My two favourite pastimes, music and computing, came together in the early 90's. I'd returned to New Zealand and was managing a computer outlet. Windows based PC's were still coming into their own so we also carried the Amiga range, a highly under-rated family of machines, ahead of their time. Having the chance to take these things apart revealed hidden secrets. Somebody within the Amiga organization was a B-52's fan. Check out the photo of various motherboards, all with B-52's references stamped on them. My worlds collided.
Back to the music. Getting together for a jam session after drinking at a Chinese restaurant in 1976 the 5 founding members of The B-52's, Cindy Wilson and her brother Ricky, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and the very distinctive voice of poet Fred Schneider played their first concert for friends at a party in 1977. By 1978 they had recorded their first single, 'Rock Lobster' and performed at New Yorks CBGB's, joining a list of acts who trod the same stage - The Ramones (review July 14 2020), Blondie (review July 21 2020), Talking Heads (review Aug 29 2020) and Patti Smith (review June 4 2020).
'Rock Lobster' hit well with the college and underground set and became one of their mainstay songs. As well as the music the thing that set it apart - and many of their other songs too - was Fred Schneider's delivery. A local New Jersey lad (Newark, then Belleville) he used a technique known as "sprechgesang" translated as "spoken singing". As a poet he often recited his poetry over a guitar, so he developed this distinctive style. That song was released in a slightly different version on their debut eponymous album 'The B-52's" in 1979.
Three more albums and a dozen or so singles over the following 10 years kept them in the public eye but didn't make any massive waves and in fact they were fading a bit. Sadly in 1985 their guitarist and founding member Ricky Wilson died of AIDS aged just 32 and the band - unofficially - broke up, or more specifically agreed 'to part ways indefinitely'. Then in 1988 they started to hang out together again and began writing new songs. Now down to a 4 pce band they soon had enough material for an album. With the likes of Nile Rodgers and Don Was producing, they put out this LP, 'Cosmic Thing' in early 1989.
Starting off as a slow-boiler with the release of 'Channel Z' as the first single, it was when 'Love Shack' came out in June that the single and album really took off. The single got to #3 in the US, #2 in the UK and #1 in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, with the album hitting #1 in NZ and Oz and within the top ten in the US and UK.
Not quite reaching the same heights, but charting well were 'Roam' and 'Deadbeat Club' from the same album. In performance terms the group became so popular that they had a backing band and went from playing in theatres to arenas and stadiums.
My good lady superfan wife has this as one of her go-to-feel-good albums and gives it a "Tracy Rating" of 8/10, only because she loves 2 tracks ever so slightly less than she loves the other 8.
On a grammatical note, in 2008 the band dropped the apostrophe from 52's and became just The B-52s. Still performing with the 4 remaining members of the original line-up, The B-52s are survivors where many have fallen by the wayside.
"You're what?
Tin roof
Rusted!"
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