"52 Girls" vs. "Rock Lobster"

short and sweet vs. long and insane

52 Girls is a perfect song. Rock Lobster is damn awesome but not perfect.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_thlFYTjJbmQ/R7qiqCmf5dI/AAAAAAAAEIk/Q6kin7ogaSQ/s640/b52bacslv.jpg

hmmm over here i'd say "Planet Claire" was more famous than "52 Girls" but that might just be my hometown disco's fault

anyway this is "Rock Lobster" ctfo

"52 Girls" by a nose. Now, if it had been "52 Girls" vs. just the coda of "Rock Lobster", that might've been a different story.

"Rock Lobster" is instrumental in making me a B-52's fan

"52 Girls" is one of my favorite songs of all time

i only picked rock lobster because it filled the dance floor at my wedding reception, people were going nuts. but 52 girls is obv great too.

ROCK LOBSTER

hmmm over here i'd say "Planet Claire" was more famous than "52 Girls" but that might just be my hometown disco's fault

yeah, same here. dance this mess around too

Used to sing it on the bus to and from day camp when I was a kid.

also no fred in 52 girls

52 Girls

DJP OTM

THEEEEEEEESE
ARE THE GIIIIIIRLS
OF THE U! S! AAAAAAAAA!

oh god this poll

Rock Lobster is one of my favorite songs of all time.

That original pic sleeve is on permanent display atop one of my cd cabinets. I never tire of looking at it.

oh yeah the 12" of Rock Lobster / Dance This Mess Around / Planet Claire was a charting single.

But anyway, the correct answer here is "Dance This Mess Around".

no it isn't

See them on the beach
Or in New York City

No I know, it's Rock Lobster, but "why won't you dance with me? I ain't no lindberger" is my fave b-52 moment.
xp

It's hard figuring out which makes me want to claw my face off less.

Lobster.

Saw them this summer. They played both and it was awesome.

As much as I think all four songs on side one of that album are equally A+ in slightly different ways, yeah, I don't find "Dance This Mess" better.

Here's a tidbit I just discovered on wiki: Henry Mancini is credited as a co-author of "Planet Claire" on reissues of the album due to the song's use of the bass line from Mancini's "Peter Gunn."

But anyway, the correct answer here is "Dance This Mess Around".

― wk, Wednesday, October 17, 2012 9:59 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lobster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_ZNH6QUACg

I ain't no lindberger" is my fave b-52 moment.

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/images2/biggy.jpg

yeah alright, I don't know how to spell the name of the cheese. I am properly shamed.

Aw man, could never shame the poster who hipped me to The Exotica Project! Just funnin'...

the dumb thing is that I typed lindburger and then actually looked it up and still got it wrong!

hmmm over here i'd say "Planet Claire" was more famous than "52 Girls"

Definitely in my part of the world too. Maybe more famous than "Rock Lobster".

But "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls" are better imo. And I don't know which one I like most of the two.

But anyway, the correct answer here is "Dance This Mess Around".

― wk

Totally agree with this, however I'll go for Rock Lobster. I've been thinking recently how the first album is a real contender for the best album ever released, it's just so perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ihPpOVj6ew
vs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJgvJvIo2-U
not sure what's going on in the beginning of that clip

vs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8hV4AyNss
&
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K8jiFhmBAY

Perhaps an unpopular opinion but RL would be perfect if it was 2 minutes shorter.

they should have cut out two minutes, but then repeated the whole thing twice.

Well, the single version is more than two minutes shorter than the album version and only has one "down, down" bit. Is that what you want?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Rock Lobster is the greater stand alone song. But I never tire of 52 Girls.

might have to vote RL on account of the fact that:
...."there goes a bikini whale!!"....

but "Biddy" in 52 Girls has always slayed me

haha, I just read the lyrics for the first time. I never had any idea what she was singing, except maybe "today" and "usa".

theeeeeese are the giiiiiiiirls of the U! S-Aaa!

You know, watching those videos the other day I was thinking about this connection between the b52s and stereolab that I somehow never noticed before. And something about those lyrics seems very 'labby to me as well. They're kind of mundane and and use formal sounding phrases like "the principle girls of the usa" but then are sung in such an unnatural way in terms of the rhythm and emphasis that they are almost entirely unintelligible which gives the vocals a really abstract feeling similar to what Laetitia Sadier does.

Rock Lobster edges it thanks to the joy it has provided me and my friends over the years - it's one of my favourite songs to dance to. You can twist and boogaloo, switch up your moves as the tempo and dynamics change. We even devised some silly moves to mimic the manta ray, piranha etc. For the 'Here comes a narwhale' bit I'll hold my forearm aloft from my forehead... Sounds stupid written down. Well, it's stupid in real life too, but stoopid fun. I love how the intensity builds too, so you can really hoof it up as the really driving riffs come in at the end before it all breaks down into the submarine bit "down down' - at which point you hold your nose and do the aqua swirl...

52 Girls is amazing though - one of those songs that is utterly perfect, so catchy yet so unusual, with those weird, slightly eerie harmonies.

Another track I'm loving from this album at the moment is Lava - such a bad ass riff. Ricky Wilson is so underrated as a guitarist, but he's one of the most stylish players I can think of, filtering trashy 60s surf, garage and rock 'n roll through funk, disco and punk into something lean, danceable and rockin'.

(xpost) that's uncanny, I was thinking about a B's/'lab similarity too, in terms of both bands providing a pretty good game of spot-the-influences while creating something very fresh and original with them.

yeah, definitely spot-the-influences too, I didn't think about that. Peter Gunn, Stop in the Name of Love, etc vs. Neu, Gansbourg, etc. What's the Dance This Mess around music lifted from? It's a Motown song but I can't put my finger on it at the moment.

What made me think of the stereolab thing was just watching that snl clip and thinking about the farfisa organs, twangy surf/spy guitar, female vocals, and bright red and yellow colors.

The opening "Remember.... when you held my hand" always seemed to me like a nod to The Shangri-Las "Remember (Walking In The Sand)."

Maybe it's nothing specific but just that the bass/organ quarter note pulse sounds sort of like 1000 different '60s songs.

"Rock Lobster", because it's awesome and because "52 Girls" didn't actually name ALL 52 girls. (Just like "Dance This Mess Around" only mentioned 8 dances instead of all 16.)

And a pox upon the SNL cameraperson who studiously avoids almost every one of those 8 dances, focusing on Kate while Fred and Cindy do the shoogaloo and the shy tuna.

I think it's understood that we all know what the other 8 dances are but those other girls names are definitely a mystery.

If it was written in 1990, 30 of the girls would have been called Jen or Jennifer.

uh this video fucking rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDWTLx1Ndns&feature=related

this was an all-around good-looking band back then

Yep. This one rules too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRkMYEvmfM&feature=related

I love the moustache in that one clip.

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

robbed.

I know I linked this on some other thread, but if y'all haven't heard this, you need to. Blazing hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gobO7spdAfg

was one of the 27 votes for "Rock Lobster" just because it blew my mind first.

Suzie and Anita

"Rock Lobster" is great but I've heard it way too many times and I feel like its one of those tracks that contributes to ppl's idiotic idea that B-52's were a novelty act, which is no fault of its own really but is still a thing.

Is this the only band in history where the drummer replaced the guitarist?

Oh, wait, forgot that Weezer drummer has been mostly playing guitar the last few years!

Well, Razorlight almost had a "drummer replaced guitarist" as far as writing hit songs was concerned

Writing is different. I mean, Topper Headon wrote "Rock the Casbah," but he hardly replaced the guitarists.