Down In The Park Lyrics
And play 'kill-by-numbers'.
Down in the park with a friend called "Five".
But I've never been quite the same.
Little white lies like "I was there".
Like it was built in one day.
You can watch the humans trying to run.
I'd go outside if he'd look the other way.
You wouldn't believe the things they do.
Until the sun cries morning.
Down in the park with friends of mine.
We are here to serve you.
A different face, but the words never change...
Ugh, it makes me so mad everyone thinks that this is a Gary Numan song from when he became a solo artist. He was in a band called Tubeway Army when they made it. Its on a Tubeway Army album called Replicas. No disrespect to Gary, I mean I love him, but its just a thing that bugs me a lot.
MrLongrove is right, this is based on an unfinished novel Gary wrote when he was younger, I believe the place was called Replicas and the machines were the government. The machmen were kinda like robots livng among humans. The 'friends' referred to in Are 'Friends' Electric and Me! I Disconnect From You were also kinda like robots, but they were rented (or something like that) by people and used to entertain. The Crazies were the few remaining humans left in Replicas, they lived underground.
Thats all I can really remember without rereading the album sleeve....
a great song from gary numan. this song is about the machine men (machmen), meet to hunt and kill humans in the park. while some get to watch from above at a place called zom zom's. it is a tragic look of how a human is raped, beatin down, or destroyed by the machmen. great song !!!
Part of Numan's sci-fi story. It's about a depraved futuristic society where humans being hunted raped and killed by machines for sport. This is Numan at his best...dark, gloomy and atmospheric. I've seen Numan live twice and this song is always a highlight for me.
The novel Numan wrote, was one in a world ran by men in grey suits who give orders to a class of emotionless and efficient android creatures, the Machmen. The humans who felt negative emotions, like depression, for being enslaved, were called Downstats. People who tried to fight against the Machmen, they were The Crazies, and they lived like rats in the sewers. Still with me? OK, good.
The Park is where the Machines publicly abuse, rape, torture and kill humans to serve as a warning to the rest of the human race, not to oppose the control machine. The Park is set up as an amusement attraction, built around the killing prisoners for sport.
The song is from the standpoint of a Machman, I believe he's watching the carnage in the park from a restaurant window. He is trying to explain who or what he is, but his memories are implanted, fabrications, and underneath it he doesn't know. But ultimately, it doesn't matter, he is here to serve you.
That is, quite literally, what it is about. I remember distinctly reading an old Numan interview where he explains his unwritten novel and how it turned into Replicas. This was, however, in, like 1999, so finding it is an issue.
In the album Resonator, Numan's newer version of Down in the Park has the last line as "A different RACE but the words never change". In the original he says "face".
I actually have an old cassette copy of Tubeway Army's "Replicas" and yes! "Down in the Park" is the last song on side 1! :))
Replicas was reissued back in the late 90s with a bunch of b-sides. The story behind the music is also included in the booklet. I sure with VH! would do a Behind The Music featuring Gary Numan.
VH1 that is
This reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons have a model called "5" and rape machines (of sorts at the Farms) with machines who play kill by numbers (Centurions/Raiders).
I like how on the album cover he's looking out there's "the park". Great song...