Uh-oh, David Bowie, looks like some witches got ahold of your nail clippings after all! And used them to create Gary Numan. That and source code from Kraftwerk. The influence of Kraftwerk is obvious in the music and the visuals stem from Bowie’s moody leather jacket Berlin phase imagery. Though to be fair, Numan was actually one of the firstd pop stars to go all electronic and have a hit with it. The Pleasure Principle was guitar-free; composed and produced on a variety of synthesizers; and remains the achievement of Numan’s life. How high an achievement I can’t say. I’ve always dismissed Gary Numan, along with Adam Ant and most of the New Wave and New Romantics, as someone who admirably wished to emulate David Bowie but couldn’t get anything right except the makeup. I was barely aware of this, his most famous song, until for some reason I started hearing it on the radio a lot last year. It made an indelible impression, like lots of songs do, for coming on during a romantic moment, one that involved, as romantic moments often do, a few hits of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. It was one of the times of my life; rolling like fucking mad while my lover barfs red wine poolside (alcohol not compatible with entactogenics for some people, apparently), him asking “what the fuck are you making us listen to?”, getting kicked out of the pool, grinding my teeth all through the night and the next day, sigh! – and Gary Numan brings it all back. Not making spurious statements here either; that was a golden moment. Thus enshrining the otherwise mediocre Mr Gary Numan in my memory for ever and forever.
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 