Guitarist Ricky Wilson told his sister, Cindy, he’d just written “the stupidest guitar line ever.” But sometimes, a joke is simultaneously a stroke of genius (see Blur’s “Song 2”). Time to find out about the rock ‘n’ roll lobster, and the meaning behind “Rock Lobster” by The B-52’s.
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Weirdness Ambassadors
The B-52’s are an unlikely success story. Their flamboyant music draws inspiration from Italian composer Ennio Morricone, new wave, post-punk, and Yoko Ono. Most of the band members identify as LGBTQ+, and over a 40-year career, they’ve been a symbol that weird is acceptable and weird also has “the world’s best party band.”
Formed in 1976, the Athens quintet entered the male-dominated punk scene wearing colorful vintage clothing and beehive wigs. The band’s name is derived from their hometown slang for the updo hairstyle, which resembled a U.S. Air Force bomber.
[RELATED: Behind the Song: “Love Shack,” The B-52s]
Eccentric in a conservative era, they challenged convention when public discussion of sexuality was taboo. Sadly, Ricky Wilson was an early high-profile casualty of AIDS. In the 1980s, it took a while for public officials to acknowledge AIDS becoming a pandemic, and The B-52’s were a beacon for LGBTQ+ kids who felt like outsiders.
With Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson’s sky-high hair, The B-52’s are B-movie chic with dance anthems, making the thrift store vogue. Conducting the eccentric punk symphony is a charismatic man named Fred Schneider reciting lyrics in sprechgesang—or speak-singing.
Panic at the Disco
Schneider got the idea for “Rock Lobster” at an Atlanta disco in the late ’70s. A slide show of lobsters on a grill played as Schneider thought, “Rock this, rock that … rock lobster!” He brought the idea to the band, and they jammed on the song for hours before splicing the final arrangement together in the studio.
The song is about a beach party where people encounter a rock lobster, and chaos ensues, with one unlucky victim losing an ear.
We were at a party
His earlobe fell in the deep
Someone reached in and grabbed it
It was a rock lobster
Danger moves to the water when a diver breaks his equipment and finds himself in a real predicament, trapped inside a giant clam. The B-52’s score the panicked episodes with ’60s surf rock and whooping animal impersonations.
Motion in the ocean, his air hose broke
Lots of trouble, lots of bubble
He was in a jam
He’s in a giant clam
Ricky Wilson increases the tension of the calamity with an ominous surf guitar riff that cycles around Pierson’s synth bass. Pierson joins Cindy Wilson with vocalizations of these mysterious beings. At this point, Schneider indexes the creatures of the sea.
Here comes a stingray
There goes a manta ray
In walked a jellyfish
There goes a dogfish
Chased by a catfish
In flew a sea robin
Watch out for that piranha
There goes a narwhal
Here comes a bikini whale!
More Cowbell
Drummer Keith Strickland drives the track with a classic surf rock beat, though Schneider’s cowbell drives the main riff. “Rock Lobster” might be the second-best cowbell song of all time behind Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” The aquatic thread between oysters and lobsters here is worth mentioning. Of course, cowbells are not often found in the sea unless one has been chucked overboard by the cruise ship’s drummer, but it does beg the question, is there something in the water?
Awaking a Beatle
A small independent label called DB Records released “Rock Lobster” as a single in 1978. With a tiny budget and a broken Farfisa organ, The B-52’s recorded a whimsical song launching their career. The original version is much faster than the major label version released by Warner Bros. the following year.
But “Rock Lobster” did more than put the group on the map. It inspired John Lennon out of a five-year hiatus from recording. Yoko Ono inspired Wilson and Pierson’s vocalizations before Lennon and Ono heard “Rock Lobster,” becoming instant fans of the band. The B-52’s created a pathway for New York’s most famous couple to make a new album together—Double Fantasy was released in 1980. Lennon was murdered only three weeks after the album’s release. Ono said she and Lennon had been listening to The B-52 weeks before he died. At a New York show in 2002, Ono performed “Rock Lobster” with the group to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
Not Eating Animals
“Rock Lobster” became the defining song of a band fronted by a vegetarian. Schneider quit eating animals as a child after watching crabs get boiled alive. In a video for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Schneider tells the history of how “Rock Lobster” was written, then narrates how lobsters are killed before they make it to the dining table. He ends the video by urging viewers to let the lobsters live and “rock on!”
Photo by Roger Kisby/Getty Images
