Valentine's Day 1977 B-52's photo by Kelly Bugden
It all began 47 years ago on Valentine's Day. The B-52s played their first live gig at a Valentine's Day party in their hometown of Athens, Georgia. In keeping with the theme of love today, we're featuring "Love Shack" as today's ear X-tacy. The song first appeared on their 5th studio album, Cosmic Thing, in 1989.
Speaking about the inspiration for "Love Shack," frontman Fred Schneider described the Georgia club named Hawaiian Ha-Le saying, "It was an African-American club that had a lot of good shows. It looked like a shack, you wouldn't expect it to be what it was, and when you opened the door, it was a wild band playing.”
Bandmate Cindy Wilson added, "It used to be this funky building with a tin roof that was old and rusty. They would have Soul Train lines."
The song was their first top 40 hit and the music video won the award for Best Group Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards
Today's ear X-tacy features a classic track or deep-cut from the Alternative era every weekday at 10:10.
