- Good for Your Soul
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Good for Your Soul Studio album by Oingo Boingo Released July 26, 1983 Recorded Baby O Recorders and Crystal Industries, June 1983 Genre New Wave, Ska Length 41:42 Label A&M Producer Robert Margouleff Oingo Boingo chronology Nothing to Fear
(1982)Good for Your Soul
(1983)So-Lo
(1984)Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic [1]
George Starostin [2]
Good for Your Soul is the third album by Oingo Boingo. It was released in 1983 and was their final album for A&M Records before transferring to MCA Records. Several songs were recorded but omitted from Good for Your Soul, including "All the Pieces", "Head in the Clouds", "Waiting for You" and "Lost Like This" (a song re-recorded and issued on the 1994 album Boingo).
Contents
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Danny Elfman.
No. Title Length 1. "Who Do You Want to Be" 3:31 2. "Good for Your Soul" 3:16 3. "No Spill Blood" 3:42 4. "Cry of the Vatos" 2:21 5. "Fill the Void" 3:42 6. "Sweat" 4:31 7. "Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me" 3:45 8. "Wake Up (It's 1984)" 4:44 9. "Dead or Alive" 4:04 10. "Pictures of You" 4:03 11. "Little Guns" 3:42 Total length:41:42 Personnel
- Oingo Boingo
- Danny Elfman - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Steve Bartek - lead guitar
- Kerry Hatch - bass guitar, bass synthesizer
- Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez - drums
- Richard Gibbs - keyboards
- Sam "Sluggo" Phipps - lead tenor, clarinet
- Leon Schneiderman - alto saxophone, baritone saxophone
- Dale Turner - trumpet, trombone
The liner notes from Good For Your Soul also state:
- Original Instruments: Leon Schneiderman
- Horn Arrangements: Steve Bartek
- All Horn Solos by Sluggo and Dale
- Additional horns on "Vatos", "Dead or Alive" and "Wake Up" by Miles Anderson and Mario Guarneri
- Harmonica on "Sweat" by Jimmy Wood
Availability
As of 2009[update], the album is out of print, though it is available on the iTunes Store.
Trivia
- The track "No Spill Blood" is based on H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, and appears to directly quote Erle C. Kenton's 1933 film adaption of this novel, Island of Lost Souls. In this story, the mad scientist Dr. Moreau performed operations on wild beasts in order to make them more human and able to undertake menial tasks. When the beasts acted in an inappropriate manner, Dr. Moreau would crack his whip and challenge the beasts. In the film, this takes the form of a litany:
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- Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
- Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
- Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
- Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
- Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men?
- Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
- Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
- Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?
- Beasts (in unison): Are we not men? [1]
- The repeated "Are we not men?" in this passage was also the source of Devo's song "Jocko Homo".
- The track "Wake Up (It's 1984)" is based on the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in which the entire world is controlled by three separate socialist super-states who are constantly at war with each other. The main plot follows one man joining a rebellion against a pseudo-futuristic socialist England. The government is referred to as "Big Brother" and through an extensive spy network as well as subliminal indoctrination manage keep tabs on every single person in the country. "Big Brother is watching you[3]"
- In the anime YuYu Hakusho, the character Kazuma Kuwabara has an Oingo Boingo poster in his room, depicting the cover art from Good for Your Soul.
- The track "Cry of the Vatos" contains a secret message recorded backwards. The backmasked message in this track is a satire of evangelical preachers.
- The track "Who Do You Want to Be" is featured on the soundtrack to the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. It is also featured in the Nintendo DS version of Tony Hawk's American Sk8land. However, both games contain the Boingo Alive re-recording from 1988, and not the original recording from this album.
- The track "Who Do You Want to Be" is featured in the 1980s movies Bachelor Party and Teen Wolf Too.
- The track "Who Do You Want to Be" is covered by Sacred Reich in their 1996 album Heal
- The track "Little Guns" is based on the short story Battleground by Stephen King.
References
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r14408
- ^ http://starling.rinet.ru/music/oingo.htm
- ^ Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Danny Elfman · Steve Bartek · Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez · Sam "Sluggo" Phipps · Dale Turner · Leon Schneiderman · John Avila · Warren Fitzgerald · Doug Lacy · Marc Mann
Kerry Hatch · Richard Gibbs · Carl Graves · Michael BacichStudio albums Only a Lad · Nothing to Fear · Good for Your Soul · So-Lo (as Danny Elfman) · Dead Man's Party · BOI-NGO · Dark at the End of the Tunnel · Boingo (as Boingo)Live albums Compilations Boingo Alive • The Best of Oingo Boingo: Skeletons in the Closet • Stay • Best O' Boingo • Anthology • The Best of Oingo Boingo: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium CollectionExtended plays Singles "You Got Your Baby Back" • "Only a Lad" • "Wake Up (It's 1984)" • "Weird Science" • "Just Another Day" • "Dead Man's Party" • "Stay" • "Pain" • "Not My Slave" • "Winning Side" • "Flesh 'N Blood" • "Out of Control" • "When the Lights Go Out" • "Insanity" • "Hey!"Related articles Discography • List of members • Richard Elfman • Dead Bands Party: A Tribute to Oingo Boingo • Drink to Bones That Turn to Dust • Forbidden Zone (soundtrack) • Tito & Tarantula • Psychotic Aztecs
Categories:- 1983 albums
- Oingo Boingo albums
- A&M Records albums
- New Wave album stubs
- 1980s album stubs
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