The B-52's - Good Stuff (1992)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

As the follow-up to Cosmic Thing, I had high hopes for this album, and while there are some classic B-52's songs to be found here, it doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor (granted, that's asking a lot of the group). For reasons I won't go into here, the former quintet had become a trio, but it still sounds like pretty much any other B-52's album (except Bouncing Off the Satellites). It's party rock and that's what I'm looking for - ballads need not apply.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★★): "impressively seamless"
• Billboard: "slightly daffy, funk-oriented mess-arounds"
• Entertainment Weekly (C): "reduces their sound...to a dull formula."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #16

Tracks: The production duties were evenly split among Nile Rodgers and Don Was; long-time readers of the blog would expect me to prefer the Rodgers tracks, and even I'm surprised that's not true. My top tracks are Tell It Like It T-I-Is, Revolution Earth (Rodgers), Hot Pants Explosion, Good Stuff, and Is That You Mo-Dean (Was). Fred shoulda left all the singing to Kate on Dreamland. I'm guessing I listened to side A of my cassette more than side B, probably because the album falls apart near the end - no particularly bad tracks, but nothing you'll be humming later in the day.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I remember getting rid my cassette during an ill-advised vinyl and tape purge in 1994. In my defense, I was starting...nah, nevermind. I gots nothin'. No excuse for that purge. None.

I often use the phrase "Tell It Like It T-I-Is" much to the chagrin and/or embarrassment of my family. Deal with it.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation (1998)
Love Shack (1989)
Bouncing Off the Satellites (1986)
Whammy! (1983)
Party Mix/Mesopotamia (1981/1982)

CD Longbox, notable for the following
message from the band printed on the back:

The B-52's - Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation (1998)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

They're connoisseurs of trash in a world full of it.
-Rolling Stone magazine review of 1980's Wild Planet

An excellent greatest hits compilation. This group were always a singles band rather than an albums band (some of their albums/EPs were downright nasty), so a greatest hits package is probably the best bet for most people. The B-52's are one of those groups that few people actually listened to during the early '80s, but thanks to the constant playing of Rock Lobster during retro or flashback weekends on radio, middle-agers everywhere think they personally are responsible for the discovery of the band's brand of party rock. Admittedly, I probably fit in that group since the first album by this group that I purchased was 1983's Whammy!. The group is a campy combination of kitsch and trash with bizarre lyrical puns delivered in speech-song. Bizarre enough not to have a Top 40 hit until 1989, a full 12 years into the band's existence.

There's more than a little irony in the fact that The B-52's are now considered a retro group since they've always been a retro group. From the initial sounds of the group in the opening strains of Planet Claire (which is shameless lifted from Henry Mancini's theme to Peter Gunn), the band is a hodge-podge of yesterday's tomorrows and cultural references from the '50s and '60s: beach party movies, space age sci-fi, miniskirts & go-go boots, Farfisa organs, film noir, surf rock, etc, but no matter - this music is fun.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #93

Tracks:

Track	Year	Hot 100	Rock	Dance
Planet Claire	1979			24
52 Girls	1979
Rock Lobster	1979	56		24
Party Out Of Bounds	1980			5
Strobelight	1980
Private Idaho	1980	74		5
Quiche Lorraine	1980
Mesopotamia	1982			13
Song For A Future Generation	1983			9
Summer Of Love (Original Unreleased Mix)	1985
Channel Z	1989		1
Deadbeat Club	1989	30
Love Shack	1989	3	1	7
Roam	1989	3	6	10
Good Stuff	1992	28	1
Is That You Mo-Dean?	1992
Debbie	1998			32
Hallucinating Pluto	1998

The early music is fun dance stuff, most notably Strobelight. My favorite tracks are the later songs from their collaboration with Nile Rodgers and Don Was (tracks 11-16 here): Good Stuff, Is That You Mo-Dean?, Channel Z, Deadbeat Club, Roam, and, of course, Love Shack, which I like so much it's been my phone ringtone on more than one occasion. I could do without Quiche Lorraine, the mix of Summer Of Love, and the two new songs, Debbie and Hallucinating Pluto, which, as legendary critic Robert Christgau writes, aren't "fit to shine the spaceship of 1992's visionary Is That You Mo-Dean?"

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  This disc was a gift from my wife during a summer when we went and saw the group.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Love Shack (1989)
Bouncing Off the Satellites (1986)
Whammy! (1983)
Party Mix/Mesopotamia (1981/1982)

The B-52's - Bouncing Off the Satellites (1986)

"LET'S GET IT OVER WITH" WEEK (OCTOBER 15-21, 2012)

Since it took the B-52's three years to release another album after Whammy!, I had given up on new material long before 1986. In fact, I was unaware of this album until the "Lost Summer of Mark" in 1988, when a girlfriend introduced me to it. It's a very uneven affair, even for the B-52's. While recording this album (or soon after, reports vary), the band lost its guitarist Ricky Wilson to complications from AIDS/HIV and the band just needed some time to mourn and recover. Fortunately, the band would later team-up with Nile Rodgers and Don Was and have a huge comeback.

Billboard, September 20, 1986, p. 72

The only song I remembered from 1988 was Wig, which I loved because of the sheer goofiness of it. So I picked up the CD and, while I'm glad to have a recording of Wig, I'm not wild about the rest of the album. Maybe if I had heard it in the summer of '86, I'd think differently.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #85 (Oct 11, 1986)
• CashBox: #79
• Rolling Stone: #30

Tracks:  Obviously, my favorite is Wig, but Summer Of Love isn't terrible.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  In 1995, a clever publisher took the lyrics from Wig, got a wacky illustrator, and put out a children's book. I bought the book in '98, probably about the same time I bought this CD. Our copy was read quite frequently to my boys. When my youngest was in first grade, I would occasionally go read to his class. Once, I read the Wig book to them, then played the song from this CD while we all danced.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Love Shack (1989)
Whammy! (1983)
Party Mix/Mesopotamia (1981/1982)

The B-52's - Party Mix/Mesopotamia (1981/1982)

2 EPs on 1 CD. Each of these EPs had 6 tracks and clocked in at under 30 minutes apiece, making it a good pairing for a single CD. The buzz on the fansites is that the production on this CD is somehow different from the original EPs. I never had the originals, so I can't speak to that, but messing with the originals sure has the hardcore fans upset and holding on to their vinyl. This isn't one of my favorites, but when I saw a cutout in the bargain bin, I couldn't resist.

Party Mix is a remix album featuring remixes of songs from their first two albums (originally three remixes from album two on side one and vice versa). The songs were bouncy and danceable enough to begin with, but these alternatives are a fun listen every now and then, however unnecessary.

Mesopotamia was supposed to be the band's third album, with David Byrne doing the production. Although that pairing may have looked good on paper, evidently the sessions didn't go as expected and so the label cut things short and hastily put out this stop gap effort. Ah well, there's still a few good cuts here and the band eventually got back on track with Whammy! in 1983.

Musician, May 1982, pp.76 & 78

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Party Mix #55, Mesopotamia #35
Peak on CashBox album chart: Party Mix #58, Mesopotamia #30

Tracks:  From Party Mix, the best tracks are the remixes of Private Idaho and Give Me Back My Man. I'm not a fan of being yelled at, but when listening to Dance This Mess Around, I smile every time I hear Cindy yell, "WHY DON'T YOU DANCE WITH ME? I'M NOT NO LIMBURGER!"

From Mesopotamia, I like Loveland, the title track, and Nip It In the Bud. Because of Byrne's production, some tracks sound more like Talking Heads than The B-52's: Deep Sleep and Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can (I want to like the latter tune just because of its awesome name, but the music just doesn't live up to the title).

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  Like many college students, I returned home to live with my parents for the summer after my freshman year. Soon after getting back to town, I reconnected with Brett, an old high school buddy. When we piled into his Mercury Cougar, he had Mesopotamia playing in the cassette player. It seemed that all he had listened to in college that year was The B-52's and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Love Shack (1989)
Whammy! (1983)

Blog post #600

The B-52's - Whammy! (1983)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by a CD.

This was the first B-52's album I ever purchased, bought because I had seen the video for Song For A Future Generation on the MTV. (I just paused the CD and watched the video again on YouTube. It's typical low budget interplanetary goofiness with bad lip synching.) For a 17-year-old that considered himself to be a member of the New Wave cognoscenti, the B-52's were a perfect fit. Every teenager tries to adopt a persona, and the quirkiness of this group, coupled with that fact that their music wasn't played on the radio in our area, made this group one that I often name-dropped: "No, I haven't heard the newest REO Speedwagon because I was jamming with The B-52's!" For me, this group was normally more of a singles group than an albums group, but this is probably their most consistent album. The songwriting is simple, but isn't that what you expect? Sure the drums and synths sound dated now, but this was a fun album back then and is still worth the occasional listen.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★★): "in this age of dopey novelty songs and cheesy dance tracks, nobody does it better."
• Smash Hits (3 out of 10): "Not even a glimpse of excitement."
• Stereo Review: "dire, faceless electro-pop dance rock"
• Trouser Press: "if it's shtick, at least it's their own"
• Robert Christgau (A-): "their celebration of the pop mess-around is getting earthier."
• Musician: "Shammy is more like it."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #29
• CashBox: #38
• Rolling Stone: #14

Tracks: My favorites are Legal Tender and Song For A Future Generation. The second tier of songs would include Whammy Kiss, Trism, Butterbean, and Work That Skirt. The other three are skippable. This album was originally released with a cover of Yoko Ono's Don't Worry. When the time came to reissue the CD in 1989, the group ran into copyright troubles with Ono and the song was pulled, replaced by Moon 83, the b-side to the single Legal Tender. That's a shame because Don't Worry was one of the more interesting cuts on the album, but Moon 83 is one of the worst. Not an even trade.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When the band toured in support of this album in the summer of 1983, they came to Houston on my birthday. Not only that, the opening act was my favorite local band, The Judy's. Wouldn't it be a great story if I got to attend that concert? Unfortunately, I was stuck in Austin at American Legion Boy's State that week. I would later see The B-52's a couple of times and The Judy's once, but I sure would have loved to have caught that '83 show. (ed. - Can confirm the concert date, but have been unable to confirm the opening act - some sources suggest The Blasters, not The Judy's.)

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Love Shack (1989)

The B-52's - Funplex (2008)

"OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS" WEEK (MAY 1-7, 2011)

The first studio album released in 16 years from this New Wave group (the last was Good Stuff in 1992). It sounds kinda like classic B-52's party rock, but the production is updated, courtesy of British production phenom Steve Osborne (New Order, Doves, KT Tunstall). Don't expect Rock Lobster. The lyrics are pretty crude; I won't play this in my truck if my young sons are riding with me. The B-52's have always been a one-trick pony, but as long as you like that pony, it's all good. Here's the best description of the disc, courtesy of Dom Gourlay over at Drowned in Sound: "Funplex then: a bit like that school re-union. Good for a few hours’ reminiscing every once in a while but over-familiarity will only breed contempt." If you like Scissor Sisters or New Order's Get Ready, you'll find something to like here. Good music for the summer.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #11 (April 12, 2008)

Tracks: Favs include Pump, Hot Corner, Funplex, and Deviant Ingredient. I also like that the band has included a ballad on this release (I'm kidding, of course, there aren't ballads on B-52's albums, silly). I could do without Juliet Of The Spirits and Too Much to Think About.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but I've seen the group live twice (always on July 26!) and they always put on a great show. I'd go see them again if I had the chance.

The B-52's - Love Shack (1989)

CD Single

6 tracks clocking in at 35 minutes including 5 mixes of Love Shack plus the 12" Rock Mix of Channel Z. No liner notes.

Tracks: I'll rank the 5 mixes included here according to my personal preference.

5. Big Radio Mix
4. 12" Remix
3. Remix/Edit
2. A Cappella
1. 12" Mix (because it cleverly incorporates a sample of The Temptations' Ain't Too Proud to Beg)

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This song (and the other hits from Cosmic Thing) make me fondly remember my first year of teaching at Newman Smith High School in Carrollton,1989-90.