Taking Sides: "Saturday in the Park" by Chicago VS. "Down in the Park" by Gary Numan

"Mobsters laughing, really smiling, a man selling heroin..."

http://www.highspeedplus.com/~dascott/images/tmi512face.jpg

(Gary is my fave but Chicago never did much for me.)

Gary Numan takes it. (But in truth, neither song matches up to Chrome's "Pygmies In Zee Park" - or Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park" for that matter.) And hmmm...isn't Van Halen's "Sunday Afternoon In The Park" even MORE synth-heavy than the Numan song?

Yup, the very same. I agree with you on the Chrome front, thanks to that bizarro singing.

still, i think that "saturday in the park" is LONG DUE for some sorta gangsta-style update.

i'll go with chicago, because i can dig it, yes i can.

Can you dig it? Yes, I can.

"All the boys idolized her
All the girls criticized her..."

I was actually going to cite this one too, but...y'know, it's an instrumental.

This one is about remembering a nice holiday in the park, so it more like the Chicago tune than Numan. It is off Fly by Night, back when they were more earthy prog than scifi prog.

I like the Numan song more than the one by Chicago.

Bill: OK, just got a call from Zom-Zom's. They're short on their delivery today. They need two more boxes of tomatoes and three boxes of lettuces.

Rob: There's no WAY I'm driving the van there again today. That place is f***ing scary mate. It's right next to the park. Last time I nearly got taken by a rape machine. How do Zom-Zoms pull in any customers anyway? It's like swimming across a pool of sharks to get a BLT.

On the other hand, "Saturday In the Park" was sampled briefly by De La for "A Rollerskating Jam Named 'Saturdays'", while the only hip-hop track I know of that sampled "Down in the Park" was some ridiculous Anticon thing called "Third Reel Judy Garland" by Doseone Side Project #152 aka "Restiform Bodies". So if you want Chicago to win on at least one credential, here you go.

Ned, I like that "Cherry Hill Park" song, too. And "Beachwood Park"!

now, stence, you know quite well that just because jon williams has a chicago best-of stashed away deep in his cd collection does NOT mean that chicago invented NOIZE.

But as long as people are voting for third party candidates, my park of choice is Itchykoo.

Actually, just give it to Numan.

some thoughts on "down in the park":

at the time he wrote it (1978, i think), gary numan had doubtless never set foot anywhere in the United States. nonetheless, "down in the park" has a very escape from new york feel to it (and that movie came out only 2 years after "down in the park," though i doubt that john carpenter had ever heard the thing so i'm not claiming it had any influence at all over escape from new york). anyway, both share the same sense of post-apocalyptic gloom and other-worldiness, an extreme extrapolation of a future that COULD have been given late 70s realities and sci-fi themes floating around (philip dick was still alive, i think). one could almost imagine john lennon -- or better still, the boys in suicide had john and yoko ever deigned to invite them up to their pad in the dakota -- looking down upon the mayhem directly beneath them in central park (or taking the subway to the library or the east village and then taking a stroll through the then-unrestored bryant park or tompkins square park) and letting their imaginations get the better of them. then again -- and, although i don't know for a fact since i never visited london during the late 70s -- i suppose contemporary london may have had some similarly-scary parks that the authorities left abandoned to that city's underworld. and both misters lennon and vega would have had to be pretty stewed outta their minds to come up with the music and lyrics that apparently came to mr. numan unaided by illicit substances (these were the sounds he just heard in his head, i remember him claiming in interviews).

down in the park is one of the best songs ever.

far be it for me to criticize alex (esp. since he isn't here so often anymore), but i almost think that a better taking sides would be "down in the park" vs. guns n roses's "welcome to the jungle." true, the GnR tune doesn't have "park" anywhere in its title (or its lyrics), but it conveys a very similar sense of dread over malevolent urban decay. not to mention that controversial drawing that was supposed to be appetite for destruction's original cover would make a pretty good representation of a rape machine.

"Down In The Park" is a great song, so it has to be that one. I kind of like "Saturday In The Park" too though.

i like that one "Public Domain" by Van Dyke Parks