Has Anybody Seen...a Dog Dyed Dark Green?

I had to look at the inscriptions in my 7^th grade yearbook to be sure (and afterword reflect that, wow, are middle school kids immature!), but it must have been the summer of 1982 that I was hanging out with a girl named Nicole. 

See what I mean?

Once again, my personal mythology comes into question, as I consider that The B-52’s Wild Planet was actually my first album.

I still have it, because, as you can see, I keep everything.

I think, though, it came (in my timeline, anyway) after The Beat, and was part of one of those Columbia Records deals. This would make sense, in that it would represent a conscious choice to take the musical road less travelled, and that, going forward, purchases of Rick Springfield records, if made at all, would make it to their intended.

I would ride my bike over to Nicole’s house, which was at the far end of my neighborhood, with Wild Planet tucked tightly in the pit of my arm. I wasn’t easy to ride like this, but my mission was important. 

Once Nicole’s parents had left for the night, the lights would go out, the record would come out, and we would completely spaz out in a frenzy of something dance-like. While Side One did have Private Idaho, Side Two was, for us, the perfect combination of deviant (Devil in my Car), absurd (Quiche Lorraine), naughty (Strobe Light), and far-out (53 Miles West of Venus). We wore it out.

I have it in digital form now, and, unlike my hit or miss memory, it has lost nothing to time. 

Early music videos of theirs are hard to come by, but I did find this live performance of Devil in My Car. It isn’t great quality, but it does have everything else going for it.