"Metal" is a song by
Gary Numan from his 1979 album ''
The Pleasure Principle''. Lyrically, the song is heavily inspired by
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
such as the works of
Philip K. Dick and
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
, and tells the story of an
android who wishes to be human but never can be. The song was the
B-side of "
Cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...
" in the U.S. The song was released with an accompanying music video. The song recycles lyrics from two outtakes of the songs "The Crazies" and "We Have a Technical" from the recording sessions for Numan's album ''
Replicas
A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...
'', which had been released earlier in 1979.
"Metal" has been a regular feature of Numan's live shows since his first tour in 1979, and appears on the majority of his live albums. In 1981, he wrote new lyrics to the tune of "Metal" for his album ''
Dance'' and renamed the song "Moral". He often performs this re-recorded version. The song was again reworked into his aggressive new style in 1998, a version which is also still performed today.
The song has been covered by artists such as
Nine Inch Nails,
Thought Industry
Thought Industry, formerly known as Desacrator, was an American progressive metal band. It was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1989 by vocalist/bassist Brent Oberlin, drummer Dustin Donaldson (who formed I Am Spoonbender in 1997), guitarist ...
,
Afrika Bambaataa (featuring Numan himself),
Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
, and
Poppy
A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug o ...
.
Poppy's version is on the soundtrack of the 2019 video game ''
WWE 2K20
''WWE 2K20'' is a professional wrestling video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was released worldwide on October 22, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the twenty-first installment o ...
''.
References
External links
''Metal'' (work) on MusicBrainz.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metal
Gary Numan songs
1979 songs
Poppy (singer) songs
Songs about robots
Songs about scientists
Songs written by Gary Numan