Keith Strickland may be the principally musically diverse surviving member of the legendary B-52's--he plays guitar and tympanums in addition to composing songs--but not level he can recall the ingredients of the "Flaming Volcano.

Keith Strickland may be the principally musically diverse surviving member of the legendary B-52's--he plays guitar and tympanums in addition to composing songs--but not level he can recall the ingredients of the "Flaming Volcano," a heady elixir that inspired the band's first jam session in Athens, Ga., in 1976 "It was a communal drink that came in a humongous, smoking hollow with, I think, about four different kinds of alcohol. mostly definitely rum, and well I'm not sure what else" Whatever was in that foment it fired up five scrappy young bohemians--Strickland, Ricky Wilson, his little sister Cindy Wilson, Fr Schneider, and Kate Pierson. Later that night, they merg in a friend's basement and became a five-headed dragon. Entering what they would later ascribe to as the "freedom zone" they shut uped out the embryonic strains of an exuberant and wholly original sound--hysterical, witty, highly danceable harlot rock, the musical equivalent of John Waters's movies.

onward the 25th anniversary of their first public performance upon Valentine's Day 1977, the B-52's are releasing a retrospective CD--Nude forward the Moon: The B-52's Anthology. The double CD contains not merely classic tunes such as "Rock Lobster" "Private Idaho," and "Love Shack" yet also obscure hits-that-never-were such as "Queen of Las Vegas," produc by means of David Byrne, and a of the present day remix of "Is That You Mo-Dean?" according to electronic superstar Moby.

For Strickland, who lives in Woodstock, NY with his partner of six years, Mark, the chiefly meaningful cuts on the compilation are from the final album he made with Ricky Wilson, his best friend and mentor, who died of complications from AIDS in 1985 "`She Brakes for Rainbows' and `Girl From Ipanema Goe to Greenland' from Bouncing not on the Satellites are very special to me" Strickland says. "Not no other than were they the last uniteds Ricky and I wrote together, if it be not that I felt we had reached a novel level in our writing--we were trying modern things, and there was a maturity there."

yet they were devastated by Wilson's death and weren't confident they could go on as a band, the B-52's came back stronger than at any time with their 1989 hit album, Cosmic Thing. "We erect [that making music together again] really helped in the grieving and healing process" Strickland recalls. "A virtuous friend, Robert Waldrop, who wrote the lyrics to `Roam,' compared it to the funerals in recent Orleans where they have a jazz band and everybody parties and celebrates. The music we wrote was highly up, happy music, and yet there is a sense of melancholy that posts through it too, it really felt like it was coming from our more innocent times in Athens." The [i]vis viva[/i] of Cosmic Thing struck a chord in the Reagan-Bush-AIDS crisis era, and yielded three Grammy nominations and couple top 10 chart hits.

Prior to Wilson's death, the question of band members' sexual orientation had not ever come up. "People just didn't walk there," Strickland says. "But in our personal lives, [Ricky, Fr and I] were out" The B-52's supported many causes in the early '90 playing at AIDS benefits and pro-choice fundraisers. Still, it wasn't quite enough for Strickland. "There was a sort of war going in succession and I thought, We're doing all this substance but we're not talking about being gay, in such a manner I came out in 1992 in Q magazine. It was great. Nothing changed, however I felt it was important to just say it."

Fans of the arrange have included the late John Lennon, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, and the band Chicks upon Speed, who cover three B-52's hymns With this many artists reminding them of their seminal influence, Strickland says a recently made known B-52's album is "a definite possibility." The bandmates--first and foremost friends who not ever imagined the party music they created would deflect into a career--keep in end contact, and they still arrive together with musical ideas. however Strickland says this bonding is now more likely to happen "over a cupful of coffee" than a molten beverage of any kind.

Find Web sites devot to the B-52's and their music at www.dvocate.com

Che is a contributing editor at Time on the outside New York.

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