How “Rock Lobster” inspired John Lennon
“Rock Lobster” jolted John Lennon out of his life’s longest and deepest creative drought.
The former Beatle had last released an album of original material in 1974. He bought time and met contractual obligations by issuing covers and compilation albums in 1975. Then, he decided to become a full-time dad. He did not touch a guitar for more than four years.
Lennon remembered, “I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda” in June 1980. “Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs, I suddenly heard ‘Rock Lobster’ by the B-52’s for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko’s music, so I said to meself, ‘It’s time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!’ We wrote about twenty-five songs during those three weeks, and we’ve recorded enough for another album.”
“Rock Lobster” lit a fuse of inspiration that flared into Lennon’s 2-LP set Double Fantasy (1980), plus a posthumous release, Milk and Honey (1984). Without the B-52’s, our world might lack “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” “Watching the Wheels,” “Woman,” “(Just Like) Starting Over,” and “Nobody Told Me.”
