The curtain lowers for the Intermission…
Songs from the Simulation.
01 Robert Broberg – I Wanna Be A Machine (1979, Sweden)
I wanna be a machine, strong and clean
With no human feelings
It would be easier I mean if I can be a machine
Instead of a human being
Switch on, switch off, switch here and there
Switch over to another channel
Press a button here press a button there
Directed from a faceless panel
I wanna be a machine, strong and clean
With no human feelings
It would be easier I mean if I can be a machine
Instead of a human being
Switch on, switch off, switch here and there
Switch over to channel two
Press a button here, press a button there
Are you ready, steady to go
beep beep
over, go
beep beep
over, so
beep beep
over, no
beep, beep
over, oh!
Switch on, switch off, switch here and there
Switch over to another line
Press a button here, press a button there
It worked unbelievably fine
I wanna be a machine, strong and clean
With no human feelings
It would be easier I mean if I can be a machine
Instead of a human being
Robert Broberg was a Swedish singer, composer and artist who had a fairly impressive career and did an American period in the 1970s.
This song is the one that jumpstarted this album. It’s just so upfront about the transhumanist dream and what’s behind it: fear of emotion. So that set the tone, really. It’s about muted emotions, the machine taking over, with a response and rally at the end.
Some of these songs could be in the voice of the the actual Novas. I’ll leave it up to you to work out which ones.
02 Berlin – Mind Control (1980, USA)
Mind control
Mind control
Technolust, it's so near
Human beings disappear
Digital control, robots here
Anytime, have no fear
Mind control will live here
Calculators, big this year
Analog circuits in the clear
Silicon chips in high gear
Mind control
Mind control
Mind control
Man made machines, digital trains
Telephone paths to computer brains
Closed loop technology games
Robots in electric lanes
Sequenced systems, repeated frames
? atmosphere, exploding time
Logic passes programs our brain
The future world ain't worth a dime
Mind control
Mind control
Mind control
Yes, it’s the band later made infamous by Top Gun’s ‘Take My Breath Awaaaaay’ but their first album was legit cyberpunk.
03 The Group – Technology (1983, England)
I got a little machine
It's wired up to my heart
It stops me wanting you back
It stops me falling apart
And the lights go on
And the noise won't stop
It's got me in a big hole
And it's burying me
Technology
Technology
T is for television all day long
E is for energy that makes us strong
C the computer hacker makes it so
H is the horrifier on my show
I think I'll throw a big party
Invite all of my friends
I'll put the party on tape
So they can watch it again and again and again
And the lights go on
And the noise won't stop
It's got me in a big hole
And it's burying me
Technology
Technology
N is for nuclear power station
O is the overseer of radiation
L is the luxury in your home
O is the ozone hole from the sun
They make your home so cute
They make your home so sweet
They give you crumbs from the table
And then they tell you where to eat
But the dangerous toys
Are all locked away
And they're saving 'em up
For a rainy day
And the lights go on
And the noise won't stop
It's got me in a big hole
And it's burying me
Technology
Technology
G is the game you don't understand
Y is your life in your hands?
A trio from the early 80s.
04 The Visible Targets – Life In The Twilight Zone (USA, 1983)
I live my life but where I'm passing
It's in the twilight zone
Where memories run into tomorrow
A never ending clone
The teardrops freeze when clocks stop in the air
The music has no tone
My feet go nowhere, my mind goes everywhere
And faces turn to stone
There's no reaction, it's not the place to be
If you are humanware
But everything's the same as it used to be
It's so indifferent there
Life in the twilight zone
Life in the twilight zone
There's empty pages of lines that cannot flow
Inside the twilight zone
Empty embraces where love can never show
And hearts are made of chrome
No spell is broken to pluck the locks again
The echoes have no ring
No word is spoken to fall inside the well
Where voices never sing
Life in the twilight zone
Life in the twilight zone
Life in the twilight zone
A beautiful little Seattle band and they have a web page! Isn’t this just an amazing song? ‘Humanware’ and ‘hearts are made of chrome’ in 1983. The zeitgeist, zeitgeisting.
05 The Quarks – Mechanical (1981, England)
Mechanical...
They said I've got my father's aching hands
I've got ulcers too
You've got your mother's looks but she's 45
And I'm 22
We go to work and we take the strain
Slip off the head and remove the brain
The technological '80s, oh it's growing
Mechanical
Mechanical
I could've sworn I saw a key in your back today
He said it might be true
We took a look in the workshop window
And I've got one too
We clocked out and I drove you home
We talked of metal and the price of chrome
The technological '80s, oh it's growing
Mechanical
Mechanical...
Somebody blew a fuse in the office today
They told his wife
If he'd only had a circuit diagram
They could have saved his life
She cried and cried until she finally died
She wasn't waterproof, it got inside
The technological '80s, oh it's growing
Mechanical
All mechanical, all mechanical now, all mechanical now
I have to spend a lot of time these days
Beside the sea
I have to keep well away from city life
My allergy
But I've always got a battery pack
In case I get another heart attack
The technological '80s, oh it's growing
Mechanical
The band also known as President President. Martin Ansell has done a few things since then. The song is just so beautiful that I needed to find a place for it and I was delighted that it fit here, in this little side story of quiet sadness.
06 Clio – Faces (1985, Italy)
Faces
You see a lot of people got two faces
You must give your mind to all them faces
They know the way to be the one
Faces
For every time they've got faces
Faces
Faces
Faces
Oh, we'll never walk on the sun
Until we can find a way to love
Oh, we'll never walk on the sun
'Til you won't hide your face no more
Italo disco that seemed to me to be the voice of an artificial intelligence trying to puzzle out the nature of humanity.
07 Deux – Game And Performance (1983, France)
You can be someone
If you grow with me
Your simple soul
Is something else
You simulated
Your love for me
You can be someone
If you grow with me
You just need
Game and performance
Your life is a prospecting company
Business man
Yet you'll kill the boss
Computer programs, shadows in the night
Computer programs, shadows in the night.
08 Cowboys International – Thrash (1979, England)
When everything is not together
I put my arm around your shoulder
The words they say won't mean anything
They'll change the face, change everything
And we'll thrash, thrash, thrash
There's not one little thing that I would regret
Spending my time wildly
Remember don't forget
The words they say won't mean anything
They'll change the face, change everything
And we'll thrash, thrash, thrash
I don’t know why this song screams cyberpunk to me but I think it’s what would be playing in the Chatsubo bar. Echoes of the theme of personality wiping but it’s also a rallying point. Love is rising to overcome the Machine. Jack is finding his voice.
09 Suzy Q – Computer Music (1985, Canada)
Tonight is a super night
And I'm far away
With some alien friends of mine
Inside our flying machine we can see
The beautiful Earth in an endless beam
But no matter what is happening there
I don't give a damn and I don't care
Computer music is stronger than time
Computer music is blowing my mind
It's even better than a human feel
Yeah it's something that is real
Computer music is stronger than time
Computer music is blowing my mind
The aliens around me
Are dancing with the beat
Tonight is a super time
For something new
Like change the laws
and change the rules
Would you like to fly the way I do?
All the universe is waiting for you
But no matter what is happening, oh
Everybody's getting in the zone
This Canadian disco project is a song I remember as a kid and as an adult it does not disappoint. The twin themes of computers and extraterrestrial life. This is definitely Susan’s voice.
10 Mainframe – Radio (Will Bring Me Home) (1983, England)
Out of Munchen the traffic hunts me
All the eyes switch to green
Staring out the pylon haunts me
And the moment fills my screen
You think I live on the wild side
but it's just a normal day
I'm trying to make some miles
over this land of motorways
He said
When the clearing shows
(hotel oscar mike echo)
Radio will bring me home
(hotel oscar mike echo)
And I'm switching from town to country
All the pressure's left behind
Corporation's power haunts me
A wave of guilt fills my mind
You think I live on the wild side
but it's just a normal day
I'm trying to make some miles
over this land of motorways
John Molloy’s Mainframe got a fair bit of exposure through the 1980s British 8-bit computer scene, doing music for Magnetic Scrolls’ ‘Corruption’ among other things.
A Company operative is starting to have second thoughts.