Back to the eighties and into the industrial era

I wanted to write a blog post about Gary Numan. The last time I wrote a blog post about music it ended up being an entry on literature. This time, not very surprising given the gist of recent posts, it will, in a way, be an entry on tidying up.

How did I end up with Gary Numan? He had his peak in the late seventies and early eighties. The time that I did hear music, but didn’t really store that music in any ordered way. So by coincidence I came across his 1979 hit ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’ I suppose I must have heard that after it topped the charts; in May ’79 even my eldest sister was only 6, so no way this was played anywhere near me. But I recognised it as quite an iconic song from that period, and was a bit surprised I actually didn’t know what it was called and who had made it. But that was quickly solved. Now, in my tidying rage, I even properly document and archive knowledge on music!

Gary Numan then...

I decided to have a look at Youtube what else he’d made. It might be worth downloading! So I found ‘Down in the Park’. And ‘Cars’. And not just the original version. I saw there was a video of him doing vocals when Nine Inch Nails are performing that song! One can imagine I now was properly fascinated. He was sure at home on that stage…

From there I went to the Gary Numan Youtube Channel. I wanted to play lots of that in the background while shifting numbers around in Excel. It would guide me towards what to download, later… and the first song that came up was ‘the Fall’ from his most recent album. I liked it! I had no idea he was still active as a musician, but he sure is. And it explained why he was so much in his element with Trent Reznor cum suis. The suited 20-year old has turned into a most credible industrial fifty-something! I've now bought (as MP3 of course; no need to fill up any of my hard-won empty space) 'Replicas'; the Tubeway Army album that yielded 'Are "Friends" Electric?', and 'Dead Son Rising'; his latest album, released October last year. Thirty-three years in between! It'll be interesting to listen to that...

...and now! From barcodezine.com