Upon A Mouse #12: Why Don't You Dance With Me?

When SWC at No Badger Required asked the NBR Musical Jury to nominate for The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, my immediate thought was The B-52's by The B-52's.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to think so, and The B-52's made it onto the voting shortlist. Again, there was no hesitation from me. It got the full twenty points, plus the "maximum three Grovel points please, because it’s deserves to be in the Top 10 at least, if not #1!"

Sadly, I may have been the only one to think so, as whilst The B-52's was my #1, in the final countdown, it was the ranked the 16th Greatest Eponymous Album Of All Time.

There's a compare-and-contrast table below, but no spoiler - and perhaps no surprise - that The Stone Roses' self-titled debut was #1 in the definitive NBR countdown. 

I have to admit that Ian, John, Mani and Reni didn't get a single point from me.

Wait! Before you write SWC / your local MP / Judge Rinder (or Judy) demanding that I be barred from any jury service in future, this was my confessional cover letter to SWC back in late August.

A bit of a struggle this time as I only realised when going through the shortlist 

that I haven’t heard many of these albums, 

even though I may have plenty of other stuff by said artist. 

And of those I do have in my collection, 

a fair few rarely get an airing, 

so I’ve had to listen to a few again more recently 

to remind myself how good (or bad) they really are. 

My other self-imposed rule was that, if a shortlisted album wasn't already in my collection at the time of casting votes, then it was automatically disqualified. I wasn't going to acquire an album just to shoehorn it into my final list, but it did mean that there were some glaring omissions from my final vote.

The Beatles, The Charlatans, The La's, Placebo, The Smiths, Suede and The Stone Roses all made the NBR Top 20 but with no help whatsoever from me. Sorry about that!

And whilst I'd heard all of the above, other self-titled albums that remain unheard include Alvvays, Fleet Foxes, The Libertines and Weezer.

I got hold of a copy of The Stone Roses following The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, some weeks before the tragic passing of Mani aka Gary Mounfield. As I commented in my tribute post on Monday,

My friend Stu had the album and I liked it, 

but not enough to buy anything more than the standalone single 

Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For, which I loved. 

Listening to The Stone Roses again, it's a worthy winner and even if I hadn't felt that way, Swiss Adam from Bagging Area wrote such a wonderfully compelling case that I suspect even diehard opponents would reconsider their position.  

That said, if The Stone Roses hadn't fallen foul of my self-imposed voting criteria, whilst it would likely have been in my Top 10, The B-52's would still have been my #1.

And it was all thanks to the necessary evil of record label plugging.

If Rock Lobster hadn’t been re-released in 1986, then The B-52’s 1979 album probably wouldn’t have been the first album of theirs that I bought, age 15. But what a debut.

 

From the opening outer space bleeps of Planet Claire to the closing party sounds on their cover of Downtown, and all points in between, this is a sound so quirky and retro, it defied the homogenised nostalgia of the mid-late 1980s.

 

Educational, too. I’m still prone to shouting out, “Why don’t you dance with me? I’m not no Limburger!” or, at every mention of Krakatoa on TV or in conversation, casually pointing out that it’s “East of Java”.

 

The B-52’s was also the album that I lent to my school friend Phil, as proof that there was more to music than his prized cassette rip of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms (worse the ‘extended version’ released on CD). A few weeks later, I had to prise it out of his hands to get it back.

I never tire of listening to The B-52's and I have a love for each and every one of their albums. The world as a whole is a better place for having The B-52's in it. And their debut album made that clear from the start. 

Forty years later, The B-52's is - and will probably always be - The #1 Greatest Eponymous Album Of All Time for me.

Note: I've run out of time for today's post, but please come back on Friday and I will re-post links to previous Dubhed Selections featuring The B-52's. In the meantime., here a trio of fine videos.

 

 

Thanks for coming along with me for the past four weeks and especially to SWC, who keeps coming up with these brilliant ideas time and again, they're such fun. If you'd like to sign up for Musical Jury service, email SWC at Nobadgerrequired@googlemail.com. You won't regret it!

So, as promised, here's a recap of my list, alongside the official No Badger Required Top 20. 

Dubhed Top 20

1) The B-52’s

2) Portishead

3) Ramones

4) The Doors

5) Orbital

6) Franz Ferdinand

7) Elastica

8) Gorillaz

9) Blur

10) LCD Soundsystem

11) The xx

12) The Velvet Underground (which should have been The Velvet Underground & Nico!!)

13) The Clash

14) The Specials

15) The Coral

16) Roxy Music

17) Blondie

18) THe Stooges

19) Echo & The Bunnymen

20) Duran Duran (for Mrs. K)

The No Badger Required Top 20

1) The Stone Roses
2) Suede
3) The Smiths
4) The Specials
5) The Velvet Underground & Nico
6) The Clash
7) The La’s
8) LCD Soundsystem
9) Ramones
10) Portishead
11) Elastica
12) Franz Ferdinand
13) Blur
14) Orbital
15) The Charlatans
16) The B-52’s
17) The xx
18) Echo & The Bunnymen
19) The Beatles
20) Placebo