Songfacts®:

• This dark, menacing song with mentions of "slaying," "torture," and being "boiled alive" is a condemnation of the silkworm industry. The lyrics link the slaughter of silk worms with Buddhism.
• Human League were heavily influenced by the German electronic group Kraftwerk, and came up with the concept of making music without conventional instruments. In 1978 they recorded in mono for £250 with a Roland System 100 synthesizer they had acquired, creating this song along with "Circus Of Death" on the independent Fast Product record label. It created something of a stir on the independent scene but didn't chart.
  
  "I really liked Phil's lyrics," Bob Last, founder of the Fast Product label, told Uncut. "I was reading a lot of cultural theory at the time and I liked that mysterious feeling that allowed an audience to make any number of conclusions about the meaning of it. I've always liked the fact that the audience are the ones that finish making a record, in that sense. So, the song's inherently enigmatic lyrics really appealed."
• In 1982 after the success of "Don't You Want Me," EMI, who the band were now signed with, re-released "Being Boiled." It was the same version as the 1978 single, but but ran for an extra 35 seconds and faded out rather than cutting out abruptly as on the original release. This time it became a hit in the UK. By now the song was being acknowledged as a significant piece of music that had influenced many artists including Soft Cell and Depeche Mode. Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode and later Erasure has said that "Being Boiled" is his favorite record and that the early Human League was a large inspiration for him in forming Depeche Mode.
• In 2003 the British group Liberty X had a #3 UK hit with their merging of the lyrics from Rufus' "Ain't Nobody" and the music from this song. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above
• Synthesizer player Martyn Ware set out to channel Parliament and Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell when writing the song.
  
  "'Being Boiled' started with the idea of a funky rhythm on the Roland System 100, which was created from scratch; this was pre-drum machine, and a very simple synth baseline," he told Uncut. "Basically it was like a Benny Worrell bassline without any of the coloratura stuff. It was intended to be a bit like something from a blaxploitation movie. We very much had an imaginary film going in our heads for that song."