Moon Zappa: "Valley Girl"

Moon Unit Zappa performs "Valley Girl" on Solid Gold, 1982. (like, for Sarah Ruxin)

• [MrWednesday7]

  “gag me with a spoon” LOL

• [Boundegar]

  I don’t get why her outfit is so completely different from the dancers.  Is she the valley girl, or are they?

  • [MonkeyBoy]

     She was 14 at the time and maybe the networks or her father had enough class then not to sexualize her.

    (I met her around 1990 and found her much more attractive as an adult than a teenager – as opposed to a common pattern in Hollywood where cute female child stars often grow up to be bland cows.).

    • [Boundegar]

      What is this “class” of which you speak?

• [Glen Able]

  She’s only 14 or 15 in that clip, I think?  I believe it was also her singing “I don’t want nobody to shoot me in the foxhole” a couple of years earlier on her dad’s You Are What You Is.

  Most recently, I spotted her name in the Curb Your Enthusiasm credits – she played that helpful, mysterious burka’d Muslim woman.

  • [Gyrofrog]

    As the man said:

  • [TheMudshark]

     Thanks, this info makes that episode at least five times more enjoyable.

• [Kelly M]

  This really did penetrate culture.  There are whole segments of middle-class white girls who talk this way.

  Anyway, my favorite Solid Gold non-sequitor WTF was the Plasmatics:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iij2_JvHGr8

  • [Pat Eisel]

    Holy shit! can we get a whole separate thread for this? 

  • [ocker3]

     Youch, my ears! But hey, at least we have an early example of a forehead-mounted dildo

• [SomeGuyNamedMark]

  So very very 80s

  • [D]

     lol  only her, the rest look like straight from the late 70′s

• [20thCenturyVole]

  Which was she, MU1 or MU2? Dweezil was the other.

  • [D]

    For the less informed, like the person above Frank’s kids names are:

    Dweezil Zappa
    Moon Unit Zappa
    Ahmet Zappa
    Diva Zappa

    • [20thCenturyVole]

      Moon Unit 2 changed it to Dweezil

• [isaacb2]

  and by “perform” you mean “lip sync”

  • [yupgiboy]

    And? You say that like it’s a bad thing. It was common practice then and had been for years. This performance was promoting a single release and not a concert tour. It makes prefect sense to lip sync to the single that record company was promoting. I don’t know why more people don’t understand that.

• [Lucy Gothro]

  The preview on the main page is for Super Sylvia…?

• [devophill]

  Wow, I didn’t know you could say “Lord God King BuFu” on national television! They didn’t even bleep it.

  • [pduggie]

    I just got that now. 

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  I’ve just realized that, despite hearing the song quoted for 30 years, this is the first time that I’ve ever heard it.

• [Jamaica]

  Ok, fine…for sure for sure.

• [Pat Eisel]

  Honestly, this just isn’t good. It’s bad. And by bad, I mean it sucks. It’s embarrassing for every one of those performers. I feel abused and a little sick after watching it. A Zappa family low point at best.

  • [ocker3]

     The huge amount of spoken-word stuff just Drags On!

  • [TheMudshark]

     I have to agree with you there, Pat.

• [noah django]

  I remember this being on the radio when I was maybe 6 and the subsequent trend of Val-speak, tshirts, stickers etc.  what I didn’t get until now is how Moon is not championing valley girls, she’s pointing out how vapid the whole phenomenon is.  or at least, that’s my interpretation.  it’s pretty meta, but if I’m correct, it’s probably one of the all-time biggest backfires

• [wilberfan]

  You’ve gotta hand it to the director–they had to fill a lot of ‘visual time’ since Moon wasn’t singing (speaking) the entire time.   And, yes, Moon (and Dad) are mocking this entire subculture…