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

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

I remember hearing this on the radio as a kid on k-earth 101 and being blown away

I think I know how the top 4 are gonna shake out

Didn't discover them until I changed the channel to KROQ years later

I remember K-earth playing this and Another Brick in the Wall all the time

guessing:

#4 Your Own Private Idaho
#3 Roam
#2 Dance This Mess Around
#1 52 Girls

Because of how it effected me as a kid, my #1

Sorry about all the posts in a row, at work

I'd love to have been at those first concerts. This is such a batshit song to release as your first single.

uh "Roam"

(not the order i had those songs in fwiw, just trying to read the ILM hivemind!)

No way are "Roam" and "Your Own Private Idaho" better than "Rock Lobster".

I think I first heard the original DB Records "Rock Lobster" single on Dr Demento, before the debut album was released

My #1. It changed my life. Details when I have more time to type.

I'd love to have been at those first concerts.

I was. More later...

I was just about to post about the single version. I kind of prefer the DB version of 52 Girls:
https://youtu.be/V2DEgpiK8Oc

https://i.imgur.com/R4KdLfD.jpg
4. Roam

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

Cosmic Thing
music video

mtv live, 1990

Live 1999, with Julee Cruise

My #1.

This song.

Those harmonies.

That guitar.

Kate's finest hour

overplayed, but for good reason

roam is a wonderful song. not top 10 for me, tbh, but i will never skip it.

I really like that image.

My #1.

Roam was not your #1, if you were referring to it with that post (it was your #2)

thanks jmm!

i'll be back in 30 minutes to finish the top 3

Way late, but:

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.

(Roam was my #2 too)

shout *out*, even

And *who's*. My word.

My #1.

Roam was not your #1, if you were referring to it with that post (it was your #2)

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, November 14, 2018 5:29 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

See? I was right about changing my mind!

Monster cracked the top 3?!

"Loveland" hasn't placed, has it? Clearly impossible now. Didn't vote for it, but wouldn't have picked that as the sole Mesopotamia omission.

"Roam" always reminds me of returning to school at end of (southern hemisphere) summer, early 1990. It was new and suddenly as massive as "Love Shack" and was playing in art class. A girl who usually didn't say much (least of all about music) was moved to remark "this is such a good song, isn't it?" I don't remember any occasion when it would have been harder to find a dissenting view.

thanks dorsalstop - and i also had "roam" at #2!

come on Flintstones theme

Lol

"Roam" is brilliant and I don't know many other songs as perfectly affirmative.

https://i.imgur.com/RjY2EHk.jpg
3. Private Idaho

888 points, 33 votes. 4 first place votes.

Wild Planet
music video

another guiding light performance(!), from 1982

Live 1992, with Julee Cruise

placed on 33 of the 34 ballots!

OK, who didn't vote for Private Idaho.