[MUSIC] Pete Shelley, "Homosapien"
Aug. 30th, 2007 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI was pleasantly surprised to discover that YouTube hosts the video for former Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley's debut solo single, "Homosapien."
I quite like the song, a "fantastic bridging of punk and synth pop" as one listener calls it, Shelley's nasal vocals playing off against an aggressively sinuous mixture of acoustic guitar and electro. Although the song seems to have achieved a measure of underground success, it seems that it--and Shelley's solo career--took a hit from the radio ban imposed by the BBC in a homophobic knee-jerk reaction to the lyrics.
Saying that the song has a queer subtext is barely adequate.
The video is also worth watching as an artifact of its own right, of early 1980s music video futurism. Apparently inspired by the cover of the Homosapien album, it features Shelley lip-synching and gesturing around an ersatz office, singing behind phrenologists' skull molds and lounging around a Commodore PET personal computer. I like.
I quite like the song, a "fantastic bridging of punk and synth pop" as one listener calls it, Shelley's nasal vocals playing off against an aggressively sinuous mixture of acoustic guitar and electro. Although the song seems to have achieved a measure of underground success, it seems that it--and Shelley's solo career--took a hit from the radio ban imposed by the BBC in a homophobic knee-jerk reaction to the lyrics.
I'm the shy boy
You're the coy boy
And you know we're
Homosapien too
I'm the cruiser
You're the loser
Me and you sir
Homosapien too
Homosuperior
In my interior
But from the skin out
I'm Homosapien too
Saying that the song has a queer subtext is barely adequate.
The video is also worth watching as an artifact of its own right, of early 1980s music video futurism. Apparently inspired by the cover of the Homosapien album, it features Shelley lip-synching and gesturing around an ersatz office, singing behind phrenologists' skull molds and lounging around a Commodore PET personal computer. I like.
