It was raining. Monday night, and the B-52's were playing Harpo's, an old movie theater on the east side of Detroit. Anticipation was the drug.

Creeping along 14 Mile Road, I pulled up next to a muscled-up '69 Nova. The moustachioed guy driving was wearing a cowboy hat, and smoking a Marlboro. His stereo's blasting "Planet Claire" so loud that he could've been arrested for disturbing the peace. Just before the light turned green, he started brake-torquing. Bluish smoke poured from beneath the car, and everyone behind the motorhead had to crawl through the burnt rubber fog.

At the next stoplight, the Cowpunk glanced over at me, grinning like a possum eating shit. Again, moments before the light turned green, he began to brake-torque. Smoke billowed, reducing visibility to zero.

The Cowpunk repeated this nonsense all the way down the road, with the 8-52's for musical accompaniment. At the last stop light before my exit, I rolled down the window and shouted, "Hey! Do you like the 8-52's?" The Cowpunk realized I was trying to communicate with him. "Whadidja say?" he asked in a thick Southern accent I said Do you like the B-52's? once again He Smiled.

"Shee-it, Ah love the 8-52's!" the Cowpunk hooted as his Nova screamed off into the wet American night

• Anne's a 19-year-old student at Wayne State University in Detroit To support herself, she works part-time at Henry Ford Hospital as a lab technician Her favorite performer is Elvis Costello and she also likes the Clash, lan Dury and the Blockheads, Little Feat a smattering of jazz and the B 52 s What I like about the B 52 s is the way they dance she said I hey have the beat and all the basics Their lyrics are a little contrived but you don t have to b completely original to make people dance. They re totally apolitical so you don t hdve to put a lot of thought into what message they are trying to get across. In a word-FUN."

We’re a big favorite among two-year-olds. —Kate Pierson

• Jim's a 28-year-old happily married man with two children, ages six and eight. His wife Dorothy works at a supermarket as a cashier. On weekends they enjoy swimming, horse back riding, camping and occasionally going to discos. Jim and Dorothy discovered the 8-52's at a disco that was giving heavy rotation to "Rock Lobster" in late `79. "The first time I heard `Rock Lobster' I couldn't believe it. It had such a great beat-and strange lyrics flying over the top. What's a song about a `rock lobster' gonna mean to anyone? Then their new album came out, and I said to myself, `Mother of 12 bastards! What's a "Private Idaho"?' I mean, in the 60's 1 used to listen to Hendrix, hut that's a whole different story..

• Renee, 37, manages a hardware store. She has two daughters who can't stand the B-52's. They deplore them because "Punk stinks." They like Bob Seger, the Rolling Stones, Journey, Donna Summer, and the Funkadelics. Reicee likes "To luck and play raquetball as long as there's good-looking men around." She likes the B-52's because "I like to get crazy, I like to exercise via dancing. They're good because they're punk but they're not sleazy like the Sex Pistols or any of those other disgusting groups." Renee's favorite movie is Urban Cowboy.

• 17-year-old Jenny's a fan of new wave and "violent symphonies." She was recent ly voted homecoming queen by "All the stupid jocks in school. They thought it would be funny if they voted me home-coming queen. The joke's on them. They're going to pay for it." Jenny's hobbies are sex and big game hunting. I really like my M-16," she said. "My father picked it up in Kenya a few years hack, on a hunting trip. I accompanied him the next year, and I bagged a zebra, and a lion. Of course, I use a Winchester .243 for plain's game. There's no other way to deal with a beast 10 times your size." She likes the B-52's because "They made a lot of money outta bullshit, which is the best way of all...their music is bouncy, and they're great to watch."

• Johnny, 13, is an eighth grader who likes football, fishing, hunting, and girls but, he said, “They’re sorta icky.” His idea of a perfect afternoon is to play football or go fishing, then go to Wendy’s for a Double with only mustard and pickles. After dinner he likes to watch television. His favorite program is Dukes of Hazzard, His favorite groups are Foreigner, the Rolling Stones (“Jagger sounds like a queer when he sings “Emotional Rescue,” said Johnny), the Talking Heads, and the B-52’s. And why does Johnny like the B-52’s? “Cos they’re fun!” he enthused. “And besides,” Johnny added. “Jean, the girl who sits next to me in geography likes them. ”

Yeah, the names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty, but the stories are true. Each person had different beliefs, but they all shared a common denominator-the B-52’s. Whether the B-52’s are “punk” or not is irrelevant What's "punk" anyway? Wearing "funny" clothes? David Lee Roth wears “funny” clothes. David Bowie wears “funny” clothes. Captain Beefheart wears “funny” clothes, as do John Lydon, Cher, Elton John and George Clinton. All of ’em wear “funny” clothes and all of ’em are different. And successful.

☆ ☆ ☆

The Plastics, from Japan, opened for the B-52’s. With no bass player or drummer, it’s hard to imagine them as a rock ’n’ roll group, but they are. They’re reminiscent of the Talking Heads and Devo, the twist being that they sing about half the set in Japanese, the other half in English (though for the most part, no distinction could be made). Despite this, the Plastics managed to bring the audience to their feet.

Between the Plastics’ set and the B-52’s’, the Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.” blasted from the loudspeakers, and damn if it didn’t sound old and tired. No one seemed to notice “Anarchy,” much less care about its socio-political implications. The whole thing is, seeing (and preparing to see) the B-52’s is an experience in itself.

It’s a lot like dressing up for Halloween— you put on a costume, slip into an attitude, and forget about your car payments, nagging parent/lover/spouse, the election, inflation, noisy neighbors and dirty kittyboxes and have a great time. Like during the heydey of the New York Dolls, life’s just a cabaret, ole chum, but-fuck-that-I’d-rather-be-in-the-circus-preferably-the-Big-Topbut-I’ll-settle-f or-the-freak-show—and—if you don’t know how to have a good time, in the immortal words of Alfred Hitchcock to Ingrid Bergman, “Fake it.”

The joint was jumpin’. There was such a diverse spectrum of people, from your random rabble of hippies to punks* to headbangers to nurses to transvestites to dogheads—that you felt like an extra in a Fellini flick. Or hallucinating.

The lights went down for the second time, and the B-52’s opened with “Lava,” followed by “Give Me Back My Man.” The audience performed any and every dance imaginable, and the group plowed their way through the set like a steam shovel perfecting its dig.

We were a hair from getting a gold record. -Cindy Wilson

Fred Schneider, the B-52’s emcee and resident wise-ass, introduced “Running Around” with, “This one goes out to all you joggers!,” and “Rock Lobster” with “This next tune is also a song!” All the while, Cindy Wilson kept her muu-muu up (barely), Kate Pierson chopped at her keyboards gracefully, Keith Strickland pounded rock steady oh his drum kit, and Ricky Wilson manhandled his guitar with precision and tact. Guess what? The B-52’s jive sound exactly like their records.

Tearing through the B-52’s fusilage isn’t an easy task. Trying to Interview them when they Wanted to go see Iggy Pop at Bookie’s Club 870 make this a c’mon-let’s-get-thisthing-over-with-and-have-a-good-tirhe situation.

The conversation began with Fred Schneider asking the first question. Remember that obnoxious voice that shouts “Surpriiiiiise!” at the beginning of “Party Out Of Bounds”? Well, that’s Fred in real life. ☆ ☆ ☆

FRED: Are you going to ask our opinions on anything?

CREEM: I can only try. Keith, how. is it you write so much being a drummer?

KEITH: Well, I don’t write on the drums, I usually write on keyboards. When I write, it’s usually with Ricky. I’ve only been playing keyboards since the group’s been together.

FRED: Oh, go on Keith! Tell him about your intimate relationship with your tom-toms! (laughter)

CREEM: Do you find you’re being .dismissed as “serious musicians” because you’re basically apolitical?

FRED: No, we have a problem because everybody takes us sooo seriously. They claim there’s no humor because we’re such serious musicians.

CREEM: Has the group had any problems dealing With the English press?

FRED: The English press has problems. Their writers have big problems. They would give their own mothers bad reviews. CREEM: Do you think they’re too analytical?

KATE: That’s the “in” thing to do. Even the American press like Rolling Stone is prone to that. I think it’s just a style—they’re trying tobd*witty.

CREEM: The B-52’s audience encompasses a broad age spectrum. How do you account for little kids loving you so much? FRED: They love everything.

KATE: We represent “parent” images to them.

RICKY: We’re very talented.

KATE: I think maybe the lyrics and the beat. Little kids like to dance.

FRED: I was 13 and I liked the Beatles. Every group has fans from 10 to 1000-year-old.

KATE: We’re a big favorite among the two-year-olds, the Crib Club.

(laughter) *

FRED: We hav§ secret surveys going on all the time. We have channels.

CREEM: Not to change the topic, but in “Quiche Lorraine,”' the lyrics are “Has anybody seen/A dog dyed dark green/ About two inches tall/With a strawberry blonde fall.” Do you think dogs are significant in rock?

CINDY: I think it’s because you don’t want kids, you’d really rather have dogs, imuch laughter)

FRED: They’re more predictable, and a lot cuter. They’re gonna be big.

KATE: They’re fuzzy.

FRED: (louder than usual) You just know they’re gonna be the Next Big Thing!

KEITH: They’ve always been the underdog.

CINDY: They have such a sweet bark. FRED: You can always tell a person by their dog. *

CREEM: Isn’t the quote, “You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be”? (Captain Beefheart to Billy Altman, CREEM, April’79)

EVERYONE: Yeah, that’s it!!

FRED: Well, I’ve always been friendlier with dogs than with their owners.

CREEM: Have you heard Captain Beefheart’s new album?

EVERYONE: Yeah! _

CREEM: Do you like it?

EVERYONE: YEAH!!!

CREENL What about groups like Can? Do you Tike them?.

KATE: They’re very moody. I like Kraftwerk a lot. We play Kraftwerk while we’re traveling.

CINDY: It’s the best traveling music. CREEM: Which Kraftwerk album do you like best?

(after some discussion, the group agrees on Trans-Europe Express.)

KATE: We had the Plastics teach us how to make origami cranes [Japanese art of folding paper into different shapes.—Ed.] and we entertained ourselves when traveling by making them dance to Kraftwerk. FRED: We made them in first grade, but nobody seemed to grasp it.

CREEM: Why was there such a delay in the release of the second album?

KEITH: It was Warner Bros.’ idea. We had the second album completed, we were ready for it to come out. But the first album was doing so well, they wanted to get as much out 6i it as possible.

KATE: It started getting airplay ktnda late. CINDY: We were a hair from getting a gold record.

CREEM: What’s the difference between what you’re doing and disco? v

FRED: People want to dance. But they don’t want to listen to old disco.. .junk.

They want to hear something different I think.../hope!

KATE: They want to shake their booties. FRED: 1 heard someone say that disco’s coming back, because they didn’t think new wave was as big as they thought it was going to be, which is horrible, .terrible. Disco needs a'fecelift or something.

KATE: Australia was good because the radio played everything.

KEITH: Australia’s the best for us. The audience over there’s overwhelming.

FRED: There was a kangaroo stampede at ope point.

(laughter)

CREEM: Why are the designs of both album sleeves essentially the same?

CINDY: It’s just our logo, I think it’s consistent.

FRED:Everyone expected a ’collage or something. We were pressed for time.

RICKY: In 20 or 50 years time it’ll make a nice little package.. .like a deck of cards. KEITH: Half the songs were written around the same time thelirst one’s were.

TURN TO PAGE 61

You can always tell a person by their dog.--Fred Schneider

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45

CREEM: It seems you’re not very prolific. KATE: Well, a lot of the songs we write collectively, and that involves a lot more time.

CREEM: Where did you get the idea for “Devil In My Car”?

KEITH: We were in Athens looking for a party or a bar to go to and we heard this preacher on the radio shouting, “The devil’s in your car! The devil’s in your washing machine, he’s in your microwave oven!” We just had a title, so we jammed on that and the lyrics just came.

CREEM: Have you had-any experience with drugs?

FRED: Yeah, I had a date with one. It was awful.

KATE: I was drug through a crowd once. KEITH: Take the “D” out of DRUGS!!! CREEM: Why do the women in the group dress cool and the guys dress nondescriptly?

FRED: Oh well FUCK YOU!!

KEITH: It would be boring...it’s different. FRED: We just dress the way we feel. Next week you won’t be able to tell me from Jimmy Carter. I’m trying to get the John Anderson look.

(laughter)

CREEM: Seeing as time’s running out, I’ll pop the big question: What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

KATE: I’d watch Fred’s love life.

(laughter)

CINDY: I’d peek.

☆ ☆ ☆

The interview over, and, everyone prepared to go to Bookie’s to see Iggy. Jackets were donned against the rain and cold. Everyone’s ready to leave, except Kate. She’s unsuccessfully trying to hold her hair in a bun while manuvering one of those massive wigs onto her head. Kate askecj for my assistance. I obliged and held her hair in place as she deftly slipped the hairpiece qn. I always wondered how it was done.

☆ ☆ ☆

• Marge’s a 27-year-old “visualist” (read make-up artist) who works in a chic salon in Birmingham. On the side she takes singing lessons and is interested in film, theafer and music of all kinds. Asked her opinion of the B-52’s, Marge said, ‘The B-52’s are a 80’s end of the summer clambake starring Annette Fullajello and Frankie Avaloni with hairstyles waxing effervescent bubbleyicious. They write divine little ditties teetering on the edge of buffoonery, and are great to dance to. Need I say more?”