Gary Numan - Cars

When this song came out it was so incredibly futuristic. I guess the only thing I could compare it to was stuff that Kraftwerk was doing. Thirty years later and this song still sounds so ahead of its time. Admittedly I am a big fan of Gary Numan. While beyond “Cars” he had no real hits here in the United States, he was very popular back in the UK. Songs like “I Die, You Die” and “Are Friends Electric” were songs that placed high in the charts in the UK, but barely graced the airwaves here (great songs by the way). Today, you will find bands like Nine Inch Nails and the Foo Fighters saying how influential Gary Numan was to them.

Back to “Cars.” I would have to say that this is probably one of my absolute favorite songs. Since there is little to compare it to, and it has such an infectious hook to the song, it’s hard not to love it. So, this morning when I for no other reason than it just popped in my head, I put this song to the Ella challenge. Guess what! She loved it! It was pretty amazing. She was on the living room rug playing with some toys, and when this song came on there was a noticeable reaction. Since I was playing it on my computer she just focused her eyes there. At some point midway through she decided she was going to make the move over to where I was sitting (which, now that she can crawl, is pretty quick). I decided to quit iTunes and pull the video up from YouTube. As with before, she sat through the entire song. I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence, so I waited a couple of hours, and later played the video again when Christine came down. Ella responded the same way. What’s amazing to notice is that she seems to focus on songs that are heavy on lyrics. Lots of singing going on. With “Cars” the final two minutes of the song there are no lyrics. Now I would be lying if I said she didn’t start to putter out around the 3:20 mark, but that still means she is engaged for a solid minute and a half of music. My theory is back to the opening statement about the song. It is just so different, so futuristic, that it’s hard not to take notice. So much so that a seven month old feels the same. That or she is just damn cool (which is also pretty high on the theory list).