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Cosmic Thing
Cosmic Thing is the fifth studio album by American new wave band the B-52's, released in 1989 by Reprise Records. It contains the hit singles "Love Shack", "Roam" and "Deadbeat Club". The music video for "Love Shack" won the award for Best Group Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. Six of the album's songs were produced by Nile Rodgers in New York City, and the remaining four by Don Was in upstate New York.
Cosmic Thing was the ninth best-selling album of 1990 in the US, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and was an international success as well, charting in the Top 10 in the UK, and reaching No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand. The album eventually achieved 4× Platinum status in the US and Platinum status in the UK. Its success served as a comeback for the band, following the death of guitarist, songwriter and founding member Ricky Wilson in 1985. The band also embarked on the worldwide Cosmic Tour to promote the album.
I wanted to keep some connection with what Ricky had done... He was a very key ingredient in our sound, and I just didn't want that to disappear. I knew that once we started playing live, there'd be older material to play, and if we got somebody else, I'd have to be there giving them a lot of hints, like the tunings and everything. So I figured I'd just do it myself. I knew enough that I thought I could do it. Well, I was hoping I could do it.
Following guitarist Ricky Wilson's death and the band's short promotional campaign for their 1986 album Bouncing Off the Satellites, the band was uncertain about their future together. The album had been the band's most expensive to produce, and their foregoing of a tour to promote it resulted in the band seeing little revenue, which led to them experiencing great financial difficulties.
In 1988, prompted by drummer/guitarist Keith Strickland, the band began to convene and write new songs. Singer Kate Pierson described this as a healing process for herself and the band after Wilson's death three years prior. Much of the album was written in Woodstock and surrounding areas in upstate New York, a place to which Strickland and Pierson had both relocated during the group's hiatus, and all four members felt a proximity to nature in these places that was not found in their previous home of New York City. The band spent approximately a year writing the songs. Strickland stated, "We spent a lot of time just talking, and we needed that. We were our own support group after Ricky's passing, which was a very traumatic thing for all of us and, in particular, for Cindy [Wilson]."
The band rented a rehearsal space in the Wall Street area of Manhattan, in which they worked four days a week. At this time, the band also left their longtime manager, Gary Kurfirst, and left longtime label Warner Bros. for Reprise.
In the wake of Wilson's death, Strickland took over both guitar duties and the bulk of the music composition responsibilities. For the new songs, Strickland recorded instrumental demos and singers Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider would then improvise melodies and lyrics over the recordings, with all four band members devising the final song arrangements together. The first piece of music Strickland composed for the album would eventually become "Deadbeat Club", whose autobiographical lyrics about the band's early life in Athens, Georgia would serve as a blueprint for the album. "Junebug" was the first song to be fully completed during the band's compositional jam sessions, which gave them confidence to persevere. Pierson described these songs as being "cinematic" and "nostalgic", and felt that the album in general had developed a "rural, kind of southern, dusty feeling to it". Wilson added, "It was all about nostalgia. It was looking back at the good times we used to have in Athens, so it was a wonderful, healing record."
Our 'agenda' wasn't at first necessarily related to 'queerness,' but more universal—putting lyrics in that referenced political ideas. But later, after Ricky’s death, we became much more activist, becoming involved with PETA, environmental causes, LGBTQA rights, and especially AIDS activism. During this time, many other friends were dying of AIDS; it was terrifying and sad, and we joined in to do what we could and speak out.
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Cosmic Thing
Cosmic Thing is the fifth studio album by American new wave band the B-52's, released in 1989 by Reprise Records. It contains the hit singles "Love Shack", "Roam" and "Deadbeat Club". The music video for "Love Shack" won the award for Best Group Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. Six of the album's songs were produced by Nile Rodgers in New York City, and the remaining four by Don Was in upstate New York.
Cosmic Thing was the ninth best-selling album of 1990 in the US, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and was an international success as well, charting in the Top 10 in the UK, and reaching No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand. The album eventually achieved 4× Platinum status in the US and Platinum status in the UK. Its success served as a comeback for the band, following the death of guitarist, songwriter and founding member Ricky Wilson in 1985. The band also embarked on the worldwide Cosmic Tour to promote the album.
I wanted to keep some connection with what Ricky had done... He was a very key ingredient in our sound, and I just didn't want that to disappear. I knew that once we started playing live, there'd be older material to play, and if we got somebody else, I'd have to be there giving them a lot of hints, like the tunings and everything. So I figured I'd just do it myself. I knew enough that I thought I could do it. Well, I was hoping I could do it.
Following guitarist Ricky Wilson's death and the band's short promotional campaign for their 1986 album Bouncing Off the Satellites, the band was uncertain about their future together. The album had been the band's most expensive to produce, and their foregoing of a tour to promote it resulted in the band seeing little revenue, which led to them experiencing great financial difficulties.
In 1988, prompted by drummer/guitarist Keith Strickland, the band began to convene and write new songs. Singer Kate Pierson described this as a healing process for herself and the band after Wilson's death three years prior. Much of the album was written in Woodstock and surrounding areas in upstate New York, a place to which Strickland and Pierson had both relocated during the group's hiatus, and all four members felt a proximity to nature in these places that was not found in their previous home of New York City. The band spent approximately a year writing the songs. Strickland stated, "We spent a lot of time just talking, and we needed that. We were our own support group after Ricky's passing, which was a very traumatic thing for all of us and, in particular, for Cindy [Wilson]."
The band rented a rehearsal space in the Wall Street area of Manhattan, in which they worked four days a week. At this time, the band also left their longtime manager, Gary Kurfirst, and left longtime label Warner Bros. for Reprise.
In the wake of Wilson's death, Strickland took over both guitar duties and the bulk of the music composition responsibilities. For the new songs, Strickland recorded instrumental demos and singers Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider would then improvise melodies and lyrics over the recordings, with all four band members devising the final song arrangements together. The first piece of music Strickland composed for the album would eventually become "Deadbeat Club", whose autobiographical lyrics about the band's early life in Athens, Georgia would serve as a blueprint for the album. "Junebug" was the first song to be fully completed during the band's compositional jam sessions, which gave them confidence to persevere. Pierson described these songs as being "cinematic" and "nostalgic", and felt that the album in general had developed a "rural, kind of southern, dusty feeling to it". Wilson added, "It was all about nostalgia. It was looking back at the good times we used to have in Athens, so it was a wonderful, healing record."
Our 'agenda' wasn't at first necessarily related to 'queerness,' but more universal—putting lyrics in that referenced political ideas. But later, after Ricky’s death, we became much more activist, becoming involved with PETA, environmental causes, LGBTQA rights, and especially AIDS activism. During this time, many other friends were dying of AIDS; it was terrifying and sad, and we joined in to do what we could and speak out.