The B-52’s Kate Pierson on the artist who “epitomised hippiedom”
The new wave boom of the late 1970s saw the US music mainstream awash with vibrant and innovative new groups. Imbuing punk attitudes with pop sensibilities, the new wave scene wasted no time in infiltrating the charts. Among the vibrant scene, few groups remained as fearlessly non-conformist as The B-52’s. Hailing from Athens, Georgia, the band were fierce and individualistic, led by the unforgettable stylings of frontman Fred Schneider and, of course, Kate Pierson.
If The B-52’s were among the best groups the new wave scene ever produced (which they were), then Kate Pierson was certainly among the greatest vocalists of the period. In the early days of the band, the multi-instrumentalist would usually take on keyboard duties. However, as their career progressed, she took on more and more vocal performances, with her mezzo-soprano range providing a definite edge to The B-52’s signature sound.
Throughout her career, both with The B-52’s and her various side projects and solo efforts, Pierson has repeatedly affirmed herself as one of the most prolific and underappreciated artists in modern music. Nevertheless, the New Jersey-born vocalist maintains a deep appreciation for those who came before her.
The B-52’s rose from the blossoming punk scene of the 1970s, an innovative musical rejection of the past that sought to form a new ground zero for DIY music. Despite this sense of destruction, there were a handful of groups from times past that received a pass from the punk revolution. In fact, the roots of the punk rebellion can be traced back to the anti-war movement and 1960s counterculture.
Therefore, it probably should not come as a surprise that Kate Pierson was a disciple of the 1960s counterculture scene. As she revealed in an interview with Pitchfork, “I wanted to look like Mary Travers and Joni Mitchell. I had long straight hair with a part in the middle, while all my classmates had these teased bouffants, which is so ironic now,” referring to the beehive hairstyle she became synonymous with during her period with The B-52’s.
For Pierson, one icon of the decade stood out among all the rest, “I became aware of psychedelic music, but the one singer that really got me was Janis Joplin.”
She shared, “I listened to her sing ‘Ball and Chain’ by Big Mama Thornton, and it blew me away. I could never sing like her—I mean, I can’t even try. I don’t know how she did it. She was so unique and seemed to be so free. She epitomised hippiedom, and she seemed like such a strong woman, even though she was singing about a man taking a piece of her heart. She took a piece of my heart, too.”
Despite the psychedelic scene which Joplin was often associated with, Pierson claims that her vocal performances demanded more attention than simply being the soundtrack to an acid trip, saying, “She wasn’t so psychedelic. She was more of a warm, visceral singer, like red wine flowing through your veins.” A synopsis which could certainly be attached to Pierson herself, though she often favoured the kitsch and outlandish rather than the classic stylings of Joplin.
