"Down in the Park" is a 1979 single written and recorded by Gary Numan with his band Tubeway Army. The first cut from the album Replicas, it was not a hit when released but has long been a critical and fan favourite and for many years was nominated by Numan as his best composition.

Like the Replicas album as a whole, "Down in the Park" marked a major shift from Tubeway Army’s previous output. The band’s early releases, the 1978 singles "That’s Too Bad" and "Bombers" plus the self-titled debut album, contained elements of punk, hard rock, heavy metal and New Wave but were exclusively guitar driven with only occasional use of primitive synthesizer effects. "Down in the Park", on the other hand, was Numan’s first composition on keyboards and his first release to feature the predominantly electronic sound that became his trademark. Musically, it pared down still further the guitar power chord and bass root note style arrangements he had used previously, reducing the harmony to bare unisons of layered bass guitar, Fender Rhodes electric piano, and Minimoog synthesizer. The unusual semitone key changes (A to Bb) to chromatic melodic riffs between the song's verses belied Numan's unfamiliarity with traditional Western music form and theory.

Lyrically the song crystallized the dystopian science fiction concept that was the basis of the Replicas album. Heavily influenced by such writers as J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick, it tells the chilling story of a futuristic park in which Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and machines rape and kill human beings for sport, to the delight of spectators who, along with their numerically-named robotic "friends" ("Down in the Park, with a friend called Five"), view the carnage from a nearby restaurant ("Zom Zoms").

The piece was typical of Numan's themes at the time, both embracing and fearing technology. In contrast to much contemporary post-punk music, and his own earlier releases, Numan's vocals were deliberately underplayed, leaving the slow and stately synthesizer work to evoke the song's melancholy atmosphere.

In what would become Numan's normal practice, the B-side was a non-album track, in this case "Do You Need the Service?"; the title referenced a line from the works of William S. Burroughs, the service in question meaning pest control. The 12" single included the same tracks as the 7" along with "I Nearly Married A Human (2)", a different mix to the version on Replicas this time featuring drum machine throughout and Numan's recital of the song's title, the only words heard.

"Down in the Park" has been covered by a number of artists, notably Foo Fighters on The X-Files Songs in the Key of X soundtrack album, Marilyn Manson on the "Lunchbox" and "Sweet Dreams" singles, DJ Hell (a techno version entitled "Dans Le Park"), Jimi Tenor on the Numan tribute album Random, and Terre Thaemlitz on the tribute album Replicas Rubato. It has been a mainstay of Numan’s live set since his 1979 tour and an arrangement with solo piano introduction appeared on the Living Ornaments ’80 LP, in the movie Urgh! A Music War, and in the Micromusic video concert from Wembley Arena (soundtrack released as Living Ornaments ’81). A version for piano alone was the flip side of Numan’s single " You Die" in 1980 (and was also included as a bonus track on the 1998 CD re-issue of Telekon). The original song was remixed twice for the 2003 collection Hybrid.

Track listing

7" version:

1. "Down in the Park" (Numan) - 4:22
2. "Do You Need the Service?" (Numan) - 3:39

12" version:

1. "Down in the Park" (Numan) - 4:22
2. "Do You Need the Service?" (Numan) - 3:39
3. "I Nearly Married a Human (2)" (Numan) - 6:38

Production credits

• Producers:
  • Gary Numan

• Musicians:
  • Gary Numan: Keyboards (Minimoog synthesizer, Fender Rhodes electric piano), Vocals
  • Paul Gardiner: Bass guitar
  • Jess Lidyard: Drums

References

• Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide to Gary Numan.