Unless you’ve been living ‘underground like a wild potato,’ you certainly know the opening guitar riff from ‘Rock Lobster,’ and even if you don’t know the band, you have heard it at countless parties, tailgates and on college radio.  The B-52’s were an oasis to frolicking fans during the 80’s.  Their signature sound, beehive hairdos and the vocals of Fred, Kate and Cindy blasted from radios from the 80’s into the early 90’s. (They were one of our go-to ‘soundtracks of summer’ for almost a decade.)

Now, after over 45 years of being on the road, the band is on their farewell tour, or, as Kate Pierson calls it, their “Cher-Well tour.”  Fret not, the band has vowed to keep making music, they are just bidding adieu to the road.  In the meantime, authors Scott Creney and Brigette Adair Herron are giving the adoring fans a different look at the band and their accomplishments and even importance.

The Story of the B-52s: Neon Side of Town is the first critical history of one of the most legendary and influential bands in American popular music. Locating The B-52s in the intellectual climate of their hometown of Athens, GA and following the band from New York’s downtown scene in the early 1980s to their upcoming farewell tour, the book argues that The B-52s are much more significant political and musical influences on American society than their reputation as a silly party band suggests, and that their ongoing commitment to values including cooperation, mutual support, and using disruptive fun as a form of social change are an antidote to the neoliberalization sweeping both Athens and the rest of the Western world. For example, the book shows how the band synthesized influences from the modern artists displayed at the University of Georgia art museum, early queer activism on campus in the 1970s, and their experiences as queer people living through the AIDS crisis to create music that continues to be artistically and politically influential today. The authors are active members of the Athens, GA music scene, and the book includes original interviews with a range of number close to the band.

“Boys in bikinis… girls on surfboards”

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