Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Monday, November 27, 2017

Monday Music "Human" by the Human League

 Dangit, forgot to put a title on this one....My Bad...

One of my commenters "Bob", which is a good name btw commented last week about the song "Human" by the "Human League".  I remember this song coming out in 1986 while I was stationed in Fort Devens in MA for AIT.  This song came on and we would watch the video's in the break room waiting to march to school.    This song also was used for parody commercials by Liberty Insurance, and I thought the commercials were creative.


"Human" is a song recorded by British synthpop band The Human League, and released as the first single from their 1986 album Crash. The track, which deals with the subject of infidelity, was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
In 1985, the recording sessions for the Human League's fifth album were not going well, and the band did not like the results, which was causing internal conflict. Virgin Records executives, worried by the lack of progress from their at-the-time most profitable signing, suggested the band accept an offer to work with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who already had material to work with; and had expressed an interest in the band from their U.S. releases. Jam and Lewis had recently emerged as in-demand talent due to their success with Janet Jackson and her Control album.
Of the ten songs on Crash, Jam and Lewis wrote three, "Human" being one of them. It is a mid-tempo ballad which lyrically is an exchange between a man and a woman in a relationship who have reunited after a separation. In the first two verses Philip Oakey is apologizing to his partner for being unfaithful during her absence, and in the song's breakdown Joanne Catherall's spoken-word confession reveals that she too was unfaithful. The song's title is derived from the chorus, in which both parties in the relationship explain that they are "only human" and "born to make mistakes". The song is a composition in common time with a tempo of 102 beats per minute. It is set in a key of A major, with a chord progression from D-E-f.
"Human" became the second million-selling and final number-one single for The Human League on the US Billboard Hot 100 (after "Don't You Want Me") and their second chart-topper on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart (after "(Keep Feeling) Fascination"). Jam and Lewis' R&B-based production was also popular on American urban radio, bringing the Human League into the top ten of the U.S. R&B chart for the first time. The song hit #1 in the US; however, in the UK, where R&B was less popular, "Human" peaked at number eight in the UK singles chart.


The music video for "Human" was filmed in London during June 1986, in a studio using Chroma key overlay. It is heavily stylized to give a "water reflective" effect and blue hue throughout. In the first time that the band had been presented as a "Phil and the girls" trio, images of Oakey, Catherall and Sulley are constantly layered and blended. The video was conceived and directed by Andy Morahan.
In 2003, a new video was created and released to promote the Chinese Whispers mix. This music video used the original footage of Oakey, Sulley and Catherall from 1986 and interlaced it with traditional Chinese imagery of silhouetted water grass, water lilies and Chinese characters. It was subject of a U.S. MTV featurette which was introduced by Oakey and featured Ian Widgery talking about the creative process in the reworking of the original Human.

9 comments:

  1. Kudos to Andy Morahan for one of my all time favorite videos. I really don't usually care for them, but as I mentioned in your previous post about the Human League, this one just does something to me that I can't explain. Cool facts that you dug up about it in your research. One of the few other videos that comes to mind that I really like is "I Got You" by Split Enz. It's one of the earliest played on MTV. Nothing really special about it. Just a little on the strange side. Then again so am I according to the lovely missus. Must be a "Bob" thing. Long live "Smilin' Bob" ...........

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrWz7cVXv8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Bob;

      I will look into Split Enz, I have another one already lined up for next week. I love the 2nd British/New Wave invasion, it made the 80's decade rock. I was listening to the countdown for 1981 November on my Sirius/XM and a lot of the songs sucked, Disco was on the way out and there was crap on the air.

      Delete
    2. Wasn't trying to talk you into anything. I just mentioned them in passing. I almost always enjoy what you come up with. They're like nice little surprises that are much appreciated.

      I, too love the 2nd wave. I was so sick of most of the seventies and early eighties. The new wave was like the awakening that I had when I discovered garage in the early/mid sixties and then underground a few years later. Uh oh, I guess now I'm showing my age..............

      Delete
    3. Hey Bob;

      Naa don't sweat it, I like ideas because sometimes I have a hard time finding a song for my "Monday Music". According to my counter, I have had 277 episodes of "Monday Music", and I know that I have repeated a couple of them. "Let them know it is Christmas",by band aid usually gets repeated every Christmas..usually.

      Delete
    4. I wish that you hadn't mentioned that you had 277 episodes. It's going to take me forever to go back and read/listen to them all. Oh, well. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.................

      Delete
  2. You know, looking back on this...there were some disturbing musicians but darn...could they music! LOL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I meant damn, not dam as in beaver

      Delete
    2. Hey Momma Fargo;

      Yeah they probably were, the drug scene was still there and you know from your professional experience that drugs magnify a persons phobia's and insecurity. And yes they could Music

      Delete
    3. Hey Momma Fargo;

      I understand "Fargospeak", LOL

      Delete

I had to change the comment format on this blog due to spammers, I will open it back up again in a bit.