Favorite "Town" Songs #10 - "New Thing From London Town"
@teamfreak16 (43684)
Denver, Colorado
January 16, 2019 7:46am CST
And we're off! This is the start of a (hopefully) daily four-part series consisting of my favorite songs with either "Town," "City," "State," or "Country" in the title. This is the "Town" edition, and we are at #10: "New Thing From London Town" by the great Gary Numan.
You have, at some point in your life, heard Gary Numan's smash 1979 hit, "Cars." Trust me, you've heard it. On the radio, on television commercials, on TV shows, whatever, you've heard it.
But if you live in the United States, you probably haven't heard this. "New Thing From London Town" was originally recorded and released as a British single in 1986 by Numan and Bill Sharpe. Gary Numan then rewrote the lyrics and re-recorded the tune for his 1986 album, Strange Charm. However, the album was not released here in the States until 1999, when indie label Cleopatra Records put it out, and since, at the time, they were almost exclusively focused on goth and industrial music, you can be excused if it slipped your notice.
But golly gee (damn!,) if you only know Numan from "Cars," or maybe "Are Friends Electric?," "New Thing From London Town" might surprise you a bit. Pick any 80's synth pop tune of your liking. Any of them. This thing stacks up, as good as there is. In fact, musically, you might think this is some long-lost New Order dance song.
Seriously, it's that bloody good! Why the hell this guy doesn't get more credit for being as great as he is, I have no idea, but this is proof.
(New Thing info verified by Wikipedia)
Copyright (C) 1986. From the album 'Strange Charm'. For entertainment purposes only, please do not remove.
4 people like this
3 responses
@teamfreak16 (43684)
• Denver, Colorado
16 Jan 19
It's a great piece of synth pop. Too bad it wasn't a bigger hit.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 19
So good. So 80s. So synthpop.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43684)
• Denver, Colorado
16 Jan 19
Bloody awesome, as the Brits might say.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86940)
• United States
16 Jan 19
Do you remember the big brouhaha over people buying imports over "domestic" albums in the late 70s/early 80s and how the RIAA wanted to slap a bigass tax on the imports to make it cost prohibitive? Well, the fact that we couldn't get albums for months or years over here that were out and popular in the UK might be a reason....
Oh, good song. That's not a remake of that Paul McCartney & Wings song! 
Oh, good song. That's not a remake of that Paul McCartney & Wings song! 1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86940)
• United States
16 Jan 19
@teamfreak16 -- and then they wonder why people started filesharing....
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43684)
• Denver, Colorado
16 Jan 19
@FourWalls - I know. Although probably 99% of what I stole off Napster I had already spent money on a couple times anyway.
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43684)
• Denver, Colorado
16 Jan 19
I remember it well. As if the import weren't expensive enough as it was. I once paid $30 for a Mission Import CD, and it was maybe only their sixth or seventh best album. But that's all that was available.
1 person likes this
