Here is what seemed to me to be an abomination at the time. Maybe it still is: During another alpha-by-artist "Flashback Weekend" deal on major radio station LIVE 105 in San Francisco, 'N,' to my delight, was Numan a time or two. Oh, I should just mention quickly that LIVE 105 has a policy of not playing more than one girl band, or band fronted by a girl, in a row because They think the listeners will get bored. (They also got bought out by CBS and now suck really badly.) That said (with a hiss), I was in my room, bouncing around to "Are 'Friends' Electric?", when it was abruptly stopped with a good verse or two to go. Why? I do not know; no mention was made of the snafu. I guess the DJ was in a big hurry to put on some Oingo Boingo or something. Not to dis Oingo Boingo; who could criticize a band whose frontman wrote the "Simpsons" theme? Still, a grave injustice had been done. Gary Numan songs get played once a week, if that, and what the hell was this business of cutting it off? It made me sad. :-(
This was part of a larger, briefly mentioned problem: Gary Numan gets lamentably little airplay! No, not lamentably little, outrageously little. Maybe most of his work in the '80s is not as good as Telekon or Exile (in my opinion), but c'mon - those two albums alone have had singles, haven't they? So why aren't they on the radio (anymore)? Why do I have to rely on college radio to hear anything other than "Cars"? Gary's record sales have been down for a long time; he's no longer a #1 hit guy; maybe he's considered a "has-been" or something stupid like that. He might as well have been dead since I was born, though, since the only Numan songs that ever get airplay are from 1979. O happy day, "Cars" has become a staple of the new local '80s station. Does this really qualify as territory gained? We all remember how excited we were when a "Numan Renaissance" appeared to be on the horizon - everybody and their brother was namechecking him. What effect did this have on his airplay? Bugger all!
But, as, uh, maybe it was Helena said in A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Is't not enough!" Where are the tracks? I want to hear at least one Numan song on the radio each day, by the DJ's will, not that of a nostalgic caller making a request. I don't think that's too much to ask. Numan has a zillion songs to choose from, and his recent work has been especially good. I want to hear a DJ say, "Here's an alternative track from Gary Numan," and put on "Oh! Didn't I Say." Exposing the listeners to an airplay virgin by 311 is not variety. A NIN song from Pretty Hate Machine is not a flashback. And Gary Numan does not deserve to be so overlooked. He's not a "synth fag," as I heard some braindead Mansonite say. He's had an album at the top of the charts, just like the Beatles, and unlike that band, he's still 100% alive. Okay, maybe that was a bit cruel. Still, I have a point here for the radio-person dullards reading this: PLAY SOME GARY NUMAN, DAMMIT!!! RIGHT NOW!!!
I guess that about says it. Took an awfully long time, didn't it?
Proof that "Down in the Park" is a damn good song: Two popular "modern rawk" bands have covered it. The two bands to which I refer are the Foo Fighters, containing Dave Grohl and the ever-cool Pat Smear, both of whom played with pubescent-kid favorite Nirvana at one point or another; and Marilyn Manson. You've already got an opinion on them, so I won't say anything.
The Foo Fighters' cover appears on Songs in the Key of X, a "soundtrack" to The X-Files. One of those "music inspired by" deals. I don't know what the rest of the album is like, but this track is excellent, provided you don't mind that all the synth stuff is replaced by guitar. The song is thick and spooky, and the tinkling refrain is replaced by guitar which goes "wah" a lot. It just sounds nasal. It's wonderful, though, like it's from underground instead of in the clouds, the way Numan's version sounds. Dave Grohl intones the lyrics in a melancholy and shaken voice. I really was impressed by the ability of the band to perform this song well; Foo Fighters lyrics include such lines as "fingernails are pretty," if I understand correctly. This is not a note-perfect, word-perfect rendition, which is good. "Tom-tom's" still seems a creepy place to eat in the "Park" you can imagine Mulder and Scully striding through, their trenchcoats sailing behind them.
Marilyn Manson, the Florida-based shock-rock/glam-rock/journalist-attacking band which is featured on Trent Reznor's Nothing label, did their cover of "Down in the Park" for their "Lunchbox" single in 1994. I was rather horrified by it, how the song had been turned from something sad and haunting into a mad, punishing work which brings to mind the movie Prince of Darkness. The lines "We are not lovers, we are not romantics/We are here to serve you" are turned into a chorus which is yowled several times on the track. Some of the original synth line seems to be sampled here, its pop sound starkly contrasting with the chaos of the band's guitar, bass, and electronic instruments. The song booms and wails along for nearly five minutes, and I came away from it with a shocked expression and the impression that the song had been entirely deconstructed and morphed into a monster, become Marilyn Manson's own hideous child. If you buy this single, abandon all your Numan precepts and try to appreciate it as a Marilyn Manson song, not as a reworking of a Numan song. Bear in mind that it was somebody in the Manson camp that allegedly kept the incredibly kickass L.A. Exile tour show from being released as a live CD and/or video - because Manson did guest vocals with Gary on "DITP" on that occasion. I was there, it was cool, but somebody seriously needs to cut Manson down to size.
Okay, so I've gotten hold of a copy of Shampoo's cover of "Cars". It's really strange - English girls on speed or something. It's REALLY BOUNCY! They change it just enough to make it theirs. But the image which stays with me every time I listen to this rendition is of Barbie in a lipstick-red Ferrari, driving really fast down an avenue lined with ten-inch-tall palm trees, singing along in perky mezzo soprano. An... interesting performance by Shampoo. Girl Power, and that.