the first day of the Rodney King riots Belinda recalls the hospital staff being unable to keep the smoke from the maternity ward. Birthing complications nearly took the life of both mother and child, but eventually James was brought to earth to the sound of Guns & Roses' 'Welcome to the World.'
Later that year, The Best of Belinda Volume 1 was released in the UK, and was dedicated to her newborn son. The compilation rocketed to no.1, and stayed there forever, proving that Belinda Carlisle was far from old news.
Belinda returned to the studio in 1993 to record Real. A very raw production, Belinda has a co-writing credit on the majority of the material - as well as a credit as co-producer.
The album marked a new creative direction that proved a remarkable critical success. She appeared on the cover without makeup, representing the basic - but effective - sound of the album itself. Unsurprisingly, it failed to chart in the US - but reached a respectable no.12 in the UK, backed by the hit single Big Scary Animal.
By this time, Belinda had become disillusioned with materialist America. She left California for a life of family-oriented isolation in France a week after the Northridge Quake struck California.
In 1994, Belinda and The Go-Go's reunited for a greatest hits package entitled Return To The Valley of The Go-Go's, sporting three new tracks. The Go-Go's embarked on a sell-out US tour, then quickly went their separate ways.
Two years later, and three years after her last solo release, Belinda was signed to Chrysalis in the UK where she released her sixth solo album, A Woman And A Man. A critically well-received return to form, the album contained heavy-weight collaborations with Brian Wilson and Per Gessle - the former lending eery backing vocals to the top 40 hit California, which is the tale of Belinda's love/hate relationship with her home state.
Also on the album was the UK no.6 ballad In Too Deep, the no.7 Always Breaking My Heart and the top.40 Love In The Key Of C - performed with members of a Seattle orchestra.
The following year, the album was released in the United States under Belinda's manager Miles Copeland's label Ark 21. It failed to chart, but is still that label's best performing album in the United States.
She Goes On
Rumours of a new album were rife between 1998 and 1999 - and it looked very much like a reality when 1999 dawned. But speculation was all this ever was. As Belinda went silent on the new project, and Virgin were equally as forthcoming - it seemed, at the least, like it would be delayed for a time yet.
Later in the year virgin announced The Best of Belinda Volume 2, which later became known as A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits - which featured three new tracks which were originally intended for the new album.
One of the tracks, All God's Children was written by the producers of Cher's most recent release, Believe. It failed to reach the top 40, debuting at no.66 and dropping out of the top 100 a week later - but it captured the hearts of Belindaphiles who were screaming for something new.
The 18 track compilation was also released with a bonus disc of b-sides and remixes. A Place on Earth debuted at no.15 on the UK charts and remained there for quite a long time. Within 12 months it had sold 900,000 copies.
The year 2000 saw more empty speculation of a new album, as well as a reformation of The Go-Go's. This was to be a more solid arrangement than any possibility for a solo album, as in 2001 a brand new Go-Go's album was released under the Beyond label. God Bless The Go-Go's took off where Talk Show finished and received equally as much critical success. It did, however, fail commercially.
A sellout US tour followed in 2001 and 2002.
In 2001, at the tender age of 43, Belinda accepted an offer to appear in the August issue of Playboy. She obliged, and was Miss August, 2001. She doesn't regret the action that some frowned upon - in fact, she's quite proud of it. She proved that you don't need to be '20 years old with plastic tits' to be sexually viable, and to be viable as a woman.
In 2003, Belinda embarked on her first US tour since 1990. A commercial and critical success, Belinda proved that she still has a dedicated following among the land that chewed her up and spat 13 years ago.
With 2004 just beginning, and speculation of the new solo album enduring harder than ever, it remains to be seen what lies in store for Belinda Carlisle's musical future.
下面这首歌名为《Do You Feel Like I Feel?》，充满了澎湃饱满的金属风格，而又不乏明快流畅的流行曲调，或者这就是所谓的“popular-rock”？我是一个音乐的门外汉，但这确乎是一首使门外汉都感到撼动的歌曲。
