Moon Zappa: "Valley Girl"

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

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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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.
- http://www.gyrofrog.com/ 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
- http://twitter.com/anderalert 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
- http://profile.yahoo.com/BUSYAWMRBZOVHLEA566TYPDBKM 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.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/BUSYAWMRBZOVHLEA566TYPDBKM 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
http://www.nicejewishartist.com 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.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723148341 Lucy Gothro

The preview on the main page is for Super Sylvia…?
http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill

Wow, I didn’t know you could say “Lord God King BuFu” on national television! They didn’t even bleep it.
- http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/ 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.
http://profile.yahoo.com/FJLJD6YMQFCSGP2PJVIJERUNHY Jamaica

Ok, fine…for sure for sure.
http://twitter.com/anderalert 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…