350 Hello The B-52s - Rock Lobster

Chart  entered : 11 August  1979

Chart  peak : 37  ( 12  on  re-release  in  1986 )

Number  of  hits : 10

They  only  qualify  by  the  skin  of  their  teeth  and  exit  with  a  stinker  but  they're  an  interesting  band  who've  made  some  good  records.

Continuing   the  personal  story  from  the  last  post  I've  had  a  complicated  relationship  with  this  song. Hearing  a  snatch  on  Juke  Box  Jury  didn't  do  anything  for  me  but  once  it  snuck  into  the  Top  40  I  was  hooked, went  out  and  bought  it  ( at  full  price  for  once )  and  lost  no  time  in  persuading  Him  Next  Door  of  its  charms. Towards  the  end  of  the  holidays  we  spent  about  a  week  organising  a  little  party*  for  a  pre-school  girl  a  few  doors  away  who  was  moving  house  ( to  one  little  more  than  a  mile  away  actually  but  it  was  something  to  do ). This  song  featured  on  the  party  playlist  of  course  and  I  recall  his  little  brother  complaining  when  we  put  it  on  again  towards  the  end. For  that  he  little  mite  got  an  angry  shove  from  me. He  was  only  7  so  that  wasn't  good  at  all  but  I  suppose  it  showed  my  passion  for  the  record.

Then  of  course  we  fell  out  and  this  song  fell  out  of  favour  too. I'm  not  sure  there  was  a  conscious  connection ; I  still   had  relatively  few  singles  at  this  point  and  most  of  those  were  lucky  bag  rubbish  so  maybe  it  just  palled  through  overplay. A  few  months  later  I  agreed  to  sell  it  to  a  punky  schoolfriend  of  my  sister's. When  it  was  re-released   towards  the  end  of  my  time  at  university  and  became  a  much  bigger  hit , I  bought  it  again.

The  B-52s  were  the  first  band  to  put  the   U.S.  college  town  of  Athens, Georgia  on  the  map. They  apparently  came  from  nowhere  in  1976  with  none  of  the  five  members  having  any  real  musical  pedigree. Only  Kate  Pierson , who  was  nearly  ten  years  older  than  fellow  vocalist  Cindy  Wilson , seems  to  have  had  a  previous  band,  The  Sun  Doughnuts  and  that  was  in  high  school. The  band  rose  out  of  an  impromptu  jam  session . Besides  the  girls  you  had  vocalist  Fred  Schneider  who  fancied  himself  a  poet, Cindy's  elder  brother  Ricky  ,  a   guitarist  and  the  musical  leader  and  drummer  Keith  Strickland.  Kate  also  played  bass  and  Cindy  the  keyboards.  Apart  from  Cindy  they  were  all  gay  though  this  wasn't  public  knowledge  until  years  later. 

"Rock  Lobster"  was  originally  released  as  a  single  on  a  minor  label  in  1978  then  re-recorded  with  minor  changes  to  the  lyrics  when  they  signed  to  Island. Chris  Blackwell  produced  the  second , hit  version. It's  a  unique  blend  of  Devo, Beach  Boys  and  The  Surfaris  which  takes  the  tropes  of  surf  music  and  incorporates  them  into  a  new  wave  disco  tune  with  a  bonkers  lyric  about  an  over-sized  lobster  causing  havoc  at  a  surfing  beach.  There's  no  chorus  as  such  as  the  band  cram  a  lot  of  different  ideas  into  its  four  minutes . Kate's  queasy  Farfisa  organ  vies  with  Ricky's  surf  riffs  on  an  effectively  detuned  guitar  to  create  a  disconcerting  backdrop  for  Fred. My  friend  described  him  thus  "He  looks  like  Kenneth  Williams  and  he  sounds  like  him  too". I'd  say  he's  more  like  Dick  Dastardly  but  the  effect  is  the  same  leaving  the  listener  unsure  how  seriously  to  take  their  music. I  tend  to  feel  the  less  Fred  the  better  -  on  my  favourite  B-52s  tune  "Give  Me  Back  My  Man"  he  can't  be  heard  at  all  - but  he  co-wrote  this  with  Ricky. There's  less  room  for  Cindy  and  Kate's  Valley  Girl  harmonies  when  they're  only  backing  vocalists  and  their  main  vocal  contribution  here  is  providing  the  nonsense  noises  when  Fred  starts  listing  various  sea  creatures  he's  spotted  plus  a  piranha  which  of  course  is  a  freshwater  fish . The  B-side  was  a  surf  instrumental  "Running  Around"  that  was  later  developed  into  a  proper  song  on  their  second  album

It  was  a  number  56  hit  in  the  US  and  went  all  the  way  to  the  top  in  Canada. Doubtless  its    success  encouraged  some  other  young  Athenians  to  get  a  band  together  who  would  eventually  eclipse  them  but  it  was  also  cited  by  a  rather  famous  exiled  Liverpudlian   as  a  reason  for  him  getting  back in  the  studio  because  it  reminded  him  of  his  wife's  stuff  ( a  very  dubious  compliment  but  you  can  sort  of  hear  it  in  some  of  the  girls'  screeches ).

The  song  was  re-released  in  1986  as  a  sort  of  tribute  to  Ricky  who  had  died  of  AIDS  the  previous  autumn. The shock  to  the  rest  of  the  band  was  amplified  by  the  fact  he'd  kept  his  condition  secret  from  them , even  Cindy , and  there  was  some  doubt  they'd  record  anything  more  without  him. The  decision, three  weeks  into  its  run,  to  elevate  "Planet  Claire"  on  its  flip  to  double  A  side  status  is  the  reason  they  qualify  here.


*  The  girl's  mum  used  to  bump  into  my  mum  fairly  regularly  and  for  years  afterwards  she  would  mention  the  party  and  ask  how  I  was  doing.