Continuing on with the fourth installment of my multi-part “Only assholes don’t like the B-52s” megapost, today’s topic is another favorite, 1983’s Whammy!.
After the band cut their losses and issued the ill-fated David Byrne sessions for Mesopotamia as an EP, they returned to the the studio with Steve Stanley, who produced the first Tom Tom Club album. The B-52s were looking to bring back the playful element to their sound seen lacking in the more avant garde Mesopotamia, so the producer who helped birth both “Wordy Rappinghood” and “Genius of Love” seemed liked a solid choice.
Whammy!, although not my favorite favorite B-52s album—that would be Mesopotamia—it’s up there. It’s a strong album from start to finish, not a bum track on it. Three numbers, “Butterbean,” “Big Bird” and “Queen of Las Vegas” had been recorded with Byrne, but were re-recorded with Stanley. The band’s sound, expanded by Byrne, contracts on Whammy! to mostly synthesizers, guitars and drum machines. Keith Strickland and Ricky Wilson played all the instruments this time, save for sax and trumpet. It was also the first time that all five members of the band sang on record.
ON FIRE version of “Big Bird” from the Rock in Rio festival in 1983:
“Legal Tender,” an ode to the high life, financed by counterfeit money:
Below, phenomenal set including “Song for a Future Generation,” “Whammy Kiss,” and “Butter Bean” performed on the Switch TV show in the UK, 1983
One of the best tracks on Whammy! was their sincere tribute to Yoko Ono, a cover of her 1971 song “Don’t Worry, Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow).” “Don’t Worry” would not be on the album’s CD release, due to alleged legal issues with Ono. It was replaced by “Moon 83”—a remake of their earlier track “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon).” Although this is a great song, too, the Whammy! CD version certainly suffers due to the loss of “Don’t Worry.” But, hey, don’t worry, someone has posted it on YouTube:
The video for “Song for a Future Generation”: