Song of the Day: 'She Brakes for Rainbows' by the B-52s

I'm always fascinated by the machinations of songwriting within bands. Although many frequently credit the whole group, you know there has to be a driving force behind music, lyrics and melodies. Over the weekend, Keith Strickland posted this elucidative post over the weekend about one of my favorite B songs:

This is the only song Ricky Wilson and I wrote together in its entirety within The B-52's. I wrote the music, Ricky wrote the melody, and we wrote the lyrics together. Cindy Wilson's vocal performance captures beautifully the purity and innocence we were going for. We wanted the song to have a kind of 1960s movie theme vibe, similar to "Georgy Girl" by The Seekers. "She Breaks for Rainbows" is based on true events ...

Ricky died of AIDS on Oct. 12, 1985, just three months after "Bouncing Off the Satellites" was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia.

Song of the Day: 'Rock Lobster' by the B-52s

Keith Strickland of the B-52s remembered his fallen bandmate on Sunday, on what would have been the guitarist's 64th birthday. I feel so fortunate to have seen the original line-up in concert back in 1983 when they were promoting "Whammy!" ... here's what Keith wrote:

Today is Ricky's birthday. He has now been deceased as long as he was alive, and that's an unfathomable kind of hourglass for me to contemplate. We met when we were both sixteen, we quickly became the closest of friends, and shared the next sixteen years of our lives together. I took this photo of Ricky in 1980 when we were recording Wild Planet, at Compass Point Studios in Nassau... Forever young.

There was also a nice remembrance of Ricky on the AIDS Memorial, although it omits that sister Cindy Wilson was not informed of her brother's dire situation until it was too late, a decision that has haunted her since. I remember Ricky's sudden death being called cancer back in '85 when I was a freshman in college, a practice that was not uncommon at the time.