You Never Forget Your First

No, not your first love or first sexual encounter.  Your first album. The record you went and picked out yourself when you were old enough to have a choice.  My friend Slim, who owns Round Soap Records, providing all manner of musically inspired bath products, recently wrote a blog post of the same title.  His firsts were The Steve Miller Band’s Book of Dreams and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.  Naturally, after reading his post, I thought about my first album.  The one that I made my mom take me to the mall to buy.  It was the B-52s.  Not Cosmic Thing, which had their hits “Love Shack” and “Roam,” but rather their first full-length album, from 1979 with the infamous tune “Rock Lobster.”

I had heard the B-52s at Camp Woodhaven, a Girl Scout camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. There was a camp counselor, Moonbeam, who wore a giant fork around her neck and called it her ‘rainbow stabber.’  It was the 1970’s. When you’re 10 or 11, this story made perfect sense. I had walked into the counselors' bunk house. There was some sort of treasure hunt and the rainbow stabber was one of the items on our list.  The song “Planet Claire” was playing. Moonbeam told us that she was from Planet Claire.  The song had a spacey intro with beeps and then a funky bass line building up to the lyrics.  “She came from Planet Claire, I knew she came from there. She drove a Plymouth Satellite, faster than the speed of light.”  Fred Schneider’s monotone, spoken vocals sounded like he was a melodic robot. 

“Planet Claire” wasn’t the song that won me over. It was the vocals from Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson on “Dance This Mess Around,” which sounds like a twisted Supremes song.  Instead of the smooth Motown sounds, “Dance This Mess Around” has a punk like guitar sound, but with a funky bass line and again those spacey keyboards. It started off simple enough, but then Kate Pierson began screaming “Why don’t you dance with me, I’m not no Limburger, Just a limburger.”  (I assume she’s referring to the stinky cheese of the same name.)  Then the song got dancey, “Everybody goes to parties, They dance this mess around, They do the Shu-ga-loo, Do the Shy Tuna, Do the Camel Walk, Do the Hip-o-crit”  My favorite part of the song was the short break “Ah-Hippy Hippy forward Hippy Hippy Hippy Shake, Hippy Shake.”  

I loved to dance and I recall a group of us breaking into mini dance party while Moonbeam played the album.  When I returned home from camp, I convinced my mom to take me to the Trexlertown Mall.  We walked into Lane Co., a general merchandise store one step below K-Mart.  The album was probably only about $5, so I must of saved all of my allowance money for a few weeks to buy the album.  Looking back, it’s surprising that I liked the album so much. Until that point, my record collection consisted of Disney albums, Multiplication Rock, Donny and Marie, and Shawn Cassidy.  Some family friends who took me to get my ears pierced in 3rd grade bought me the Shawn Cassidy album. I’m sure that I picked it because everyone else in my class was listening to “Da Do Run Run” and I wanted to fit in. 

The B-52s album on the other hand was an independent choice, albeit inspired by a stint at Girl Scout camp.  I loved the bright yellow album cover and their crazy style. Wilson and Peirson with their 60’s outfits capped by a bouffant and beehive hairdo.  I was entranced, yet not confident enough let on to the kids at school that I liked this stuff.  Summer camp was different, I felt less pressure to fit in.  Maybe the other Girl Scouts were geeks like me and thought a camp counselor from Planet Claire with her own theme song made sense.  Or maybe the Girl Scouts really did manage the inclusiveness that they espouse and alternative music was part of their diversity efforts?

I still listen to this B-52s album. It’s always a pick me up. I like the elements of edgy punk and new wave along with funky back beats and ‘60’s surf sound.  For someone who spent most of her childhood trying to fit in with the mean girls, this album reminds me that I did some of my own thinking every once in a while back then. The album includes a remake of Petula Clark’s 1965 hit “Downtown.”  The sweet piano of the original are replaced with fuzzy guitars and Clark’s smooth vocals are replaced with Wilson and Pierson’s melodic screams. Clark’s downtown is today’s NYC with high-end shopping and expensive restaurants.  The B-52s' downtown is 1980‘s NYC with funky artists and gritty clubs. 

“Rock Lobster” never had quite the success that their later songs “Love Shack” and “Roam” did, but it remains an ’80’s classic. New generations seem to keep rediscovering the Dick Dale surf style guitars and goofy fish vocals. The chorus with Wilson and Pierson going  “ahhhhh ahhhhh ahhhh” sounds like a 60’s girl group back-up singers right out of the movie Beach Blanket Bingo. Then there’s the middle where Schnieder yells “Down, Down” followed by a guitar solo with a chord progression that spirals downward.  I haven’t heard this song played at a club or wedding in a while, but I’m sure people still dance to it and make their way down to the floor during the solo.   

The B-52s went on to Top 40 stardom in the early 1990’s with Cosmic Thing.  I liked the album, it’s full of more catchy tunes. But it’s this first album that I come back to more often. The quirky songs have stood the test of time.  They’re something different that I managed to call my own at a time when being different completely terrified me.