Eldergays: Tell Me About The Human League

For a brief while there was a trend to go for a "wet" sound in popular music.

The song Human was their entry in that micro-genre, and the music video reflects the sound perfectly.

It's also my favorite song if theirs.

Liked them back in the day. Are they still around?

Is either of those songs a bop?

They had a few hits in the US. Three of their singles made the top ten on the US charts, and two of them, Don't You Want Me and Human, hit #1. Looks like they had eight top ten hits on the UK charts spanning from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. In the US, after their hit Human, they basically were over. That Second British Invasion sound was starting to fade a bit by 1986 in the US, when Human went to #1.

R1 You can thank Janet Jackson’s producers, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for that classic sound. They also produced “Human”.

R2 - yes they still play live regularly in the UK, but they have not issued any new music since the Credo album in 2011. They usually tour in the run-up to Christmas every two years. In 2021 they did a 40th anniversary of Dare tour, so I expect there will be something later this year.

OP - Together In Electric Dreams is actually by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder but has become a de facto Human League track, included on their greatest hits albums and played live, usually at the last song in the set.

Credo was rather mediocre, but anyone who enjoyed them in the 1980s should check out Octopus (from 1995) and especially Secrets (from 2001) which is superb from end to end.

The live musicians vary, but drummer / electronic percussionist Rob Barton has been with them for decades, he's also incredibly hot. Their longest serving keyboard player Neil Sutton bowed out before Credo. The live band seems to get younger and younger, when I saw them just before Xmas 2021 the musicians looked like they'd just left school.

If you can ignore the horrible video, this is a decent track from Credo. The auto-tune also works very well (for once).

Seeing them live tonight at Wembley

They feature prominently in the Synth Britannia doc, especially their early days. Recommneded.

The album before Credo, Secrets, was quite good, where they updated their usual sound with some stuff that was hot at the time (electroclash, for instance) but totally flopped commercially, since the record label botched the promotion. Also, I'll always have a soft spot for Romantic?

The thing is, I quite like the rough early electronica of their first, pre-girls incarnation. Being Boiled is a fantastic single which 40+ years on doesn't sound dated at all.

I fondly remember "Don't you want me baby" I remember dancing to this at the Old Plantation in Tampa Florida ! Bobby Stoner would play that track, as soon as people heard the first few bars of that synthesizer they would rush to the dance floor! Everybody sang along to the chorus. It was one of those moments where everything came together and everybody was having fun!

For a second I thought you meant the Human Fund. Btw I made a donation on your behalf.

R12 beat me to it!

They actually had several other hits - Lebanon, Love Action, Mirror Man, etc.

I saw them last year - they all look great, although Joanne has packed on a few pounds. Both Phil Oakley and Susan look great - Susan particularly has kept her shape.

I read an interview with Susan - she said that she never tires of performing because she's only had 1 job her entire life - being a back-up singer in this band. I thought that was really refreshing.

And they were very good. Phil Oakley is like a transformer to me - sometimes he looks very unattractive and then other times he's hot. There is no in-between with him. I like the bald version of him the best with a little stubble.

Last comment - Phil is a bit of a ham and steals the spotlight. I understand the two women were supposed to be back-up, but they really made the band whole and should be put on equal footing.

1980s? Ask us about the 1970s and disco instead, boy.

Don't You Want Me is an earworm for me.

R16 that much is true.

Human is a fantastic song. It's aged very well.

As has Fascination.

Op look it up for yourself. Lots of info. Y Are you retarded?

I dunno, r20, why are you an asshole? Maybe people actually...erm...enjoy talking about bands they like and want to help OP know the wheat from the chaff. Sure beats using outdated epithets about disabled people.

I was in 8th grade — Don’t You Want Me was everywhere. Like totally rad and so bitchin.

There’s really not much to say.

Saw them about 5 years ago. Very cool and lots of fun. Theyve actually said, in a way, they feel like a tribute band.

I have R20 on ignore. I suggest all of you do the same.

One of their best songs - Heart Like A Wheel - cracked the Top 40 in the US in 1990

R25 is a POS

Like most Janet Jackson songs, they made Human by going into the studio and doing whatever Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis told them to do,

Tell Me When made the top 40 in 1995

R28, I find it interesting that Janet never had a song with a production that sounded like Human. Most of Janet's 80s songs sound mechanical by comparison.

Yes, r30 it does seem like Jam and Lewis applied their musical sophistication to produce other 80s artists and kept Janet with a more mechanical sound. Wonder whose choice that was?

55 y/o here. Loved, loved The Human League. Love Action is my favorite, along with "Human," mentioned above. They had an addictive, unique sound and cool look.

I still listen to them, usually while working out.

Janet Jackson co-writes or writes many of her lyrics and the partnership is collaborative.

[quote]I find it interesting that Janet never had a song with a production that sounded like Human.

Incorrect. Many of her early ballads have that same melodic, synth-heavy feel.

R31, Come Back to Me, Lonely and Some Day is Tonight are the only exceptions. Maybe it's because they are ballads.

Fascination was probably my favorite video on MTV.

Dare is still a slab of synth pop heaven - Sound of The Crowd, Open Your Heart, Love Action and Don't You Want Me were just the singles - I'm all about The Things That Dreams Are Made Of and Seconds for the deeper cuts off of it. The Fascination EP has the two great singles, and the first crack at I Love You Too Much. Hysteria is where things fell apart, and the Jam/Lewis album was very much just that. Aside from an occasional single on the radio, it was over for them, hits-wise.

But in terms of credibility, I would rank them above Duran Duran but below Eurythmics.

R36 - credibility? Please explain.

Aside from a few singles, Dare is really their finest work.

And Don't You Want Me is very different from the rest of the album. I'm more a fan of Things That Dreams Are Made Of (as R36 said).

Human could have been recorded by just about anyone, but it is a lovely song.

R38, Human could have been recorded by anyone but The Human League deliver it in a way that sounds cold, warm and textured.

"Empire State Human," by founding Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, was the single from their debut album "Reproduction."

Ware and Marsh left to form Heaven 17; soon afterward, they'd produce Tina Turner's version of "Let's Stay Together."

I wish they released this song first off of their "Crash" album.

Slow songs like "Human" should've always been a follow up to a bop back in the mid 80s =

Based on their wiki, the critics savaged this follow up to Human & the band disowned it -

"Are You Ever Coming Back?" would've been a great choice to follow "Human" as a third single in 1987 =

I admit I don't know a lot about Human League. Don't You Want Me is so overplayed I could happily never hear it again but I like Fascination and Human. I'm enjoying this thread, discovering they were much more than their singles

UK here. I was a teenager when they first came on the scene. Their early work was very spare and quite eerie, with little hint of what was to come. They only got national airplay on John Peel’s late night Radio 1 show. They had a couple of minor hits but had a very strong live following. Phil Oakey had too much ambition in him to be content with that. Then the girls were enlisted and their sound and image changed completely. Irresistible.

I still love Being Boiled though.

GenX 52yo here. I was just listening to it last weekend on an 80s playlist. Still an epic banger. 🕺🏻❤️

God, I miss John Peel.

The band hasn't put an album set list that I've ever enjoyed/kept.

This is the last song on their '90 album disaster & it should've been on "Side 1".

This was track #8 & should've been the first song on side 1 -

& finally #9 track should've also been

a side 1 track & not hidden on side 2 =

In terms of hits, musically, I liked "Fascination" more than "Don't You Want Me Baby" which I found rather repetitive sounding (plus the creepy lyrics).

I remember seeing them play live at a rather strange sunset concert at the the old Hollywood Park Race Track back in the early 80s. The concert started after the 9th race. I think they were the second act before Thompson Twins played. Can't recall who the first act was.

Love the album Octopus.

I remember seeing them on early MTV as a teen when trapped in my wretched flyover state. The female leads seemed so exotic and sophisticated to me with their short hair and furs as I was living in a sea of bad box perms. UK New Wave was part of the impetus to dream and plan my escape, and now I live in London.

Just dawned on me that perhaps one parallel to the Human League is Culture Club. They had similar trajectories.

One definitive album (Dare, Colour By Numbers) and a few solid singles.

A flop album.

A later hit (Human, Move Away).

I'd say CC soared a bit higher in collective consciousness, and George has managed to run a bit farther down the field of continuing his career, but some parallels between them, for sure.

I love their 1994 song "Tell Me When"...

[quote] They seem to have faded away pretty quickly after that - not uncommon for 80s bands.

Interested in why you say this. Didn't they have a good run? "Human" went no.1 in the US five years after "Don't You Want Me" which was still on people's minds. Feel free to correct me but I think you put it this way because the field in the 1980s was more crowded. More competitive but maybe more chance of going wide with a great track. If you look at Billboard now the top ten is totally static and a small group of stars are more entrenched. Taylor, Beyonce, etc. have longevity and icon status. Also...could we say pop artists more professional these days? With more opportunity and the financial incentive to never disappear and do reunions and nostalgia tours.

"(Keep Feeling) Fascination"! I like the "Human" video. A twinge more introspective, the huge doorknocker earrings, the english faces, the spoken part which maybe seemed a little silly, the water. yay. They should use it in The Ultimatum on Netflix. If you know you know.

This was the bookend to "Church of the Poison Mind"

R43 - Are You Ever Coming Back? was a single in the US and Canada. Apparently Philip vetoed it as a British single because Joanne and Susan aren't on it.

If anyone is into bears, their live drummer Rob Barton is hot as fuck.

Rob is hot indeed.

The blonde woman looks like Bet Lynch or Pauline Fowler, though......

I just finished listening to their failed 2001 cd.

Here is their gold medal song on it =

"The Snake" (should've been called "Come Join Us") is my silver medal song =

"Sin City" is my choice for a Bronze medal song =

I love The Snake - it should have been a single. Another stand out for me on Secrets is Reflections.

I preferred the League of Nations.

R66 well their Music For The New Depression is quite League like in places.

JFC, they were amazing!

So happy I was young when they came out. We all had so much fun with their music playing in the background.

My fave. 👇🏽

I absolutely loved two of the singles from the infamously troubled 'Crash' album: 'Louise' and 'Life On Your Own.

Both tracks were very stripped back in production and infused with a real sense of aching melancholia. Both can bring a tear to my eye if I listen in the wee small hours...

I loved Heart Like A Wheel even if it was dated by the time it came out. So damn emotional.

I just want to take a moment to point something out:

Philip Oakley (the lead singer) wore full makeup & even women’s earrings & jewelry when they became big and finally made “it” across the pond, here in the United States.

Not once, on television or on radio or in print was his sexuality questioned, nor did anyone identify him as trans or non-binary. He was perceived as gorgeous, and American girls immediately had crushes when first seeing him on MTV. As a matter of fact, I distinctly recall boys in high school who were straight (but sweet & sensitive) showing up to school in full makeup, amazing haircuts, and the coolest clothes/outfits I had seen ever at that age. The girls went crazy over these guys, and no one talked shit, or questioned why.

Isn’t it interesting how it was then, and what we have now? Conservatives and specifically, political strategists took something that was once very cool (self expression through makeup & wardrobe) & turned it into a culture war that never even existed.

^ Yeah it's almost like we never had a vice prez candidate who wore makeup in any elections.

^ The 2024 GOP is anti-trans enough to make it an issue with keeping Bruce J. on the sidelines aka gay Cheney daughter.

With so many calling for gay marriage repeals, etc. they are anti-gay enough to do whatever they can to make their base happy enough to vote for them.

One person op replying

Sad…

I preferred simple minds

R69 - they're from Hysteria, not Crash

Yes, R76, I must've been in a state of hysteria when I posted!

Happy 70th birthday to Philip Oakey today.

This will never stop being hilarious…

Nothing can bring me back to the early summer of 1982 like "You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar ...."

Me too R80 ! My 1st true love asked me out for months before I agreed and this song was heavily played on the radio. Every time I heard it I thought of him. I never hear it and not think of him.

We took a one month camping trip summer of 82 and it is the theme song in my mind for that trip.

I remember being really into this mashup of "Being Boiled" and "Ain't Nobody" by Chaka Khan when it came out in the early oo's.

The first time I heard Don’t You Want Me? On the radio - I was a freshman in college - it dawned on me that music was changing.

Don’t You Want Me was my and my cousin’s favorite song when we were kids. We were more like brother and sister. We were both the “performers” in the family. I would sing the male part and she would sing the female part. She died of a heart attack at 44. So whenever I hear this song in random places, I feel like she is connecting with me. I will say, ok Dayna what are you trying to tell me?

The day before my wedding I was in a store going down an escalator and the song came on. So I said that exact same phrase - half jokingly. Then on the next bank I passed a photo of an interracial gay couple on their wedding day (completely fucking random). My husband and I are an interracial couple. I just said “thank you” to her congratulating me with teary eyes an arm full of chills.