‘Hero Worship’: When The B-52’s embraced punk
The history of kitsch new wave icons The B-52’s is invariably linked to the punk rock boom of the mid-1970s. Formed in 1976, the band played some of their earliest gigs in New York’s legendary punk venues, CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. However, in terms of sound and image, the group shared very little in common with the safety-pin heroin chic of New York’s East Side. Nevertheless, the Fred Schneider-fronted group never lost sight of their early punk influences.
Formed in Athens, Georgia, by art school students, The B-52’s were a ruthlessly original band. Throughout their illustrious discography, the band explored a variety of different influences, from old-school doo-wop to surf and psychedelia. Celebrating the kitsch and colourful, the group seemed to be at odds with the typical characteristics of punk rock. Switching mohawks for beehives and trading buzzsaw guitars for surf rock and synths, The B-52’s were never troubled by the issue of conformity.
On the eponymous debut of the band, which was released in 1979, the Anthens outfit paid tribute to the punk scene in which they hosted their early shows. The track ‘Hero Worship’ is probably the closest they ever got to that generic 1970s punk sound purported by much of the CBGB scene.
Featuring the distinctive vocals of Cindy Wilson, the song’s lyrics were actually written by Robert Waldrop, a close friend of the band. Dealing with topics of idolisation and the supernatural, The B-52’s still manage to imbue their usual sense of humour into the track.
In an interview with Songfacts, Wilson said that the track was a “kind of punk song” in contrast to the rest of the record, which adopted a sound more akin to new wave pop. Wilson got another chance to embrace punk rock on the David Byrne-produced EP Mesopotamia.
The stand-out track of the EP, ‘Nip It In The Bud’, was described by Wilson as a “punk-ish” track. Although the track feels more characteristically B-52’s than ‘Hero Worship’, it does have a certain edge to it, which evokes the sneering anger of punk.
Although these are perhaps the only two examples of the Athens band adopting a distinctly ‘punk’ sound, The B-52’s always maintained a fiercely punk attitude. Adopting the non-conformist attitude and DIY operation that characterised the better side of the scene, The B-52’s were much more punk than many groups walking around with bondage trousers and safety pins. Punk is an attitude, and The B-52’s possessed that attitude in abundance.
