Kate Pierson has two ears, a heart, and keys to a car that’s as big as a whale — of course she wanted “Love Shack†to serve as the lead single for the B-52’s’ ethereal Cosmic Thing, an album that would catapult the band into, well, a new cosmos of fame. But the stars didn’t align. The group had been in relative seclusion after the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson from AIDS, and the record label decided the politically driven blitz of “Channel Z†was the best way to tease a return. “People thought we were gone,†Pierson tells me. “So the executives believed this would be a good announcement that we’re back with a bang. And once we get your attention, now we’ll hit you with ‘Love Shack.’†A few months later, that funky little tune got its release as Cosmic Thing’s second track. “Roam†followed. The party never stopped.
Well, until about now. The B-52’s are winding down their touring career, with the band — which still consists of fellow co-founders Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson — scheduled to appear at next month’s Darker Waves Festival before a short Las Vegas residency in 2024. “I can’t imagine we’re going to write another full-length album,†Pierson says of the future. “I do hope the B-52’s can do some new songs.†As for their previous lead singles, they were all united by one thing: the art of weirdness.
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“Rock Lobster,†The B-52’s (1979)
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The Song
We had a flaming volcano at a Chinese restaurant in Athens. None of us had any money, so we ordered that drink and went to jam at a friend’s house. It started with Fred, Cindy, and I singing at the same time, and Keith Strickland and Ricky doing instrumentation. Before the band started, Keith and Fred sometimes got together and smoked weed. Fred had this idea for the song. He was at a disco and saw these crustaceans — they were projected onto the wall and he thought of “rock lobster.†So Ricky constructed it and Fred put his lyrics into it. Cindy and I were putting on the other vocal parts, the “aahs†and the “oohs,†and then the fish sounds. I remember Ricky came in and said, “I’ve just written the stupidest guitar line.†The driving thing about the song that makes it such a hit is, of course, the unusual lyrics and all the crazy stuff, but the guitar part is incredible. The rock lobster represents animal rights to Fred. He’s a staunch vegetarian. To him, he really thought of saving the lobster. But at the time it was a play on words. A little beach-party lobster-blanket bingo.
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The Bet
Danny Beard started his record company based on “Rock Lobster.†He wanted to help us. He produced the single and we recorded it in Atlanta. He stuffed the sleeves with the single and we sent them to Bleecker Bob in New York City. And Bleecker Bob said, “I never got them.†When we went up to New York City to play for the first time, right there in Bleecker Bob’s window was the single spread out everywhere.
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The Payoff
“Rock Lobster†put us on the map. It really took off on college radio. We started getting gigs. We played at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. I remember playing at Hurrah and one night there was a huge line outside. Ricky looked out the window and said, “What are all those people doing down there?†And someone responded, “That’s the line to get in for you all.†That’s when it hit me: Word spread and we’ve really made it. It wasn’t a No. 1 single, but it’s a classic.
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“Private Idaho,†Wild Planet (1980)
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The Song
“Private Idaho†was one of those early songs that was written alongside “Rock Lobster.†It has a lot of meanings. It could be the actual location you’re in, “Get out of that state.†It’s a metaphor for your state of mind, which is closed off. When we were writing it, Fred came up with the title and said it was a play on words. He wasn’t particularly thinking about Idaho, but it worked as a rhythm: “private eye-daho†like “private eye.†We were in my little love-shack house in Athens and jamming. We had all these potatoes. Fred and I came up with some back-and-forth surrealistic similes about potatoes, pools, and radium. It’s become a catchphrase for someone, somewhere, who’s out of touch.
There was a radium factory in Athens and the women who worked there dipped their radium brushes on the dials of watches. They would put them in their mouths to sharpen the points and then dip them into the radium, so all these women got cancer. We heard about that so we put that reference in there. There’s references to potatoes — the eyes, the head, as in “potato head.†It doesn’t exactly make linear sense, but it has an ominous feel. It’s one of our many disaster songs.
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The Bet
Wild Planet was an interesting collection of songs. We knew this was a good lead single. A lot of times the lead singles aren’t what you think will be hits — it’ll be an appetizer instead of a main course. So we didn’t think of this so much as a hit, but it seemed like a really tantalizing first taste for the album. The record company left us alone to pick what we wanted. We were so weird, they didn’t know how to mess with us. We had total control over that.
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The Payoff
None of us have followed charts or ever said, “We got to drive this single up to number one.†We’ve let things happen. Sometimes I felt like we weren’t really promoted by the record company. Again, they left us alone. We were weird and they didn’t quite know how to promote us. We didn’t fall into the punk category. “New wave†was a bogus made-up category to catch the second wave of punk. It was well-received and “Private Idaho†is an essential part of our live shows.
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“Legal Tender,†Whammy! (1983)
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The Song
This was the first album where we had to write everything from scratch. The lyrics were written by our friend Robert Waldrop, who wrote several songs for us. It’s easier when you have lyrics written down. When we jam, Cindy and I would come up with harmonic melodies and Fred would come up with a certain narrative. It was picking and choosing, and perhaps a bit disorganized. The economic crisis was happening at that time and Robert told me he wanted to write a song about using your creativity to make money. He said, “I want to make it about two women counterfeiting in a basement.†He was also working for Andy Warhol at the time and they were printing all of the silk screen prints. He thought, Oh, this is just printing money. It’s disguised as art. So the two stories came together for him for the lyrics. The melody wasn’t as fun to sing because it’s almost like a chant. At the beginning we thought, Well, it doesn’t have soaring harmonies. But the lyrics are fun. I love the line, “See the street pass under your feet by the latest model getaway Jeep.†How prescient is that?
Keith didn’t want to just be behind the drums. He wanted to get out and play some keyboard. The drum machine was a big thing then, so we got a drum machine that was so rinky-dink and robotic. I really didn’t like the sound. I was the one in the band who said, “Ugh, I don’t know about this change.†But it was very much the sound at the time — more electronic. It was important for us to evolve our sound a little bit. I missed the real drums. Our manager discouraged us from doing a music video. He said, “David Byrne is doing a video. He’s spending all his own money. There’s no future in it. He’ll lose it all.†But we went for it and it turned out to be the right decision, because it was all over MTV and illustrated the idea of the song.
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The Bet
The record company gave suggestions at this point. I’d like to say we thought it out and it was a timely reflection of the economic crisis, but we didn’t. We went, “Okay, what’s this standout here? What would be a great first single?†Having that music video helped. The message might be in there, and our fans might get it, but it’s not what hits you over the head. People don’t respond to our music so much that way — they respond to what makes them happy, what makes them dance, and what brings them joy. That was “Legal Tender.â€
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The Payoff
I think it’s inevitable that with a third album, critics are like, “Meh.†They’re not as enthusiastic as they were about your prior work. You read one review and it seems like everybody copied that one review. It wasn’t bad, but it seemed like the response to this single wasn’t wild enthusiasm. It was more critical.
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“Summer of Love,†Bouncing Off the Satellites (1986)
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The Song
After we had completed writing everything for the album, the record company, for the first time, intervened and said they wanted us to write a hit. So we went back into our little studio to reconvene and try to write one. Ricky was sick and we didn’t know what he had, since AIDS had just started. No one knew what was happening. There was a lot of fear. At one point Ricky and Keith said, “We’re going to write some songs together, you and Fred should try to write a couple songs.†We had never written anything separately. Everything was always together. Fred and I were shocked and we didn’t understand why. Of course, looking back on it now I see that Ricky didn’t want to deal with all the jamming and everything that comes with it. Ricky didn’t say anything and kept up a great front. He said he was nervous because the record company told us to write a hit.
Keith had the idea for the title, because a writer was declaring this new “summer of love†against all hope because the AIDS crisis was beginning. Cindy and I were working on the lyrics and came up with, “I’ve been waiting for the man.†It sounds like we’re doing a drug deal, but we had nothing like that in mind. It was really just about “orange popsicles and lemonade†and promoting, feeling, and spreading love. That psychedelic moment when you feel like the universe is one with you. In a way it felt political in the face of what was about to happen.
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The Bet
The record company felt like this was the most commercial of the bunch, even though that term could never apply to us. We agreed with the selection. Despite our quirkiness, we never wrote any songs with the purpose to become a hit. When the record company said, “Write a hit,†we were like, “Ha, that’s ridiculous.†We thought we already had a great album, but it was a time when the band was very fractured, so it might not have had the continuity that the other albums had.
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The Payoff
Ricky pretty much recorded everything and was still trying to write a so-called “hit†when he passed away. The record company was so difficult this time. We were in shock, but they assumed we would still tour. I remember our accountant saying, “Get another guitar player.†We were like, “Are you kidding?†We couldn’t do anything because we were grieving. We just stopped, but we did do a short promotional tour. Fred and I tried to promote the record overseas but the record company basically dropped it. “Summer of Love†was burning up the dance charts, and one of our executive friends at Warner Bros. was running up and down the halls saying, “We need to promote this single, it’s doing great. No one’s doing anything. What’s going on here?†They just weren’t behind it. It all stunk.
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“Channel Z,†Cosmic Thing (1989)
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The Song
After Ricky died, we were able to speak about AIDS and be more overtly political. Well, we were always political. All of us are super liberal. “Channel Z†is a list of all the things that are wrong with our country but it’s more palatable because of its peppy vibe. I love Fred’s line, “Politicians pushing dope.†It’s a political dance song. We wanted to speak out about things that mattered to us but we didn’t want to hit people over the head. All these radio stations with a Z in the call letters wouldn’t play “Channel Z†because one of the lyrics is, “Got to get away from Z.†It was weird they reacted that way. After Ricky, we thought it would be impossible to get back together as a band, so we decided to totally change up the sound and get other musicians to play with us. I made the decision to stop playing keyboards and be up front more. Cosmic Thing was so reminiscent of the time we had in Athens — this bittersweet wonderful remembrance of Ricky. But “Channel Z†is one song on there that’s completely different.
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The Bet
This wasn’t what we chose as the single. The record company said, “We should lead with this because it’s a teaser, don’t worry about it.†We responded, “Why wouldn’t we start with ‘Roam’ or ‘Love Shack’?†We all thought “Love Shack†should be the first single, but the record company was adamant about “Channel Z.†I love the song, but it doesn’t seem like the most logical choice. Who knows the strategies record companies have. I have to say, though, that they were very much behind this record and saw its potential early on.
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The Payoff
It alerted people the B-52’s were back. I think the reaction was surprise and joy. It was such a different sound from when we had a drummer, bass player, and keyboard player, and we got a new audience because of it. We still had our old fans, who were loyal and embraced the new sound, but we had a whole new set of listeners. We were nominated for a few Grammys. As Fred likes to say, we’re three-time Grammy losers. We went around to clubs the first decade we toured, and then Cosmic Thing took us into arenas. We were exhausted afterward. The album was No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand, so we toured the world. We blew up big. It was very exciting to see, all of a sudden, real airplay that didn’t stop for a long time. Cosmic Thing gave us hit potential we’d never had before and it all started with “Channel Z.â€
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“Good Stuff,†Good Stuff (1992)
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The Song
Fred and I had a really great time writing all the lyrics to this. We thought, “We’ve got to write something about sex.†Things are simple like that sometimes. I still giggle at lyrics like, “Take me down where the love honey flows.†But it was hard, emotionally, because without Cindy singing with us it was almost damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I knew people would miss her voice. But I think the song is very good with the exchange between Fred and I. We wanted people to dance to it.
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The Bet
We chose this one as a band decision. The record company gave up on trying to influence us.
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The Payoff
As I mentioned, we didn’t look at the charts or use it to inform our creative decisions. I’ve never thought, “Oh, it’s surprising to me that it became a hit.†It’s more what we get from the audience’s reaction. That said, “Good Stuff†became our third most-popular song. I found that to be interesting. Why this one, you know? I think it was because it really was the most fun song from the album — or the most obvious one to put out. It affirmed what we already knew about us.
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“Funplex,†Funplex (2008)
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The Song
Keith had the idea of the song because he liked the word funplex. We were struggling a little bit. We hadn’t written together in awhile. We kept touring and figured we should finally record something new for the fans. There were times when we came together between Good Stuff and Funplex to try and jam, but it didn’t work. All the planets have to align. We all have to be in the same headspace to jam together. I remember saying, “Let’s each be a character in this song.†Cindy’s the daytime waitress at the Taco Tiki Hut, I’m the pleasure seeker looking for a new distraction, and Fred’s the mall shopaholic on a diet pill.
It was about a mall, which is not actually a funplex, and the idea of over-consumption, consumerism, and alienation. But it’s also about people meeting at the mall, falling in love at the mall, and breaking up at the mall. There’s a mall up in Albany that was incorporated into the song — they tried to eject this father and son for having some sort of political slogan on their T-shirts. Fred has a line, “Hippie, be quiet, your peace sign T-shirt could cause a riot.†That’s based on that story. It’s about the modern world. The mall is a theater of humanity.
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The Bet
It was political and lent itself to making a great video, because it had a story and was cinematic. We felt like people could relate to this. I personally thought we should have done “Pump†as the first single. It rocked the most and had an incredibly driving beat. We never even released that one, which was a bit of a bummer. In retrospect we’ve all thought “Pump†might have been better to signify our return. Now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t recall the logic that swayed us to “Funplex.â€
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The Payoff
We didn’t expect this to be a hit at all. This was to satisfy fans, but also for our own satisfaction to have something new and come together to write again. I’m not saying our expectations were low and our goals weren’t high. Since we were now an older band, a “legacy act†to some degree, we needed to put some new life into all the touring we were doing. The creative endeavor was always the first line of defense.
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At the bottom of the pool.†It hit the No. 3 spot. A fun trio of nominations, to be fair. Best Pop Performance By Duo Or Group With Vocal for “Love Shackâ€; Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for “Roamâ€; and Best Alternative Music Album for Good Stuff. Wilson took a multi-year hiatus from the band to start a family and raise two children.