Gary Numan selects his favourite songs from the 1980s
Gary Numan is arguably one of the true icons of the 1980s. His debut solo album, The Pleasure Principle, released in 1979 after leaving new wave stars Tubeway Army, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.
The album contained the hit single ‘Cars’, for which he is best known. Numan is well placed to comment on the best hits of the decade of decadence, and last year, he picked out four of his favourite songs of the 1980s.
The Tears for Fears single ‘Shout’ is up first on Numan’s list, the second to be taken from their second studio album. Numan said of the musical climate in the 1980s: “When I first came along in 1979, although I wasn’t the first to do electronic music, it kind of opened the doors for all the other people that came along after me. For a while, they called [me] synthpop; I never really liked that name. But for other people, it was a good expression, because it was light and it was pinky, pop music”.
He added: “Then Tears For Fears came along, and it was brilliant, song after song it was all I hoped it would be. ‘Shout’ came along, and this huge chorus that came with it, I just thought it was the best thing around, and I was jealous because it was so much better than what I was doing at that time.”
Numan also loved Depeche Mode’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’. He said of the band: “When my career was in tatters in the early 1990’s they did an album called Songs of Faith and Devotion, which I thought and still think was one of the best albums ever made, and I love it.”
He added: “It was massively important in helping me, kind of reinvent myself and encourage me to try new directions, and it reminded me I loved music. It was hugely important. Depeche Mode had been, in one way or another, a very important band in my life. ‘Never Let Me Down Again’. When you go to see them live, that’s the one you wait for.”
Rounding off Numan’s favourite songs of the 1980s (alongside The Missons’ ‘Tower of Strength’) is Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Head Like A Hole’. Numan said of the Trent Reznor-penned tune: “The track ‘Head Like A Hole’ is just one of those songs that keeps on giving, you know. It starts with this amazing growing thing, and then the vocal comes in, and it’s all bitter and angry.”
He added: “And you think the chorus happens it all just awesome and epic ‘Wow, best chorus ever written’ and there is another one, and it’s even better than the first one, and it’s ‘Wow, how can you have so many brilliant anthems in one song?’. If you ever see them live, it’s a thousand times more powerful than it is on record.”
Gary Numan’s favourite songs of the 1980s:
- ‘Shout’ – Tears for Fears
- ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ – Depeche Mode
- ‘Tower of Strength’ – The Mission
- ‘Head Like A Hole’ – Nine Inch Nails
