Our love of cars reflected time immemorial in some of the most iconic songs of their generation. Indeed the marriage of sound and the motor industry captures the excitement and passion of car ownership. Reflecting in a personal basis the social and the physical of an individuals wealth, power and mobility. All these songs have a story to tell, memorable to us in a personal basis – (as one always remembers their first car with great affection, no matter how quirky the wreck was). The stories of youth and their first car(not to be repeated for fear that mother is reading this). My first in a series of blogs will look at the artist, the song and what tempered the fruition of the tracks and their emotional response.
The story behind the creation and lyrics of ‘Cars’, according to Numan was inspired by an incident of road rage “I was in traffic in London once and had a problem with some people in front. They tried to beat me up and get me out of the car. I locked the doors and eventually drove up on the pavement and got away from them. It’s kind of to do with that. It explains how you can feel safe inside a car in the modern world… When you’re in it, your whole mentality is different… It’s like your own little personal empire with four wheels on it.”
A top UK hit for 3 decades (1979)(1987)(1996). Released originally on the ‘Atco‘ label, ‘Cars’ by UK artist Gary Numan released in 1979 coming from his album The Pleasure Principal. Categorised in the New Wave genre of music of the time, reaching top of the music charts in that year. With a number 1 in the UK followed by Canada in 1980. In the US it reached its highest level of number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, spending a total of 14 weeks in the American Top 40. This was to be Numans only song to reach the US Hot 100 out of his many string of hits in the UK.
Gary Numan had released four singles and two LPs under the band called Tubeway Army with hits such as “Are ‘Friends’ Electric. Release of ‘Cars‘ single was released after dropping the band name, so therefore only credited to Gary Numan. Musically, the song was more pop-oriented compared to previous releases. As Numan said “This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ‘maybe it could be a hit single’; I was writing this before ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’ happened.”
The musical composition in ‘Cars’ are a verse/instrumental break and a bridge. No chorus and instrumental from the 1:30 point until its end. With bass guitar and drums in its conventional rock rhythm section. The other sounds are from the use of an analogue synthesizer principally the Minimoog (bass riff) and the Polymoog keyboard (synthetic string lines over the bass riff). With the tambourine for the bridge section. Sung with Numans robotic expressionless vocals.
The video has an infinite number of Gary Numans portraying him in a driving standing position holding an imaginary steering wheel beside a Polymoog keyboard. The then current backing band featuring Billy Currie from Ultavox though not involved in the recording.
motorlicious 