Empire State Human
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| “Empire State Human” | |||||
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| Single by The Human League from the album Reproduction |
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| B-side | "Introducing" | ||||
| Released | September 1979 | ||||
| Format | 7", 12" Vinyl Single | ||||
| Recorded | Monumental Studios,Sheffield,UK | ||||
| Genre | Electronica | ||||
| Length | 4:36 | ||||
| Label | Virgin | ||||
| Writer(s) | Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh | ||||
| Producer | Colin Thurston | ||||
| The Human League singles chronology | |||||
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"Empire State Human" is an Electronica song by the British Synthesizer group The Human League. It was released as a single in the UK in September 1979, but originally failed to chart. It was re-released the following year and reached number 62 in the UK. It was written by Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh; was produced by Colin Thurston, and recorded at Monumental Studios in Sheffield.[1]
The song was the third single released by the original line up of the Human League. It was the first single released from the band's debut album Reproduction. Like the previous releases it didn't capture mainstream public attention and failed to chart. It was re-released nine months later in June 1980 and faired slightly better, spending 2 weeks in the UK singles chart and reaching number 62. For the re-release, as a sweetener Virgin records included a free copy of the single "Only After Dark" with the first 15000 copies. Virgin's plan had originally been to release "Only After Dark" as a single with "Empire State Human" given away as the free, but this was revised when the band objected to it.[1]
"Empire State Human" is lyrically a song about becoming powerful using the analogy of size, with Oakey declaring that he wants to be "tall" a total of 60 times in 3 minutes. Uncut magazine drew a comparison with Oakey's own personal ambition:
| “ | "I wanna be tall, tall, tall, as big as a wall, wall, wall". Oakey's Nietzschian pop fantasy reflected his own burgeoning full-on pop ambitions...[2] | ” |
The B-side "Introducing" is an instrumental. Oakey sang on the original recording but the vocals were not used on the final edit. [1]
The open shirted man on the cover artwork is in fact Ian Craig Marsh's father.[1]
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[edit] External links
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