The B-52's - Ancient Culture: Mesopotamia Revisited (LP + 3CD Box Set)

Deluxe Edition LP + 3CD Box Set

Rhino's expansion of Mesopotamia into the record it was first meant to be. The sessions with David Byrne producing were begun as the band's third album, with the group moved out of Athens and into an isolated house in upstate New York. Kate Pierson has said they felt rushed, with their manager "pushing us, pushing us, to get the next record out," and what reached shops in 1982 was a six-song EP instead.

The full-length sequence restored here runs to nine tracks: the original six, newly remastered, plus three the EP left off - "Adios Desconocida," "Queen of Las Vegas" and "Big Bird." "Queen of Las Vegas" later appeared on the band's 2002 anthology.

The second disc gathers the International Mixes from early UK pressings alongside Tom Durack's remixes. The third is Meso-America, the complete Roseland Ballroom show of April 19, 1982, unreleased until now - fifteen songs, and the only live document of this material in the catalogue.

The package is a gatefold jacket holding the black LP, the three CDs and a booklet of photographs and notes.

Tracklist

LP, Side One

1. Mesopotamia
2. Deep Sleep
3. Adios Desconocida
4. Queen of Las Vegas
5. Nip It in the Bud

LP, Side Two

1. Loveland
2. Cake
3. Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can
4. Big Bird

CD One - Full-Length Version

1. Mesopotamia
2. Deep Sleep
3. Adios Desconocida
4. Queen of Las Vegas
5. Nip It in the Bud
6. Loveland
7. Cake
8. Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can
9. Big Bird

CD Two - Mixes

1. Loveland (International Mix)
2. Cake (International Mix)
3. Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can (International Mix)
4. Loveland (Tom Durack Remix)
5. Deep Sleep (Tom Durack Remix)
6. Mesopotamia (Tom Durack Remix)
7. Cake (Tom Durack Remix)
8. Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can (Tom Durack Remix)
9. Nip It in the Bud (Tom Durack Remix)

CD Three - Meso-America: Live at the Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, April 19, 1982

1. Party Out of Bounds
2. Give Me Back My Man
3. Big Bird
4. Cake
5. Lava
6. Loveland
7. Mesopotamia
8. Planet Claire
9. 606-0842
10. Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can
11. Dance This Mess Around
12. 52 Girls
13. Nip It in the Bud
14. Rock Lobster
15. Private Idaho

Complete the Collection

Five B-52's albums at Evergreen Vinyl, including this one:

• The B-52's
• Wild Planet
• Whammy!
• Cosmic Thing