Deadbeat Club
take a trip to planet claire
For those unaware, I’m a lifelong Athenian. I was born at Regional (I refuse to call it by its new name), I was raised in the area, and I live around there to this day. For better or worse, it’s my home. As such, I’m steeped in the culture there. Athens runs on three things: University of Georgia football fandom, an unhealthy relationship to alcohol, and music. I’ve been lucky enough to miss the first two, but I got more than enough of the last one to make up for it.
When most people think of Athens music, they’ll think of the big dog, the tribal chief, the head of the table: R.E.M. It’s so integral to Athens music history that I’ve been hesitant to write an article about them lest I commit a mortal offense to one of my IRL friends. But there is more to Athens than R.E.M. whether it’s newer artists like Linqua Franqa, Vision Video, Trvy, Neighbor Ladies, Guillotine A.D., Convict Julie, or Hotel Fiction, or more veteran artists like (*deep breath*) Pylon (and the Pylon Re-Enactment Society), Maserati, Love Tractor, Phil and the Blanks, the Jesters, Vigilantes of Love, Five Eight, Jawga Boyz, or Dead Confederate. (Anyone who wants me to do a piece on Athens bands that need more exposure, let me know in the comments.)
You’ll notice I omitted a handful of better known acts. Widespread Panic was at the forefront of the jam band revival in the late 1990’s. Drive-By Truckers helped refine alternative country into what it is today. Of Montreal defined a certain kind of indie rock in the early 2000’s. Perhaps most importantly, we cannot forget the impact of the first Athens band to hit it big (and the subject of this week’s article): the B-52s.
In 1976 at the since-closed Hunan restaurant in Athens, five people sat down together to enjoy a gigantic fishbowl drink. Bus station attendant/guitarist Ricky Wilson, waitress/singer Cindy Wilson, waiter/forestry student/poet Fred Schneider, farmer/journalist Kate Pierson, and bus station attendant/guitarist Keith Strickland all knew each other from their time in the underground of the town, where the creative and free-spirited frequently collaborated on all kinds of artistic endeavors. Cindy and Ricky were native Athenians, while Keith was from nearby Comer, and Fred and Kate hailed from different parts of New Jersey. Keith and Ricky had been in a number of bands such as Loon and Black Narcissus up to that point after meeting in the local head shop in 1969. Kate played in a folk band called the Sun Donuts.
The five of them went back to another friend’s house to jam, with Keith on guitar and Ricky on bongos while the other three sang. The group decided that they had something there, and continued to rehearse at various places (including a former funeral home’s bloodletting room) before making their debut at a house party on Valentine’s Day 1977. They considered several different names (such as Fellini’s Children) until Keith had a dream in which he saw himself on stage at a hotel bar. His dream band was introduced as “The B-52’s”, and when he presented it to the other four they agreed it fit. Kate and Cindy incorporated the namesake hairdo (akin to a massive Marge Simpson beehive) into their stage presence for most of the next decade. (At first, they had an apostrophe after the numbers. It wasn’t until 2008 that they simplified their band name. I’ll use the spelling appropriate to the time in question.)
From the beginning, there were several things separating the B-52’s from the rest of the trends of rock music at the time. First, they had three distinct voices:
Cindy’s soft, Southern accent with a powerful chest voice
Kate’s brassy throaty belt, full of midrange but able to reach higher registers
and Fred.
Fred Schneider developed his vocal style by reading poetry over an acoustic guitar figure. He used sprechgesang and sprechstimme (two techniques derived from German opera) to deliver a staccato, shouty, frenetic performance. Rather than singing per se, he would clearly enunciate in rhythm at a fixed pitch, with flourishes coming from pronunciation emphasis rather than traditional melodic contrivances. Nothing in popular music sounded anything at all like him.
Second, Keith and Ricky (the two principal songwriters in terms of the musical component) utilized off-beat (literally) time signatures and odd instrument tunings to create a sense of unease and tension throughout their songs. The most stable and traditional sound for the early years of the band was Kate’s reliable keyboard bass, with its pulsing backbeat and dance-focused melody.
Third, the lyricists for the band pulled in references from around the world and throughout history to invent narratives that were (sometimes literally) out of this world. The B-52’s were avid fans of thrift stores, especially used bookstores and antique shops. From there, they would incorporate found items like old National Geographics or funky album covers to devise otherworldly stories. Even their first jam session resulted in a song about killer bees chasing a bus, with the occupants falling into a river only to be eaten by piranhas.
After their first few shows in and around Athens, they had attracted a decent sized following. One of the attendees at a house party made a recording of their performance, then played it back to them with the encouragement that they sounded as good as any of the bands they had heard back in New York City. Emboldened by the prospect of making a living as musicians, they put miles on the Wilson family station wagon by traveling clubs like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City. The B-52’s made a good first impression on their initial audition at Max’s, earning an invitation back for steady gigs. Part of their appeal was their outlandish stage presence: Fred’s gyrations and imploring of the crowd to get on their feet provided energy, while Cindy and Kate’s visual distinctiveness led early crowds to believe that they were drag queens with their giant wigs.
Over the next two years, they built a reputation as a quirky, eccentric little party band with dynamic stage shows (buoyed by their thrifted fashion sense and their camp hairstyles). Soon, they connected with other like-minded bands like Talking Heads, Television, and Blondie. It was that connection with Talking Heads that allowed the B-52’s to make inroads on their first major record deal. Gary Kurfirst helped the band sign to Warner Bros. in the US and Island overseas, on the strength of their first independent single “Rock Lobster”. Recorded for DB Records headquartered in Georgia, the single sold around 2000 copies in New York and was an underground hit.
By making such a major deal, the band was able to uproot from Georgia and move full-time to New York. Nothing in the city itself was affordable for the five of them (plus assorted crew and management), so they pivoted towards Lake Mahopac in Putnam County about fifty miles north. The B-52s were able to travel more easily from New York, allowing them to perform in England and Germany, and record their debut in the Bahamas at Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios.
Blackwell was not only the founder of Island but also served as their producer. He wanted to capture the raucous party vibes of the band, so he set them up in the studio as a live show. They re-recorded the two songs from their debut single (“Rock Lobster” and the b-side “52 Girls”), along with six new originals and one cover of Petula Clark’s “Downtown”. Upon their self-titled album’s release in July 1979, the B-52’s were immediate critical darlings, earning praise from Robert Christgau (my archenemy from a musical criticism standpoint) and even prominent artists like John Lennon. Sales took a little bit to come up to par, but the strong danceability of the songs and their memorable stage presence meant that word-of-mouth traveled quite quickly. The album topped out at number fifty-nine on the Billboard 200, and eventually sold over a million copies.
Not wanting to waste time, the band reconvened in Nassau to record Wild Planet for a 1980 release. The B-52’s consciously avoided a sophomore slump by holding back songs from their stage show for inclusion on their second album. “Give Me Back My Man” and “Party Out of Bounds” in particular are highlights. The album also gave the band their first prominent national television exposure, as they performed on Saturday Night Live in January of that year.
At this point, the B-52’s had run through the majority of their existing material, so new songs had to be written. One of the unanticipated side effects of moving to New York was the lack of space for each member; living together in one relatively small house began to grate on them. Their working process from the beginning of their career was to come together for a jam session, then Ricky and Keith would isolate the best bits from a recording of the session to determine what songs would be developed. Now that they were on top of one another nearly all of the time, tensions arose.
Two factors didn’t help matters. One was the influence of manager Gary Kurfirst, who wanted the band to expand their sound past catchy new-wave dance-punk. Second was their producer for the next album, one David Byrne of Talking Heads. I’ve talked about Byrne before in my article on that band, but suffice to say Byrne can be difficult to collaborate with without him taking over entirely. The B-52’s worked for a significant amount of time without making as much headway as they would have liked. Byrne was doing double-duty as the producer of a movie soundtrack for The Catherine Wheel, so his attention was divided. The three camps (the band, Byrne, and their management) couldn’t agree on a direction. Eventually, Kurfirst arranged the stopgap release of an EP of remixes from their first two album designed expressly for parties, aptly titled Party Mix!, which came out in July 1981.
Finally, the label intervened and convinced the band to take the six finished songs and release those as an EP, titled Mesopotamia. It’s a departure from the first two albums, with Byrne’s influence clearly heard in new and different arrangements. For the first time (but far from the last) the B-52’s augmented their lineup with session musicians for recording, and expanded with new instruments like marimba, accordion, and saxophone. There were less moments of overlapping and interacting vocals, with the three singers largely staying in their own lanes. The recording itself was slick, with more polish than previous outings.
Unfortunately, the nature of the sessions meant that the songs were rough in composition and lyrics, with an unfinished feeling permeating the entire endeavor. For once, the B-52’s sounded almost serious, as if the fun had drained from their music. Upon its release in January 1982, the title track crossed over to “urban” formats thanks to Detroit station WGPR and in particular the noted DJ The Electrifying Mojo. The album reached number thirty-five on the Billboard 200, but it was seen as an artistic step back. Releasing two EPs back to back instead of full albums hurt their progression as well.
The B-52’s needed to make some changes, and changes they made. Keith Strickland had grown tired of staying in the role of drummer, and he felt his skills among multiple instruments could be better used if he came out from behind the kit. Strickland was then able to add keyboard parts (especially utilizing their newfound love of synthesizers as opposed to the trusty Farfisa organ) and backup Ricky on guitar. As the two principal songwriters, their interplay was key to the strength of the music. Kate shifted to just keyboards and vocals live, and focused on vocals alone during recording sessions while Ricky recorded all of the bass parts. To replace Keith on drums, they hired… no one, and relied on either tapes or a drum machine. In their initial shows in and around Athens, the band had played with backing tracks before they became comfortable replicating all of their sounds, so this was a return to form.
The band started working on what would become Whammy! in late 1982. They took three songs from the Mesopotamia sessions and reworked them, then added six more original tracks with the assistance of producer Steven Stanley at Compass Point in Nassau. Stanley had helped Tom Tom Club produce “Genius of Love”, among other danceable new wave hits, so he was well suited to the new direction of the B-52’s. Three singles from the album would do well (“Legal Tender”, “Whammy Kiss”, and “Song for a Future Generation”), spurring the album to number twenty-nine on the Billboard 200 on its release in April 1983. A tour followed, with Strickland alternating between the drum kit for older songs and other instruments for the newer ones. Later, Kate would reveal that she was unhappy with the more electronic pivot, but in retrospect the transition was necessary.
After years of going full-bore into touring and recording, the end of the Whammy! promotional press was the end of the first phase of the B-52’s. The members decided to take a year off to pursue their own interests and simply relax for a bit. Kate and Cindy recorded backing vocals for a variety of bands including the Ramones. Keith continued refining his skills with his newfound love of electronic instruments, including the new Fairlight CMI keyboard and digital sampler. Fred recorded an album of his own with co-producer Bernie Worrell of Parliament Funkadelic and Talking Heads fame. The album, entitled Fred Schneider and the Shake Society, did not do particularly well, failing to chart. Ricky took the time off entirely, and began to suffer from health issues for the first time (principally lack of appetite and lack of energy).
At the beginning of 1985, the B-52s reconvened for a huge concert at Rock in Rio. Afterwards, they began work on what would become Bouncing Off the Satellites. They moved back into the same large house in the New York City area, but tensions rose when their writing and recording process wasn’t successful. They decided to split off and write individually, marking the first time they employed this strategy on a large scale. The five members came back together in July of 1985 to record everything. When the label told them that they needed a single, the B-52’s were left scrambling.
It was during the recording of that last single (“Wig”), that Ricky’s health declined significantly. Fred, Kate, and Cindy believed that the stress of producing a new album had resulted in his diminished energy and his profound weight loss. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Ricky told Keith that he was diagnosed with AIDS earlier that year, but did not disclose it to the others for fear of exposing them (and particularly his sister Cindy) to the stigma of AIDS patients in the mid-Eighties. In October, before the intended release of the album, Ricky fell into a coma in New York City.
Ricky Wilson died on October 12, 1985, surrounded by his family (including Cindy) and his best friend Keith. The official cause of death was listed as lymphatic cancer, a white lie designed to deflect attention from both his actual illness and his closely guarded sexuality. The B-52’s were absolutely devastated. Warner Bros. Records wanted the band to tour behind the forthcoming album, but they refused. The band immediately declared that they would not be hiring a new guitar player, which the label interpreted as breaking up. The remaining members also indicated that they would not be able to promote the album like they normally would, and the label responded by essentially pulling all advertising and leaving it out to dry. Shep Pettibone was hired to remix the singles (“Summer of Love”, “The Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland”, and “Wig”) in an attempt to garner club play, but these were produced without input from the band at all. Keith in particular was unhappy with how these songs were remixed, having worked most closely on the music with his departed friend.
Completely emotionally wrecked, the band went on an extended hiatus for the next three years. The sessions for Bouncing Off the Satellites had been expensive due to the extended time frame of production, and the lack of touring meant the band was in dire straits financially. During those years, Keith began tinkering with some song ideas intermittently, before finally feeling comfortable enough with the music and his own grieving process to bring them to the other three. Keith and Kate had both moved to Woodstock in New York (not in Georgia), so Cindy and Fred joined them to both work on new music and to work through their sadness at the passing of their bandmate. The writing process was cathartic, as the band spent the better portion of a year composing and jamming the way they had done for their first three albums.
When it came time to prepare for recording, they made three fateful decisions. First they changed management from Gary Kurfirst. Second, they left longtime label Warner Bros.’ primary division (who had spurned them by poorly handling the release of their previous album) and joined the Warner sub-label Reprise Records, famed for working with other alternative acts like Tom Tom Club, Morrissey, and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Then the B-52’s shifted to Manhattan for rehearsals, where they made one more good decision: they split the actual recording process in two, with one half handled in New York City’s Electric Lady Studios under the leadership of Chic’s Nile Rodgers and the other taking place in rural New York’ Dreamland Studios with Don Was. Each represented a different aesthetic: Rodgers had a danceable, club-oriented vibe, while Was brought radio-friendly catchiness to the proceedings.
Unlike their last album, the actual recording was relatively uneventful. After getting everything down on tape a day early, Was asked the band if they had anything else they’d like to record. Keith pulled out an unstructured fifteen minute jam they had taped during rehearsals which he thought wasn’t good enough to move forward with. Kate and Fred disagreed, and Was sided with them. It took less than a day to create the up-tempo, frenetic “Love Shack”. The power briefly flickered during the best take of the rhythm section, so instead of scrapping it all they faded out and faded back in. Cindy filled the space with a nonsense exclamation of “tin roof… rusted”. (No, it’s not a southern expression for falling pregnant.)
Reprise believed that “Cosmic Thing” was the strongest song on the album, so asked that the album share that title. The label had modest hopes for the release, while the band simply wanted to break even; their finances had taken a hit with the extended hiatus, and they had dipped into their retirement savings to make ends meet. “Channel Z” was released early to radio and served as a stalking horse to what the band believed would be their best chance at a hit. Fred personally travelled to independent radio stations to promote “Love Shack”, and his infectious enthusiasm bled into otherwise blasé program directors. The music video was an immense help, too. The band filmed the video in Highland, New York at the home of two artist friends of theirs, inviting a gaggle of friends and acquaintances along the way. When it came time to film the main dance sequence (an homage to Soul Train), one of their friends stepped in to direct when the principal director couldn’t get a feel for the scene. Despite having little formal experience, a young RuPaul Charles (yes, her) made the dance number sing. (Any allusions to fracking are only implied, not explicit.)
Released in June 1989 alongside the main album, “Love Shack” was and remains their biggest hit. It was a global smash, selling over a million copies of the single itself alongside the album which has sold over four million. It’s their signature song, their calling card, their raison d'être as far as the wider commercial audience is concerned. That’s not to sell the rest of the album short, however: it’s their most accessible work and arguably their most cohesive. Despite the two producers and two recording sessions, the entire work comes together into one stellar unit. Keith was the primary sequencer of Cosmic Thing and arranged the songs to tell a unified story: beginning with a thesis statement of “Cosmic Thing”, continuing into the rural confines of “Dry County”, detouring through the spacey “Roam”, and ending with a closing credits scene of “Follow Your Bliss”.
For the Cosmic Thing tour, the B-52’s hired a formal backing band with Pat Irwin on guitar and keyboards, Sara Lee on bass, and Zack Alford on drums. This allowed Keith to focus more on guitar, while freeing up Kate to just sing. The addition of extra musicians would continue through the rest of the band’s live performance career. The band also took the opportunity to advocate for causes near to their heart, passing out literature to ticket buyers about voting, animal rights, environmental concerns, and sexual health (especially AIDS awareness and activism). Their tour took them around the world for the better part of two years.
Towards the end of the tour, Cindy Wilson let the band know that she wanted to take a break from both live performances and recording for the nest few years. Part of her desire for a respite was to start a family with her husband Keith Bennet, while another part was still processing the death of her brother. She stated later that a large amount of her distress was a result of Ricky choosing not to disclose his diagnosis to her, with the severity of his illness only becoming apparent to her once he fell into a coma in his last days. Cindy deeply regretted not being able to have a final conversation with him, and that lack of closure affected her deeply. As a temporary fill-in, the remaining three members hired actress and singer Julee Cruise (later of Twin Peaks fame). Cruise was a good choice, in that she was able to replicate Cindy’s parts well but did not want to change anything about the songs themselves to suit her own tastes; she understood that she was a role player.
During the tour, Fred re-released a remixed version of his solo album, where it attained some club play with moderate chart success. The hit from that album was “Monster”, also featuring Kate on backing vocals. More successful was Kate’s collaboration with R.E.M. on their 1991 album Out of Time, including the hit single “Shiny Happy People”. Despite Michael Stipe’s misgivings about the song, it’s unquestionable that Kate’s vocals played an intrinsic part in its popularity.
The management team of Steve Jensen and Martin Kirkup wanted the B-52’s to capitalize on their success, so asked the trio to return to the studio post-haste. Both Was and Rodgers were asked to helm the boards again because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Backing band members rotated a bit, with Tracy Wormworth (formerly of the Waitresses) taking over on bass while Sterling Campbell (having played with both Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper) filled in on drums.
Good Stuff came out in June of 1992, as did Keith. (Fred had been out of the closet since he was a teenager, while Kate identified as bisexual privately until her relationship with Monica Coleman began in 2003.) The album was a muted follow-up to Cosmic Thing, but it would almost have to be. The lead single (“Good Stuff”) did well enough, though critics thought it to be a transparent attempt to recapture the lightning of “Love Shack” in a bottle. The tour continued for the next two years, whereupon the B-52’s took what was projected to be another short break. The final appearance for this version of the band was in the film adaptation of The Flintstone, where they played the appropriately named BC-52’s.
At this point the B-52’s morphed into what every band of a certain age and demographic appeal hopes to become: a nostalgia act. Relying on summer festivals, joint mini-tours with other similarly situated bands (in their case Blondie, the Pretenders, and the Go-Gos), and licensed music slots allowed them to keep royalties flowing and their profile relatively high. Several times over the years, the four members (Cindy having rejoined for live shows in 1996) attempted to write new material, but it never worked out well enough to pursue an entirely new album. Compilations of their greatest hits such as 1998’s Time Capsule and 2002’s Nude on the Moon were also helpful in booking new gigs.
Finally, 2006 saw everyone put their heads together (along with producer Steve Osborne) to record 2008’s Funplex for the Astralwerks label. The album is more rock-oriented than previous outings, with guitars at their most prominent in the mix since Ricky’s passing. That’s not to say that the album isn’t danceable; all kinds of drum machines and polyrhythms abound to create a distinct club groove. The B-52s (having dropped the apostrophe) were joined by Wormworth, Alford, Campbell, and several other backing musicians, who also played with them on the promotional tour that followed. The album did relatively well (reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200), but changing economic drives in the music industry meant that the album merely broke even. A portion of album proceeds still went to Kurfirst’s management group thanks to a sweetheart deal signed at the beginning of their career, so album releases were always going to be a secondary drive.
Funplex is the last B-52s studio album to date, with the band preferring to focus on live performances instead of recordings. In 2012, the B-52s had their most recent lineup shift, with Keith Strickland choosing to retire from regular touring. He did make it clear that he would still participate in any future recordings and play in a limited number of live shows. His touring replacement was Greg Suran, who had previously played with the Goo Goo Dolls, Sunny Day Real Estate, and even Avril Lavigne. With Suran, the band participated in a number of nostalgia dates with artists from the Eighties over the next decade.
In 2022, the B-52s announced they were embarking on their farewell tour, appropriately named “The Final Tour Ever on Planet Earth”. To be clear, this did not mean the end of the band, but instead they would reduce their performances to residencies (such as at the Venetian in Las Vegas) and one-off festivals instead of full-scale tours. The pandemic (which still isn’t over yet) impacted their plans significantly, delaying their last show at the Classic Center in Athens until January 2023 due to illness and health concerns. Their opening act for this show? Athens originals Love Tractor.
This brings the story of the B-52s to a pause, not a close. Although they have said they will not be actively pursuing new recording opportunities, they have not closed the door entirely on new material. For now, though, the story seems to be relatively complete. With that, I introduce to you the next section of this article: my top ten B-52s songs. I assure you, selecting these tracks was not easy, and I spent most of the past month (!) dithering over my choices. Usually, I can pick what I’m going to highlight within about half an hour, but these were special. (I also spent much longer writing this article than normal, for two reasons: I want to get things right, and I don’t want anyone to yell at me in the streets.)
These opinions are mine and mine alone, with all of the praise and all of the blame coming my way. I know for a fact (having polled some people close to me) that my choices are not the consensus at all. So be it. When you sign up for my newsletter (which you should do as soon as possible if you haven’t already), you get me. Let’s get started with number ten…
10. Good Stuff
Issued in the wake of Cosmic Thing’s massive popularity, “Good Stuff” is the newest song on this list and the only one from the “trio” era. Keith wrote it in a hurry once the label insisted on sending the band back to the studio after the grueling promotional tour following their most successful album. Adjusting to the absence of Cindy was difficult, but there are bright spots from the Cindy-less years of 1990 to 1994. It’s infectious, immensely danceable, and just plain fun.
9. Give Me Back My Man
Cindy Wilson doesn’t get enough credit for being a total vocal powerhouse. Her held notes in this solo performance would test the resolve of nearly any singer, especially at the base (bass?) of her range. The music is pure new wave moodiness, setting the tone for all of the early gothic bands that would take inspiration from the quirkiness of bands like the B-52’s. This song is proof that they weren’t just a “party band”.
8. Private Idaho
A showcase for Ricky’s delightfully angular guitar work, “Private Idaho” encapsulates his instrument’s tone around the time of Wild Planet, the band’s second album. His use of alternate tunings and the always eccentric Mosrite makes for a tsunami of sonic sensation. The interplay of the three vocalists adds to the depth and complexity of the song, separating it out from some of their album tracks. Cindy’s dress in this performance is particularly worth your attention, too.
7. Channel Z
Despite being formed from five relatively left-wing people from arguably the most left-wing place in the South, the B-52’s don’t usually venture into politics. “Channel Z” is the exception, as the song focuses on the environmental movement and its impact on future generations. Luckily, we solved all of those concerns back in the mid-90’s and we enjoy a completely healthy and thriving planet now. *gets handed a note from a producer off-screen* Oh. Oh no. Well, never mind. We had a good run. (Did we?)
6. Mesopotamia
The shining jewel from the abbreviated Mesopotamia sessions, this song almost didn’t make the cut of the EP to which it lent its name. Chris Blackwell of Island Records didn’t like it at all. This is also the song that led the band to confront their management, as the record received a lot of airplay on urban stations. When the band went to promote it on those stations, Kurfirst dissuaded them as he didn’t want them to “confuse” their fans. Racism. Gotta love it! (No, you don’t.)
5. Rock Lobster
Without “Rock Lobster”, there is no ongoing concern called the B-52’s. It was their killer app, their calling card, their introduction to the world. I chose this particular version as the embedded video because it shows the early band at their finest. The video dates from 1978, at a club called “Hurrah!” in New York City. Fred Schneider is a frontman completely unlike a Jagger or Mercury, but still commands the stage with sheer presence. It’s a deeply weird presence, but it’s magnificent nonetheless.
4. Planet Claire
“Planet Claire” is easily the strangest of the big B-52’s singles. How many songs open with a duet between a Farfisa and a walkie-talkie, all while aping the Peter Gunn theme song? Kate’s vocals sound simultaneously ethereal, mechanical, organic, and otherworldly. She was reportedly dissatisfied with the producer’s effects on her voice, preferring her live version better. Judge for yourself:
For those keeping track at home, Kate is playing the bassline with her left hand, the synth lead with her right, and singing. Cindy’s bongos might be the best part, though.
3. Love Shack
When you think “The B-52’s”, this is what you think of. If you go outside of the Loop (the highway that surrounds the old city limits of Athens) and take a turn up Highway 441 (yes, the same one from the Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man”), then turn off Danielsville Road before you get to the little town of Hull, you’ll eventually find yourself at an old abandoned nightclub called The Hawaiian Ha-Le. That, my friends, is the titular Love Shack. One of just a few venues for live music before Downtown Athens exploded into the music mecca it became, the Ha-Le catered to the residents of what was once Linnentown, the city’s historically Black neighborhood. But the story gets more complicated! The Love Shack was also the cabin on Kate’s farm, where the assorted weirdos of Athens hung out before the band was even conceived. It was towards the little town of Arcade in neighboring Jackson County off of Highway 129, prior to its destruction in a fire in 2004. But really, doesn’t the Love Shack exist in all of our minds?
2. Roam
“Roam” is the rare B-52’s track without Fred’s vocals. The twin attack of Kate and Cindy carry the day, over one of Keith’s strongest guitar tracks. His growth as a musician is an undercelebrated aspect of the band’s evolution, as he served as the anchor for the post-Ricky band. The B-52’s have always been a group effort, and the loss of such an integral member as Ricky could have spelled the end for any number of bands. It’s a testament to all of them that they were able to move forward.
1. Deadbeat Club
When I began compiling my list of songs for inclusion in this article, there was no debate as to what would be on top. Without a doubt, “Deadbeat Club” was the immediate pick for my number one B-52’s song. Written as a tribute for both Ricky and the culture of their hometown, “Deadbeat Club” is riddled with references to the city of Athens. “Normaltown” is the neighborhood on the north side of campus where Regional dominates the skyline, while “Allen’s” was the late, lamented hamburger joint and occasional live music venue with cheap food and cheaper beer. Keith wrote the music and presented it to the band, where they immediately filled in the details with lyrics centered on Athens. It’s a love letter to the city we both call home.
Thank you for indulging me this week (and in previous weeks for slacking off while putting this together). This article was a bit of a passion project for me, and I can see how the local references and in-jokes wouldn’t appeal to all of my readers. I am working on a couple of other in-depth pieces, but I will intersperse them with some shorter (i.e. less research-intensive) articles in-between. Expect more Fresh Finds articles and quick hits. As a bonus for indulging me, I’d like to highlight my friend Brillie’s slurred and blurred remix of “Roam” by the B-52’s that came out this week. I told him I was working on this piece, and he mentioned that he had this song ready to go. I love it when a plan comes together. Listen in:
See you next time.