Being Boiled
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| “Being Boiled” | |||||
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| Single by The Human League from the album Travelogue |
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| Released | June 1978, April 1980 (new version) 1980 (stereo mix), January 1982 (reissue of stereo mix and of new version) | ||||
| Format | Vinyl 7 inch and 12 inch single, double single, EP | ||||
| Recorded | Sheffield, United Kingdom | ||||
| Genre | Electronic music | ||||
| Label | Fast Product (1978 & 1982), Virgin (1980) | ||||
| Writer(s) | Philip Oakey/Martyn Ware/Ian Craig Marsh | ||||
| Producer | The Human League | ||||
| The Human League singles chronology | |||||
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"Being Boiled" is a song written by Sheffield musicians Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, with lyrics by Philip Oakey, and recorded by them as The Human League. It is notable as one of the first pieces of electronic pop music produced in the UK. It was first released as a single in 1978 on the Fast Product label, and although failing to chart, was influential amongst other new wave and post-punk artists. After the The Human League's commercial success, the single was re-released in 1982 (this time through EMI), reaching Number 6 in the Charts.
The song was later re-recorded by the band for their Holiday '80 EP, which reached number 56 in 1980 and number 46 in 1982. It was also on their 1980 Travelogue album.
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[edit] Track listing
7" Single (1978 Fast Product Release)
- "Being Boiled" (3:45)
- "Circus of Death" (4:47)
Holiday '80 7" (Virgin Records Release)
- "Being Boiled" (4:22)
- "Marianne" (3:17)
- "Dancevision" (2:22)
1982 Virgin Re-Issue
- "Being Boiled" (4:22)
- "Circus of Death" (3:55)
[edit] Style
Being Boiled was one of the first singles to use entirely electronic instruments and is strikingly different and darker from the group's more well known songs [1].
It has a strong bassline, inspired by Bootsy Collins. The lyrics (described as "Bizarre" and "confused"[2]) combine a protest against silk farming with vague material about oriental religion - ("Listen to the voice of Buddha/saying stop your sericulture").
[edit] Origin
The song's music predates Philip Oakey's joining the band. The Future, a band comprising Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, had just parted company with singer Adi Newton, later of Clock DVA. They needed a new singer and contacted former schoolmate Philip Oakey, giving him the music to listen to. Two days later he was back, having written the lyrics. Ware and Marsh liked them (and him), and the song was born.
The track was recorded on a domestic tape recorder in an abandoned factory, at a cost of £2.50.[3]
[edit] Fast Product release
Fellow Sheffield musician Paul Bowers (of the band 2.3) like the song and passed a copy to Fast Product label manager Bob Last, who had just released 2.3's first single ("All Time Low"/"Where To Now?"). Last released it in June 1978, the sleeve bearing the slogan "Electronically Yours".
A press release was put out by Fast Product on computer paper - at the time a novel idea. It read, in part:
- The League would like to positively affect the future by close attention to the present, allying technology with humanity and humour. They have been described as 'Later Twentieth Century Boys' and 'Intelligent, Innovatory and Immodest'.
Also included in the release were a cassette of demo recordings and a sticker bearing the "Electronically Yours" slogan.
[edit] Reception
The song received a mixed reception among established artists of the time. David Bowie declared it to be "the future of music", but former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon, reviewing the single for the New Musical Express, dismissed the band as "trendy hippies". Peter York in Harper's and Queen cited the cover as an example of "post-modern packaging".[4]
The song has become an influence on several musicians, Vince Clarke stated that the song was his favorite record and inspired him to form Depeche Mode [5]. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails also lists the song as an influence on his group's sound[6].
[edit] Circus of Death
The b-side, "Circus of Death" begins with the following spoken introducted by Phil Oakey:
"This is a song called "The Circus of Death".It tells the true story of a circus we met. The first two verses concern the actual arrival at Heathrow Airport of Commissioner Steve McGarrett. The third emotionally describes a map showing the range of the circus. The fourth and fifth were extracted from an article in The Guardian of March the 19th, 1962. The last is a short wave radio message from the last man on Earth."
McGarrett, incidentally, was a character from the television show Hawaii Five-O.
The original version of the song ended with a sample from the 1974 film Dark Star that was removed after its appearance on the first Human League record, Reproduction. [7]
[edit] Reissues
The song appears on the band's second album Travelogue. This is the Holiday 80 version, except for the end, which has an echoing fade instead of a sudden ending.
In 1980 the single was released through EMI with a new simulated stereo mix. It was this version that was again reissued in 1982.
The 1982 mix, entitled "Being Boiled (Re-Boiled mix)" peaked at #6 on the UK charts.
The original version of the song appears on the 2003 greatest hits album The Very Best of the Human League. The 1982 remix appears on 1988's Greatest Hits.
[edit] Holiday '80
In 1979 The Human League, having signed to Virgin Records, re-recorded "Being Boiled" for their Holiday '80 double single. This release flopped, and a normal one-disc single was hurriedly put out. This reached number 56 and the band were asked to appear on Top of the Pops, an unusual request by the programme, which usually only featured top 40 acts.
[edit] Other versions
In 2003 Richard X recorded Being Nobody, a mashup of "Being Boiled" and Liberty X's version of "Ain't Nobody". It reached number 3 in the British charts.
Beborn Beton also covered the song on their album "Concrete Ground"
[edit] References
- ^ allmusic ((( Being Boiled > Overview )))
- ^ Reynolds, S. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, (Faber and Faber 2006), p.162
- ^ "...recorded in a disused factory on a domestic tape recorder at a cost of £2.50, demonstrated that anyone could make electronic pop music" in [1]
- ^ "Empire State Human" in "Depeche Mode and the Story of Electro-pop" (EMAP 2005), p.30
- ^ Being Boiled by The Human League Songfacts
- ^ [2]
- ^ THE HUMAN LEAGUE Blind Youth - the complete guide to The Human League 1977-1980
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