Pure Punk Picks
52 Girls – The B-52’s
Hippie music sucks.
Well, not entirely. I love Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors- amongst others.
But what I most disliked about the hippie movement was they tried to negate all the great, musical styles of the late fifties, early sixties which they relegated as simply, pop music- music of no substance. Unlike, their music which they considered highly artistic- while some stoned hippie guitarist played a 17-minute guitar solo, noodling their way along into drug induced, boring oblivion.
Before them, jazz greats like saxophonist John Coltrane- could “noodle” for seventeen minutes, but he had decades of practice and playing behind him and could, actually, pull it off pretty sweet.
While these young, twenty year old hippies, addled by whatever substance was available back stage, vomited forth a completely turgid, ponderous waste of unfinished phrases, redundant riffs and notes best left in the recycle bin.
And Yes! – Hendrix is my favorite guitarist and Yes!- he was guilty of the same.
But punk and especially, new wave bands drew upon the influences and genres that the hippies looked down upon, lowering their coke filled nostrils to the ground in disdain!
Let’s examine some:
Fifties rock’n’roll?- Yes, it is much better than rock music, more vital as it was the source.
Girl group bands?- I feel it’s the most underrated genre in music and a predecessor to riot grrl which, I feel, is the second most underrated genre.
Surf music, garage rock, Motown- all far superior than ninety-nine percent of hippie rock.
Bands like Blondie, The Dead Kennedys, X and many others were influenced by these genres as The B-52’s were, as well.
And though this song is not super fast- this song just bristles with energy, seeming like a pressure cooker just ready to blow at any time.
The beat of this song is so rockin’ in surf/garage perfection with soaring, girl group vocals above. But with an energy that is, unmistakably, punk. This song is all grit and grunge with a propulsive edge that sends shivers up my arms and a smile upon my face. (And check out those dissonant keyboard notes, towards the end!)
But besides the danceable beats, fun music and crazy lyrics that this band has- their music and style is original. (Who would you say sounds like The B-52’s?). They were the first popular band I know of that used dissonance in their popular music. Later this became quite common in grunge and rap but in the eighties, pop music had no naughty notes- it was music that followed all the rules much like The Police, Duran Duran and Culture Club did.
But The B-52’s were the first popular band to break those rules.
Punk was great but a lot of new wave was pretty amazing, too. Sure, there were trifling, pop bands that got a keyboard player, donned skinny ties and added a hot female singer but there were a lot of creative bands of substance with a unique vision, as well.
Devo, Talking Heads, Blondie, Pere Ubu, Wall Of Voodoo and others all produced some excellent work.
And I’m sure if I sat down with The B-52’s and I told them how I thought they were a seriously, artistically great band- they all would laugh at me and say, “We we’re really just about having fun.”
But if you look around in life you will see a lot of jackasses telling you how important they are, not just the hippies, that they are what really matters but what they really are- is just lying sacks of shit.
I’m quite aware that this band are now thought of as a light, “party band”. And, as stated, they’re probably fine with that. They would point out that they were just a bunch of friends playing parties before they hit “the big time”. But I shudder to think what the other big rock band from Athens, REM, what kind of parties were they playing?
Strickly dullsville.
This song rattles off a lot of girls names. Some surprising ones, as well, like- Effie, Madge, Biddie, Mavis and Mercedes but maybe, these names are not so unusual if you’re from The South like this band is.
“Can you name them today?”
The B-52’s don’t have to take a backseat, to me, to any early punk new wave band you can name today. And yes, that means The Clash, The Ramones and whomever.
They were one of kind- showing you could be fun and danceable but also, wildly creative with value, as well.
There are 52 cards in a deck. Fifty-two girl names in this song. (Actually, I counted about twenty-three).
But anyway you shuffle the deck, The B-52’s still bomb all the other bands away!
(Slimedog)
