How The B-52s paid tribute to Yoko Ono on their classic hit ‘Rock Lobster’
It’s hard not to love the B-52s, who are best known for their infectious tunes like ‘Rock Lobster’ and ‘Love Shack’. Emerging in the 1970s as icons of the new wave scene, the B-52s charmed listeners with their shamelessly fun approach to music, blending humourous lyrics and vocal deliveries with genres such as funk, pop and post-punk.
With Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson providing vocals, the B-52s crafted a unique and distinctive aesthetic and sound, influenced by ‘trash culture’ and retro style. The band have attracted a cult following due to their indulgence in campiness and refusal to adhere to strict musical boundaries and expectations.
The band have been nominated for three Grammys and won a VMA for ‘Best Group Video’ with ‘Love Shack’. The eccentric band were even approached to provide a cover of ‘Meet the Flintstones’ for the 1994 movie The Flintstones, which gave them one of their highest-charting hits, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart.
However, it all began with ‘Rock Lobster’, the band’s debut single, released in 1978. Recognised as one of their signature songs, ‘Rock Lobster’ is a gloriously fun surf-rock-inspired cut, which Schneider once explained was influenced by the 2001 disco club in Atlanta, which projected images of crustaceans on the wall while he was in attendance.
The song opens with the lyrics, “We were at a party/ His earlobe fell in the deep/ Someone reached in and grabbed it/ It was a rock lobster,” creating a bizarrely surreal picture. As the song continues, the band encourage everyone to have fun no matter what, exclaiming, “Boy’s in bikinis/ Girls in surfboards/ Everybody’s rockin’.”
What makes the song so brilliant is the sheer attention to detail, with the band singing the lines with the perfect offbeat inflexions and adding strange fish-like noises to the soundscape. These were performed by Wilson and Pierson, yet many fans might be unaware that the pair took direct inspiration from avant-garde artist and musician Yoko Ono.
She often performed such noises in her work, so the band channelled their inner Yoko for ‘Rock Lobster’. However, as a result, the song led to the creation of John Lennon’s final album, Double Fantasy. B-52s guitarist Keith Strickland told Q magazine, “Cindy does this scream that was inspired by Yoko Ono. John heard it in some club in the Bahamas, and the story goes that he calls up Yoko and says, ‘Get the axe out – they’re ready for us again!’ Yoko has said that she and John were listening to us in the weeks before he died.”
In 2013, Ono explained: “Listening to the B-52s, John said he realised that my time had come. So he could record an album by making me an equal partner and we won’t get flack like we used to up to then.” Oko even joined B-52s on stage for a rendition of ‘Rock Lobster’ in 2002.
Listen below.
