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

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Your answer reveals more about you than any answer to any other conceivable question that could ever be asked, ever.

― Aaron A., Friday, 25 October 2002 03:22 (twenty-three years ago)

52 Girls!!

― Aaron A., Friday, 25 October 2002 03:22 (twenty-three years ago)

rock lobster or planet claire

I prefer "wild planet" anyway

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 25 October 2002 03:44 (twenty-three years ago)

rock lobster. but only cos i don't know any others i don't think. great song nonetheless.

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 25 October 2002 03:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Amazing, life-changing album for me, all the songs are great, but gotta vote for 52 Girls.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 25 October 2002 04:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Absolutely fantastic fucking record! I'd vote for "Dance This Mess Around" except 'limburger' is the ugliest stinkiest word ever!

― dave q, Friday, 25 October 2002 04:38 (twenty-three years ago)

another vote for 52 girls : one of the most ecstatic live experiences i've had

― phil turnbull (philT), Friday, 25 October 2002 05:38 (twenty-three years ago)

dave q is OTFM.

― gygax!, Friday, 25 October 2002 06:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"52 Girls," "Dance This Mess Around," "Planet Claire,.....too many to choose from.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 25 October 2002 06:54 (twenty-three years ago)

"Hero Worship". Best oral sex song ever written -- and the sexiest singing ever.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 25 October 2002 08:54 (twenty-three years ago)

there's too many to choose from, as someone pointed out.
but if you point a gun at me, i'd say 'planet claire'. grrrrrreat!

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 25 October 2002 08:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Planet Claire or Lava

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 25 October 2002 10:25 (twenty-three years ago)

dance this mess around!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 25 October 2002 11:58 (twenty-three years ago)

"52 Girls", although a VERY strong case could be made for "6060-842".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 25 October 2002 13:25 (twenty-three years ago)

"Hero Worship"

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 25 October 2002 13:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Did anyone check the Food Market Exchange listings today? Rock Lobster is down...down...

― Ernest P., Friday, 25 October 2002 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

which album is 'Deep Sleep' on?

― blueski, Friday, 25 October 2002 13:58 (twenty-three years ago)

It's on an EP! Mesopotamia! I remember buying that at Record World or something, and they had Mesopotamia mobiles hanging from the ceiling. The dialog between Kate and Cindy on "Cake" had me in stitches all through 8th grade. I still laugh when I hear it.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 25 October 2002 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

First thing that leapt to mind on reading the title was "Hero Worship," then "Planet Claire." But the whole damn thing works -- I want a Dave Q exegesis, please!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 25 October 2002 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Dance This Mess Around"

("Mesopotamia" is godhead)

― Andy K (Andy K), Friday, 25 October 2002 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

52 girls.....i actually just got into this album again a week ago

― gman, Sunday, 27 January 2008 19:42 (seventeen years ago)

Fantastic tune.

― Bodrick III, Sunday, 27 January 2008 19:46 (seventeen years ago)

"Dance This Mess Around" or "6060-842" (if only for that Joy Division-like guitar solo)

― baaderonixx, Monday, 28 January 2008 10:05 (seventeen years ago)

These days I find myself listening to "Downtown" than anything else on the album. But overall, I'd have to say "Dance This Mess Around."

― Jazzbo, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:29 (seventeen years ago)

rock lobster a tiny bit over dance this mess around and 6060-842

― Zeno, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:32 (seventeen years ago)

Dance This Mess Around, followed by 52 Girls, followed by Rock Lobster (There goes a narwhal!)

― deusner, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:50 (seventeen years ago)

It's "Rock Lobster." Party of out bounds indeed. Outside of the boundaries of language, of experience. The last two minutes have them trying to grab onto the party as something recognizable. It doesn't work. The sea has become the land. Ear lobes become rocks become rock lobsters. "He's in" becomes "S'in." James Brown becomes a nerve-wracked pencil neck geek. Yoko Ono comes home. All we're left with is the deadly seriousness of fun and the fun of deadly seriousness.

Conclusion - better than Can.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:59 (seventeen years ago)

One of my 10 favorite albums ever, can't believe I never chimed in here: "Rock Lobstah." That groove Ricky gets into right around the "boys in bikinis" segment is godhead.

― Dan Peterson, Monday, 28 January 2008 15:28 (seventeen years ago)

With the exception of "There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)" and the subpar "Downtown", my favourite is usually whichever one is currently playing. I'll say "Planet Claire" for Kate's (Cindy's?) theremin imitation. (And yet I'll still choose Wild Planet over the debut.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 28 January 2008 16:03 (seventeen years ago)

Planet Claire and/or Rock Lobster. In this, case I think the obvious, easy choices are the right ones. 52 Girls and Dance this mess around are great, too, but not as immediately, unforgettably classic. Side two isn't bad, but nothing on it measures up to the best (or even the worst) of side one.

― contenderizer, Monday, 28 January 2008 17:04 (seventeen years ago)

"Planet Claire." Cosign on the word "limburger" ruining "Dance This Mess Around" for me.

― mike a, Monday, 28 January 2008 19:27 (seventeen years ago)

Rock Lobster. It's got everything the best B-52's song should have.

― verhexen, Monday, 28 January 2008 21:46 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

Goddamnit "Dance This Mess Around" is SO FUCKING GOOD

― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Thursday, 6 August 2009 16:46 (sixteen years ago)

eight months pass...

just found this version from 1978 - incredible guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8hV4AyNss&feature=related

― Brio, Thursday, 29 April 2010 04:16 (fifteen years ago)

awesome

― Mark, Thursday, 29 April 2010 04:32 (fifteen years ago)

dance this mess around

― ImprovSpirit, Thursday, 29 April 2010 16:24 (fifteen years ago)

Wow, this sounds great on headphones at work! I bought a DVD of this whole show on ebay long before it was posted on youtube. The grainy b&w matches my fuzzy memories of seeing them in 1979. So happy this footage survives and I own it.

― I turn it up when I hear the banjo (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 29 April 2010 19:25 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

with each passing each year i become more certain that this is the best album ever recorded by anyone ever

― Totes le Héros (contenderizer), Monday, 5 March 2012 21:35 (thirteen years ago)

three years pass...

Don't think this recently unearthed '79 show has been linked anywhere. Hotness.

http://pitchfork.com/news/59295-the-b-52s-stream-unearthed-1979-live-album/

― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 19 January 2016 20:24 (ten years ago)

They brought that out on vinyl for the Black Friday Record Store Day. So good.

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 19 January 2016 21:12 (ten years ago)

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