Cars (song)
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| "Cars" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Gary Numan | ||
| Released | August 1979 | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Recorded | Marcus Music AB, London 1979 | |
| Genre | New Wave, Synth pop | |
| Length | 3:44 | |
| Label | Beggars Banquet BEG 23 |
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| Producer(s) | Gary Numan | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Gary Numan singles chronology | ||
| "Are 'Friends' Electric?" (1979) |
"Cars" (1979) |
"Complex" (1979) |
"Cars" is a 1979 song by Gary Numan, released as a single and on the album The Pleasure Principle. It reached the top of the charts in several countries and is today considered a New Wave staple. However, its popularity was so enormous that it overshadowed much of the rest of Numan's career in the 1980s, causing him to be thought of in later years as a one-hit wonder in many countries.
The song was the first release credited solely to Gary Numan after he dropped the band name Tubeway Army, with which he had released four singles and two LPs, including the number 1 hit "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and its parent album Replicas. Musically the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-orientated than its predecessors, Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: "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".[1]
"Cars" is based on two musical sections: a verse/instrumental break, and a bridge. The recording features a conventional rock rhythm section of bass guitar and drums, however the rest of the instruments used are analog synthesizers, principly the Minimoog (augmenting the song's recognisable bass riff) and the Polymoog Keyboard, providing austere synthetic string lines over the bass riff. The bridge section also includes a tambourine part. Numan's vocal part is sung in an almost expressionless, robotic style. There is no 'chorus' as such.
According to Numan, the song's lyrics were 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."[2]
The original UK single B-side was a non-album instrumental track called "Asylum". The US B-side was "Metal", from The Pleasure Principle album. The music video featured Numan's then-current backing band, including Billy Currie from the band Ultravox, though he had not actually played on the recording of "Cars". Towards the end of the video, a multitude of Gary Numans are depicted 'driving' along a Polymoog keyboard.
"Cars" has been a UK Top Twenty hit for Numan in three successive decades: on its original release in 1979 (making number 1), in a 1987 release as the 'E Reg Model' remix (number 16), and again in 1996 following its use in an advertisement for Carling Premier beer (number 17).
Numan has regularly performed the song on stage from 1979 to the present day and it appears on all but one of his official live albums to date; many remixed versions have also been released over the years (see Live versions and remixes). "Cars" was covered by the Judybats on the 1991 single "Daylight" and by Shampoo on the "Girl Power" single in 1995. Dave Clarke performed the song on the Random tribute album in 1997, while Fear Factory Recorded a version of the song (with Numan) and released it as a single in 1999. Despite being a metal group, Fear Factory's version was extremely faithful to the original. Numan also appeared in the video. The song was also heavily sampled in the 2000 song "Koochy" by Armand van Helden, which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. Later, the beat was used for the song "Hot Wheels" by the hip hop group Jim Crow.
| Preceded by "We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard |
UK number one single September 16, 1979 |
Succeeded by "Message in a Bottle" by The Police |
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "Cars" (Numan) – 3:44
- "Asylum" (Numan) – 2:30
[edit] Production credits
- Producer:
- Gary Numan
- Musicians:
- Gary Numan: Vocals, Keyboards (Minimoog, Polymoog), Synthetic percussion
- Paul Gardiner: Bass guitar
- Chris Payne: Keyboards (Minimoog, Polymoog)
- Cedric Sharpley: Drums, Tambourine
[edit] Live versions and remixes
A selected list of official live recordings and remixes.
- Living Ornaments '79 (1981) - live recording
- White Noise (1985) - live recording also released on "The Live EP"
- "Cars (E Reg Model)" (1987) - remix released as 7"/12" single (including two other 1987 mixes) and on compilation album Exhibition
- Ghost (1987) - live recording
- "The Peel Sessions Volume 2" (1987) - 1979 live-in-studio recording for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show released as EP
- The Skin Mechanic (1989) - live recording
- "Cars ('93 Sprint)" (1993) - remix released as EP (including two 1987 mixes and three other 1993 mixes) and on compilation album The Best of Gary Numan 1978-1983
- Dream Corrosion (1994) - live recording
- "Cars (Premier Mix)" (1996) - reissued/rebadged 1987 remix released as single and on compilation album The Premier Hits
- Living Ornaments '81 (1998) - live recording
- The Mix (1998) - three different remixes
- Scarred (2002) - live recording
- Hybrid (2003) - remix
- Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2004) - live recording
- Living Ornaments '80 (2005) - reissued/expanded live recording originally released minus "Cars" in 1981
[edit] Pop culture occurrences
- Howard Moon, Vince Noir, and the Hairy Russian Carpet Guy, all sing along to the hit in The Mighty Boosh
- Was in the movie Freddy got Fingered along with Fear Factory's cover.
- The song is featured in the 2002 PlayStation 2 videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as part of the New Wave radio station Wave 103.
- Was in the video game Test Drive 6, also musical video by Fear Factory was accessible in the options menu for this game.
- Parody performed by Homer Simpson in The Simpsons episode "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife"
- Its music video was used in Beavis and Butthead
- Has been used in several episodes of the television drama Nip/Tuck
- Was played at the end of Family Guy episode Whistle While Your Wife Works, with new lyrics performed by Stewie.
- Featured in the commercials for the Discovery Channel's "Future Car" program.
- Has appeared in advertisements for American Express, Carling beer, Little Debbie, Oldsmobile (the Alero) and Nissan
[edit] Notes
- ^ Stephen Webbon & Gary Numan (1985). "Complete Gary Numan UK Discography". Record Collector (December 1985, No. 76): p.15.
- ^ KAOS2000 Magazine interview
[edit] References
- Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide to Gary Numan
