How Gary Numan Drove “Cars” To Legendary Status

What song started 80s music as we came to know it? You could make a pretty good argument that it was a song released at the end of the 70s. Gary Numan’s “Cars” possessed the forward-looking, synth-driven sound that would help define the decade to come.

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Numan’s rise upended a lot of folks in his native Great Britain because of what it signaled for the music business. He helped prove that ingenuity and intelligent songwriting could outweigh even instrumental chops when it came to making great music.

Hello, Numan

Gary Numan started out his music career as a guitar gunslinger, just like many others. His band Tubeway Army initially joined the punk movement that was all the rage in the UK in the late 70s. But Numan’s interests started to drift when he found a synthesizer and began experimenting.

Synths had been incorporated by rock musicians for quite some time by then. But rarely had an artist put it at the forefront of their music like Numan and his band were beginning to do. To go with the electronic sounds, Numan started writing songs full of deep thoughts about sci-fi concepts.

Tubeway Army scored a No. 1 hit with the song “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” in 1979. He decided to go it alone with his next batch of songs. One particular track he wrote in a matter of minutes would become the first single from his 1979 solo debut The Pleasure Principle. It was called “Cars”.

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“Cars” started to come together when Newman bought a bass guitar. Fumbling around to find the notes, he stumbled upon the main riff that would serve as the song’s foundation. Onto that, he’d layer his wall of synths, some low and ominous, some high and icy. A programmed beat gave the song a robotic danceability.

Many thought Numan was being ironic with his lyrics, singing the praises of automobiles. But Numan, who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (now known as autism spectrum disorder), often struggled to interact with other people. He viewed cars as a kind of protective bubble to stave off these uncomfortable situations.

The Musicians’ Union in Great Britain threatened to ban Numan’s music because of its lack of reliance on other instrumentalists. But it didn’t stop “Cars” from powering down the road to the top of the charts. It topped the charts in the UK upon its 1979 release, and, a year later, worked its way into the US Top 10 as well.

Behind the Lyrics of “Cars”

“Here in my car,” Gary Numan begins. “I feel safest of all.” As mentioned above, he was referring to his own personal issues. But the song expands from that to touch on the isolating elements of society. “I can only receive,” he sings, an indication of a lack of communication.

The narrator eventually reaches out for connection. “When the image breaks down,” Numan sings. “Will you visit me please?” By the end of the song, he’s plotting an escape in his vehicle, but it doesn’t bring him any comfort: “And nothing seems right in cars.”

The lyrics are pretty much done a minute-and-a-half into the song. After that, Gary Numan’s synths wash over the proceedings like a robotic fog. Innovative then, potent still today, these “Cars” still roll through an imaginative musical landscape all their own.

Photo by Pete Still/Redferns