The B-52's poll

impossible!

"52 girls" for me.

Me too. Love this album.

One of my top 10 albums of all time. Probably my favourite album cover too.

I could vote for anything here apart from Downtown. Right now it's between Planet Claire and Dance This Mess Around.

"52 Girls" is the best song in all of punk/new wave.

I voted for Dance This Mess Around, chiefly because shouting "I'm not no Limburger" is one of my favorite things in life.

Not a bad song on the LP, but the first side is ridiculously groovy.

Rock Lobster is like Whip It, in that it was gateway to a whole lot of different music for a whole lot of people.

dance this mess around

my 3 year-old will request on occasion that I play "the lobster song" when I take her to school.

52 Girls is the itchiest riff I have ever heard, add the bone dry drums and chanted vocal and I am a complete mess when I hear it.

Used to be Dance This Mess Around for me, but the older I get the more I appreciate the phrasing in 52 Girls. I can never get it right when I try to sing along.

Rock Lobster is the Stairway to Heaven of new wave.

(dont' know why I went for "the older I get" rather than "these days")^

These are the girls of the USA

The principal girls of the U.S.A.

'Planet Claire'

One of the few polls where I voted without debating with myself and reading the thread for others' rationales. "Dance This Mess Around" is it!

An explosion of truthbombs in this thread so far: impossible to choose, one of my top 10 albums of all time, first side is ridiculously groovy (but don't sleep on side two!), Rock Lobster = Stairway of new wave.

All that said, Rock Lobster. "Let's roooooooock!!!!!"

this album is a masterpiece from stem to stern but "Dance This Mess Around" is one of the most emotional things I know -- and there's so much space in it, so easy to get lost in it. spent a long dark week of the soul with it back in the mid-eighties, I consider it an incredibly deep song

the correct answer is the song which contains the exhortation to DO THE AQUA VELVA

I dial stupid number all day long

dance this mess around after some deliberation

(cw: bragging) my friend from wayback told me that one of my band's songs reminded her of planet claire, a compliment that i have been carrying around and permitting to buoy my spirits.

agree that there is a lot of room to get lost/jam out in these songs. i would add that they have that rare quality of persistent exuberant fun which is what i think people connect with on rock lobster before they dive into the weirdo lake and river system. that's what happened to me! rock lobster was the song my bff and i sang to each other on the bus on the way to day camp :) we loved it.

Rock Lobster = Stairway not just as a monolithic classic single of the era but also in the sense of having been played so much I've almost lost the ability to hear it ... I expect that will come back for me, as it did with Stairway, after a few hundred more exposures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqwPcGuSpk

This is brutal.
The only 2 bum tracks for me are There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon) & Downtown.

amazing record. i've said it many times before and i'll say it again, ricky wilson might be the most underrated guitarist of all time.

i know it's a boring choice but i had to go with "rock lobster." it's so relentless, it just keeps going back to the riff and then building back up and getting crazier and crazier. it isn't stairway to heaven, it's paced like dance music, not rock music.

though i realize that's not the point of the stairway comparison.

it wasn't a rock
it was a dance lobster

52 Girls: I kind of like the arrangement better on the original DB single.
Hero Worship: one of my fave deep cuts, but if I'm honest, just a minute too long.
Rock Lobster: hard to knock it for it's ubiquitity, but that outro still rips.

Planet Claire: Is this Fred's best song?
Dance This Mess Around: Is this Kate's best song?
Lava: sentimental favorite, great on all the live recordings, official and unofficial.
6060-842: Like Lava, this captures their playful approach to sex so wonderfully.

I think I could talk myself into 'Lava' just based on the "I'm gonna jump in a crater/See ya later" couplet at the end.

people talk about rock lobster's ubiquity but somehow i didn't hear it until i was in my early 20s, and the only times i've heard it since then are when i've put it on. where are you guys hearing rock lobster all the time? i'm not accusing anyone of lying, i'm just jealous.

I posted this on another B's thread years ago, but if anyone hasn't seen this, it's one of the absolute best things on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG70rsLUjfQ

xpost house party staple ime. athens ga kids maybe a factor in that. in terms of radio exposure I knew "private idaho" better.

tbf i don't think i heard stairway to heaven until i was in my early 20s either

I def didn't hear Stairway until I was almost in college

Rock Lobster was played all the time on 91X/KROQ

this whole album cooks but 52 Girls is flawless. maybe my favorite guitar sound of all time. KATE! Kate Cindyyyy

where are you guys hearing rock lobster all the time?

I think the first time I heard it was at a Halloween party in Athens in 1979 ... over the next few years the first two albums and the Byrne-produced EP seemed to be inescapable

also iirc Rock Lobster was big on the Dr. Demento Show

just glancing at last.fm tracks stats, 'Rock Lobster' seems roughly as popular as Devo's 'Whip It'.

Vivid memory of seeing them on SNL in 1980. "Rock Lobster" was one of the first things I learned how to play on guitar.

Voted "Dance This Mess Around"

I remember in 1980 when new wave was finally getting mainstream media attention in the US, whenever a local TV station would do a segment on "What is the New Wave?" or "How to give yourself a New Wave hairdo" they would go straight to "Rock Lobster" for the background music because it was THE iconic new wave tune. It was almost surprising to listen to the album and realize there were all these other great songs on it too.

I'll vote "Lobster."

(*It's kind of odd that "Rock Lobster" didn't chart in the US until April 1980, since the album was out the previous summer).

Dance This Mess Around: Is this Kate's best song?

Weird barometer, considering this is Cindy's showcase.

umm...https://youtu.be/Bbb2SvZ-n-c?t=1m3s

Let's also praise Kate Pierson's organ, stuck in all the right places.

"planet claire" cause it reminds me of early optimo, and i used to always mix it into EVERYTHING (pitched way down obv). super dubby!

Rock Lobster was like those couple Violent Femmes tunes, they got played a whole lot left of the dial and in odd places. I remember the DJ playing it at high school dances at my Indiana redneck high school in the 80s. It was a weird tune that lots of people dug.

It was part of the playlist at water park section of Six Flags, where my family had season passes this summer. The albumversion too. All sandwiched in there with Kokomo and Pipeline and other beachy treats.

I used to "Rock Lobster" in middle school parties a couple years before "Love Shack" -- one of those not-a-hits that was in the ether.

Violent Femmes comparison is otm. I heard "Blister in the Sun" during this period too, then all those singles when "American Music" and the Culture Club cover took off on college radio.

eh, the B-52s made a whole bunch of great albums after this one, so the comparison's of limited use. but yeah, both the femmes debut & this one had a remarkably elastic quality, they were welcome at all kinds of different parties

I made the comparison because both albums had a subcultural impact beyond their okay chart placings. I agree the B-52's had the better career: Cosmic Thing is my favorite of their albums.

i have really strong nostalgia for this record. when i was a kid my mom's best friend was this lady who ran a hair salon out of her house. their house was v artsy and her kids were super punk rock like wearing blue mohawks when they were 10 and stuff. her kids used to babysit us and we would go over there for haircuts (which this being early 90s involved a lot of buzz cuts and Vanilla Ice-style shapes shaved into the sides). she always had B-52s playing and would talk about seeing them in Athens and stuff. when she passed away from breast cancer around 15 years ago, it was a really tough thing to go through, and i still miss her all the time, but i always think of her whenever B-52s come up. she was the sweetest, nicest, coolest lady ever.

I think I prefer Wild Planetto this of the main Ricky albums; the first side of this is pretty much unbeatable but WP hangs together slightly better overall esp. with the killer Cindy-led 1-2 in the middle, plus "Quiche Lorraine" etc.

Although the Violent Femmes never had another album as classic as their debut, Add It Up is a solid collection. They were amazing live too.

I definitely have S/T and Wild Planet as equals-but with Whammy! as a not so distant third of the Ricky albums.

they didn't make a bad album until Cindy left

I've kinda always wanted to hear Fred's solo album

The SNL performance of "Rock Lobster" (and my few subsequent hearings of the song on local AM station) made a huge impression on 12 y/o me...by year's end they were my favourite new wave band, and I bought one of the square pins replicating the album cover to wear to school. And got called a fag by the Cheap Trick fans in my class :(

Well that sucks, those Cheap Trick kid's.

I have been enjoying the stories in this thread however.

Good Stuff isn't a bad album!

The first time I was aware of the B-52's was when Cosmic Thing was out and 'Love Shack' and 'Roam' were big hits - the videos were on MTV Europe a lot, and I seem to remember the 12" single of 'Roam' around the house... it came with free 3D glasses as the sleeve had a 3D effect. I was then exposed to the older stuff because live versions of 'Planet Claire' and 'Rock Lobster' were on the B-side of one of the Cosmic Thing singles (I've forgotten which one) and then later I heard the first album and realised how truly idiosyncratic this band were.

What is your favorite song on the B-52's self-titled debut album?

now for my story, like Shakey i also grew up in beautiful Southern California in a place called Orange County. i was not as hip as him obviously as i did not know about KROQ until much later in the 80s. i was listening to K-EARTH, KFI or the Mighty Six-Niney. those station were Top 40 radio at the time. i do remember when i was turned on to KROQ by my best friends older brother. there was the alternative station called KNAC that played college rock at the time. yes the same station that turned into a heavy metal station later in life. i remember he was happy because he figured everyone would think they were listening to 105.5 and over shoot to 106.7. which actually did happen, KNAC changed formats and KROQ became the most powerful station in the universe.

i think "Rock Lobster" was my first favorite song ever. i remember hearing that all the time along with "Another Brink in the Wall Part 2." i never did get into the B-52s at the time, as it was before i was able to buy music but remember how much of an impact that song had on me as a kid.

they do all 16 dances

I still wanna know what the sixteen dances are

Walk, talk in the name of love

While I voted for dance I still think nothin can eclipse Rock lobster. Eh

I have never managed to sit through the entirety of Fred's Bat Baby video, but it seems a shame to let it go without mentioning during this holiday season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsPFi3-s1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsPFi3-s1o

I didn't know what they said before, it's funny to see them written out:

"Do the Coo-ca-choo
Do the Aqua-velva
Do the Dirty Dog
Do the Escalator
Ah-Hippy Hippy forward Hippy Hippy
Hippy Shake, Hippy Shake
It's time to do 'em right"

They do all 16 Dances

What if there were . . . 17 dances?!?

16 is the highest number

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i'd love to see all their albums polled as i still don't really know their stuff too well, but Song For A Future Generation is one of my favourites of all time. they never had a classic Best Of either did they?

Debut thru Whammy is largely unimpeachable. Dodgy afterwards. *prepares to be pelted with copies of Cosmic Thing*

Whammy is my fave LP of theirs, a stealth entry shoulda been in the best of the 80s sweepstakes. I will never tire of Rock Lobster, which is one of those songs where I'm mildly annoyed when I hear the first ten seconds, but once the frugging skank of the peak shows up I remember it's the best song ever. Hypocritically voting for Dance This Mess Around though because I forever lmao re: 'the shy tuna'.

Listening to Bouncing Off The Satellites and it has a very different sounding production to the first few albums; it has a very-glossy, warm thing going on in an agreeable way. there isn't a single song off that album i've ever heard before. Wiki suggests they were really struggling for material. It has a sort-of 'Mirage' era Fleetwood Mac vibe. Summer Of Love is brilliant.

it's v dubby! kind of Morris Day and Shep Pettibone in B-52s Convention

Housework is my jam btw

i don't need a man to treat me mean /
i need a man to help me clean

Just to reiterate: the correct answer is "52 Girls"

I'm very concerned that Hero Worship may not be getting votes.

"Girl from Ipanema" is gorgeous xxxxpost

so is "Ain't It a Shame." Sinead recorded a scorching cover several years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUF5mrKUOVA

they didn't make a bad album until Cindy left

Fixed that for you. Good Stuff is patchy, and overlong, but not without merit.

I've kinda always wanted to hear Fred's solo album

The Shake Society, or Just Fred? The former is flimsy, but fun. The latter I've tried to like, many times, and I just don't.

Good Stuff was full-on terrible the last time I tried to listen to it; I doubt my tastes have changed enough to where I'd like it now.

c'mon, DJP, tell it like it t-i-is

I am making a very annoyed face right now.

Supercalifragi
whata outfit you got on!

Yeah Girl From Ipanema.. is great; the first 2 singles from '..Satellites' had Shep Pettibone mixes and Summer Of Love had a mix by
The Latin Rascals. I must hear all of these.

I listen to this album five times this last week so after much deliberation I decided to go for Planet Claire strictly because of what seems like a five-minute intro

yes!

it's the entrance into the world of B-52s -- i love an overlong intro

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Poor Lava.

nice turnout and i guess it's top heavy. this album is so classic thou, had a blast listening to it all over again.

I think I like Bouncing Off the Satellites more than the debut album.

Happy to see Bouncing Off the Satellites getting some love in this thread. I always thought it wasn't well received. I was gonna say I like it more than Cosmic Thing, but probably not than the debut.

Craig bought his wig at a thrift store, you know why?
'Cause he didn't want toupee!

c'mon, DJP, tell it like it t-i-is

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, October 30, 2017 11:39 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I am making a very annoyed face right now.

― Marcus Hiles Remains Steadfast About Planting Trees.jpg (DJP), Monday, October 30, 2017 11:40 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:)

I played the living tar out of Good Stuff when it came out, but the last time I returned to it - maybe 5-8 years ago? - it didn't hold up too well.

should we do an artist poll for the B-52s?

I would vote!

That sounds like a lot of fun. Count me in!

in

Yes! I'm living for this band at the moment, and there are a few albums I still need to hear.

Totally!

I've listened to Good Stuff twice in the last two days, and yeah maybe I WANT to like it more than it warrants.

As a followup to the strong and hugely popular Cosmic Thing, much of it is either self-consciously wacky or self-consciously hippie-dippy, without any of the affecting songwriting of "Deadbeat Club" or the rocking of "Bushfire." It's let down by the production as well; hammering staccato electric piano a la The Go-Go's "Head Over Heels" is not what I want from a B-52's track. Too much saturated rock guitar, too many session musicians.

And 59 minutes is too damn long. There's possibly a really good Mesopotamia-length EP in there.

Wish they would re-release the original mix of Mesopotamia on CD

OK, i will add it when i update in a few days. not sure if i will run it however, as i don't know them well enough to really do a good job.

You could probably build an entire college course around the first four songs, goodness...

Of the eponymous album...sorry, didn't read through the thread...