Day After Day #135: Rock Lobster

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Rock Lobster (1978)

When it comes to weirdness, nobody made it work for them like the B-52s. Especially when they first came out, people didn't know what to make of them.

Formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976, the band was comprised of Fred Schneider on vocals and percussion, Kate Pierson on vocals/keyboards/synth bass, Cindy Wilson on vocals/percussion, Ricky Wilson on guitar and Keith Strickland on drums/guitar/keyboards. The band combined dance and surf music with Schneider's over-the-top vocals and Pierson and Cindy Wilson's melodic girl group harmonies. Ricky Wilson was a terrific guitar player; not flashy, but his surf riffs were the backbone of the band. Meanwhile, Pierson and Cindy Wilson wore beehive hairdos in the early years that resembled the nose cone of the B-52 bomber, hence the name. The band embraced a retro thrift store aesthetic

"Rock Lobster" was the band's first single, recorded in 1978 on DB Records. It became an underground hit, selling 2,000 copies and getting the B-52s gigs at CBGB and Max's Kansas City. The band re-recorded the song and its B-side "52 Girls" for its self-titled debut album on Warner Bros. in 1979. 

Schneider got the idea for "Rock Lobster" at an Atlanta disco, where a slide show was played featuring lobsters on a grill. The song is about a beach party where someone loses an ear in a run-in with a rock lobster.

"We were at a party/His ear lobe fell in the deep/Someone reached in and grabbed it/It was a rock lobster/Rock lobster/Rock lobster/We were at the beach/Everybody had matching towels/Somebody went under a dock/And there they saw a rock/It wasn't a rock/It was a rock lobster."

Ricky Wilson's sick surf riffs power the song, but it's the vocals that make it so unique. Schneider spits out the lyrics like a carnival barker, while Pierson and Cindy Wilson provide animal noises to go with Schneider's descriptions.

"Boys in bikinis/Girls on surfboards/Everybody's fruggin'/Twistin' round the fire/Havin' fun/Baking potatoes/Baking in the sun/Put on your noseguard/Put on the lifeguard/Pass the tanning butter/Here comes a stingray/There goes a manta ray/In walked a jellyfish/There goes a dogfish/Chased by a catfish/In flew a sea robin/Watch out for that piranha/There's goes a narwhal/Here comes a bikini whale!"

The band performed the song on Saturday Night Live in January 1980. That spring, John Lennon heard the song and was inspired to record again after five years off; Pierson and Cindy Wilson's shrieking vocals were definitely inspired by Yoko Ono, who in turn became a fan of the B-52s along with Lennon. 

"Rock Lobster" hit #56 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it went to #1 in Canada on the RPM national chart. I distinctly remembering hearing it on the radio in 1980, after which the DJ said, "Is that the future of rock 'n roll? We're in trouble." 

The radio edit is 4 minutes, but the single was 4:52 and the album version was nearly 7 minutes. Meanwhile, the band's debut went platinum thanks to "Rock Lobster," "Planet Claire" and "Dance This Mess Around. The band's decidedly silly but eminently catchy sound was tailor made for the new wave frenzy going on at that time.

The B-52s released two more albums in the early '80s before Ricky Wilson passed away after a battle with AIDS in 1985. Strickland switched to guitar and they released Bouncing Off the Satellites in 1986, but didn't tour to promote the album because they were still dealing with Wilson's death. After a hiatus, the band reunited and recorded Cosmic Thing in 1989, which blew up after the success of "Love Shack." Cindy Wilson left the band in 1990 and they recorded the next album, 1992's Good Stuff, as a trio. The band continued to tour (Wilson returned in 1996) and make soundtrack songs over the ensuing decades, but only released one more album, 2008's Funplex. 

A farewell tour took place in 2022-23, but then the band started a series of residencies in Las Vegas, which stretched into this year. And just this week, the city of Athens announced their new minor league hockey team would be called the Rock Lobsters.