Creating this took BALLS back in '81 -- both as a coming-out statement, and as a piece of electro-rock hybrid music. Shelley is definitely one of the most interesting figures of the late-70s UK punk scene.
@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music I was only 8 and wondered why my grandparents went strangely hush hush after it was on Countdown (Australia's version of MTV or Top of the Pops at the time). My aunt, uncle and father did their best to discuss the merits of the song and I just pretended to be the singer and danced around the lounge room 😜
Believe me I'm with you 💯% bro!!!... I first heard this ICONIC tune back in '83 as a "13 year old kid" who had very recently gotten HOOKED on the PHENOMENAL "college 📻 station" in my area that kept 🎶 like this on rotation all the time!!!... 90% of the music I still HEAVILY enjoy TODAY in "2019" came from that "period of the early 80's"... I wish I could fucking DIMENSION JUMP⏳⏳⏳ back to 🌟1982🌟 the year the world ⚰ and doesn't even fucking know it yet...😢😢😢
@@petermurphreak Same here my man. Lucky you. At 13 I was still stuck in late 70s rock disco hell. No escape. lol I first heard this song on Rodney Bingenheimers midnight show, while in high school. Thank God for KROQ. Saved my youth. lol
Fun fact: Pete is wearing a green carnation and that is a reference to back in the victorian era when Oscar wilde started the trend of gay lovers giving each other carnations to symbolize their love Also lesbian women gave each other violets 🌈🌈🌈
@This Is My Life! dude, this song was literally about Pete Shelley's sexual orientation, which at the time was classed as "homosexual". This has everything to do with the song. Also, only uncultured swine don't know who Oscar Wilde was, are you kidding me?!
Pete was Bi Sexual most of his life. He he fathered a son in 1993. His second wife Greta was with him living in Estonia when he sadly passed on 2018. RIP
@@frink32 yes, but he classified himself as bisexual and people can be monogamous and bisexual; in the case of Shelley he was and his settling down with women does not negate his bisexuality, something he was always upfront and honest about, to his great credit (and something that goes to show how fantastic he was as a human being). He didn't lay out the bullshit comedian Robert Webb did about how marrying a woman meant his bisexuality was a "phase", he was always true to himself and I admired the hell out of Pete Shelley for that. He was the perfect bi icon.
@@frink32 He was ALWAYS bisexual. Being in a committed relationship doesn't mean people stop being bisexual. His marriage doesn't invalidate or negate that part of his identity, and to insinuate that it does is insulting and uneducated
Brilliant song, I met Pete Shelley a few days ago at Auckland Airport on his way home after a brilliant four date tour with the Buzzcocks. He is a genuine lovely man with a ton of humility, was an honour meeting him.
Kia ora Mark I've seen THE BUZZCOCKS THREE TIMES HERE IN AOTEAROA BETWEEN THE LATE EIGHTIES AND THE LAST CONCERT HERE AND WENT TO THE THIRSTY DOG PUB AFTER FOR A WIND down with the MIGHTY MIGHTY STICKY FILTH FUCKING AWESOME NIGHT
When I meet people my age (50’s) and they say that the 80’s sucked, I always think no, you sucked in the 80’s lol love Pete Shelley and the buzzcocks so much
If someone is in their 50's and they say that the 80's sucked, that can only mean one thing... They weren't getting any ass. Therefore... They suck to this day.
If this was ever to be re-released, blind, to a new audience today they would absolutely love it. It still sounds fresh, still pertinent, edgy & it's energetic 80's electronica pop at it's very best. RIP Pete Shelley
Very true, I just heard this song for the first time recently and thought it was a 90s Alt song, only to find out it was from 1981. Unfortunately, It may not be re-released because of the title and lyrics it wont be played on commercial radio in these days, despite all of the other crap that is on the radio. But never say never, some old hits have been re-released and I'm sure if it ever makes it on a hit show or movie it may resurface.
Nah... have you heard the new music today? It's terrible. I am a 90s kid though and I actually thought it was a mid 90s song, so you're not entirely wrong.
RIP Pete Shelley. I think this is easily the most important song he ever released. It was just SO edgy for its time. I absolutely adore the entire Homosapien LP, as well as his work with The Buzzcocks.
Yes , but his biggest hit was as edgy a song as I have ever heard. Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with. That is transgressional. That can apply to any living being on the planet. God bless his passing.
Don’t know about that. Cool song, definitely important in its subject matter....I feel like he wrote tons of way better and more important tunes...like Everybody’s Happy Nowadays, I Believe, What Do I Get? etc
iF YOU like "ahead of time" artists, then look no further than MISEX with Computer Games ,and forgot the bands full name but Television, The Drug Of A Nation and Jethro Tull with Bungle In The Jungle , are 3 songs that are more relevant now as when they were made
I love the way he motions to his posh surroundings and "Interior" Decorating when he says "Homo Superior in my Interior". You were a master Wordsmith Pete!
I just turned 61 and absolutely loved this song the 1st time I heard it on KUSF in San Francisco. They played everything from Mae West sing "Rock around the Clock" to Nelson Riddle's theme from "Route 66" to the Dead Kennedys and some crazy crazy punk and new wave. All before 6pm because that was the time for the "Vietnamese News". I still have hours of the programming on cassette 40 years later.
All of the sudden, this song has a revival in my playlist. 1981? Holy cow - with simple computers and analogue mixing: what a fantastic composition. And those lyrics: totally in your face, unabashed same-sex attraction love song - with strength. I swear; this song unwittingly compelled me to become an Anthropology major. Pete Shelly: your spirit will live strong and your radiance will touch many generations to come... ✌🌈
RIP Peter, condolences to Greta Shelley and the entire McNeish family, I was born in 1955 like Pete and have followed him since the early days with Devoto..
So true! I will be covering this song today as part of a 30 Day Song Challenge. I am a Manchester guy now living in Brisbane. In 1999 a Brisbane band I was a big fan of called Lavish did a faster rock'n'roll version of this song, which reached No.60 in the Aussie charts. It's on my channel if you care to check it out. :)
Saw him last saturday touring with the Buzzcocks in Brisbane. Fantastic gig!!!! 90 mins of adrenaline soaked power pop. Puts most acts half their age to shame. if you get a chance to see them....GO!!!!!
Love it where he flips the Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot fool card ... in all his homosexual glory 1:28 - Rest In Peace Pete and thank you for the fabulous songs 🙏🏻
"Freedom Is A Two-Edged Sword" (book title from one of Crowley's acolytes). Seeing that card was the point in which I thought "oh I get it- this decor is all symbolism!"
It crushes me thinking about how much we've lost with today's news. Much of what we love when we listen, and when we dance, can trace its roots to The Buzzcocks and to Pete Shelley. Rest in peace.
From a straight man,this is one if not my favourite 80's dance tunes. Sad loss of Pete. Highly talented musician.Music has died just a little bit today.
I had no idea he’d passed. Absolutely gutted. A great front man, and artist. A true unique product of England. My sympathies to his family and friends.
Bought this when it first came out on 12 inch vinyl and still have it and play every new years eve. Not gay but loved it from the first beat. Was also a big Buzzcocks fan. RIP Pete. Excellent Homosapien.
This was played on the Sunday night "Rock of the 90s" radio show in Washington DC in 1988 or 1989. I forget which station. I recorded a few of the shows on audio cassette and this song was on it so I heard it a few times. I didn't really like this song that much but it really stuck in my head if I can remember it over thirty years later.
I was in the 7th grade growing up in Southern California when this song came out..... I somehow remember my friend running around the gym track singing this song.... ahh, memories. I'm now 53 years old.
Had all kinds of fun teaching 8th grade science back when people didn't get offended by the slightest thing. I'd confess to my students that I was Homosapien, and the looks were precious. After stringing them along for a bit, I'd finally tell them what it meant. Some classes were mature enough that I could show them this video "on the binomial classification system." They loved it. After that, a few students would see me in the hallway and sing a verse to me as we passed, and I'd follow with the next verse. Fun times. Great tune, clever lyrics. RIP, Pete.
LOVE this song. Always have. I was 8 when it came out in '81 and had absolutely no idea what it was about. Catchy tune, and he has a kickass attitude. I just figured it was about the next step in the evolutionary chain, you know... Neanderthal, Cromagnon, Homo Erectus....I was very naive. A lot of us kids were then. I still am! LoL😜🌵💗
I'm a shy boy ,you're the coy boy And you know we're homosapien too Hey you're epidermis is showing! This song & the Gang of four record ,you couldn't get away from them in the NYC clubs in 1981! It just takes me back to Bonds,Danceateria , The Peppermint lounge ,Trax ,Hurras,The Mudd Club & Max's
Cracking tune - I was 16 when this was released - if I’m ever overseas and a bar allows the punters to put requests in I always choose this - seeing the facial expressions of others as this plays is quite amusing… RIP Pete 🙏🏻
I remember loving this song back in the early 80s. Had no idea nor did I care about the song’s context. It’s just such a great song. Period. Pete, you brought so much to everyone. I will miss you.
I remember when this was currant on MTV, back when MTV was cool. Love the computer, you were cutting edge with a machine like that then... Now your phone is light years beyond it.
Quite the optical illusion that suit in a white room does. Also, I've never seen someone sing something with that much passion with such a deadpan expression
I was at a concert in the mid 90's. Near the end of the show he announced it was his b-day and finished "ever fallen in love" buck ass naked ! .....good times will 😁 not soon be forgotten. We will surely miss you pete.
1980s KROQ is how I learned about all the cool new wave bands from England (and early MTV since few US bands had videos yet). I loved Gary Numan's awesome sh!t (and to think how young he was), The Cure, early Depeche, Joy Division, Siouxsie, etc etc etc
aleister crowley 93, holy Prophet, nice to read that you too enjoyed KROQ from "Pa-SAW De-NAW" - You might enjoy reading about "Pasadenites" in the parody of Liber AL vel Legis, "The Book of the In-Laws." PS I crap on your spitulous creeds. 93, 93/93
Ah, Jedd-The-Fish: "Pah-Sa-De-Nah!" =.. before Jimmy Kimmel was an intern; and when you could call Dr. Drew Pinsky and discuss real issues (if Jim "Poorman" would shut his coke-hole long-enough_).
Great song, I was 6 when this came out, my mum played it a lot on her aussie comp album “1982 with a bullet! Funny it doesn’t feel all that long ago but…..40 year’s sure goes quick!
Thanks again! Thanks for the update and for letting me know that you received this email and I will be there at it and hers and I will be there at it and see how I can help I will be at work until you a very very I have been in a lot of you are in town so I'm going to be at work until it gets to be there by I get back home I will get the info for you a check tomorrow when I'm at it until I get my computer to do that but you can call or text me if you are doing great and that I would have not heard a checking account I get to work and then to be a checking you a call in to be there by to get home so I can go back and that I would it and see call me st2104302614 to me if that mone I have to
Exceptional and just great sounds. It could be a hit in 2021. Great lyrics. Superb melody. Profoundly cool vibe. Awesome awesome song, with world thumping bass. Can't appreciate fully on headphones much less earbuds or the like but that's better than not checking it out.
Seeing a young Pete Shelley tells us that youth and beauty are fleeting. Hearing this great song instantly brings me back to my college dorm days because a guy down the hall always was playing Pete Shelley.
I love the Buzzcocks but his solo career was really fantastic too. And Pete was bisexual, the lyrics can stretch a million different brilliant ways. I miss him.
