In case you hadn’t heard, I recently completely the epic-length Lost Turntable Guide to Recording Vinyl. You should totally read it. It’s almost 5,000 words though, so maybe you might want to pee first.
Happy Mondays
Bob’s Yer Uncle (The Grid Mix)
Bob’s Yer Uncle (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
These remixes are from a 12″ promo copy I snagged last week, they’re chill as shit. This song is my new jam.
The Human League
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Main Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Alternative Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Instrumental Mix)
I love it when a band’s fans obviously hi-jack Wikipedia and the moderators are none the wiser. Take The Human League for instance. Not only does their wiki have a tremendous amount of extraneous data (not to mention the most needlessly complicated band members section I’ve ever seen), but pages for individual members, albums and even songs are freakishly in-depth and filled with unsubstantiated “facts” and bizarre justifications for why The Human League is no longer the biggest band in the world. For instance, both the wiki for this song as well as the wiki for Secrets, the album from which the song came from, claim that the song/album were not hits because the band’s label was on the verge of bankruptcy when the album came out, and that the BBC had blacklisted the band. I think the whole “it’s 2001 and we’re an 80s synthpop band” had more to do with the album’s lack of success than anything else.
I’m not knocking The Human League, don’t get me wrong, I love them, I just don’t love them enough to oddly rationalize why they’re no longer popular. Shit, I love me some Toadies, but you don’t see me saying that their lack of current success is due to a conspiracy involving Clear Channel, the Freemasons and the Gin Blossoms.
Wait, I may be on to something here…
Anyways, these are good remixes, download them.
Hmm, if you look around on Wikipedia, many bands who have been around for several decades (or even less) have pretty thorough wiki pages, not just the Human League. For example, just look at Tiffany (the singer), A Flock of Seagulls (another 80’s band), DC Talk (christian rap band), Earth Wind & Fire (funk band). Almost all of their pages are at least as populated, if not more, than Human League’s. And I don’t think that explaining that the band’s label went bust right as the “Secrets” album was released is necessarily an attempt to rationalize why it wasn’t more “popular” but it is a fact surrounding the album’s release/fate that may be of interest to people if/when they are searching for information about it. I usually find it more strange when a band doesn’t have much information on their wiki page.
You’re right, but the abundance of rationalization on the “All I Ever Wanted” page made it all a little weirder.
Maybe the Human League’s star fell because they just aren’t that good. *gasp* go the 80’s fanatics! Dare is a solid album and there was a good single or two after that and then just express train to dreckville. For example, “Human” one of the most overrated singles of the 80’s with some really crap sentiment to boot – don’t feel bad you screwed around on me, I screwed around on you, too. Let’s kiss and make up. Hated that one then, hate it now. A lot of the early 80’s bands had one, maybe two good albums and then just skated on their reputation. Spandau Ballet gave us “True” but then two albums later we got “Through the Barricades” and Duran Duran went from Rio to a coke fueled mess of an album “7 & the Ragged Tiger,” home to some of the most utter gibberish lyrics from the early 80’s. The new wave was good for about 18….24 months, tops, and then they all started to believe their own press and it went horribly wrong.
I understand from the Band’s forum a lot of the info in the wiki pages was provided by a female band member to a fan who wrote them for the band. I don’t think the Wiki pages set out to claim that the Human League didn’t become superstars again in 2000 because of a conspiracy. But the Bankruptcy of their Label and the change in the editorial policy of BBC Radio One are well documented, and these two things combined, condemned the Album to the dustbin; because quite simply , pre internet file sharing, if it got no promotion and radio airtime no one bought it, because no one heard it. Actually it is a good essay on the death of the independent band + Label funded album deals. Within a year we would have Napster and realty TV bands, and the death of chart music. The Human League themselves have said that by hitting massive international stardom in 1981, the only way then was down. As the band has been going strong since 1978 to the present (some 34 years) without stopping, the detail in the Wiki pages is actually quite reasonable.
Isn’t the whole point of Wikipedia to convey as much information about a subject as possible to be read by people who have an interest in it? I found the Human League pages very informative, they are written in neutral terms and the assertions are backed by references. If someone has no interest in THL they wouldn’t be reading them in the first place duuuuh
Two things…
1. My main point about THL’s wiki page was the membership section. When I said it was needlessly complex, I was referring to its layout, not its content. However, since you brought up “neutral terms” I suggest you re-read the page for “All I Ever Wanted” which has phrases like “meticulous joint production” and has large sections that lack any kind of attribution. Also, one of the main sources for the page is “Human League Media Enquiries” which I doubt is a non-partial, reliable source.
2. I was mostly joking/kidding with my original comment. I love The Human League. Lighten up.