Moving on from yesterday’s mysterious “Jacksie,” tonight’s Halloween song involves an adventurous female with an unusual means of intergalactic travel. It’s the another profile from the BHT vault, originally posted here on October 22, 2009. A few edits have been made since then.
Back in 1979, The B-52’s were unlike any current bands or any that preceded them. Over 40 years later, they’re still in a category all their own. They arrived as part of the punk movement but used a toy piano, fire alarm, and walkie talkie, along with standard rock instruments on their self-titled debut album. And their lyrics were consistently nonsensical.
Opening with a mostly instrumental passage that features eerie keyboards along with high-pitched vocalizing, “Planet Claire” introduces us to an unnamed alien who came from the title planet via a Plymouth Satellite she drives faster than the speed of light. Like all Clairelings, she doesn’t have a head, so it’s hard to imagine how she could see where she was going. Then again, you could say the same thing about Earthlings who text while driving.
Vocalist Fred Schneider, who composed the song with drummer Keith Strickland, affects an appropriately silly tone throughout the song. Especially when he screams, “WELL, SHE ISN’T!” in response to speculation that the alien is “from Mars or one of the seven stars that shine after 3:30 in the morning.” Unlike many outer space invaders, this visitor from “Planet Claire” doesn’t appear to have any evil plans. She’s been partying here on Earth for decades, and probably uploads mind-blowing videos on TikTok.
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