The B52s

I remember getting into The B52s in 9th grade or so, 1985. Perhaps an adult mentioned them to me? I can’t be sure. The album had come out in 1979, which seems amazing to me, remembering what 1979 music sounds like–Billy Joel, Donna Summers, Rod Stewart. The B52s don’t sound like any of this. But this was the first album of theirs I bought, and I liked the kooky, fun vibe of it, the retro look and sound, and the kitschy feel of the whole package. Listening to it now is fun. Researching it, I find the album was produced by Chris Blackwell, which just makes me admire him the more.

“Planet Claire”: The song begins with a 1950s space movie sound that goes on for a remarkable 2:30 without any vocals. Just strange ray gun-type synths and the driving bass and drum lines. Fred Schneider comes in with his campy voice and ridiculous vocals and simplistic lyrics, and they all fit together–the strange music, the fey voice and phrasing, and the story of the otherworldly being from Planet Claire.

“52 Girls”: Another song with that fierce driving beat. This album is eminently danceable so far. Having them playing a house party seems like it would have been the best party of all time. It’s in this song that the women of the band move forward and Fred drops out of sight. Tight harmonies, that staccato drum, and the 50s guitar, almost surf rock, drive the song, or more fairly, propel the song along.

The third song on the album, “Dance This Mess Around”, features Cindy Wilson with a very punky vocal style, singing to a boy in a quite vulnerable way, especially in the first half of the song. The second half of the song, which is a listing of various fictional dances, is goofier and Fred Schneider’s vocals don’t lessen that goofiness. This song is a bit slower than the previous two, and while I do like it, especially Wilson’s yearning and raw voice, it’s not nearly as funky and fun as the previous two. It would have slowed down that house party I was thinking of earlier.

The house party picks back up, though, with the iconic song of the album,”Rock Lobster.” Probably this is the track I was told to get the album for, back when you didn’t really buy singles very much, and I would buy an album just to get one song. This song clocks in at a beefy 6:49, which for a punk, new wave song, is an eternity. I mean, the whole album is 9 songs and 39 minutes! This is a DANCING song. You couldn’t keep folks off the floor, I bet, when this came on brand new. I can imagine summer party goers in Athens in the late 70s just losing their communal shit when this came on at the club/frat party/house party. Or if you were at some place like the 9:30 club, especially the 9:30 club of the 80s, and this band was playing? MY GAWD. The walls would be dripping with sweat.

(Discharge in 1983 at the old 9:30 Club. Photo by Jim Saah.)

(Photo of Bad Brains at the old 9:30 Club from http://youthcrimes.blogspot.com/.)

You can see what the place looked like. There’s a damn pillar in the middle of the place, and you basically could walk on people to get to the stage.

There’s nothing bad to be said about “Rock Lobster.” It is one of the best rock songs of all time. 

The album, though, takes a little bit of a downturn for me from here. “Lava” is a fine song, but of course, anything that follows “Rock Lobster” is going to suffer from being in such proximity to the classic. “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)” is my least favorite song on the album. It has all the great characteristics of a B52 song: driving riffs on the guitar, staccato drumming, illy lyrics, tight harmonies from the women, crazy singing by Fred Schneider. But it just isn’t as charismatic as the other songs.

By the time “Hero Worship” comes on, I’m not even sure what this song is. But as soon as Cindy Wilson begins singing, I remember. This song is a straight ahead rock song with Wilson growling and strutting through the song. This song doesn’t have the surfer, strange vibe of the rest of the songs, and following it is a strange song, “6060-842.” Schneider sounds super campy, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson are harmonizing, the synths are really kicking in, and who knows what the hell the song is really about: a phone number on the bathroom wall?

Finally, perhaps in a bid to be even weirder, the album ends with a strange cover of “Downtown.” Wilson sings in a quasi-Cockney accent, Schneider and Pierson echo her in harmony, and the song winds its way down with voices fading out.

A new Beginning

My record collection.

In an effort, at my ripe old age, to engage more with my day to day life, to be creative, to make things, and to declutter, I am resurrecting (a good verb) this blog to examine a treasure from my past and to examine its relevance to my life now. I am speaking, of course, of my record collection, sitting off to the side of my life in the family room, going unlistened to for years now, what with the advent of the internet, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, and on and on into the narcissistic echo of immediate gratification. When did portability of music trump sound of music? I know it’s grandpa behavior to say, “When I was a kid”, and of course, it’s not even correct in this situation. When I was in high school, I listened to punk music on my cassette tapes (TDK 90 was my preferred choice) on a walkman the size of an open hand. If I turned it over too quickly in my hand while playing, there was a noticeable wobble in the song I was listening to. So, I can’t honestly take the position of a purist or audiophile. But I’ll try to, anyway.

I am struck by people I see with tiny music players and huge headphones. It’s Rubenesque and anti-Rubenesque at the same moment, size indicating class, trapped in the same person. The mp3 player must be tiny, and the headphones must be big and status is conferred due to those opposing qualities.

(Photo by jim212jim, https://www.flickr.com/photos/syobosyobo/)

Do these people ever listen to quality equipment? Have they ever heard the warm sound of vinyl? I once dated a younger woman who was astonished to learn what “phono” meant on a stereo receiver. I am sure that most people under 25 now don’t know what a stereo receiver even is.

In any case, I am going to start listening to my albums and responding to them here, waxing nostalgic, remembering where I bought this one, how I got this one, wondering why this one is still around, and deciding whether or not to keep any of them. I’ll be going alphabetically, just going across the top row of the shelves, and then the bottom row, and we’ll see what kind of things I find!