Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Playing Kill-By-Numbers


Tubeway Army : Down in the Park


In March of 1979 Gary Numan's Tubeway Army came out with a brand new sound, relying heavily on synthesizer on the single  "Down In The Park", the first release from their upcoming Replicas album. Although it wasn't a hit, it remains one of Numan's favorite songs and one he still plays in concert.

Numan is obsessed with science fiction of a dystopian nature, as the lyrics reveal:

Down in the park 
Where the mach-men meet the machines 
And play 'kill-by-numbers' 
Down in the park with a friend called five 
I was in a car crash 
Or was it the war 
But I've never been quite the same…


The world may not have been ready for "Down in the Park". But the band's next single, "Are Friends Electric?" would replace Anita War'd "Ring My Bell" as the #1 song in the United Kingdom. And not a cheery smile in sight!

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