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

Astonished this wasn't Top 3

They have nine songs that are better?

"Roam" as #1 = disgusting things you'd never anticipate

"roam" rules

https://i.imgur.com/W9Bjq3t.jpg
9. Deadbeat Club

501 points, 21 votes. 2 first place votes.

Cosmic Thing
music video (with michael stipe cameo)

live 1990

Well this is a surprise

TOO LOW

many famous faces of Chronic Town in that video

I get kind of emotional thinking about them coming back to make that album.

i was one of the #1 voters. there are other b-52's songs that rock much harder or that make me giggle but this one puts tears in my eyes, i think it's so beautiful. one of the best musical evocations of real bittersweetness, genuine smiles in looking back through incredible loss and pain, to a time that can never be had again but which still lifts the spirit and matters. a love letter of gratitude to one's bandmates, a statement of just how much it could matter, at the right time, to have a few other proud deadbeats to bum around with.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/f0/16/94f0167c72e74c32cfbd3db7e83f103b.jpg

i went on a date once to allen's. i don't remember what the beer cost in 2003 but the burgers were solid greasy-spoon fare at a reasonable price.

downstairs was foxz, a dirty, leaking, falling-apart bar whose customers were roughly split between queers and tolerant bud-drinking southern drunks, and on karaoke wednesdays, a whole supplemental contingent of college and townie hipsters. the first time i went as a freshman i was too chicken and shy to join my friends doing "love shack." the last time i went before they closed and relocated, i remedied that.

https://i.imgur.com/8b1zrMK.jpg
8. Mesopotamia 

618 points, 25 votes. 2 first place votes.

Mesopotamia
live 1990, with an extended shadow puppet dance party in the middle starring Kate and Fred

cool show from 1982

live 1983

this is lame to point out, but each of those images, top down from left to right, specifically references lyrics from the song

My one and only visit to Athens in the early 90s I made a pilgrimage to Allen's.

AND YES THOSE ARE THE REAL CUNEIFORM SYMBOLS FOR 1, 2, AND 3

Dr Casino otm, great writeup, Deadbeat was my #2 but it could have been #1

also cosign this 100%:

The B-52's are the only ones qualified to give party advice in song form.

― jmm

https://i.imgur.com/ck8VWma.jpg
7. Planet Claire

735 points, 30 votes. Highest position on ballot: 2

The B-52’s
live 1982

miming to the album track for a kid’s show in 1987

First one in the Top 10 without a number 1 vote

I also have no idea of the order, so this rollout is a surprise to me as well.

That was my #2. So many things I love: the Peter Gunn riff (and Ricky's riffing overall,) Kate's wordless vocalizations, Cindy's congas, Fred's "BUT SHE ISN'T!!!" I never get tired of this song. Just heard it a few weeks ago while seeing a local band, as intermission music. I danced to the intermission music.

Too low!

as a first track on a debut album, this is as definitive a statement of purpose as "Black Sabbath"

^^^ yes!

I saw The Charlatans last month and between the opening band and them they broke out this song. They also played an obscure Pink Floyd track. I think the DJ was better than the band.

I love how Fred's vocal doesn't start for about 2:30 of a 4:34 track

I always thought it was "WELL, SHE ISN'T"? works either way!

whoa there, let's talk about mesopotamia a little first.

I pitched a paper for this year's MoPop Pop Conference based on "Deadbeat Club."

Re "Planet Claire": we don't discuss Kate Pierson's organ here and elsewhere enough.

https://i.imgur.com/VsGj8YB.jpg
6. Give Me Back My Man

757 points, 29 votes. 2 first place votes.

Wild Planet
Music Video (this is sick footage imo - the kind of stuff that temporarily makes it your favorite song)

xpost it's just what you hear when all the other sounds on Earth are turned down low enough

Planet Claire is definitely one of their best songs

Xpost

Nearly made Planet Clare my number 1, but had it at 2 and Mesopotamia at 1. PC was first B-52s song I ever heard. It was about 1980, I was about 12, and a 16 year old friend of the family took me out in his mom's big white Oldsmobile one night. He played Planet Claire over and over, ducking his head kinda like David Byrne, and making the motorized drivers seat rise up and down to the measures of the music. He pulled over to a farmer's field, 'cause he wanted to pilfer some corn, but the cobs were all too small. Both things freaked me out! But by the third or fourth play, I started digging it.

high five to the other #1 voter for Give Me Back My Man

I always thought it was "WELL, SHE ISN'T"?

It is, busy day at work and typing too fast.

this is sick footage imo

Yeah, agreed. They look amazing in this video.

this is one good looking band.

uh, apparently GMBMM is just my #1 track at this moment, I had it at #4 on my ballot

"Mesopotamia" was my #1. I just love everything about it. The lyrics, the guitar, the decending keyboard lines and the incredible hamonies between Kate and Cindy.

Last month when I wrote about the band for my blog the older brother of a buddy -- as amiably macho a dude as you can get -- said that the B-52's were "like a portal" for him in the early '80s. He said he'd date girls and blast 'Planet Claire' and 'Rock Lobster' and ask them if he didn't think they were the greatest shit she'd ever heard. They were his gateway to other music besides the Eagles.

I'LL GIVE YEW FISH

it's probably not clear, but in the image the other fish are dragging the backwards font fish away from his fish gal. it's a very dark interpretation of the lyrics

I think "Planet Claire" was also the first B-52's song I heard. My babysitter had their first album and would play it all the time. She had a blonde streak in her dark brown hair, I thought she was so cool.

> hey were his gateway to other music besides the Eagles.

Yeah, I'd pretty much just heard the Beatles and Eagles other things Otto the Bus driver played. Total portal.

"love shack" was definitely the first and only B-52's song i heard for a very long time. it was many years before i even realized they were also a cool early new wave band

searching for something else, but here's an interview/feature with rolling stone from 1980: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/interview-the-b-52s-113100/

https://i.imgur.com/uhfJggV.jpg
5. Rock Lobster

790 points, 28 votes. 5 first place votes.

The B-52’s
music video

music video, version 2(? apparently there were multiple versions that circulated on comp videos? neither one is great tbh
Countdown 1980

#5!!!!

This one also shows up at wedding receptions, and I like it even more than Love Shack.

Way too low