Day 417: The B-52’s – The B-52’s
I’ve had a bit of a day at work, I need something to take my mind off things, and I think a bit of new wave might be just the thing to get me out of my funk. I have a working theory that you can’t really ruminate if you play “Rock Lobster” at a fairly high volume, and today I’m happy to put that to the test – it’s time to listen to the self-titled album of the B-52’s.
Album cover courtesy of Island Records
The B-52’s were formed in Athens, Georgia in 1967 after a group of friends went to a Chinese restaurant and had a flaming volcano-themed cocktail that inspired them to suggest that they start a band. They went straight to someone’s house for a jam session and wrote a song about killer bees invading the US. They made their live debut at a house party on Valentine's Day in 1977, which was a huge success. A local record store then heard about their shows and offered to release their first single.
Their first release became an underground hit and they got scouted to a major label. After they signed with Island Records, they travelled to Compass Point Studios in Nassau to record their self-titled debut album. It was released in 1976 and it became a moderate success, driven by the success of the single “Rock Lobster”, a song that famously got John Lennon out of a five year slump where he hadn’t released any music. He says he heard the song out at a club and says he thought to himself, “It’s time to get out the old ax and wake the wife up!”, and he and Yoko started writing his final album Double Fantasy immediately after. He thought after hearing it that the rest of the world had finally caught up with him and Yoko, and now they might understand his stuff.
I actually loved this way more than I thought I would, the tongue-in-cheek humour mixed with the general goofiness and the surf rock sound is pretty irresistible. I also knew way more from this album, songs I’d heard around and liked but never bothered finding out who they’re by. It took a while to get to a song that I hadn’t actually didn’t know, and I thought I only knew “Rock Lobster” – it says a lot about their cultural cachet that even if you don’t think you’ve heard them, you probably have.
It’s a very odd album by a very odd group, every song is camp and strange but still so infinitely danceable that it’s hard to sit still listening to it. And I found that I was right: no, you can’t ruminate to “Rock Lobster”, nor really any of the songs on this album, every single song is a strange hodgepodge that they somehow make work. And anything sort of sci-fi themed is obviously right up my street, especially if it’s funny.
The only criticism I have is that the album drops off a bit by the end, but that’s probably because the beginning of the record is just impossibly good, so even that is a very mild one. The B-52’s get a 9/10.
Also, if you’re wondering where the name came from, it refers to the beehive hairdos that some of the band members have that resembles the nose of a B-52 bomber. They chose the name because one of the members of the band had a dream where someone whispered to him that they’re the B-52’s.