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Are 'Friends' Electric? Lyrics
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.
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.
So now I'm alone...
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.
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 the wall near the bed.
You know I hate to ask,
But, are `Friends' electric?
Only, mine's broke down,
And now I've no one to love.
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 you mean everything to me.
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.
Song Info
Copyright
Lyrics © Bmg Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Writer
Gary Anthony James Webb
Duration
5:43
Submitted by
[inactive Account] On Apr 17, 2004
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
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.
@ellitanthalas I took the time to go find the liner notes you referred to. Interesting and eye-opening. Methinks you are right and I was wrong.\r\n\r\nFWIW, the liner notes have several errors. As examples:\r\na. Gary clearly sings "LIKE a white lie that night," yet the liner notes read "A white lie that night."\r\nb. Gary sings "So I FOUND out your reason for the phone calls and smiles," yet the liner notes read "FIND."\r\nc. Gary sings "Till it\'s time to leave," yet the liner notes read "It must be time to leave."\r\n\r\nYour analysis re (7,4) is very interesting. I did see that...
@ellitanthalas I took the time to go find the liner notes you referred to. Interesting and eye-opening. Methinks you are right and I was wrong.\r\n\r\nFWIW, the liner notes have several errors. As examples:\r\na. Gary clearly sings "LIKE a white lie that night," yet the liner notes read "A white lie that night."\r\nb. Gary sings "So I FOUND out your reason for the phone calls and smiles," yet the liner notes read "FIND."\r\nc. Gary sings "Till it\'s time to leave," yet the liner notes read "It must be time to leave."\r\n\r\nYour analysis re (7,4) is very interesting. I did see that in the liner notes and wondered what it was. Perhaps the liner notes are an early version of the lyrics that Gary modified.\r\n\r\nI note that the same liner notes show that the lyrics for the song It Must Have Been Years refer to "the vacant flesh of U.D.\'s". I wonder what that\'s a reference to.
@ellitanthalas \r\n\r\nFrom an apparent interview with Gary Numan:\r\n\r\n"For instance, the talking bits in are are absolutely personal. They\'re about two specific women. The S.U. line in the song is a reference to Su Wathan, Who worked at Beggars Banquet. We had an odd little arrangement at the time which I was too immature to deal with or understand. The 7.4 mentioned at the start of the spoken part applies to the 7th and 4th letters of the alphabet - G.D a women called Gail Deal. She was an ice skating instructor and one Sus friends, who slept with me one...
@ellitanthalas \r\n\r\nFrom an apparent interview with Gary Numan:\r\n\r\n"For instance, the talking bits in are are absolutely personal. They\'re about two specific women. The S.U. line in the song is a reference to Su Wathan, Who worked at Beggars Banquet. We had an odd little arrangement at the time which I was too immature to deal with or understand. The 7.4 mentioned at the start of the spoken part applies to the 7th and 4th letters of the alphabet - G.D a women called Gail Deal. She was an ice skating instructor and one Su
s friends, who slept with me one night and then wasn\'t interested at all after that. It was the first time someone had done that to me and I got pathetically hurt, But in a chauvinistic kind of way, Im ashamed to admit."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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fFPvJzroUE
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.
@spenny69 su is su waltham and older woman he was seeing at the time who messed with his head. He was her little secret
@spenny69 su is su waltham and older woman he was seeing at the time who messed with his head. He was her little secret
@spenny69 su is su waltham and older woman he was seeing at the time who messed with his head. He was her little secret
@spenny69 su is su waltham and older woman he was seeing at the time who messed with his head. He was her little secret
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 :)
@emjay946 and appropriately, the S.U. Stood for Sex Units
@emjay946 and appropriately, the S.U. Stood for Sex Units
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.