One night in 1976, Fred Schneider was in Atlanta at a club called 2001. “It was a real cheesy place,” the B-52s singer tells Classic Rock. “Instead of a light show, they just showed slides on a screen. And the slides were of babies and puppies, and weirdly, lobsters on a grill [laughs]. It made no sense to be at a disco and be seeing that stuff!” But Schneider says inspiration struck. “I thought: ‘Wow, rock this, rock that, rock lobster!’”
Using that title, Schneider wrote a poem, free-associating about undersea creatures, beach party movies and even a Coppertone tanning butter commercial (“Pass the butter, please!”). He brought the idea back to Athens, where, a few months before, he and four “nerdy friends” had started a band. Named after the 50s-style bouffant hairdos singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson loved, they called themselves The B-52s. After playing a few house parties, doing covers, they got serious about writing their own songs.
