![[The JukeBox] #99 – Oingo Boingo – Who Do You Want To Be?](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/oingoboingo.png)
Recently the remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 was announced and I was reminiscing about the other games in the series and the music that was included.
The Tony Hawk series has been known to showcase a lot of great music across it’s 10 main line games.
For this JukeBox, we head back to 2005 and the time where my main device for playing games with the original ‘Phat’ Nintendo DS and I bought myself a copy of Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land. On PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC, it was titled American Wasteland, but changed for Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance.
It was still the first year of the original Nintendo DS’ life so a lot of new titles were making use of the touch screen. This game used it to perform certain tricks that earned you more points, but you never needed to use them, the entire game can be played via the D-Pad and face buttons.
The TL;DR of American Sk8land is that you are tasked to help Tony Hawk fund the purchasing of an old skatepark and to help Mindy start a comic book based on skating. It is your job to go around California, complete jobs and earn money. These ‘jobs’ would involve you skating, performing tricks, collecting items or helping to retrieve things out of reach.
The game comes packed with various punk rock tunes from some bands that you may know such as Green Day and Dead Kennedys. On the Game Boy Advance version, they had Filthy/Gorgeous by Scissor Sisters.
Being the Nintendo DS, the music was compressed. Sounds great in the video below but coming out of a mono speaker was a different experience.
But the song that I really liked in this game was Oingo Boingo’s Who Do You Want To Be?
It mixes punk rock with a bit of Ska, it’s repeating lyrics makes it easy to learn so you can sing along with it by the end of the song.
From Wiki, Oingo Boingo is a new wave band formed in 1979 created from the street theatre group The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo
Who Do You Want To Be? was the first track on Oingo Boingo’s 3rd studio album ‘Good for Your Soul’ which released in 1983.
The version that is in Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land / Wasteland is their re-recording that they did in their 1988 “Alive” album.
YouTube – Live version
YouTube – Alive version
Spotify
Lyrics
Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be today?
Do you want to be just like someone on TV?Oh boredom is so terrible
It’s like a dread disease
Nothing could be worse than
When there’s nothing on TV
I’d rather be a cowboy
Than to stare blank at the walls
I’ve been reborn so many times
I can’t remember them all and I sayWho do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be today?
Do you want to be just like someone on TV?
Just like somebody on TVI think I’ll be a teddy boy
I think I’ll be a hunk
I think I’ll be a tough guy
And I think I’ll be a punk
I might just be a fashion star
All dressed in frilly rags
Or perhaps I’ll cross the other side
And walk around in dragWho do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be today?
Do you want to be just like someone on TV?
Just like somebody on TVOh yeah
Do you like live just like a rock
In the middle of the sea?
Do you want to suffer by yourself
In a pool of blissful misery?
Do you feel like a saint in artist’s clothes
With a rosary in your hand?
Do you want to be crazy like Van Gogh?
Like a stranger in a strange strange land?
Would you rather push the buttons
And be feared by all humanity?
Or perhaps you’d like to be a bum
Do you wanna be stupid, just like me?Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be today?
Do you want to be just like someone on TV?
Just like somebody on TVWho do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be today?Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be today?
Who do you want to be?
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