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Medialoper

Chasing the long tail of new media

B-52's

Certain Songs #18: The B-52s – “Dirty Back Road”

November 11, 2014 by Jim Connelly

image

Album: Wild Planet
Year: 1980

Their debut got all the critical acclaim and Cosmic Thing got all of the sales, but my all-time favorite album from the first band to come roaring out of Athens, GA is their second one, Wild Planet.

While Wild Planet didn’t have the iconic classic singles of the debut, it was more consistent overall, playing down the novelty songs while amping up the dance grooves. Maybe I was prepped by the debut – sometimes you have to get used to something you’ve never heard before – but, on this record, I loved the non-nonsense sparseness of their sound.

And nowhere did it sound better than on “Dirty Back Road,” which is all Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson singing in harmonies over a Ricky Wilson guitar that was all forward motion and a  bass (or “bass” as the case may be) groove that was complete lockstep with Keith Strickland’s driving driving driving drums.

The overall effect was so trance-inducing that it took me decades to realize that this was a car-metaphor fucksong cross between “Highway Star,” and “Divine Hammer” – but wayyy dirtier. The only words I ever caught were “reckless driving on dirty back road” and  I took those literally.

“Dirty Back Road” performed in 1980

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: B-52's, dirty back road, wild planet

20 Musical Moments to Die For

January 23, 2009 by Jim Connelly

Somewhere underneath all of that hair is Neil Young. This month, on Musical Moments to Die For: secrets, influences, and secret influences, all book-ended by the two best bands to ever come from Athens, GA.

We’ve also got the front-runners for greatest guitar and organ solos ever; Neil Young’s most despairing moment; and not one, not two, but three variations of the beat solidified by the late, great Ellas McDaniel.

As always, I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, more like traps. The parts of these songs that bring me back to them over and over again.

This is the sixth in a series: The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22, the fifth one had 21.

And yeah, you probably see the pattern and think you know the endgame, but I can promise you that there’s a twist!

[Read more…] about 20 Musical Moments to Die For

Filed Under: Music, Musical Moments To Die For, That's What I Like Tagged With: B-52's, Bob Dylan, Bob Mould, David Bowie, Disposable Heroes, Funkadelic, Grant Hart, Hank Williams, Hoodoo Gurus, Husker Du, Ice Cube, Interpol, Michael Franti, Neil Young, R.E.M., Sugar, Television, The Smiths, The Who, Tom Verlaine

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #1704: R.E.M. – “(don’t Go back TO) ROCKVILLE”
  • Certain Song #1703: R.E.M. – “camerA”
  • Certain Songs #1702: R.E.M. – “letter Never seNt”
  • Certain Songs #1701: R.E.M. – “Time After Time (annElise)”
  • Certain Songs #1700: R.E.M. – “Pretty Persuasion”

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