The 1970s in the UK was a fairly grim place, with strikes and poverty casting a long shadow over the decade. But as the decade drew to a close, the musical landscape was changing.
The mid 70s had given rise to the punk era, with bands riding the crest of the punk new wave. One such band was a four-piece called Tubeway Army, fronted by Gary Numan. Signed to the Beggars Banquet label, they had recorded a couple of singles but had made little impact.
It was around this time that Gary Numan had his first experience with a synthesiser. As the story goes, he walked into a studio and found a Minimoog in the corner, which was set to a patch that was so powerful, it made the entire room shake.
Numan immediately recognised the power that could be utilised with this innovative contraption, and set about embellishing existing songs with all-new synth parts.
Perhaps inspired by the futuristic sounds he was now keenly exploring, Numan penned the track Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
It was a curious title for a song which drew influence from dystopian novels by JG Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Thematically, Numan was envisioning a London some 30 years in the future. The titular ‘Friends', well, they were robots, called upon to provide all forms of services.
Many late at night…
As Numan recalled to The Guardian in 2014, “The lyrics came from short stories I'd written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines - "Friends" - come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a No 1 single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew."
Numan recalls that he wrote the song on an old pub piano, that was incredibly out of tune. Not only that, but the finished article was the combination of two different songs, joined together.
“The main melody is one note sharp, since I hit a wrong note on the old piano, and it sounded better,” Numan explained to the Guardian. “I ended up recording it on a Polymoog synthesiser played with one finger. It sounded very different and futuristic, but there was still some bass and drums in there, so people had something familiar to connect with.”
Given that Tubeway Army were originally a guitar based punk band, it's interesting that the song isn’t reliant upon guitar chords. Instead, acoustic drums and electric bass form the bedrock, while various monophonic lines imply the song’s harmony, played on the Polymoog or sung by Numan.
The song adopts a mid-tempo feel, which feels pacy, due to the 16th-note hi-hat pattern which provides drive and direction. The kick and snare drums accentuate beats 1 & 3, and 2 & 4 respectively, providing a backbeat which is almost reminiscent of a funk groove, but without the heavy shuffle feel. It's there by implication, thanks to the accents in the hi-hat part.
Meanwhile, the bass pins down the harmony; the song is a little out of tune with traditional concert pitch, but it's closest key relative is C major. From the outset, the bass part plays a basic rhythmic part, which alternates from C to Bb every two beats.
The main ubiquitous synth riff emphasises the harmony, but by using open chords or 5ths. Playing one beat at a time, the riff shifts from a C and G, to a Bb and F. this repeats, but with the final F replaced by a high Bb and E, played as 1/8th notes quavers.
The use of these last two notes is interesting, as the final E serves to pre-empt the return to a chord of C. It's also the only time that we clearly hear the third of a chord in this riff, which is the note that endorses the major tonality. It’s this use of open harmony that adds to the enigmatic nature of the entire song.
The structure of the song is also open to debate, as it does not conform to the more usual verse and chorus elements. The first vocal that we hear could certainly be regarded as the verse, but with no lyrical content in the second section of the song, it debatably means that what we could call the chorus an instrumental section, except for a hint of vocal ‘Oo’, following the synth line.
During this second ‘instrumental chorus’ section, there is a seismic shift to what we could describe as a pedal note. This musical device occurs in the bass part, sustaining an F, which remains static while the harmony above it moves. In this case, the upper synth line implies a harmony of C/F, which resolves to F. It does this twice, using an arpeggiated rising synth line, before repeating the sequence.
By way of similarity, the shift to the bridge section relies entirely on even more arpeggiated synth lines, which heavily endorse the harmony. During the first part of the bridge, we hear the implied chords of G minor 7, D minor 7, F major 7 and C major 7. While the presence of the minor chords feels entirely appropriate, the use of implied major 7 chords, with their undoubted sense of sweetness, is underplayed thanks to the use of the arpeggiation. There is no sense of saccharine here, keeping the overall production darker in style.
A further interesting trait in the section is the use of spoken word, rather than any identifiable vocal melody. It leaves the canvas free for the synth line to do all of the heavy lifting, with more hooks and melodies.
In line with many other songs from this era, the approach to harmony and construct could be construed as simplistic, but this is precisely that gives the song its strength. However, it doesn't prevent the odd portamento glide, produced on the Moog, to add further colour and interest between sections.
Are ‘Friends' Electric? undoubtedly put Gary Numan on the musical map. He was one of the first to kickstart the use of synths in mainstream pop, and is regarded as a synth pioneer, despite his continued flirting with the rockier side of music.
Shortly after this hit, he dropped the Tubeway Army moniker, before the release of his next single, Cars, which turned out to be an even bigger success!
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