The skies are charcoal gray. It's a dreary downtown day. But. At the end of my 30 foot leash. My little friend, Quiche.
Thus began one of my favorite songs by the B-52s, "Quiche Lorraine." It's a classic narrative about a boy and his dog, but with a super queer twist. Fred Schneider is singing about his beloved poodle, Quiche Lorraine. "Sunglasses and a bonnet, and designer jeans with appliques on 'em." My adolescent mind was blown. I was totally enthralled with this fictional bitch, just from the lyrical description.
The song is track 7 on the CD version I have of the album Wild Planet.
I always have great luck with the number 7 tracks of albums, but we'll leave numerology out of this for now. The song is the ultimate high camp showpiece of an album filled with vintage high camp showpieces.
In "Devil in my Car," Fred can't get the Devil out of his car because as Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson sing in the background vocals "[The Devil's] got his cloven hoof on the clu--hutch."
In "Strobelight," Fred and the ladies extol the virtues of sex under a strobelight.
"Dirty Back Road" is all about, well let's just let your imagination flow.
All of these tracks were mind blowing to my exurban repressed homosexual adolescent ears. I loved dancing to them, or I'd just sit in my room and count the days until I would die. The B-52s made my existence much more tolerable, and I eventually realized that I too could make it out. Hell, I could carry a tune better than Fred Scheider. Though realistically I knew I probably would never be in a band, I was encouraged not to always do what was expected of me.
I finally stopped living in my own "Private Idaho," and now I love my life. Thanks in part to the sounds from a distant Wild Planet.
Click here for the iTunes link. | View Wikipedia.
2 comments:
I've likely mentioned this before, but every time I watch that episode of The L Word in which the B-52s perform and Dana squeals, "I love the B-52s!" I feel like you somehow got trapped in Dana's body.
I know. I just wish I could get a suburu endorsement deal. But maybe if I were Dana, some bitch writer would give me cancer and kill me off to teach a lesson to others about screening
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