Radio 80, side B, track 12: “Cars” by Gary Numan

Oh, Gary Numan, while I don’t have any particular memories of this awesome song, I certainly understand the sentiment.  While I don’t know anything about cars in general other than how to start one, how to use the radio and generally how to change a tire on one, they’ve been a huge part of my life.  Not a grand statement, I know, we live in a nation of cars, but living on a farm makes you appreciate how important getting off that farm is.  My wife and I are planning to visit my family in a few months, and we realized that the closest place to rent a car is about 70 miles away from my hometown.  It’s starting to make more sense why everyone I knew growing up had 6-10 cars sitting around.  It wasn’t a sign of prestige or anything, you just needed a way to get around, and if one wasn’t working, you needed a back-up.

And it’s interesting that this song came up when it did, Gary Numan, because I’ve been thinking a lot about cars lately.  Just the concept of them.  The accepted insanity that pretty much anyone can get behind the wheel of thousands of pounds of plastic and metal and drive at high speeds and with some exceptions, it works.  Somehow, most people get to where they’re going.  And folks can walk on foot right next to them and are relatively safe.  And soon, cars will drive themselves.  Which is actually much less insane to me than relying on human beings to drive them.

Plus, it’s really in a car where music sounds the best anyway.  That scene in “once” where they all drive around listening to their music in the car, because that’s the true testing ground for the success of a song, one of the best scenes in a movie ever.

So. . .sorry I didn’t have much to say about this song in particular, Gary Numan, but thanks for making it, because you completely nailed how important cars are.  In cars.

lyrics to “Cars”