Time for The Human League, I think, with Circus Of Death.
In late 1980s/early 1990s, I started picking up budget priced music video compilations on VHS, usually from my local WH Smith or Woolworths. Human League Greatest Hits (no definite article, for some reason) originally came out in 1988 to accompany the album of the same name.
It was re-released on the 4Front Video label, essentially identical packaging, but with their logo and a gold trim on the front, back and spine. I should point out now that the above photo is neither my video nor my laminate flooring. I have lived in a house with both at some point in my life, but neither made the transition to the current Casa K.
The 13-track vinyl, cassette and CD versions of Greatest Hits kick off with Mirror Man and continue with varied shuffle through The Human League's history, the only pre-Dare song being Side 2 opener Being Boiled, and including Giorgio Moroder & Philip Oakey's Together In Electric Dreams, setting a precedent for most compilations to come.
The VHS of Greatest Hits is a different proposition altogether, the 12 videos presented in strict chronological order and strangely omitting Love Is All That Matters, from 1986's presciently titled album Crash and belatedly released as a single in 1988 to promote the Greatest Hits compilation.
However, after a quick online check, the video turns out to be one of those hideous collages of previous hits, which make no sense visually or narratively, so it's absence is understandable.
Love Action (I Believe In Love) didn't have a video at the time, although one was made several years later, with Phil Oakey shorn of his trademark lop-sided haircut and singing to camera, intercut with snippets from the Don't You Want Me? video. Wisely, the compilers of Greatest Hits also ditched this version, presumably for the same reasons as Love Is All That Matters, instead including a majestic 1981 performance from Top Of The Pops.
The finest inclusion - and perhaps the most head-scratching for those who were unaware that The Human League even existed prior to Dare - is Circus Of Death. The strict adherence to a chronological track listing, and the lack of a video for Being Boiled, means that this song opens proceedings stretching the Greatest Hits title to near breaking point.
The video omits Phil Oakey's spoken word introduction, but I'm going to share it here as it tells you all you need to know before listening to/watching the song.
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 AirportOf Commissioner Steve McGarrett
The third emotionally describes a mapShowing the range of the circus
The fourth and fifth were extracted from an articleIn the Guardian of March the 19th, 1962
The last is a short wave radio message from the last man on Earth
All nonsense, of course, but don't you miss that in pop songs these days?
Circus Of Death was filmed in 1979, one of the first to be directed by 26-year old Australian Russell Mulcahy, who did pretty well for himself in subsequent years, to say the least.
I love Circus Of Death, the song and the video, and it more than made up for a VHS that achieves even greater heights, before the slippery slope to compilation closer Human.
£4.99 well spent, in my opinion.
I still love their debut Peproduction an epic release back in 1979, probably one of the first albums in electronic music but to be frank they vanished from my radar in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Walter, I think Reproduction and Travelogue are great albums. I bought them in the CD age, so both were packed full with bonus tracks and EPs. I bought Hysteria on vinyl maybe a year or so after it came out in 1984, but dropped off then.
DeleteSome of their latter albums could never come close, but contained some fine moments. 2011's Credo, which I'm presumably is their final album, is worth checking out.
What a weird old career the Leaguers had... now filling out arenas when their early stuff was so niche...mind you we can say that about a lot of bands. I reckon 90% of what you would want from them in your music collection is 1978-1984 but still people feel enough affection for those songs to pay lots of money to hear them again (including me!)
ReplyDeleteIn terms of pop songs, they had a pretty unbeatable run and even some of their later 'comeback' singles, e.g. Heart Like A Wheel, Tell Me When and All I Ever Wanted, had some of that magic. I'd imagine Phil's still in pretty fine voice too. If I got to see them though, I'd be crying out for The Black Hit Of Space and Empire State Human and would be heading for the bar for Human and Together In Electric Dreams, which seems to have been adopted as a THL song now!
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