Dance This Mess Around

 

It is often said that 1979 is a golden year for music and it is true. There was a new band to discover almost every week and I found it difficult to make the right choice from the plethora of new releases in my favorite record shop. 

So it was clever that the B52's debut album stood out from the crowd visually. The cover shows the group in an edited photograph against a bright yellow background; faces, hands and feet are photographed, while the clothing is printed on. The beehive hairstyles of the two singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, who also gave the band its name, were also striking.

The band's music, which moves between pop, rock, dance, surf, punk, new wave and retro, was exceptional. Rocky guitar riffs on a low-tuned Rickenbacker, reminiscent of a science fiction film from the 60s, a keyboard mixed in and the alternately melodic and shrill vocals of the singers created a unique sound that has lost none of its appeal even after 45 years.

The B52's - Dance This Mess Around

The B52's - Planet Claire

The B52's - Rock Lobster

New Old Sound

This month 40 years ago I came to local record store and searched the new entries and a record came to my attraction. A cover radiant yellow with artists that could have appeared in a 60's B-movie made me want to listen to what is behind this retro style. I had no idea what will come out of the loudspeakers but what I heard grabbed me from deep inside. There was a band named after bomber from WWII and I have to admit that I was very confused at this time. How was it possible that a so called new wave band can make a retro sound that exactly fit to the late 70's. This fusion of surf, pop, punk, white funk and a fabulous Rickenbacker sound made for me the sound of the summer of 79. Their first album was one of the only I bought several times because the original was played too much at my place.

Who's Afraid Of The 80's? Pt 4

These songs from this sampler made me want to buy the albums of these artists. And I went straight to my local record dealer to get these records not knowing that they would be classic records of this decade. The Undertones impressed me with their classic short songs telling us about teenage feelings and how to stand it (or not).

The B52's were retro as retro could be. Bringing back the Rickenbacker guitar to our memory. I was huge impressed of their first record. Everything was stylish: the music, the outfit, the cover and especially their 60's hairstyle

This compilation introduced me to The Slits as well. Never heard sounds like this before. This mixture of punk, new-wave and reggae was very unique at this time and only less people listened to them at my place at this time.