Before she was the second-hottest Go-Go (Jane, who else?), Kathy Valentine was the rhythm guitarist and secondary songwriter for the Textones, Austin-to-L.A. roots-rock transplants led by Carla Olson, owner of the longest, straightest, blondest hair this side of either Joni Mitchell or Gregg Allman. Although the Textones bummed around town for a long time, they never really made it, largely because Carla's songs weren't all that interesting. Kathy's two primary contributions to the Textones eventually became much better known as Go-Go's songs: "Can't Stop the World" was basically lifted directly from the Textones' original, but as you'll see, this version of "Vacation" is only about half of the song you're familiar with. In particular, that great chorus is apparently what Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin did to earn their songwriting credits on the Go-Go's hit. Still, you can tell already from what's here that Kathy Valentine was more than ready to split from the Textones.

-Stewart Mason