Being boiled
| Being boiled | |
|---|---|
| The Human League | |
| publication | June 1978 |
| length | 3:28 |
| Genre (s) | New wave |
| Author (s) | Oakey , Ware , Marsh |
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Being Boiled is a song by the English synth-pop band Human League , which was released in June 1978 with Circus of Death as their first single. The song is considered a milestone in pop music, which initiated the transition from the punk era to the new wave .
With Being Boiled , singer Philip Oakey was able to convince his fellow musicians Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware not only with his distinctive voice but also with his lyric skills. Despite a small and limited edition, Being Boiled quickly caught the attention of the New Musical Express and was able to conquer the scene that was then dominated by punk music.
It was only after a re-release towards the end of 1981 that Being Boiled was able to secure 6th place in the UK charts. In Germany the piece only reached number 57. In 1986 the song made it into the German charts again and this time reached the top 10 at number 6.
History of origin
After The Future split from Adi Newton in September 1977, Ware came up with the idea of hiring Philip Oakey, a former classmate and hospital doorman, as a singer in November 1977. Marsh and Ware gave him the backing track for Being Boiled , which they recorded on a Korg 700S (melody) and a Roland System 100 (rhythm) with a commercial tape in Marsh's apartment. Two days later, Oakey came to Ware and Marsh with a text about Far Eastern religion and the slaughter of silkworms. Although the lyrics were superficially nonsensical, The Future liked Oakey's vocals and they accepted him as a band member.
The new member Oakey did not like the previous band name, so the new formation was renamed The Human League (after a faction of the science fiction game Star Force). Paul Bower from the band 2.3 liked the song and gave a demo tape to Bob Last of the independent label Fast Products in Edinburgh . Last liked the demo tape so much that the song was released in June 1978 with the slogan "Electronically Yours". Fast Products' original single was a mono recording. Bob Last became the band's manager.
The Human League gave their first concert at Salter Lane Art College in Sheffield. This was followed by concerts at Now Soc and the Wall Street Pub. Since Marsh and Ware played relatively static on their synthesizers, there was only a tape with the rhythm track instead of the drummer and Oakey did not dance on stage, Adrian Wright was won over for the stage show. Wright projected slides and films onto the stage, making the show visually more interesting. Wright became a full member of the band and got the title "Director of Visuals". The first of these visually arranged concerts was at Limit in Sheffield. Although the single failed to reach the charts, Siouxsie and the Banshees took notice of the band and signed them to the support act, which expanded the fan base and attracted the attention of the music press.
Further editions
In addition to the mono version published by Fast Product in mid-1978, a newly mixed stereo version of the same recording was released by EMI in the spring of 1980 . A completely re-recorded version in the same year was released on the Holiday '80 EP and the Travelogue album on Virgin Records . This version was re-released in late 1981 as The Human League (without Marsh and Ware and instead with Sulley, Catherall, Burden and Callis) with the album Dare! and the single Don't You Want Me were already commercially successful.
reception
John Lydon rated the single for the New Musical Express and called the formation "fashionable hippies". Paul Morley and David Bowie called it "the future of pop". Dave Thompson of Allmusic says of Being Boiled : "Deliberately laborious, devilishly exhausting, they are as beautiful as gray cement boards can be, and about as colorful."
swell
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts UK
- ↑ Overview of chart placements at Musicline ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Orac: Being Boiled. (No longer available online.) In: league-online.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010 ; accessed on December 7, 2012 .
- ↑ Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up And Start Again . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-270-6 , Chapter 9 Living For The Future: The scene in Sheffield , p. 188 .
- ^ Dave Thompson, Being Boiled Review. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved May 8, 2011 .
