The members of the rock/new wave group the B-52s pose in front of a building. From left to right: Keith Strickland, drums; Ricky Wilson, guitar; Fred Schneider, vocals; Cindy Wilson, guitar and vocals; Kate Pierson, keyboards and vocals/Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
‘Mesopotamia’ is one of the B-52s’—one of the quirkiest bands of the American New Wave— best tracks, and coincidentally, a favorite of John Lennon’s. The pulsating rhythm and impulsive energy of this song tell the story of a student who leaves a club at 6 a.m. and goes straight into an ancient history exam. The Code of Hammurabi and other traces of ancient civilization carelessly dissolve into the thrift-shop esthetic that has become synonymous with the B-52s. This recording was produced by David Byrne in 1982.1
1David Byrne (born 1952) is a musician, composer, writer, and leader of the American band Talking HeadsIt captures the inimitable sound of New York of that era, when the city itself was a kind of musical Babylon. Today, many modern musicians often try to recreate this sound in a desperate attempt to invent something new.