Pussy Galore

All Music Guide:

Pussy Galore didn't invent noise rock, but they did change the way many musicians approached the notion of transforming chaotic noise into music. Early on, most bands that embraced noise as an aesthetic either had an arty world-view, a philosophical axe to grind, or some combination of the two. Pussy Galore, on the other hand, simply embraced godawful racket for the hell of it, laying out willfully primitive and technically ragged music drawn from '60s garage punk, gutbucket blues, and several generations of attitudinal and misbehaving rockers (most notably the Rolling Stones), all wrapped up in a simple but aggressive agenda of annoying anyone within earshot, even those who had sympathy for their approach.

Pussy Galore were formed in 1985 in Washington, D.C. by vocalist and guitarist Jon Spencer, vocalist and guitarist Julia Cafritz, and drummer John Hammill; they also frequently included additional percussionists who would bang on pieces of metal. In the interest of greater ear-splitting chaos, the band did without a bassist, and a few months after forming they booked time in a tiny recording studio to cut their debut 7", an EP called Feel Good About Your Body, which was released on the trio's own Shove Records label in January 1986. A few months later, Pussy Galore were back with a 12" EP, Groovy Hate Fuck, which introduced the band's third guitarist, Neil Hagerty. Groovy Hate Fuck's cover photo was snapped by a young photographer named Cristina Martinez, who caught Spencer's eye and would soon join the lineup on guitar and organ, despite her lack of musical experience (something that didn't burden most of the members of the group).

Between their frantic, noisy attack and song titles like "Teen Pussy Power," "You Look Like a Jew," and "Fuck You, Ian MacKaye," it didn't take long for Pussy Galore to get noticed, and after thoroughly polarizing the D.C. music community, the band relocated to New York City in search of a larger audience. Drummer Hammill opted to stay behind, and former Sonic Youth timekeeper Bob Bert joined the group in his place. When a rumor began to circulate that Sonic Youth were working on an album in which they would cover the Beatles' White Album song by song (a rumor that proved to be false), Pussy Galore decided to create their own preemptive response, cutting a jagged, lo-fi reinterpretation of the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. that was issued on a limited-edition cassette; the release earned Pussy Galore a great deal of press attention, even though they only produced 550 copies of the tape.

Independent New York label Buy Our Records teamed up with Pussy Galore for their next release, the EP Pussy Gold 5000, which arrived in stores in early 1987. Pussy Galore soon headed to Chicago to record their first proper album with fellow curmudgeon Steve Albini at the controls, and Pussy Galore, Right Now! was issued by Caroline Records in September 1987. Neil Hagerty sat out the sessions for the 1988 EP Sugarshit Sharp, as did Cristina Martinez, but Hagerty was back (along with additional guitarist Kurt Wolf) for 1989's Dial 'M' for Motherfucker. However, the band was starting to run out of steam, with Julia Cafritz dropping out prior to the recording of 1990's Historia de la Musica Rock, and not long after the album was released, Pussy Galore finally broke up.

Given Pussy Galore's busy and often contentious existence, most of the bandmembers went on to surprisingly successful careers in the wake of the band's breakup. Jon Spencer would, of course, front the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and formed Boss Hog with Cristina Martinez, who had become his wife. Julia Cafritz would go on to perform with the bands Guv'ner and Action Swingers, and would perform in Kim Gordon's side project Free Kitten. And Michael Hagerty (also billing himself as Neil Michael Hagerty) would record with Royal Trux, Weird War, and Howling Hex, as well as cutting several solo albums.

Wikipedia:

Pussy Galore is a fictional character in the Ian Fleming James Bond novel Goldfinger and the later film by the same name. In the film, she is played by Honor Blackman. As with many of Ian Fleming's creations, the name is a double entendre—in this case with respect to pussy, which is both another word for a housecat and a slang term for vulva and vagina, while galore means an abundant or plentiful supply of something.

Blanche Blackwell, a Jamaican of Anglo-Jewish descent, is thought to have been the love of Fleming's later life and his model for Pussy Galore.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Appearances[edit]

Novel[edit]

In the novel, Pussy Galore is the only woman in the United States known to be running an organised crime gang. Initially trapeze artists, her group of performing catwomen, "Pussy Galore and her Abrocats," is unsuccessful, and so the women train as cat burglars instead.

Her group evolves into an all-lesbian organisation, based in Harlem, known as the Cement Mixers. In the novel, she has black hair, pale skin and the only violet eyes Bond says he has ever seen. She is in her thirties, her voice low and attractive. Pussy tells Bond that she became a lesbian after she was sexually abused by her uncle at the age of 12.

Auric Goldfinger enlists the help of Pussy and her Cement Mixers to carry out "Operation Grand Slam", a scheme to kill all the soldiers guarding Fort Knox by poisoning their water supply with a water-borne nerve agent (GB, also called sarin), and then to use a stolen nuclear weapon to blow open the U.S. Bullion Depository there and steal one billion dollars in gold bullion from it. Goldfinger chooses the Cement Mixers because he needs a group of women to impersonate the nurses in fake emergency medical teams he plans to send into the poison-stricken Fort Knox.

After Bond and Felix Leiter foil "Grand Slam", Galore runs into Bond while impersonating a stewardess on Goldfinger's hijacked escape flight to the Soviet Union (which carries his remaining fortune in gold). Bond, having previously been drugged by a fake vaccination, has been kidnapped and transported onto the plane to join Goldfinger, who is determined to kill him at last. However, Bond punctures one of the airplane's windows with a knife (causing Goldfinger's henchman Oddjob to be blown out and plunge to his death), then tackles Goldfinger, and, in the ensuing struggle, kills him. Bond then forces the crew of the airplane to reverse course. When the gold-heavy craft runs out of fuel, and the crew must ditch it in the ocean, Bond and Pussy are the only ones who manage to escape onto a life raft. It is hinted at the end of the novel that Pussy is sent to prison, as she says to Bond, "Will you write to me in Sing Sing?"

Her original band of Amazonian catwomen appear as characters in the film, but as small-aircraft pilots rather than trapeze artists.

Film[edit]

Concerned about censors, the film's producers considered changing her name to "Kitty Galore", but decided to keep the original name after the British newspapers began to refer to the actress who was preparing for the role, Honor Blackman, as "Pussy" in the lead-up to production. Blackman is the oldest actress so far to have played a Bond Girl. She and Diana Rigg are the only two Bond girls who have been older than the actor playing opposite them as Bond. During the filming of Goldfinger, Blackman was 39 years old; Sean Connery was only 34. During the filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service Rigg, 31, played opposite the then 30-year-old George Lazenby.

Pussy is first seen when Bond wakes up in Goldfinger's private jet, having been knocked out with a tranquiliser gun by Goldfinger. He is lying on a couch when he regains consciousness, and since the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is her stunning blonde-framed visage leaning over him, the dialog runs as follows:

James Bond: Who are you? Pussy Galore: My name is Pussy Galore. James Bond: I must be dreaming.

She then asserts that the nature of her employment for Goldfinger is that she's "a damn good pilot", clearly intending to suggest that there is no relationship of a more intimate nature between them, and tells Bond, "You can turn off the charm. I'm immune." She is the leader of Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, a group of women aviators connected with Goldfinger's "Operation Grand Slam" (played in certain scenes by stuntmen in blonde wigs). In a later scene, Pussy uses judo to attack Bond after she catches him eavesdropping on Goldfinger's plan, and turns him over to Goldfinger.

However, Bond eventually seduces the previously "immune" Pussy, and she secretly turns against Goldfinger; she alerts the Central Intelligence Agency to her employer's scheme, and they help her replace the deadly nerve gas that Goldfinger is planning have her aviators spray over Fort Knox with a different, harmless substance (the soldiers below appear to die, but are actually faking).

Having foiled Goldfinger's plan, Bond boards the President's private plane to travel to the White House. Goldfinger, now a fugitive millionaire, forces Pussy to participate in hijacking the plane in order to force the pilot to fly him to Cuba. However, Bond defeats Goldfinger, who is blown out the window at high altitude, thus suffering what, in the novel, had been Oddjob's fate. Bond then saves Pussy from the crashing plane: they both bail out (this is shown only on radar), land safely in an unidentified tropical region, and make love under their parachute.

During an interview for the documentary Bond Girls Are Forever, Honor Blackman commented that, when she was playing the role of Pussy, she knew her character had been written as a lesbian in the novel. She also said she had played the role as if she had been abused in the past.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Reception and cultural impact[edit]

Pussy ranked second in a poll of favourite Bond Girls by Entertainment Weekly in 2007, beaten only by Ursula Andress' character Honey Rider. Yahoo! Movies had her name included in the 2012 list of the best Bond girl names, calling it "The most famous Bond Girl name, and also the rudest - US censors almost cut it from Goldfinger.

Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Bibliography[edit]