Surprise! POLL! Yeah, we just thought we'd drop in! - ILM Artist Poll #93 - The B-52’s (vote until November 10, 2018)

https://i.imgur.com/H9hw6bA.jpg

Ballot Part One (mandatory):Your Top 20 B-52’s tracks (minimum 5).

Ballot Part Two (optional):Your Top 5 B-52’s albums (minimum 2).

Order ballots from highest to lowest, no need to number them (or specify if you're submitting an unranked ballot).

Short and sweet.

Send ballots to: theb52spoll AT gmail dot com. Please include your username.
*Note NO Apostrophe or Hyphen

Voting is open until Saturday, November 3, 2018 Midnight Los Angeles time zone (Pacific time).

This is what is going on. I first want to apologize to anyone and everyone who was expecting The Jesus and Mary Chain poll liked I promised this year. I just got promoted and have a very small window to do a poll. I haven’t done one this year and thought I could sneak one in here if I do it right now. The reason it’s not JAMC is because I just couldn’t give them the time like I think they deserve for one of my favorite bands. There is a lot less B-52’s material and a much easier poll to run in my limited time constraints.

Let’s have some fun!

i couldn't think of anything else. i don't think there was enough solo material to do that side poll. i was about to do videos but decided against it. if anyone has any suggestions please post them here.

yay great call

Yay!

Hurrah!

Whammy! gets flak for certain production decisions, but when it comes to choosing 20 tracks there are only a couple from that album I can swiftly exclude! A better average than most.

Sweeet. I have some listening to do.

My top 5 is solid, excited to build the rest. 20 is the perfect number

this is gonna be cool imho, very manageable discography, i can really put in some listening.

Is this for real? The reason I ask is because I have never seen an voting artist poll with so few posts before. 20 seems like the perfect number and should be able to quickly do this one.

i for one totally intend to get on a ballot, my listening/discussing energies have just been pretty well absorbed by TMBG up to today.

I will send a ballot !

I think I was down to 25 tracks last week. Shall certainly vote shortly.

They're one of my most loved bands, but quantifying varying levels of my love in polls like this is nigh impossible for me. I intend to give it a try though.

this is amazing. will definitely have a ballot. just sad I'm just now seeing it.

I don't know how Whammy! is going to do, but Legal Tender is a top 5 track for me.

my first thought was "i'm going to have to make room for 'legal tender.'" this is gonna be hard cause i love the first two albums and cosmic thing pretty unreservedly. but i'm going ahead and digging into all their other stuff, admittedly superficially. somehow managed to never hear or pay attention to "girl from ipanema goes to greenland" before and that's pretty amazing.

AND HEAVY. EQUIPMENT.

Any possibility of a deadline extension? The thread seems to have been out of sight for the last week.

bookmarked, yes extension please

I've been revisiting Good Stuff for the past couple days, and I think it holds up. This is going to be a tough one for me...

"53 Miles West of Venus" seems like one of the best tracks right now. Kind of the bookend to "Planet Claire".

Ah, this is brilliant news. Can't wait to put my list together.

Just did a quick draft list and it's very Cosmic Thing heavy. Topaz in particular will be placing very highly on my list. Such a gorgeous song.

can you do a top 25? it's Funplex's only chance lol.

oh man this will be great.

I've voted. This is where I try to ensure I'm not the only vote for silly things like "Butterbean"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mxF-mISIU

Is there a post-Cosmic Thing/late-period track which is especially popular with the hardcore?

I might be the only person on earth who loves "Good Stuff" and "Dreamland."

I can't recall if it was on ILM that ths clip was shared recently but it's great anyway and the top comment brings the lols;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_Tg8iHwZ8

While I was in Art School in Berlin, I worked at a German television station to pay bills(and experience).This performance is for the TV Spot Rock Palast Live and I, after much white powder from a co worker, put all the black electrical tape and coloured cardboard on the background, you can see it peeling off, as they show the B-52s Logo. The song is indeed a lip synch, and the studio had nothing but a pair of matching record players. The BAND provided the 7 inch record for the performance. You can hear @2:32 the RECORD SKIPS with Fred's Great professionalism, Ricky's quiet smirk and Kate's WTF reaction. HTF never thought I would see this again. Thank you for posting! xoxo

Roam is the only B52s song I like and I love it

That video is amazing piscesx. check out 'Is That You Mo-Dean' for a glimpse of late period greatness.

There's good stuff on Good Stuff, e.g. "Good Stuff," but every song on the album is a minute and a half too long.

Interesting that they followed up the very consistent sound ('samey' if I'm being uncharitable) of Whammy! with their most diverse album Bouncing Off the Satellites.

omg that video, thank you!

Is there a post-Cosmic Thing/late-period track which is especially popular with the hardcore?

― piscesx

Is That You Mo-Dean? is by far favourite from the last couple of albums. That last minute or so is so euphoric.

Going to bring up “Mesopotamia” because it’s sort of shunted away in their streaming discography, but it’s a song that became deeply resonant to me during the Iraq invasion. The ironies doubled. The line “I should read a book” especially. The song somehow maintained is goofy desolate charm while becoming emblematic of American folly, like they could sense it decades out.

Voted.

Voted!

Voted!

Voted!

Yeah the songs are longish on Good Stuff, but I also find some of them expendable. My suggestion: an LP with songs 1-3 on side A and 3-6 on side B. (And swap in the long version of the title track from the 12" while we're at it.) "Mo-Dean" would be a great album closer, but then the CD goes on for another twenty minutes, and songs 7-10 seem like filler to me.

Will send something soon.

Will send something soon. at the last minute.

i'm still reeling at "girl from ipanema goes to greenland" - that incredible high whooshy warble vocal, it's exactly what i love abt so much of cosmic thing but with this different 80s dance quality. feels VERY 2018, i wd be shocked if this isn't already getting DJ play somewhere, and want to be at parties where this is playing all the way through and everybody is feeling good.

fearing "legal tender" may end up my only Whammy pick tho --- "butterbean" is maybe a more convincing idea of how to shift their sound without losing all the nervy new-wave energy but it's kind of inert/underwritten as a song.

feel like a real dope for sleeping on Bouncing Off The Satellites all these years --- it's good!! i think i got Whammy at some point, was disappointed by it, and was like "guess it's just a slump period til Cosmic Thing." so great to be encountering a classic ricky wilson guitar jam like "wig" for the first time.

i'm still reeling at "girl from ipanema goes to greenland" - that incredible high whooshy warble vocal, it's exactly what i love abt so much of cosmic thing but with this different 80s dance quality.

Exactly! It was a club hit in early '87.

You know what's a good jam? "Cake," treated as a palimpsest by DFA acts in the mid '00s, I suspect.

I could easily fill a ballot from the first two albums, Mesopotamia, and Cosmic Thing, but due poll diligence requires hearing the studio albums I don't know.

Funplex is better and freakier than I expected, though I don't love the thick guitar sound. The title track, "Hot Corner" (for Athens local color), and "Deviant Ingredient" are all good.

Nothing on Good Stuff really grabs me. The length of the tracks and the absence of Cindy Wilson make this feel expendable.

on to Bouncing Off the Satellites ...

"Deviant Ingredient" is wonderful. NO MORE NEU-RO-SES!

I swear, if you pull up the floor tile in the Electronics Departments of older Walmarts, you'll probably find multiple copies imbedded in the foundation of Good Stuff and the first Fred solo album that fell off the cut-out racks during a remodel. They were perennials in $2 bins for much of my youth.

"you'll probably find imbedded in the foundation..." even.

it is a kind of remarkable flop for coming after a triumphant comeback and commercial career-high album. i'm listening now and it's just very lifeless compared to "cosmic thing," maybe leaning too much into the dreamy wistful "topaz" zone which on the previous album is an accent or texture rubbing up against much bigger, bolder, and catchier songs. and yeah the songs are way too long.

fearing "legal tender" may end up my only Whammy pick tho

I like Chihuahuas and Chinese noodles!
I ended up with 3.

The keeper from Whammy for me is Song for a Future Generation, which I at first assumed would be some sort of utopian anthem but hilariously is about video dating

Since I own all their albums I've never picked up the "Nude on the Moon" comp. Didn't realize until today that it contains a much different, Mesopotamia outtake version of "Queen of Las Vegas."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07TjYCnvZn0

i'm still reeling at "girl from ipanema goes to greenland" - that incredible high whooshy warble vocal, it's exactly what i love abt so much of cosmic thing but with this different 80s dance quality.

Exactly! It was a club hit in early '87.

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 2, 2018 12:18 PM (two hours ago)

It totally sounds like one; so euphoric!

I'm really blown away by the jump between Whammy & Satellites. Whammy is monolithic and weirdly alien, whereas Satellites is filled to the brim with all these fully-formed pop ideas. It's hard to believe there's only two years' gap between releases

I was raving about this on some other thread, it seems to be Shep Pettibone's mix, edited by The Latin Rascals

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

Summer Of Love; also killer.

not knowing much abt them biographically, Whammy! kind has the whiff of a "label pressure to get a record made even though we've been touring constantly and don't have much written" kind of album. i shd look up the actual story i guess.

*kinda

the Yoko cover is my favorite from Whammy! now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVPyQAwA-WM

Bouncing Off the Satellites has been my favorite album of theirs ever since I took my car in to the dealership for some repairs and when I picked it up, a cassette of Bouncing Off the Satellites was in the tape player. I assumed it was my sister's, but... it was not! Listened to it for months in the car.

Bouncing sounds much more alive in the midst of death than Whammy.

I have never forgiven Whammy for my experience of buying it new with great anticipation and then realizing it was not very good

also wanna give a shoutout to "Channel Z" here

wanna give a shout out to whichever posted said he got a jolt whenever Schneider shouted SURPRISE when and his partner were going at it on the couch.

hahahaha, missed that

I also want to put forth the theory that the versions on Party Mix >>> the LP versions

SUR-PRIIIIIIIZE

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:37 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^that's one of my all-time favorite album openings.

― how's life, Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:44 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I used to date a big B-52's fan who had a bunch of their albums running in her CD changer, and this intro had a knack for popping up awkwardly during intimate moments.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, September 26, 2018 10:19 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and then...

I used to date a big B-52's fan who had a bunch of their albums running in her CD changer, and this intro had a knack for popping up awkwardly during intimate moments.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles),

I imagine Schneider breaking through the door like the Kool-Aid guy, holding a dead cat.

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 27, 2018 5:41 AM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

forgot my response

This description runs through my mind often:

Favorite moment: just a few seconds into "Party Out of Bounds" when Fred yells "SU-PRIIIIISE!" like a drunk Charles Nelson Reily violating Paul Lynn at a toga party. Classic.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, July 8, 2003 3:41 PM (fifteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What can you do to save a party?

one of my unfulfilled life goals is to learn how to play Queen of the Nile

XP

https://i.gifer.com/R3C6.gif

one time somehow blount and i were riffing on the idea of having schneider rather than kate & cindy appear on "Me In Honey." What it's DOIN' to ME!!! this in turn led us to imagining him replacing thurston moore on "crush with eyeliner" - I'm the REEEEAL thing! and then finally to realize that he would have been welcome as the replacement for any guest vocalist on any album, so long as his verse opened with an unrestrained SUR-PRIIIIIIZE!

the classic b-52s formula has so long been a part of my listening brain that it's easy for me to forget what a truly bizarre and wonderful queer construction it is, both the thrift-store early 60s camp john waters aesthetic packaging, and the sound on record: early, prescient new wave, leaning into the surf guitar over other 60s influences, fine enough, but then to add these heavenly but kinda flat and strange harmonies, and over top of it, as your seeming lead singer, an outrageously proud and self-delighting paul lynde character, absolutely reveling in a vocal display that i have to imagine put him in serious danger in athens, GA in the late 70s. it's so rad and unlikely, and they became huge on it!

(people who write and think about camp aesthetics probably have much more sophisticated and precise ways of describing this i'm sure. it's just awesome in a musical sense to me. they sound like nothing else at all.)

I have never forgiven Whammy for my experience of buying it new with great anticipation and then realizing it was not very good

I have never forgiven David Byrne for making such a mess of album three that the band fired their friend, scrapped his lifeless mixes and had to cobble together what could have been a pretty interesting album.

yeah i sorta forget, even as i'm listening to it, to think of mesopotamia as in any way a "third album" rather than one of a couple of inessential EP type projects

so is the version on Party Mix Byrne's or the band's re-mix?

whichever is more common, there's some part of an old B52s thread where Donut breaks down the differences and where the alt mixes were released (Holland iirc)

If "Loveland" is 8:35 and "Cake" is 7:46, those are the Byrne mixes. "Throw That eat..." is a bit longer too. The first two are noticeably different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCCtPgEmUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f8gtfHYSs8

I think Byrne mixes were only released in Europe. They are generally longer and more plodding.

so is the version on Party Mix Byrne's or the band's re-mix

the latter

the Byrne mix of Queen of Las Vegas makes my point entirely.

I don't think Byrne was a particularly good match tbh

should've gotten tom tom club imho, or done a joint album or stb

I should probably have found room for "Is That You Mo-Dean?" That "as-tral proj-ec-tor" coda is curiously affecting today.

I did 18/20 from memory, now time for some catchup listening

Voted!

Nice to see some love for Bouncing Off The Satellites on this thread. It's definitely their most underrated album. Ain't It A Shame is the one I come back to the most. It's such a devastating song, especially the way Cindy sings, "you look at that colour TV, more than me".

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

Voted!

Voted!

(voted)

Every time I see this thread I think it's a "Surprise! YOU'RE POLL!" Faith No More poll.

I'm glad I waited until the last minute (when I have a free day for listening) because I had forgotten how awesome "Bushfire" is

ranking stuff from Cosmic Thing was pretty difficult, the songs play off each other, unlike the early stuff that is more about amazing singles

i didn't vote because i only know the first two albums + cosmic thing, but just want to express eternal gratitude for teaching me that the only thing you should do when you hear a cowbell is pretend to hit your own head

honestly i'm down to 22 songs and at this point only 2 aren't from the debut, wild planet, or cosmic thing... there's enough there for a ballot!

yup

ok, i'm gonna submit a last minute ballot. taking this opportunity to listen to give Whammy! a decent listen and it's certainly off to a great start(!)

i have a real soft spot in my heart for the kind of synth bass on "legal tender", it's like the opposite of kryptonite for me

ok, i put together a quick 15-song ballot. it's always so wonderful to discover vital tracks while putting together these ballots. for me that was the song "Mesopotamia" - i didn't even know the EP existed, the backstory with Byrne, anything. "Mesopotamia" is a sick song, and I liked "Cake", too.

Hello everyone, this is being postponed. As you probably have seen I have not been around lately and the reason why i have been absent from this thread. Hell, I even missed this years World Series, loved the results. Anyways, my family has suffered some health issues including spending more time at the hospital. I just can’t run this poll right now. In fact if anyone wants to take over running this, that might actually be preferred, email the box and I can hand over the keys. Since some have asked for an extension anyways, you got it. Thanks for understanding

Voting is still open!

hey Bee, i'm really sorry to hear that.

i'd be happy to tabulate the results and post the results, along with images. although if you or others would prefer a bigger B-52s fan to do it, i understand. but i'm here to help.

Oh, jeez, Bee, I'm sorry. Sending out good vibes to you and yours.

hope things are ok.

Hope everything is all right, Bee!

Thanks everyone for your concern, everything is okay. it was mainly my dad but my mom has some issues as well...

we will figure this poll out but until then...

VOTING IS STILL OPEN

yay! y'all, this is amazing.

https://youtu.be/05yCpVbpiQc?t=494

so good

wonder what the chance is a deep cut wins this.

That would be nice if that happened. I've certainly done my bit for Topaz.

Bouncing off the Satellites seems to rate pretty highly around here (and "here" is ILM) so I would think it's a distinct possibility.

i have handed this off to Karl Malone (a huge thank you to him for taking this over) and he will be along to tell you when voting will be closed ect. speaking of, we need more ballots! we are on the weak side for this poll. please, if you are thinking about voting please do as we need more ballots.

VOTING IS STILL OPEN!

definitely have mine 95% there

<3 for bee ok xx

how long do i have? will try get something over on friday

Same - please keep it open until Friday

voted!

Hey everyone, voting is extended until to this Saturday!

I’ll calculate the final tally on Sunday, then we’ll do the rollout on Monday and Tuesday. Sound good?

Also, if anyone has ideas for the title of the results thread, now would be a good time to share. :)

"I'll Give You Fish, I'll Give You RANKINGS"

god so many great Fred lines begging for an all-caps POLL!

"Let's meet, and have a BALLOT now!"

Don't be blind to the big surprise!
Swimming round and round like the deadly hand
Of the radium clock
At the bottom
Of the POLL

my poll's burning like a lava from a Mauna Loa

I still haven't voted so now I know I have until Saturday.

Down To A POLL Fraught With Danger, It's A POLL Full Of Strangers

POLL if you want to, POLL around the world

i think that was the cosmic thing radio button poll title?

POLL-POLL-POLL-POLL POLLIN' in Andromeda!

Hey Bee or Karl, can one of you confirm you got my ballot? I screwed up my Blondie one a while back and it was never received.

I don’t think know more than 5 B52’s songs so I wont be voting but excited to follow the results and learn about them..

xpost i'll take a look today, dan, and let you know!

Then I'm going to kiss your PineaPOLL!

I don't think I'll have time to do the catching-up I wanted to. I'll have to do a ballot just off of B-52's, Wild Planet, Party Mix/Mesopotamia, and Cosmic Thing, and use the rollout to get acquainted with other stuff.

Hi, my name is Ricky and I'm a Pisces. I love POLL results and hot tamales!

Hey Bee or Karl, can one of you confirm you got my ballot?

AFFIRMATIVE

looks like we've received 22 ballots so far.

Before I talk, I should read a POLL!

^^^ nice. That song has been on a constant loop in my head for a couple weeks. My kid is learning about Mesopotamia in history class, so I played him the song.

that's my fave so far, too. nice and simple, and also good advice

I like f. hazel's

(also not voting but looking forward to results)

that one's great too! lots of great options already. i'll go with the consensus, if one emerges.

sic you should vote! no big deal if it's only a partial ballot.

https://i.imgur.com/ZI3qSM6.jpg

coming soon!

Worth listening to for their comments from 1:59 for about eight minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTy3kSxyoo&t=4956s

hmm, broken link?

oops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTy3kSxyoo

oh, cool! i knew that lennon liked the b-52s from the rolling stone interview (Lennon remembered, “I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda” in June 1980. “Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs, I suddenly heard ‘Rock Lobster’ by the B-52’s for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko’s music, so I said to meself, ‘It’s time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!’ We wrote about twenty-five songs during those three weeks, and we’ve recorded enough for another album.”), but i hadn't heard his comments in the bbc interview.

it's funny, in the midst of that, for lennon to refer to the years when he and ono were separated as "not really separate for any real reason, just on a holiday"

Her uncomfortable giggle after that statement

getting my order together now, this is hard...

hey, i'm adding up the ballots and everything's good, except for one important issue:

on the albums side, there are several votes for Mesopotamia, and several votes for Party Mix/Mesopotamia. There are zero votes for Party Mix as a standalone EP. Should I combine all the votes for Mesopotamia and Party Mix/Mesopotamia, or leave them separate?

I didn't vote for that because I view it as a compilation and not an album, but if I can vote for it please put it at my #2 spot.

(I am really voting for Party Mix, maybe we should just count them both as separate albums?)

that sounds good, leaving them all as separate albums. when i do the rollout i'll include anything that got a vote. (and yep, i'll adjust your albums ballot so that Party Mix is #2)

ROLLOUT ON MONDAY, GET YR VOTE IN by the end of Saturday, whenever that might be for you

this is going to be so much fun. :D

i'm also going to send a quick email to everyone who voted for either mesopotamia, party mix, or mesopotamia/party mix and let them know that the votes will be split, in case that affects their decision.

this poll is totally valid and will stand up to legal scrutiny

*signs executive order*

good mourning!

where's the remix of Byrne's?

sic, you post in this thread, you have to send a ballot. those are david byrne's rules, i just follow them

and alfred, you've got t minus 26 hours to get your ballot in, or you're not a lord any more. or, you're not the president. whichever one of those punishments stings the most

just responded via email. I'm voting for the band mix of mesopotamia; the Party Mix/Mesopotamia release.
Not the Byrne mix.

I never knew the standalone CD of Mesopotamia was different from the versions on Party Mix! I knew about the longer demo versions of some songs making it onto the vinyl, but this is something else?

sic, you post in this thread, you have to send a ballot. those are david byrne's rules, i just follow them

tbh not being familiar with the differences between the Mesopotamia material is the main reason I feel unqualified to vote! but I'll try and give all those middle records a listen and send a bad ballot

hell yeah, thanks! your vote would put us at 25 ballots.

I'm 100% voting in this, and will be finalizing my ballot in the next couple hours

apologizing to the poll gods for re-ordering my ballot but jfc this has to be top 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo7vXBeTlJM

^ Very true.

Imagine being at that gig and hearing "Rock Lobster" for the first time.

wow, i just spent waaaaaaay too long illustrating the events of a certain song in a way that's faithful to the album art. no big deal, i'm just unemployed and running out of money!

friendly reminder: last day to vote! i'm expecting a couple more today, and if a couple more surprise ballots come in we can make up to 30. pretty good!

incentive to vote: the top 3 are very, very close, and there's another handful in the top ten that are also very close. so your vote will really make a difference. you can be like that tipping point guy in state where no one lives that decides an election

about to send

Voted!

i finally voted too.

i'm glad this was able to stay open for another week as this poll has a very nice turnout.

definitely! we're up to 31 now

and where the hell is BradNelson? a ballot from him should be one of the first but not yet?

Has he even posted?

He hasn't and I don't like calling people out. It just seems to be in his wheelhouse?

...

the b-52s are a very horny band

one final time: there's still time, if get yr vote in sometime tonight! tomorrow morning (t - 8 hours or so) i'm going to do the final tally and count the number of points, votes, #1s, etc. so if you get yr vote in before then, I'll be able to include it.

Rollout starts Monday. I'm thinking Albums + 40-31 on Monday, 30-16 on Tuesday, 15-1 on Wednesday.

don't let the chlorine in your eyes
blind you to the awful surprise
that's waitin' for you at
the bottom of the bottomless blue blue blue POLL

Whoops, only just saw yesterday's Mesopotamia email. That seems a wise decision. (I guess I've mostly heard Mesopotamia via that twofer, but all mixes are decent, and I rarely listen to Party Mix.)

it is happening!

♫ Before I talk, I should read a POLL! ♪ ILM Artist Poll #93 ♪ B-52’s ♫