The Pop Zeal Project (Track 84): Gwen Stefani: “The Real Thing”
When Gwen Stefani of No Doubt ventured out to make her first solo album, 2004’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby., the singer used it as a creative outlet to pursue other forms of music besides the ska/post-punk sound, for which the band was already famous. While on The Harajuku Lovers Tour to support the solo effort, Stefani, during an interaction with the crowd after “Crash,” offered insight as to the intention behind L. A. M. B.:
Stefani’s creative direction for L. A. M. B. pointed towards psychedelic pop-punk.
“I was on tour with No Doubt… and I said to Tony… wouldn’t it be fun to make a dance record? Very, very clean, easy, simple idea… I was never gonna tour the record, but then you guys keep buying the record, you keep bringing me out, you keep tempting me. And I’m on this big ol’ wave and I just wanna crash right down on top of you, and I just wanna hear you guys sing the songs back to me.”
The song in the setlist before “Crash,” entitled “The Real Thing” was cowritten by Stefani, Linda Perry, and Stefani’s then-husband, Gavin Rossdale, and co-produced by Nellee Hooper (No Doubt’s “Hella Good”; “Running”; their cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life”). Lyrically, the love song expresses how much one, after being with another for some time, still wants, and needs, the other around. Presumably, Stefani and Rossdale, each with their own rock-star careers and busy schedules, were writing about each other at the time, with the following lyrics a reflection of their relationship: “And we’re together most days/But I still love to have you around”. However, in 2016, after 14 years of marriage, Stefani and Rossdale divorced, making one of the track’s later verses a bit prophetic: “Heaven knows what will come next/So emotional, you’re so complex/A rollercoaster, built to crash/But I still love to have you around.” (Note another reference to the word, crash.)
Musically, “The Real Thing” was heavily (and intentionally) inspired by New Order’s 1986 track, “Bizarre Love Triangle.” Stefani would have been 17 years old when the synth-pop song was first released, and indicates another musical style that Stefani was interested in besides the ska/post-punk sound that a budding No Doubt was embracing. (One can almost imagine Stefani staying up late on a Sunday night to watch MTV’s “!20 Minutes” to catch the video for “Bizarre,” or sliding a cassette tape into a boombox during lunch at Anaheim’s Loara High School.) Into adulthood, Stefani remained a fan of the English alternative-pop band, and reached out to collaborate with them. After initially declining, the band’s singer, Bernard Sumner ended up contributing backing vocals, while Peter Hook played bass on Stefani’s musical homage.
Listening to “The Real Thing,” one may not necessarily hear the direct influence of “Bizarre.” But in listening to “Bizarre,” and then returning back to “The Real Thing,” the similarities become more evident. For example:
The guitar riff in the outro of “Bizarre”; the intro to “The Real Thing.”
Melody: In “Bizarre” at the lyrics: “There’s no sense in telling me/The wisdom of the fool won’t set you free.” In “The Real Thing” at the aforementioned: “Heaven knows what will come next/So emotional, you’re so complex.”
Gwen Stefani’s “The Real Thing,” and essentially the Love. Angel. Music. Baby. period as a whole, marks one of the most important moments in Stefani’s career: Sonically, it’s a purposeful step from ska to synth pop and other sounds; visually, as seen on The Harajuku Lovers Tour, it’s a shift from rugged rock star to polished platinum-Marilyn pop star, complete with what would become Stefani’s signature: the retro red lip. “The Real Thing” serves as another way Stefani solidified herself as the real deal.
Red Lip Photo by John Shearer.
Suspicious Minds: No Doubt: “In My Head”
A sneaky-sounding guitar opens No Doubt’s “In My Head,” off their must-have 2001 release, Rock Steady. The lead singer, Gwen Stefani invites the listener inside her uncertain state of mind, ironic considering the name of the band.
Her “head is wicked jealous,” as she obsessively ponders her long-distance relationship and what’s happening on the other end. She attempts to calm her paranoid mindset by thinking about rainbows and big, fat roses. Not wanting—at all—to talk about ex-girlfriends, abandonment or the past, she warns her boyfriend to “use the right words when you talk to me.” The distrustful thoughts keep spinning, and by the bridge, she stands up and states: “I really think I have a problem/I really can’t control myself/Why do I get so suspicious?/Do you want someone else?/’Cause everybody wants everybody else… only in my head.”
As the song concludes, she’s still manipulating, wanting now to talk about the future, the wedding and “how much you like me/And all that.” There’s nothing like controlling the conversation so we can hopefully hear what we want to hear, to feel all’s right with the world, and more importantly, safe.
Just as much as the album chronicles the downs in a relationship: the skepticism of second chances (“Detective”; “Don’t Let Me Down”) and the questions surrounding realistic longevity (“Running”; “Rock Steady”), there’s the ups too: anticipating a reunion on “Making Out”; make-up lovin’ in the morning on “Start the Fire”; the bass-thumping masterpiece, “Hella Good.” Yet as the chorus in “Underneath It All” goes: “I’m really lucky underneath it all/You’re really lovely.” This is the lucid epiphany that he may, in fact, be worth all those temporary lapses in sanity.
Although Stefani may be a glamour goddess of pop and a confident front woman of rock, it’s her role as a writer where she gets to showcase yet another incarnation: an ordinary woman who’s not afraid to admit that sometimes, yes, she too has doubts… and lots of them.
Be sure to check out No Doubt’s 2002 Rock Steady Live DVD, filmed in Long Beach, CA.