Released
on July 6th, 1979, the eponymous debut LP from The B-52's turns 45
years old today. At a time when "punk" had broken rock music back down
to its basics and "new wave" was looking towards a more adventurous and
experimental future, The B-52's offered up an anachronistic slab of
nostalgia for an era of polyester beach parties and piled high hair-dos,
with hyped-up teens twisting in the dunes with aliens from other worlds
and creatures crawling up from the surf. Like The Cramps, who evoked a
vintage, retro-kitsch obsession with B-movies and trash culture, The
B-52's were a throwback to another era, with their twanging surf
guitars, teeny wheezing organs and infectious back-beats. But where The
Cramps offered up a soundtrack for lascivious late-night back-alley bar
crawling, The B-52's were an upbeat party band, born in a beach hut and
destined to make you dance.
The
group came together in Athens, Georgia, in 1976, emerging at the dawn
of the punk revolution, but rather than building their aesthetics from
safety pins, leather jackets and spiked hair, they went to the thrift
store and raided the leftovers of '60s hipster party dregs, snapping up
the towering wigs that gave the band its name. They popularized the
introduction into youth culture of the queer inspired "trash-couture"
that had been festering in the midnight movie screenings of the films of
John Waters. He and his cohorts had set the tone for the band with
their pink flamingo lawn ornaments and other trailer trash
accoutrements. It was all done for pure fun and was impossible to
resist once you got a taste of it.
The
band recorded their debut at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas,
with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell producing. His approach to
recording was to capture the band as cleanly and closely as possible to
their live sound, so there was very little use of studio effects or even
overdubs. The result was a bright, spacious sound that captured all of
the dynamics of the group with no frills or distractions, creating an
immediacy that pushed the impact of their music to the fore. It was a
perfect approach to take as you get to hear the band in a completely
unadulterated presentation where the listener can connect as directly as
possible for a studio recording.
The
album became an immediate commercial and critical success, catapulting
the band into the spotlight, with appearances on shows like SNL helping
to secure the group's spotlight. I have a very clear recollection of
spotting the album on the new release display wall of my local record
shop back in 1979. I was all over anything new and weird looking, being
a 16 year old on the prowl for anything odd and "out there". Seeing
that bright yellow cover with the cutout photo of this wild looking, big
haired band was an instant eye-catcher, and I had no hesitation about
plunking my hard earned money down for a copy. And I was most
definitely not disappointed when it hit my record player. The twang of
those surf guitars, the cheesy organ, the whip smart drumming and the
kinky vocals were all so fresh sounding, though also bizarrely
nostalgic. They definitely had a sound that was all their own. It's
still an album that holds up after nearly half a century of listening.
It can't age because it's so perfectly preserved in its own amber.
No comments:
Post a Comment