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Metal
Episode 3918th May 2024 • Electric Friends: A Gary Numan Podcast • Tom Eames
00:00:00 00:27:25

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"We're in the building where they make us grow, and I'm frightened by the liquid engineers, like you."

For this episode, I look back at one of Gary Numan's best-known and best-loved songs, 'Metal', from 1979's The Pleasure Principle.

The track was the first song on the album with lyrics, and was inspired by the writings of Philip K Dick, about a machine with a desire to be human.

The perfect synthpop track was never a single, but it became one of Gary Numan's most-performed songs, and was later covered and sampled by a number of artists, most notably by Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails.

The episode looks at:

  • What 'Metal' is all about
  • Its somewhat forgotten music video
  • Why it was never released as a single
  • The various live versions
  • When Gary performed it with Nine Inch Nails in 2009

Clips used:

  • Gary Numan - Metal
  • The Beach Boys - Do It Again
  • Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1979)
  • Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1986)
  • Gary Numan - Metal (live, 2018)
  • Gary Numan - Metal 98
  • Gary Numan - Moral
  • Gary Numan - Revolution (audiobook)
  • Tubeway Army - The Crazies
  • Tubeway Army - We Have a Technical
  • Nine Inch Nails - Metal
  • Nine Inch Nails - Metal (live, 2009)
  • Planet Funk - Who Said
  • Afrika Bambaataa - Metal
  • Nouvelle Vague - Metal
  • Poppy - Metal

Please get in touch on TwitterFacebookTikTok and Instagram, or email at numanpodcast@gmail.com.

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