How The B-52’s helped relaunch John Lennon’s career
Towards the end of the 1970s, the world of rock was in a state of change yet again. Although the world of punk sent shockwaves through the scene with fans adopting spiky hair and pierced faces, the next generation brought acts that were more focused on the artistic side of rock and roll, like Talking Heads and Devo. The new wave of rock had dawned, and it was enough to get John Lennon to pay attention again.
For the decade’s second half, ‘The Intellectual Beatle’ had practically taken an extended sabbatical from music. As new genres like metal and punk rock were making the rounds, Lennon was content to focus on his family, spending most of his time at home raising his son Sean. When looking at how his decade started, no one would have blamed him either.
As Lennon took on bold new creative inventions with his wife, Yoko Ono, there came a point where those message songs began having diminishing returns, which led to some devotees turning their back on him. Having moved to New York City, Lennon was also under fire by the FBI, who thought that his power over young people could overturn an election, which started legal proceedings where Lennon had to fight the possibility of deportation.
Now without a record contract for the first time since his 20s, Lennon was ready to settle into domestic life, living comfortably raising his son and watching Sesame Street as Ono tended to the family’s finances. Once the new wave movement started happening, Lennon became enamoured with the music of The B-52’s.
Coming out in between the punk movement and new wave, The B-52’s based some of their best songs on quirky sounds from its various lead vocalists, throwback styles, and in-jokes that only they would understand on ‘Rock Lobster’. After speaking to Rolling Stone shortly before his death, Lennon explained how much the song reminded him of his old avant-garde experiments: “I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda. Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs I suddenly heard ‘Rock Lobster’ by The B-52’s for the first time. It sounds just like Yoko’s music. I said to myself, ‘It’s time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up.”
From Lennon’s perspective, the music world was finally starting to catch up with what he and Ono had been doing years before, leading to him writing songs on his final album, Double Fantasy. Possessing the same kookiness as The B-52’s, the album played out as a “song dialogue” between the happy couple, talking about the highs and lows of their marriage together.
Ono would also say that the newfound popularity of her singing style liberated her for the new album, telling Songfacts, “Listening to the B-52’s, 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.”
The new wave act were delighted to find out that the couple were fans of their work, with drummer Keith Strickland attributing the scream in ‘Rock Lobster’ as a clear homage to Yoko’s writing style. Yoko’s best material would also turn up on Double Fantasy, playing around with the sounds of dance music on ‘Give Me Something’ and penning achingly beautiful ballads on ‘Let Me Count the Ways’, which was ultimately shelved until the quasi-sequel Milk and Honey years later.
Despite Lennon finally finding his groove again, it would be short-lived, being murdered outside his apartment building only months after the album came out. Regardless of how short a timeframe he had to work with, Lennon’s return to making music gave listeners a preview of what the ex-Beatle could have been like as a new-wave elder statesman.
