Weird Science Full Version Oingo Boingo Lyrics Useless
Sanora Ngueyn
Even in an era that was giving rise to weirdo art bands like B-52s and Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo was wild. Their mix of punk, ska, cabaret, carnival music, and vaudeville made it difficult for anyone to pinpoint their sound. Was it funny? Was it scary? Was it mean? Was it sincere? Was it even rock music?
But what exactly is Oingo Boingo? Do people outside of Southern California (and strangely, Salt Lake City) even know them apart from a few novelty Halloween songs? Are they scary? Are they funny? Are we supposed to take them seriously?
Scotty Pants: I'm the host of Pants Karaoke (San Diego's dumbest karaoke night), the front man for Pants (San Diego's premiere [only?] Pulp cover band), a full-time Dexter (but like Dexter in the good seasons, not the incest and lumberjack seasons) and the father of two Little Girls who I do, in fact, love.
Since I started hosting karaoke in 2008, I've expanded my Oingo Boingo knowledge considerably, but mostly through other people's drunken versions of their songs. And in that setting, I get it: The upbeat tempos, the overly theatrical vocal style, the guarantee that anyone in the room who's into Oingo (can I call them that?) is really into Oingo and will react accordingly to your song choice. It's great fun to sing.
Let's talk about the vocals for a moment, though. So. Much. Creepy. Drama. Why sing "this is where I lie at night" when you can sing "this is where I like at ni-IIIII-iiii-ight", amirite? The thing that make Oingo songs so much fun to karaoke is the exact thing that pretty much guarantees I'll never come home from work on a Friday evening, kick my feet up and put "Nothing to Fear" on the turntable. Unless, of course, it's Halloween season. I don't listen to music to get creeped out unless it's Halloween season, just like I don't enter houses that I know for a fact are going to jump scare me repeatedly unless it's Halloween season.
Welcome to \u201CIs This Band Good?\u201D, a semi-regular feature where I, with the help of a knowledgeable and accomplished musician, try to determine\u2014quantitatively\u2014if certain bands are actually good.
Let\u2019s just say I have not made a lot of friends with the \u201CIs This Band Good?\u201D series. There\u2019s a good chance that I\u2019ve been harsh on a band you like, or have liked in the past. Being real hasn\u2019t translated to being liked\u2014it\u2019s a difficult but necessary duty. Heavy lies the crown and all that, you know? I\u2019m not going to apologize\u2014how can we fully appreciate art if we can\u2019t acknowledge its shortcomings?\u2014but I also know it\u2019s not fun when people trash your music.
To be honest, though, there have been bands that I\u2019ve refused to tackle due personal or sentimental reasons. But after some deep introspection, I\u2019ve decided that this is a coward\u2019s stance! If I can\u2019t be critical of the bands that I love, then what good am I?
That said, I felt pangs of dread when my guest critic suggested we tackle Oingo Boingo. I can\u2019t think of another act that I\u2019ve consistently loved since I was eleven years old. They\u2019re easily one of my all-time faves, and they\u2019re pretty much all I play throughout the month of October. I only have a few musical sacred cows, and they\u2019re one of them.
The origins of Oingo Boingo date back to the early \u201870s, when it was an LA-based surrealist theater troupe known as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Founded by Richard Elfman, these performances were akin to watching a live version of Rob Zombie film but with more Cab Calloway, clowns, and musical chaos. In other words, it was pretty cool. Just watch this clip of them in 1976, when they appeared on the Gong Show and ended up winning.
When Richard pulled away from The Mystic Knights to focus on filmmaking, he handed the reins over to his younger brother, Danny Elfman, who gradually transformed the theater troupe into a more straight-forward rock band (\u201Cstraight-forward\u201D being a loose term here) and shortened the name to Oingo Boingo.
In 1981, they released Only A Lad, which featured the eponymous single, as well as one of the most cringe-worthy songs ever to play on MTV, \u201CLittle Girls.\u201D While the album didn\u2019t make them superstars, it gave them a huge cult following in Southern California thanks to heavy airplay from KROQ.
The next four years were incredibly prolific for the band, which found them putting out three increasingly accomplished albums: 1982\u2019s Nothing to Fear, 1983\u2019s Good for Your Soul and 1985\u2019s seminal Dead Man\u2019s Party (which I consider to be Oingo Boingo\u2019s Nevermind). With each successive release, the band became darker and more assured in their identity. Their music became staples of \u201880s movie soundtracks (most notably Weird Science, for which they wrote the theme song).
It was around this time that lead singer/songwriter Danny Elfman was tagged by Tim Burton to compose the score Pee Wee\u2019s Big Adventure, which was a perfect fit for Elfman\u2019s manic, hodgepodge of music stylings. Thus began a long-lasting relationship between Elfman and Burton, resulting in some of the most iconic and recognizable movie scores in history (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas). Additionally, Elfman wrote the theme for The Simpsons, which I would argue is one of the most famous songs of all time.
Due to Elfman\u2019s film success, he began to lose interest in performing with Oingo Boingo, and it\u2019s apparent: the output after Dead Man\u2019s Party feels weighty and self-serious (although still interesting) compared to their earlier albums. Compare \u201CWeird Science\u201D to anything off their final album, 1994\u2019s Boingo, and the difference is profound.
My first concert was Oingo Boingo. On October 24, 1995, my dad took me to the Delta Center in Salt Lake City to see the band\u2019s second-to-last performance before their \u201CFarewell\u201D Halloween show in Los Angeles.
I\u2019m not sure there could ever be a better first concert experience, especially for an eleven-year-old. I\u2019ll never forget the potent mix of excitement and fear that settled in my gut when the lights went out and the ominous horn intro to \u201CInsanity\u201D crept forth. For the next eight or so minutes, I feasted upon a stage show that featured creepy marionettes, tribal drums, and a sheer amount of volume that I had previously never experienced. It felt like the music was shaking my soul free. That first song transformed me into a lover of spectacle and live music, and for the next three hours, I couldn\u2019t turn away.
For my next birthday, I got the two-tape VHS and the live CD of the band\u2019s \u201CFarewell\u201D concert so I could relive that formative concert in multiple formats. I must have watched those tapes hundreds of times, and would probably still have them if the analog hadn\u2019t eroded from overuse.
While so many of my youthful music interests feel embarrassing now, Oingo Boingo\u2019s power over me has remained steadfast throughout my life. I become very annoying come October, when they\u2019re pretty much the only band I listen to (alongside The Misfits). They\u2019re like an audio equivalent of a PSL\u2014 seasonal, a little much for most, but perfect for me.
Scotty Pants: When Ryan asked me to participate in \\\"Is This Band Good?\\\", I suggested Oingo Boingo mostly as revenge for his hit pieces on They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds Five. Growing up, I think I missed the boat on Oingo Boingo. If you asked early-2000s me to name an Oingo Boingo song, I likely would\u2019ve asked if the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff counts (it doesn't), but only because I knew that my one answer, \u201CWeird Science,\u201D was the wrong answer. [Editor\u2019s note: it\u2019s true. No one\u2019s favorite Oingo Boingo song is \u201CWeird Science.\u201D]
I guess I should also mention I was invited to sing a few Oingo Boingo songs as part of a regular covers night at a local San Diego bar [The Office\u2019s \u201CUnder Cover\u201D series, if you wanna know]. Pretty sure I was invited only because they were doing it on actual Halloween and they weren't able to find enough actual musicians who didn't have Halloween plans (I'd been politely rejected in the past for being \\\"just a karaoke guy\\\"). I did two songs: \u201CPrivate Life\u201D\u2014which I knew mostly because of karaoke\u2014and \u201CNot My Slave,\u201D which I had never heard before I was asked to sing it. Again, great fun to sing, but this feature isn't called \\\"Is This Band Great Fun to Sing at Karaoke and/or In a Cover Band?\\\", so\u2026
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