My Top 1000 Songs #1005: Homosapien

The title track off Pete Shelley's first solo album after leaving the Buzzocks, 1981's "Homosapien" is one of those songs I dimly recall hearing back in high school--maybe on the radio, or more likely on one of those late-night cable video shows or at a party. The lyrics themselves didn't register at the time--for me, it was all about that electronic beat, still kinda novel at the time, and one of the earlier tracks to define what I understood to be "new wave" music back then.

I'm also pretty sure that, while I'd heard some Buzzcocks songs by then, I didn't connect Shelley with that band (ah, those pre-internet days, when we wandered the earth in a state of constant musical confusion). Which is kinda weird, because Shelley had one of the most distinctive voices in rock, but the song was such a far cry from that "Orgasm Addict" track a friend had thrown onto a mixtape for me.

Of course, by the time I got to college a few years later, I'd figured it all out, including the song's out-and-proud gay theme, which had originally soared right over my sheltered suburban head.

It's one of those songs where the time-specific vibe oughta make it feel hopelessly dated, yet it's still so singular that it holds up.

Live 1986:

Big Dipper cover:

Pansy Division cover:

Simple Minds cover: