Are 'Friends' Electric? Lyrics
And the paint's peeling off of my walls.
There's a man outside,
In a long coat, grey hat, smoking a cigarette.
And I'm wondering what I'm doing in a room like this.
There's a knock on the door,
And just for a second I thought I remembered you.
Now I can think for myself...
About little deals and 'S.U.s',
And things that I just don't understand.
Like a white lie that night,
Or a slight touch at times.
I don't think it meant anything to you.
It's the `Friend' that I'd left in the hallway.
"Please sit down".
A candle lit a shadow on the wall near the bed.
But, are `Friends' electric?
Only, mine's broke down,
And now I've no one to love.
And it hurts and I'm lonely,
And I should never have tried.
And I missed you tonight,
So it's time to leave.
S.U. is a reference to Su Wathan, his girlfriend at the time. There is another reference at the beginning of this part, where the official liner lyrics read '7.4', which is a reference to the 7th and 4th letters of the alphabet, ie G and D. It is believed this refers to Gail Deal (a woman Su tried to set the young Gary up with at the time), hence also the line "About little Deals and SUs".
It was a very confusing time for the 21 year-old Gary who had quickly gone from working at WH Smiths to having millions of pounds as a pop star. Having to deal with Su and Gail, two very older women (mid-30s, I think) was very confusing.
Spot on!
Spot on!
@ellitanthalas I grew up in the U.K., and Gary actually said the word "issues," not S.U.'s. He has a so-called Estuary Accent which is rather thick.
@ellitanthalas I grew up in the U.K., and Gary actually said the word "issues," not S.U.'s. He has a so-called Estuary Accent which is rather thick.
@scott10823 I was born in the UK and have lived here all my life. I can quite easily understand Gary's accent. But if that isn't enough, the liner notes also give the words quite clearly. Moreover, the man himself does actually explain exactly what I posted above in his autobiography Praying To The Aliens.
@scott10823 I was born in the UK and have lived here all my life. I can quite easily understand Gary's accent. But if that isn't enough, the liner notes also give the words quite clearly. Moreover, the man himself does actually explain exactly what I posted above in his autobiography Praying To The Aliens.
I worship that injection of HEAVY GUITARS placed during the breaks between choruses. Listen for it! You won't be sorry.
One of all time greatest songs ever written.
This explanation does no justice to the haunting emotion of the song, but:
In G.N.'s world, (based on a sci-fi book he started writing during adolescence) "Friends" are machines that look like humans. Other machines ("Machmen", I believe) are running the world. But "Friends" are machines that humans can call on to do things for them/ provide services.
Pretty sad when a hired machine is the last thing you've got in this world to love.
@ladylizzie Consider the guy is on the autism spectrum - Asperger. Like me.
@ladylizzie Consider the guy is on the autism spectrum - Asperger. Like me.
Guardian article Feb 2014 w/his story of how he made this song. [pasted in full for posterity/avoiding broken links/etc. No copyright infringement intended.]
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/18/how-we-made-are-friends-electric-gary-numan
"In 1978, I was fronting a three-piece punk band called Tubeway Army. We'd had a couple of unsuccessful singles, but our record company still wanted us to do an album, so they put us in a studio to record it. That was when I saw my first ever synthesiser, a Minimoog. When I turned it on, the sound blew me away. In that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
I converted all our guitar-based punk songs into electro-punk numbers. Because I had blond hair, the record company saw me as a pretty-boy, punk-pop crossover act. When I came back with this weird electronic stuff, they were furious. One actually squared up to me in the office. I'm only little, but I was so passionate I leapt out of my seat as well – we were going to have a fight. When it all calmed down, and because there was no budget left to rerecord anything, they released the album.
By the time it was in the shops, I'd written another track called Are "Friends" Electric? I wrote it on an old pub piano my mum and dad bought, which I didn't realise was out of tune. It was initially two different songs, which is why it's over five minutes long. I had a verse from one, the chorus from the other, and was struggling to mix them together. I got so fed up, one day I played them one after another and suddenly they sounded right.
So the song is a combination – of me not being able to write songs, and not being able to play them either. The main melody is one note sharp, since I hit a wrong note on the old piano, and it sounded better. I ended up recording it on a Polymoog synthesiser played with one finger. It sounded very different and futuristic, but there was still some bass and drums in there, so people had something familiar to connect with.
All my early songs were about being alone or misunderstood. As a teenager, I'd been sent to a child psychiatrist and put on medication. I had Asperger's and saw the world differently. I immersed myself in sci-fi writers: Philip K Dick, JG Ballard. The lyrics came from short stories I'd written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines – "friends" – come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a No 1 single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew."
The album replicas is loosley based on an idea for a novel numan had in mind as a teenager, some of the songs are direct references to the book like down in the park, are friends electric is a bit of a mix of ideas from his story but also draws heavily on do androids dream of electric sheep(Bladerunner) by philip k dick, it's mostly an imagined scenareo he places himself into like he is placing himself in the shoes of the character sebastian the genetic engineer who surrounds himself with macanical toys and befriends the replicants. Bloody Genius he wrote the songs on replicas way before the films came out and philip k dick was unheard of, he read those books age 14!
Totally! Most of Gary Numan's song are about man's relationship to machines.
Totally! Most of Gary Numan's song are about man's relationship to machines.
An interview from 1979 with Gary explaining his meanings of these particular songs.
Just to correct the last line, he says "you see you mean everything to me".
I also think that he says "S.U.s" and not "issues". There's some debate as to what S.U. is. Some say it's the initials of a girlfriend, but I think it could be "screw ups" or something like that.
Ladylizzie, the Machmen weren't the machines, the machines were totally different. Friends were rented robots who were used to entertain, and the machmen were a race of robot/human types living amongst the humans in Replicas.
this song is about android humanoid lookalikes called "friends" that could be hired for company, sex, friendship, kinda like a robot escort, also (sorry) its "little deals and S.U's :)
It's cold outside And the paint's peeling off of my walls There's a man outside In a long coat, grey hat, smoking a cigarette
[He's in a crappy hotel or motel room]
Now the light fades out And I'm wondering what I'm doing in a room like this There's a knock on the door And just for a second I thought I remembered you
[It's turning night time, he's unsure if he should be here. Someone knocks on his door, it's the girl, Gail. His memory of that night stops as soon as he thinks of her.]
So I open the door It's the 'friend' that I'd left in the hallway Please sit down A candle lit a shadow on a wall near the bed
[It's Gail, he has sex with her (shadow near the bed, candle light)]
You know I hate to ask But, are `friends' electric? Mine's broke down And now I've no one to love
[Are friends something you can just turn off and on? Do they break down or go haywire at times? Gary's machine has broken down (paranoia, cynicism and mistrust), he can't be a friend to anybody anymore.]
So now I'm alone Now I can think for myself About little deals And issues And things that I just don't understand Like a white lie that night Or a slight touch at times I don't think it meant anything to you
[He's reflecting on what happened, by himself; she's gone. A white lie that night, a slight touch. She's only having sex with him to get him to date her friend, Su. She doesn't love him.]
So I find out your reason For the phone calls and smiles And it hurts And I'm lonely And I should never have tried And I missed you tonight So it's time to leave You see this means everything to me.
[He finds out the real reason behind the event. He misses her, that night of sex meant everything to him. "I should never have tried" also indicates depression]
By the way, the Sugababes' cover of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" samples the verse's synth track of this song.