I’M ONLY HUMAN
I’M ONLY HUMAN
So Phil Oakey said on the Human League song Human and handy it was too to know that he was not the kind of man-machine that his eerily synthesized music suggested he was. Eerily synthisized in the way that all crap things are eerie, redimentary knives and pots made by neanderthals which remind us that we have ancestors that were nothing more than animals. Now I am not suggesting that The Human League were cavemen compared to todays modern electronic music. One look at Moby and you will agree that he is as much of a genetic throwback as Oakey was, but looking at it from this angle - Phil’s claim for humanity might even be a boast.
He is, according to the song, “flesh and blood - a man”. Well it’s good to know he bleeds I suppose. But futhermore the other aspect of his humanity he seems to stress is his ability to make mistakes. Indeed he said he was “born to make mistakes”. Well at least he got that right. Being Boiled was a nice idea (if the idea was boiling the members of ver League), but as a song it was amistake. Don’t You Want Me always had the resounding answer of NO! round my gaff. And as for The Lebanon. If any song could be described a mistake, wrapped in a disaster hidden in a balls-up, it would be the Lebanon.
Which makes me wonder, if there were a real actual Human League, where would Phil Oakey be placed. Hmm, pretty low down I think. Possibly above Dave Gahan, for services to employing people who have no talent - oh - actually. I think all the musicians are clumped near the bottom, awaiting relegation.
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patrick on July 26th, 2006
you poor little child tanya your cutting remarks have been heard before..ur not doing anything that hasnt been done before on this planet.and yours is just an opinion of one!…better get back to the oracle !!
FT's Doctor Mod on July 31st, 2006
“Who will have won
When the soldiers are gone
From the Lebanon.”
Seems painfully ironic some twenty years on.
Chris Cormier on June 2nd, 2007
I remember ‘The Lebanon’, pretty horrifying! Is there anything sillier than Culture Club and Duran Duran trying to be political? Out of their depth entirely, though I’m sure they’re all nice people personally. I thought ‘Mirror Man’ was catchy at the time.
But ‘Human’ is not really AWFUL, I didn’t think. Original in a minor way. I didn’t hate it like I hated Chicago’s 80s ballads, Richard Marx. It communicated something, I thought, about how the band had changed, success had drained them somewhat.
‘Don’t You Want Me’ was original in a major way though. Good riff and line that people will be singing in 20 years time when they forget the current set of no-talents. (I said the same thing to MC Hammer fans at the start of the 90s and they didn’t buy it either. Now he’s just a BAD JOKE.) The music scene and Hollywood are currently merged, but the steam’s been taken out of the music industry by their record sales, which can only continue to fall. Music will become something played by people once more.