52's still rockin' at 25: with a new CD anthology and book detailing the band's history, Keith Strickland of the B-52's looks back--and forward--with glamour. (music).

Keith Strickland may be the most musically diverse surviving member of the legendary B-52's--he plays guitar and drums in addition to composing songs--but not even 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 bowl, with, I think, about four different kinds of alcohol. Most definitely rum, and well ... I'm not sure what else." Whatever was in that brew, it fired up five scrappy young bohemians--Strickland, Ricky Wilson, his little sister Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider, and Kate Pierson. Later that night, they merged in a friend's basement and became a five-headed dragon. Entering what they would later refer to as the "freedom zone," they pounded out the embryonic strains of an exuberant and wholly original sound--hysterical, witty, highly danceable punk rock, the musical equivalent of John Waters's movies.

On the 25th anniversary of their first public performance on Valentine's Day 1977, the B-52's are releasing a retrospective CD--Nude on the Moon: The B-52's Anthology. The double CD contains not only classic tunes such as "Rock Lobster," "Private Idaho," and "Love Shack" but also obscure hits-that-never-were such as "Queen of Las Vegas," produced by David Byrne, and a new remix of "Is That You Mo-Dean?" by electronic superstar Moby.

For Strickland, who lives in Woodstock, N.Y., with his partner of six years, Mark, the most 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 Goes to Greenland' from Bouncing Off the Satellites are very special to me," Strickland says. "Not only were they the last ones Ricky and I wrote together, but I felt we had reached a new level in our writing--we were trying new things, and there was a maturity there."

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

Prior to Wilson's death, the question of band members' sexual orientation had never come up. "People just didn't go there," Strickland says. "But in our personal lives, [Ricky, Fred, and I] were out." The B-52's supported many causes in the early '90s, playing at AIDS benefits and pro-choice fundraisers. Still, it wasn't quite enough for Strickland. "There was a sort of war going on, and I thought, We're doing all this stuff, but we're not talking about being gay, so I came out in 1992 in Q magazine. It was great. Nothing changed, but I felt it was important to just say it."

Fans of the group have included the late John Lennon, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, and the band Chicks on Speed, who cover three B-52's songs. With this many artists reminding them of their seminal influence, Strickland says a new B-52's album is "a definite possibility." The bandmates--first and foremost friends who never imagined the party music they created would turn into a career--keep in close contact, and they still come together with musical ideas. But Strickland says this bonding is now more likely to happen "over a cup of coffee" than a molten beverage of any kind.

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

Che is a contributing editor at Time Out New York.