Gary Numan Digest Sun, 14 Jul 96 Volume 1 : Issue 244 Today's Topics: (no subject) Dave Datta and MWH Gazza mentioned by M. McLaren on Oz TV METAL RHYTHM (late - oops!) MIDI/MOD files Numan MIDI Personal Replicas Associations Pirates NUMAN T-Shirt Replicas Shampoo I-D Article To download, or not to download ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 12:06:44 -0700 From: Roy Walker Subject: (no subject) To: numan@cs.uwp.edu HI My name is Roy Walker, my email is rwalker@sol.martian.bc.ca Please subscribe me to the Numan Digest. Thank you! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 07:20:00 -0400 From: "Jeff Colaw, 224E, 7473" Subject: Dave Datta and MWH To: numan@cs.uwp.edu To Dave, Just picked up Men Without Hats' Greatest Hits (loved it) and inside in the credits is a thank you to Dave Datta. Just curious as to what your involvement was deserving a formal credit? Cheers, Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 02:50:56 +1000 (EST) From: DONALD PEDDER Subject: Gazza mentioned by M. McLaren on Oz TV To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Well, this is just a MINOR incident, but thought it was worth a mention. An example of the "Gary's gone, but not forgotten" syndrome. The background to this is that we have a show on here called RAGE. It runs overnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Each Saturday they have a "guest programmer", who comes in and plays their fave songs, with some commentry on why they like it. After that they play songs by the artist in question. So, THIS week, they had MALCOLM McLAREN on. Prior to this segment they had been playing SEX PISTOLS songs. He then embarked on this little story..... He had been walking along the streets in NYC, when he saw this "black dude" across the street wearing a big,yellow "Never mind the bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols" T-shirt on. His curiosity was aroused about a BLACK guy wearing this, and went across to talk to him. The said Black guy's name was AFRIKA BAMBAATA (sp?) ! (obviously at this stage, no-one had heard of him yet). So, he was invited to this kind of street party in South Bronx. He said it took him two hours to get there because "no cab would take me there". Eventually a cab DID take him - but only with the windows up, and he was warned to put his cash in his sock, etc. So, he arrives at this place (I can't remember the EXACT words he used, but it was a "wasteland" kind of theme. Burnt-out buildings , etc.), and of course, is the ONLY white guy there, but tries to keep this kind of "record A&R guy" aura about him, and not feel TOO nervous. He wanders up to where there are "some turntables" where A.B. is, and he says.... they were playing "Gary Numan, whoever remembers who HE is, and the Monkees, if anyone remembers who they are, and the Godfather of Soul - James Brown"!! BTW, this was in 1980. As you can guess, this story was leading to the advent of Hip Hop and "Buffalo Gals". So, that's it. Trivial, but worth a mention. This actually reminds me (I forgot to post about this at the time), but GARY is also mentioned in a song by an Oz Techno(?) band (This was BEFORE there was "Techno", but I don't remember what this style of music was being called at that stage). I'm not SURE, but the band was EITHER SEVERED HEADS, OR TISM (This is Serious Mum). In the song, they were just saying a whole heap of names, with a chorus. I couldn't make out what the words to the chorus were, but from the OTHER names mentioned, I don't think it was meant to be a FLATTERING mention. Other people mentioned were KYLIE MINOGUE, JOHN MAJOR, and the ilk. i.e. "plastic" people (MY words, not the song's). DONALD PEDDER. "I can see in your eyes, you're not so sure about me. This machine is my voice, Please Listen!". G. NUMAN - "Steel And You" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 22:58:15 +1000 (EST) From: DONALD PEDDER Subject: METAL RHYTHM (late - oops!) To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Well, here am I back again. Reviewer par excellence! :-) And, whoops, due to exams I'm late again! (AND my host computer has had extensive down-time this last week). If I had a GIRLFRIEND who was this late, I'd be worried - but, hey, wha'cha gonna do? are ya gonna break down and cry? :-) Seriously, consider me rapped on the knuckles. "That will NEVER happen again!" (exams are over now). I guess I should get to the topic of the post soon, huh? What was it again? Ah, yes.... METAL RHYTHM (and the bastard son of MR - NEW ANGER). I'm NOT gonna do a song by song break-down of this album, because that would be doing it a SERIOUS injustice. This is an album where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. This ISN'T an album with some great tracks, and some duds ("Gary doesn't DO duds!" :-) ), and some other stuff - rather, this is an album with a very HIGH level of CONSISTENCY! It's just this group of songs that are all bunched together in the middle of the "above-average" range. This album represents, I think, an extrapolation of what ADAM ANT could've ended up doing, IF he had pursued what he started out doing in the FIRST place. This album is almost TOTALLY devoid of any melodic instrumentation. It is based on over-the-top (synth-)percussive arrangements. I really LOVE the different, intricate rhythms that GARY has put together on this effort! I think this album is TOTALLY UNIQUE! There's nothing else QUITE like it. This leads to a love-it or hate-it response to it. But what happened to all the Nay-sayers on this one?? This album has copped a bit of a lashing in times past from people who DON'T like it, but they were nowhere to be seen when we were discussing it! Some PERSONAL highlights from MR...... - some lyrical highlights are "the nature of need leaves you junk-sick and lonely","I won't stop, until I pull you to pieces, which I will in time, but I'm still curious",ALL of "Voix", and as a post-script, I THOUGHT that the line "a friend of mine" (in "Devious") was to be taken LITERALLY - that was UNTIL I saw "The Skin Mechanic"! Talk about MIS-INTERPRETATION!! - my fave song from this is "Young Heart". Love that funky bass. But what are the words GARY says during the chorus?? (He starts singing to himself "Young Heart give me something I can do-oo-oo....something something something" :-) ). - I don't NORMALLY like the ballads too much, but "Don't call my name" has got to be one of the BEST songs GARY has EVER done!! WAY cool! As for NEW ANGER - I can just hear GARY screaming in the background "What have they done to my BABY???!!!" (Watch out, Dingoes about. :-) ). MR had a STRONG start (with "This Is Emotion"), and an EAAAAAASY finish (in "Don't Call My Name"), and these have gotten BURIED in the MIDDLE of the album! And what the Hell are BERSERKER tracks doin' in there?! They don't belong at ALL! It's a COMPLETELY different style. The re-mixes of "Devious" and "New Anger" are O.K. - although, in the case of the latter, the differences are hardly perceptible. "Devious" has had a few little un-Numan-like flourishes added to it. Doesn't really make much difference (except to reduce it's authentic-ness). "My Dying Machine (the "my head was in Orbit at the time" mix)" - For those of you familiar with KIM WILDE'S work, this reminds me of what they did to "The Second Time" for it's U.S. release. The In-your-face-ness of it has been taken away, to produce a more sanitary, POPPY song. In this case, the distinctive Synth-drums have been almost obliterated! Having said THAT, I actually quite like it!! It's NOT the classic that the original is, but it is a VERY likeable song still. And I've NOW realized, that I neglected to list this mix in my voting form seperately - oops..... (for those who HAVE voted, you can just tell me where it would "slot-in" if you like. I still have the submitted forms if you need it back as a guide - and the results WILL be out soon. Back now to your normally scheduled programming.......) Off-album Adventures.... "I Don't Believe" - I LOVE this song!! It is just so UPLIFTING! It's interesting to note though, that whilst the MUSIC is very UP, the LYRICS are very DOWN - in the same kinda vein as PROPAGANDA'S "Duel". And what wins the battle on your emotions - the negative lyrics, or the uplifting music? The MUSIC - because the music doesn't require any SEMANTIC processing! It just IS (which reminds me of one of my FAVOURITE computer sayings - "I batch-process, therefore I am"!). "Children" - What can you say about it? It's got a kind of Chamber-music style. Something PLEASANT to listen to, but nothing to really write home about! But isn't the gate-fold sleeve of the "New Anger" 12" GREAT?! Overall, this reviewer gives METAL RHYTHM "10 out of 10 Mr. Numan"! DONALD PEDDER - fighting "lameness" in the digest! :-) "I can see in your eyes, you're not so sure about me. This machine is my voice, Please Listen!". G. NUMAN - "Steel And You" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 96 01:50:57 -0600 From: "Joey Lindstrom" Subject: MIDI/MOD files To: "Gary Numan" On Thu, 11 Jul 96 01:00:02 CDT, Phil Marsh wrote: >I was just wondering if anyone had ever come up with any Numan tracks >as MIDI or MOD files. There are tons for other artists on the web >from Abba to ZZTop - has anyone come across any Numan tracks? I've found exactly two... one of each. The first is SURVIVAL.MOD, something I found a few years ago on some BBS somewhere. I've had *NO* luck finding any others. However, last week I found IN_CARS.MID on the new "Sleep By Windows" web site authored by Mellisa Smith. I can send either or both to you (or anyone) via email file attach... just email me at numanoid@netway.ab.ca /--------------------------------------------------------- / Joey Lindstrom numanoid@netway.ab.ca lindstrj@cadvision.com / http://www.netway.ab.ca/worldwidewebb/ / "I view life as a big, desperate bear loose in the campground. I try / to avert its gaze, because if you make eye-contact, it thinks you want / to play, it doesn't know its own strength, and it starts beating the / living shit out of you... all in the name of good, clean kodiak fun." / - Dennis Miller ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 00:54:43 -0400 From: Estella158@aol.com Subject: Numan MIDI To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Phil, I have a "Cars" MIDI file that I'll send over if you like. I can't get all of it to play on my machine, but then again, I can't get a lot of MIDI files to play. If anyone else wants it just let me know. Heather Pippin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 23:52:13 -0400 From: ZigiF@aol.com Subject: Personal Replicas Associations To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello, all-- I haven't posted to this list in a *very* long time, but I want to say I'm glad it's still here. Replicas was my introduction to Gary. I was in 9th grade at a very rocky time, and a good friend one day handed me a sheet of paper with the lyrics to "You Are In My Vision" typed on it. I was blown away--I thought he'd written it for awhile, but eventually he played the LP for me, and I don't think that, to this day, I've been so strongly affected by any album--more accurately, I *have,* but this was the first time. It remains my favorite Numan album, and, while I feel that musically there are others that vie for that position, I think Replicas is lyrically the most impressive of his catalog. As someone else said, I loved the melding of a science-fiction theme with universal emotions; I've often been disappointed in albums with a SF theme, because they seem forced or contrived, which Replicas doesn't in the least. I also love the way it hangs together without any cloying "concept album" feel--it works as a holistic album but each song is complete in and of itself. Going to shut up now since I don't really seem to be saying much, but "YAIMV," "It Must Have Been Years," and "The Machman" have to be in my top ten Numan favorites. "YAIMV" in particular has lots of nostalgic attachments for me--first song I learned to play on both guitar and bass. :-) (I also did some making out with aforementioned friend to that song, as well as the rest of the album.) zg ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:48:04 +0200 From: Patxi Villegas Subject: Pirates NUMAN T-Shirt To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I´ve found two different types of Gary Numan´s T-Shirts here in Spain, of course, they´re pirates and too expensive! Look for the T-Shirts photos, where?? 8-)) NumanMania! http://www.kender.es/numan ************************** PD. I offer 17 UKP per unit for these CDs: - "Outland" - "New Anger" - "Metal Rythm" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 11:14:11 -0500 (CDT) From: Doug Finney Subject: Replicas To: numan@cs.uwp.edu "Replicas" was my first Numan album but I didn't get it until about 1985. I'd seen Gary performing "Cars" and "Praying to the Aliens" on Saturday Night Live years before but had never bought any of his records. But in high school I started spending a lot more money on music and early on I picked up "URGH: A Music War" at a used record store. Several tracks on that wonderful double album led me to purchase more records by the individual artists but my favorite track was "Down in the Park". A few weeks later I went back to the used shop hoping to find the Numan album with that track and lucked out considering all they had was one copy of "Replicas" and several of "Dance". The cashier commended my choice, calling it "a true classic" so I asked him why they had so many copies of "Dance". Gary had changed styles he said, and nobody liked his new stuff. Happily I didn't just write his later stuff off, though I must admit it took me a while to get into once I did start buying it. :) "Replicas" is probably my favorite Numan disk of all time, despite the fact that I never really got into the instrumentals at the end. I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who thinks "You Are In My Vision" is a great song. The lyrical imagery is simply astounding and the simple but catchy guitar really works on this track. Unfortunately every cd version of this song I've heard is plagued by an annoying squeak, as if a mic picked up a drum pedal in need of little oil. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about? Dang, now I wish I'd brought "Replicas" with me today but I've been stuck in a "Berserker" rut ever since finally getting that one on cd. Speaking of - while listening to it this morning I suddenly (and briefly :) wondered if "Pump It Up" was about an inflatable sex doll. Should I seek counseling? Do you need the service? Doug ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 14:48:53 -0400 From: Sean Caszatt Subject: Shampoo I-D Article To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) >Does anyone know what Shampoo were meant to have said about Gary and Gemma in >this alleged article ? I tried to find I.D.Magazine but couldn't. It seems >strange that they would have a go at Gary while covering one of his songs. >They were also very complementary towards him in an interview in NME about 3-4 >months ago, which makes it even stranger. Of course, they have got a bit of a >reputation for acting slightly oddly and inconsistantly anyway, but still.... The main content of the article is merely a profile/interview of Shampoo. The offending (Numan-wise) material is towards the end of the article. Gary is called "nice, but boring" and the Shampoo girls were disappointed that he didn't wear a spacesuit when they met him. They said his "wife" (Gemma) looked like a Page 3 girl. That's about it. It was about one paragraph's worth of the article. To me, the comments make _them_ look stupid, not Gary or Gemma. Sean Caszatt, curator of The Sleeproom, a Gary Numan website: http://ns.infonline.net/~downstat/sleeproom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 11:25:28 -0700 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: To download, or not to download To: numan@cs.uwp.edu In # 243 P Lindsay wrote: >On another subject, has anyone downloaded the latest samples from Exile ? >I'm having great trouble resisting it, but the last time I listened to the >new songs as they were written (Machine & Soul, over the phone), I was >bored by the album when it came out. M&S was not a good album anyway, but I >tired of it much faster because I knew most of the songs already. We've got >samples of six (?) Exile songs already (and I hate Absolution). How many >more before we know what's going to be on the whole album? I don't want to >know ! I know you'll say that I don't have to download them, but you don't >understand! I do! And then I'll have wrecked his (hopefully) best album >yet by the time it comes out ! I know this is something that I'll just >have to deal with on my own, but Gary isn't making this easy for me. I suspect most who have tried to get the samples have had a lot of trouble doing so. I still have not succeeded in getting ever part of each sample (about 3/5 of each). This the the first time I have heard any songs before they were released aNd I do worry that it may spoil the album some in the at I will have a good idea what to expect, some excitement might be lost. On the other hand we only get to hear just over a minute of each, meaning we barely get more than the intro in most cases, and the sound is so poor that you can only really distinguish the vocal and percussion track with any certainty. Any subtle synth or guitar backing gets lost in the white noise. So I don't think you will lose very bit of excitement. We don't know which tracks are going to end up as b-sides and which as album tracks (he has 15 songs on the go). Only getting a minute or so means there are many more minutes of the songs remaining. What are the choruses going to be like, are there going to be some neat intrumental breaks, what is the backing intrumentations going to be like. Part of the beauty of "Sacrifice" was the subtle backing which we still cannot guage from the "Exile" track samples. IMO I wouldn't worry about spoiling the album as it seems like it will be every bit as good as "Sacrifice". I don't think the samples give so much away that we will be completely familiar with the songs when they see final release. If you feel it will be spoiled, resist the temptation as long as you can :-) Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************