Tonight's Music

As part of the ongoing efforts to promote the Biltmore Estate's Summer Evening Concerts here are three videos from the last of the acts who will be appearing there this year, The B-52's:



This is Dance This Mess Around from their self titled First album (I believe I had this on 8 track). You may be asking why three videos when I normally only post one. That is a good question you see I am posting extra B-52's videos because I can. When I am not listening to Celtic music I will probably be listening to early New Wave like The B-52's, The Replacements, Bolshoi, The Cure, Siouxsie And The Banshees and Elvis Costello.




This is Private Idaho from their second album Wild Planet, which I also think I had on 8 track. If you'll notice standing to the right of singer Fred Schneider the band's guitar player Ricky Wilson, brother of Cindy Wilson, the chick with black hair. Here is a snip from Ricky's wiki bio:

Among guitar aficionados, Wilson's most salient feature must surely be his highly original approach to playing the instrument. Because at first The B-52's did not have a bass, he invented his own tunings, grouping the strings into a bass course (usually tuned to 5ths for strumming) and a treble course (often tuned in unison), removing the middle two strings entirely, though sometimes he played with 5 strings as well. A blue Mosrite so modified is visible on the back cover of the B-52's self-titled first album.

Watching this is somewhat sad because Ricky died of AIDS in 1985. Based on the time that this video was shot and the time it takes HIV to begin showing symptoms he was already carrying a death sentence when this was done and did not know it yet. After his death drummer Keith Strickland learned to play the guitar in Ricky's style and took over for him. Rounding out the band (in a most pleasant way) is Kate Pierson.



This is Song for a Future Generation off the album Whammy! By the time this one came out I had a cassette deck in my car.