"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ...
It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continues to make music.
While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career.
Paul Gardiner who had been with Gary from the beginning was on bass, Christopher Payne played keyboards and viola, while Cedric Sharpley provided drums ... real honest to goodness drums. If there was a secret sauce to what made the band sound so good it was the rhythm section of Paul and Cedric. As modern and futuristic as the songs sounded, with Gary sounding more like a machine than a human being, Paul and Cedric grounded the songs and gave them an organic feel that has kept the music from sounding overly programmed and processed. Christopher Payne added viola to number of tracks that augmented the droning keyboard to give the resulting sound an ethereal quality. A fate many of those who followed would not escape and in the process have not aged nearly as well. Gary must have been aware of this, even in his early '20s when he was writing and producing the album: "I'd like to give my special thanks to the band - who turned basics into songs."
This was the future. Back in '79 this was really the first wave of new wave. With the advent of synthesizers we were expecting the future to arrive with the 1980s . Bands like New Muzik and Gary Numan were at the front of the line emulating a robotic and sterile delivery wrapped in familiar pop structures.
All of the songs were pretty cool, even if the majority weren't especially memorable after a first pass. Although I do have to give "Conversations" a nod, structurally this is the closest song to "Cars" on the album and is sequenced to appear first on the album. Clocking in at over seven minutes it's a pretty cool piece and in the context of the album when "Cars" followed it was a really cool one-two punch.
As far as debut's go, this was pretty cool and in a way is sort of bittersweet. Gary Numan was hardly 21 at the time and he'd already written what would be his signature song and for the rest of his career it's all most people would remember him for.
I'll freely admit that as much as I enjoyed
The Pleasure Principle it really is (probably) the only album I need by Gary Numan. This isn't a shot, it's more of a
been there done that
kind of thing. The album was very good, and all of the songs were what I
was hoping for. "Cars" is far away my favourite song on the album, and
it really is the bass and drums, especially the unexpected tambourine parts that
really make this sound so good - even after all this time.
About the cover, maybe it was just me but I always thought it was a riff on Led Zeppelin's Presence ... or not.
Comments
Post a Comment