53 Miles West Of Venus

Of all the B52s tunes this is my favorite. Simply because of the sounds used in it, and the way the girls use their voices. Whatever it's supposed to mean, or what anyone thinks it's supposed to mean, it's just a beautiful piece of music. I never get sick of it. Keith Strickland's drumming is also superb. Ricky Schroeder's guitar also sends chills up my spine. A lot of people may disagree with me but I'm firmly of the opinion this is the very best in musical composition from this band.

I don't think this post is particularly meritorious but I notice a couple of sounds at the beginning of the song that sound like aerosol cans being sprayed - so i thought 53 miles west of venus might be where one ends up after spray paint huffing.

Probably not - jut a thought.

One interpretation of this song, at least the music, is of being an end, or a departure, like a departing spaceship. But more importantly, it's the end of the B-52s surf-rock sound (or whatever you want to call it), which made up their first 2 albums. They wanted to stop doing this type of music (not get stuck in a rut), and go in other directions, which they did on Mesopotamia and later albums. 53 Miles West of Venus, the last song on Wild Planet, is the end of the B-52s sound introduced with Rock Lobster and Planet Claire. The band remained the same (until Ricky died) and they still play many of those songs live, but they haven't written songs quite like this in 30 years.

It's hard to break this one down. About the only thing one can say is that the one line in the song aspires to outer space travel (as do many B-52s songs), but is inherently nonsensical – whether you're talking about celestial coordinates or a map of the planet Venus, there is no sense to the phrase "53 miles west of Venus"; an object in the sky can be degrees west of Venus in sky coordinates, but relative to the planet Venus, west would be a direction on its surface, where every point is Venus. Leaving Venus would mean going "up" not "west."

One song, five words of spacey nonsense.

I loved the B52s so much in my teens but I didn't have a clue as to what the lyrics meant until recently. I still love them despite some of the meanings I've learned.

I believe this song is referring to Valentines Day, specifically the 14th of February. Looking at a linear row of dates, 53 days to the west or left is January 15th. Probably a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr???

I'd like to think that Venus is an actual person.

Not sure if anyone can get 53 miles close to the planet Venus except in our imagination. But art is or can be anything we want or need it to be.

If not a person then my 2nd choice would be a city. Like a Venus, Georgia???

I'd wouldn't be surprised, in fact I'd be interested, perhaps intrigued, by any other accounting except for the actual, literal one that is supplied.

I think the B52s write about 'on the road' stuff quite abit. Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac thought and spoke as if they were always going or been someplace. I'm just too lazy to look up how many towns and cities are actually named Venus in the USA.

Regardless, I like the art reflecting back to me a vision of another human named Venus that I can't wait to see and hold again.

"I'm your Venus, I'm your fire"