Cars (song)

Last updated

I was in traffic in London once and had a problem with some people in front. They tried to beat me up and get me out of the car. I locked the doors and eventually drove up on the pavement and got away from them. It's kind of to do with that. It explains how you can feel safe inside a car in the modern world...When you're in it, your whole mentality is different...It's like your own little personal empire with four wheels on it. [12]

Numan later revealed that the entire song was written in 30 minutes, originating in the bass riff, which was the first thing he played on a newly bought bass guitar. [13]

Release and promotion

The original UK single was released in August 1979, backed with a non-album instrumental track called "Asylum". The US B-side was "Metal", from The Pleasure Principle The track has been a UK Top 20 hit for Numan in three successive decades: on its original release in 1979 (reaching number 1), in 1987 as the 'E Reg Model' remix (reaching number 16), and in 1996 following its use in an advertisement for Carling Premier beer (reaching number 17). Numan has performed the song onstage since its original release, and it appears on all but one of his official live albums to date.

The music video featured Numan's then-current backing band, including Billy Currie from the band Ultravox, but he had not played on the recording of "Cars".

Critical reception

Upon its release in 1979, Smash Hits reviewer Steve Bush wrote: "With its distant haunting message of doom, "Cars" doesn't stray very far from the themes of the excellent 'Replicas" album, although the new lyrics are shorter and the vocals sharper. The instrumental B side is a rip-off of Bowie's "Warsawa", with mad, tinkling piano. All in all, this is a disappointing follow up to "Friends"". [14] Garry Bushell in Sounds was cynical of both Numan and the single, yet adds, "Jimmy Pursey tells me this will be number one. He's probably right." [15]

Retrospectively, "Cars" has been called "one of the greatest singles in pop history". Writing for The Guardian in 2012, George Chesterton found "the force of the multi-layered Moog synthesiser parts is almost overwhelming. Using effects usually associated with heavy guitars – reverb, flanging and phasers – Numan drenched the gliding synth lines so they flow over you like wave after wave of ice water. These build throughout the song until the fantastical 1'30" fadeout, during which the Polymoogs – used as elements of a string section – are folded on top of each other in hypnotic harmonies that reinforce the song's sense of eerie dystopia." Chesterton also noted that the song, unlike many similar contemporaries, had aged well lyrically: "Cars contains a bit of futurology that was rather sophisticated. Numan positions the car not as a mode of mechanical transport, but as a fetishised, abstract interface with the rest of the world. This is – in a pop form – what the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard had been writing about a few years earlier. To be fair to Numan, this notion of the car in relation to individuals and society has only deepened in the decades since." [16]

Track listing

  1. "Cars" (Numan) – 3:44
  2. "Asylum" (Numan) – 2:30

US version

  1. "Cars" – 3:57
  2. "Metal" (Numan) – 3:31

Personnel

Chart performance

"Cars"
NumanCars.JPG
Single by Gary Numan
from the album The Pleasure Principle
B-side
Released24 August 1979 [1]
Recorded1979
Studio Marcus Music AB, London
Genre
Length3:58
Label Beggars Banquet
Songwriter(s) Gary Numan
Producer(s) Gary Numan
Gary Numan singles chronology
"Cars"
(1979)
"Complex"
(1979)
Audio sample

Live versions and remixes

A selected list of Numan's official live recordings and remixes.

Numan performed "Cars" using a set of two dozen automobiles and their horns in an innovative 2010 commercial for DieHard. All of the cars were powered from one single battery. James Frost of Zoo Films directed the video, and Synn Labs, which had previously worked with the band OK Go, engineered the cars. [28]

Fear Factory version

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  2. Owen, Tom (30 April 2024). "The top 25 greatest 1980s synthpop songs ever". Smooth Radio . Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 Mason, Stewart. "Cars review". AllMusic. "Perhaps the most iconic intro of the entire synth-pop era... the throbbing, repetitive synths of "Cars" are all most listeners know of Gary Numan, especially in the US, where it was the musician's only Top 40 hit." "That said, it was arguably the first true new wave hit single in the United States."
  4. Kato, Yoshi (2016). "Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 445.
  5. Huey, Steve. "Gary Numan Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  6. Stephen Webbon & Gary Numan (December 1985). "Complete Gary Numan UK Discography". Record Collector (76): 15.
  7. Green, Thomas H (19 May 2012). "Q&A: Musician Gary Numan". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  8. 1 2 "Image : RPM Weekly". Library and Archives Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  9. "Image : RPM Weekly". Library and Archives Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  10. Tomasovic, Jerry (2 January 2013). "Billboard Hot 100™". Billboard. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gary Numan". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  12. Anderson, Philip (2001). "Gary Numan – Numan Drives Music More Than Cars". KAOS2000™. KAOS2000.net. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  13. Sorcinelli, Gino (12 March 2017). "It Took Gary Numan 30 Minutes To Write "Cars"". medium.com.
  14. Bush, Steve (6 September 1979). "Singles". Smash Hits. p. 24.
  15. Bushell, Garry (25 August 1979). "Singles". Sounds. p. 24.
  16. Chesterton, George (5 July 2012). "Old music: Gary Numan – Cars". The Guardian.
  17. 1 2 "National Top 100 Singles for 1980". Kent Music Report. 5 January 1981. Retrieved 17 January 2022 via Imgur.
  18. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – CHART POSITIONS PRE 1989". ARIA. Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  19. "Cars – GARY NUMAN". VRT (in Dutch). Top30-2.radio2.be. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  20. "Gary Numan – Cars" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  21. 1 2 "The Irish Charts – All there is to know". IRMA. Archived from the original on 2 June 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2013. Two last results when searching "Cars"
  22. "Gary Numan – Cars". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  23. 1 2 "The Pleasure Principle awards at Allmusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  24. Hung, Steffen. "Forum – Top 100 End of Year AMR Charts – 1980s (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  25. "Item Display – RPM – Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  26. "Chart Archive – 1970s Singles". everyHit.com. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  27. "Pop Singles" Billboard 20 December 1980: TIA-10
  28. "Gary Numan Plays "Cars" On Two Dozen Cars". Gizmodo. 13 July 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  29. "Fan Poll: Top 5 Metal Covers of Non-Metal Songs". 16 November 2022.
  30. Lee, David (2000). "Fear Factory (2)". Tinpan.fortunecity.com. Fortune City. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  31. Gourley, Bob (2000). "Gary Numan". Chaos Control Digizine. Chaoscontrol.com. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  32. Rao, Debby (13 October 2006). "Deb Rao's Exclusive Interview With Fear Factory Drummer Raymond Herrera". Boston Contributor. Knac.com. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  33. Marshall, Clay (2001). Smith, Danyel (ed.). "Roadrunner's Fear Factory Goes Sci-Fi on Digimortal". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  34. "Fear Factory interview". Barcode 2000. Barcodezine.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
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  37. Devidas, Arun (14 December 1999). "Test Drive 6". IGN. Retrieved 21 February 2023. An interesting selection of tracks have been licensed including the main theme, an excellent Fear Factory cover of the Gary Numan classic 'Cars'.
  38. "Fear Factory Joins Gary Numan in Space For "Cars" Video". MTV. 18 May 1999. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  39. "Fear Factory - Obsolete (1998) [w/ Burton C. Bell and Madchild of Swollen Members] - Meep Meep Podcast" via meepmeep.buzzsprout.com.
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  41. "RPM Top 30 Rock Report - June 28, 1999" (PDF).
  42. O'Brien, Jon. "Giants – Chicane". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  43. "Sloan covers "Cars" by Gary Numan". A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved 23 July 2013.

Bibliography

"Cars"
Carscover.jpg
Single by Fear Factory featuring Gary Numan
from the album Obsolete (Expanded)
Released31 August 1999
RecordedEarly 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genre Nu metal [29]
Length3:37
Label Roadrunner
Songwriter(s) Gary Numan
Producer(s) Fear Factory, Rhys Fulber
Fear Factory singles chronology
"Descent"
(1999)
"Cars"
(1999)
"Linchpin"
(2001)
Gary Numansingles chronology
"Dominion Day"
(1998)
"Cars"
(1999)
"Rip"
(2002)