CULTURE CLUB White Boy 7 inch Single Version Love Twist 7 inch Single Version FIRST RELEASE

"White Boy" was the debut single from Culture Club, released on April 30th, 1982. It charted at #100 in the UK pop charts, and fared a bit better on the "Pop Oriented Dance Charts", where it peaked at #30 on May 29, 1982. There were excellent reviews, such as one in the NME that called it "impeccable", but there were just as many that seemed more concerned about the image and sexuality of the band that anything found inside the sleeve. The attitude of Boy George as a personality- a celebrity- instead of a serious musician would follow Culture Club to this day.

The song was one of the first written after Suede, the original Culture Club guitarist, was replaced by Roy Hay. It was on the third demo tape and was the second submitted to EMI for consideration. The first demo tape included the still-unheard songs "Eyes Of Medusa" and "I'm An Animal"; the second included "Put It Down", "Kissing To Be Clever" and "White Boys Can't Control It". The final tape, the one that got them signed to the deal that would not only make their mark in the world, but also launch Virgin into the mega-company that it is today, included "White Boy", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya!", and "I'm Afraid Of Me". That tape was recorded with Steve Levine, who would go on to produce their first three albums and the bulk of their most beloved music.

Boy George was often questioned about the potentially racial interpretation of the references to "white" boys and "black" boys in his early lyrics. He was quick to point out that he isn't singing about race, or even a specific color. The "white" boys were anybody, of any race, who had no culture, no religion, so spirituality. "Black" boys, in contrast, would by definition be the enlightened among us, although George has never expanded on that idea in any interviews. The first line of the song, "Black boys employ Selassie, they kiss they define" is a reference to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, a prophet of the Rastafari religion believed to be destined to create a perfect world called Zion. Rastafari culture was taking hold in England in the late 70's and early 80's and had attracted the interest of Mickey Craig prior to joining Culture Club. It also had a significant impact on the imagery of Culture Club and influenced the lyrics of "Karma Chameleon", as red, gold, & green are the symbolic representation of the Rastafari world wide and originate from the colors of the Ethiopian flag. George's use of the names, colors, and imagery of the religion symbolize his optimistic desire for spiritual communion and the ideal world Rastas believe is still possible.

"White Boy" was released on 7" and 12", and only in the UK. The 7" version with a different bridge and outro, is unique, as the 12" mix was edited down to create the album version. Both formats were issued in a black & white sleeve with pink lettering and George on the front cover, with smaller photos of the band on the back. On close inspection, the Jewish Star Of David has been projected into George's pupils on the front cover, which caused controversy itself. George was determined Culture Club would be a true club of cultures, and went about it in a way of adopting, combining and sometimes contradicting symbols from religion and everyday life. His ideas were to make them clash so badly they would become meaningless, and only by taking away the things that make us notice our differences would we begin to notice how much we have in common. His early clothes and record sleeves would combine everything from hobo symbols & graffiti, Hebrew and Japanese lettering, religious icons and perhaps most shocking to the Thatcher / Reagan era conservatives, the symbol for male and female combined into one figure that could be interpreted as the insignificance of binary gender identity.

"White Boy" was played at virtually every Culture Club concert since their first show up until the final night of the "Colour By Numbers" tour in the summer of 1984. It was the closing number of most of their sets, and rarely deviated from the arrangement heard on the album. It was also played in 2006 at one of the "Reformation" shows, by a Culture Club lineup that consisted of Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, Phil Pickett, and lead singer Sam Butcher. It wasn't heard again until the 2012 shows in Dubai and Sydney, where it was a jazzier, more laid back version that suited the new, more robust sound of George's voice.

Culture Club's first ever release is almost impossible to find on CD- the "A" side is a unique version and has only been released on a long-out of print Japanese Greatest Hits collection called "The Greatest", and the "B" side has never been released on CD at all, although the differences between it and the album version are so slight, it's probably not a significant loss to all but the most obsessive collectors. (There is a drum part at the very end removed from the single version). The song features a young Amos Pizzey as "Captain Crucial".

Видео CULTURE CLUB White Boy 7 inch Single Version Love Twist 7 inch Single Version FIRST RELEASE канала Mr. David