taking sides (battle of the Kings of New Wave Dorks): elvis costello v. gary numan

and yet, there are some similarities. mr. numan's "are 'friends' electric?" is every bit as much of an impassioned, embittered, confused love song (all about those little things and SUs and things he doesn't understand) as mr. costello's signature "alison" (do android brides dream of leaving their pretty fingers in the wedding cake?) despite bitching about "those disco synthesizers," mr. costello DID hire steve nieve (who probably knows some moroder and kraftwerk and eno, had mr. costello allowed him to be so indulgent). and despite what some critics think, punch the clock, dance and i, assassin are damn fine albums that any other (lesser) artist would KILL to have made.

As for me -- please. GARY GARY etc. Those first five or so albums (counting Dance but not The Plan, good as it is) in particular are now obsessive relistens for me. He quite simply had it, whatever the hell it was, and they actually sound better the more you listen to them, I think.

Elvis is addicted to a canon that I don't need -- I'm glad it's there, but in terms of what he does with it he reminds me of nobody so much as Paul Weller.

Yesterday I traded in my copy of Get Happy!! and left the store with Replicas.

So yeah, Numan takes it for me, as well. Pleasure Principle + Replicas > My Aim is True + This Year's Model.

An excellent step up!

When I got it home, I then discovered the scribble was a full set of band autographs!

Elvis Costello albums show him as the cool, hip champion of the authentic and true, on personal terms with God (well, Burt Bacharach):

http://images.google.com.au/images?q=elvis+costello+album&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

Gary Numan's albums - desperate, isolated, intense and very very uncool and unhip, looking for an identity of any kind - and not finding it! He is not comfortable or self satisfied, and has not found his social niche - therefore, he remains himself, and has not been co-opted by a social archetype:

http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=gary+numan+album

Advanced Revelation - I have no idea who they are or what they sound like, but Gary Numan likes them, they came up on the search above, and I have not seen a photo like this since SPK sold out, so good luck to them!

ihttp://www.ausfahrt.de/I12581.htm

Fuck, I can't even do this. They're both just so different. Costello is definetely the more conventional player and inarguably a superior songwriter, but he's never done anything as atmospheric as, say, "Down in the Park" or "I Die: You Die". And Elvis was never particularly bothered with synthesizers, whereas Gazz didn't really mess about with guitars until later on.

And Elvis would never drive around his stage in a pyramid-powered space car like Gary used ta do.

That all said, Gary never got as fat and hairy like Elvis.

Yeah, the whole Tubeway Army biz....didn't factor that in. Sorry. In any event, they're still not a very compatible twosome.

"It was not going to be a punk album as such, but it was still very much guitar, bass and drums. It's a difficult thing to explain but I had sounds in my head. More than that, I had a picture, an image, a feeling almost of how I wanted to go, but I hadn't come close to realising it with the band. When I arrived at the studio the previous band had left behind a Mini-Moog synthesiser and so I asked if I could have a go before it was collected by the hire company. I had never seen a real synth before and, to be honest, had never really thought of them very much. Although I liked some electronic music I still associated it mainly with pompous supergroups, like Yes and ELP. To me they conjured up visions of disgusting, self-indulgent solos that went on for half an hour. Luckily for me this synth had been left on a heavy setting, which produced the most powerful, ground shaking sound I had ever heard. I immediately realised this was what I had been looking for."

therefore, Elvis sucks!

OK, the Tubeway Army album and the first Gary Numan one (Replicas) - oh and, alright, I suppose I might concede his second one (the Pleasure Principle) too at a push - are better than the absolute worst things Elvis has done.

Really, hopnestly 'though: My Aim Is True, This Years Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, (Punch The Clock?), Blood & Chocolate and King Of America are all better albums by far than anything Mr. Numan has ever recorded - or is ever likely to record.

And fwiw I'm really not that bothered about either of them.

that was actually my point ... costello & numan are really the 2 opposite ends of new wave, so i thought that comparing them would be a bit more fun. who knows, some crazy ILXor might find some hidden link, have some unthought-of epiphany of how these 2 guys are somehow similar!

i am willing to concede that costello may be "better" than numan in the conventional sense. but i prefer numan to costello (though i do not dislike costello -- far from it). the same way that i concede that the beatles were "better" than the kinks, or the cure were "better" than echo and the bunnymen; but i still prefer the latter to the former.

converse: numan will never have an imperial bedroom or a get happy!! in him.

mr. costello DID team up w/ brian eno on some track (whose name i forget). it was hardly "down in the park," but it was definitely MUCH more atmospherican and textural than his usual fare.

Get Happy by Gary Numan

(Closest I can get to to getting a 'wobbly screen')

"In the sense of...?"

In the sense that Bill's probably the immature bastard who on keeps ringing Gary up at 3:00 AM; and just letting the phone keep ringing and ringing and ringing until Gary finally gets fed up with trying to ignore it and gets up out of his nice warm silver space-bed, muttering curses under his breath, puts on his silver space-slippers and his silver space-dressing-gown, walks to the silver space-phone, picks up the receiver and is just about to say "hello, Gary Numan here....", expecting it to be either aliens or the hospital ringing about his mum's hip operation; at which point Bill just hangs up, for a bit of a laugh.

Presumably.

Even in my callow early eighties youth I was given to understand he was such, several times over, by those in the 'know.' I have since found cause to doubt this conclusion.

Elvis and Gary walk into the neighborhood dance club. In the unlikely event any of the ladies in the house turn their heads and go, "Ooh, who's the cool, hip one?", which is it gonna be?

Not that this is any barometer -- I just like EC better. Better songs. But it's funny to me that this ultimate nerdlinger, that I was sneered at in school for being nerd enough to like, is viewed with 20/20 hindsight as being hip and cool. Maybe I was so far out of the know that I didn't know anybody in the know. Y'know?

I never even heard any Gary Numan tunes except "Cars," so I dunno. Somone who's been so desperately unhip now he's comin' back or something? I guess I need to take a listen. Anyway, Costello, zzzz...

"I Fly/You Fly" ... or "I Fly/You Die"!

hee hee

10. JESUS JONES: 'The Devil You Know'

"They get a bad press? Hmm, I finally understand rock critics, actually, because I've been writing for Pilot magazine. I don't care if they call me a fat ugly bastard. It was when they said my mum and dad should've been doctored so as not to give birth to me - that's going too far. My mum is the loveliest person you could ever hope to meet. It's not like I've raped somebody. If they're jealous, say it: 'He's a cunt, but I would like his car, his house and probably his girlfriend.' D'you know, Elvis Costello's manager hit the man who signed me, for signing me?! Now, that is very unnecessary. Like you're so great, Elvis."

numan talks about elvis costello's manager in 1994 interview

This thread makes me feel so very at home on ilx.

Gary of course, without a moment's hesitation.

This is no question. Nothing Gary Numan has done comes close to This Year's Model.

young me would've voted Elvis. Older, wiser me votes Numan.

xpost -- No, Gary's had a bad album or two as well.

young me would've voted Numan. Older, wiser me votes ELVIS.

How do you fellows not see? Costello is leagues above Numan. He's a better singer and most importantly, a better songwriter. WAYYYY better songwriter. Regardless, the comparison is contrived. It only gives Gary Numan the benefit of being marked up to level with EC.

from upthread:

Really, honestly 'though: My Aim Is True, This Years Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, (Punch The Clock?), Blood & Chocolate and King Of America are all better albums by far than anything Mr. Numan has ever recorded - or is ever likely to record.

nonsense.

elvis costello is for corny boring people

numan is for corny robot motherfuckaz therefore numan wins

in all seriousness, tho Drew nails his shit way up thread:

I take greater pleasure in listening to Gary Numan; "Replicas" is a total masterpiece, as is the first Tubeway Army record: I love the weird powerpop guitar heaviness, and that crazy tea-kettle whine of a Bowie-imitation-circa-"Soul Love" singing voice seals the deal. Elvis Costello seems to me to be A Great Songwriter, but I am aware of this as a fact in a way that gives me no pleasure, it's clear that he has a grasp of the craft, but I'd take Numan's SOUND over Costello's SONGs on any (rainy grey futuristic) day. So Numan wins even though Costello is "better" in the canonical sense. The New-Man that Costello resembles isn't named Gary, he's named Randy; smart, witty songwriting that upstages the performance and calls attention to its cleverness while putting sonic/timbral execution in the backseat.

― Drew Daniel, Monday, November 8, 2004 2:32 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

young me would've voted Elvis. Older, wiser me votes Numan.

― Shamandy Warhol (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, April 12, 2010 1:22 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

pretty much what i think as well.