For the next 30 days, I’ll be taking the #AprilAcrossAmerica challenge, picking one song a day as I make my way across the country and across genres at the same time.

Day 27: The bottom of a bottomless blue pool, Idaho

You just have to be in the right mood for The B-52’s, right? Or maybe we choose to listen to them to alter our mood? They’re not a band I naturally gravitate to. But I can’t imagine my life as a music fan without them. “Rock Lobster” was probably the first B-52’s song I heard, likely on WLIR/WDRE. I was intrigued and perplexed at the same time. People can actually make money and make a living doing what they do! I’m pretty sure the second song I heard from the band was “Private Idaho”, a song I discovered nearly a decade after its existence.

Stating the obvious, but there are lots of crazy things happening in this song. Schneider goes on and on about a blue bottomless pool. There’s an odd synthesizer part straight out of a 70’s sci-fi movie. There’s all sorts of crazy things happening on Kate and Cindy’s vocals, including something baring an odd resemblance to yodeling. And then there’s the guitar that plays one single note for long stretches. Well, crazy is what we signed up for the minute we pressed the play button.