I remember this brilliant track from Gary Numan back in 1980, at 15 years old thinking this is so totally different from the utter crap that was around the charts, this doesn't date at all. Gary has always been a maverick, the numanoids know that,
40 years ago this guy tore my very soul apart. Screaming for meaning, questioning my very existence, but in a positive way. Still does it to me 40 years later. Gary- you are the tenth muse,
Ditto. First time I saw him was very much the same. He appeared on Saturday Night Live (with Elliott Gould), and the sounds, the presentation, it was like discovering that SOMEONE truly “gets it”! His music brought those feelings into a tangible presence in the world. His music library has been a constant companion ever since.
I remember this like it was yesterday! my favourite GN track, wonderful promo video, it sounded like the future of music in 1980! and is still brilliant now,
I don't want to split hairs, Kelly but I Die, You Die wasn't actually included on Telekon upon its UK release. Perhaps you live overseas and have a later copy when it was. Not that any of that really matters. What does, it you rightly call Telekon as an epic album and I still regard it as Gary's finest.
I saw a video at a cinema. I had no idea who it was so I asked the record store. I still don't know who it was but they said "maybe it was Gary Numan" and said I could return the album if I didn't like it . I listened to it on a mono portable cassette recorder and it was Telekon. And thought "what the hell!", it was nothing like I'd ever heard before. But then I heard the lyrics. That was it. I got a better stereo system and never looked back.
Must have anticipated mobiles. I know we need them these days but god I hate them at times. In my top 5 Numan songs ever and I have revised it many times but this never drops out.
Man, this throws me back to being 17 when he first broke out with all this fantastic music and then threw me forward with the masterpiece Savage, this man is amazing!!
I remember hearing this on the "Top-Forty" Show on a Sunday night. I still to this day remember Tony Blackburn describing it as "Weird and Wonderful" - absolutely true!
First time I heard him was the Don’t be a dummy advert for Lee Cooper jeans in 1978.....he has such a distinctive voice......I,m a rock fan and don’t own any of his albums but have a great respect for him as a musician
OMG, I can't believe I have never seen that video before and I have been a fan since about 1982. WTF! What a great video. I love the Chinese Karate style jacket and red highlights in his hair. How is it that anybody "disliked this?" One of my favorite songs and albums.
It's a Kimono shirt. I got one from a period clothing shop and it cost me a fortune. Kids now won't believe you, but we used to fight over music because we all had our own 'cliques' and styles. Don't know how I wasn't murdered wearing that Kimono walking the streets.🤔
So much disinformation in this specific comment thread. The get up he's in is Chinese inspired but it's not "Karate", Karate is Japanese and younger than Chinese martial arts by at lwast a thousand years. Kimonos are also Japanese and have zip to do with that outfit.
god dammit gary numan this song, m.e., metal, should have been released in the early 90s it would have blown up,, you were way ahead of your time like almost 15 years,,, everyones like cars i love cars,, but there so much more from then..........
Gary was brilliant his history of songs which is rich in music I preferred his old stuff like his best albums stories from dance he also did I assassin down inthepark I wish he would d a berserker ţour2 like.he revisited replicas pleasure principle that would be grand.
En 1980 en mi pais ECUADOR (Mitad del Mundo), se escucho el album TELEKON. lo mejor en musica NEW WAYS en esa época y aun ahora no existe otro artista que supere a Gary Numan. Un genio por siempre.........
I can remember walking up to my local record store and buying Telekon on the day it was released, superb album and packaging, still have it in fact. Always thought this sounded slight faster in the video clip, sure it is but can't think why.
Tony S check out his Telekon tour from 2009. There is a live record. It’s more updated, but still classic. Also he does this as a cover with Nine Inch Nails. There are some RU-vid vids of that colab on stage.
Channelling Klaus Kinski, Gary but I wish you'd put the date of rel! I have memories of the UK winter of discontent, 78/79 and then 1980, as a 13 YO, listening to your early albums on my mum's SANYO tape machine, splitting the mono into those early ear pieces. At 4am. In the dark. With frost on the inside of of my bedroom windows. Listening to these masterpieces I'm transported to an era more irksome than this.
I agree...the Kenny Everett mix was fantastic, this mix was good also but the the single mix he brought out was the least best of the three as I remember at the time.
There’s that “White Car” Trevor Horn sang about on that “Yes - Drama” album in 1980. Supposedly in London in the late 70s, maybe from the money Gary Numan got from, maybe, ironically from his single “Cars” .. he’d drive around London in that White exterior Red interior 1979, I believe, Chevrolet Corvette which is Left side drive and they use Right side drive, of course, in the U.K. A very cool car now but back then it wasn’t so cool, it got boring, the Corvette with no changes for years! The 1982 Corvette change seemed SUPER RED HOT COOL then, now it just seems “blah!”. Weird, right?
.... I was 19 .... Head full of mushrooms .... Guest listed to see Gary on the TELEKON tour .... Yeah ..... It was ...... Wait for it......... ... LEGENDARY!! .... Bonus points for getting in a food fight with opening band Gary Myrick & The Figures in a DENNY'S at 2am just outside of San Diego........
