- Burning Car
Single infobox
Name = Burning Car
|200px
Artist =John Foxx
Released =11 July 1980
Format = 7" single
Recorded =Pathway Studios ,London 1980
Genre = New wave, Electronic
Length = 3:13
Label = Virgin
VS 360
Producer =John Foxx
Last single = "No-One Driving"
(1980)
This single = "Burning Car"
(1980)
Next single = "Miles Away"
(1980) |"Burning Car" is a song by
John Foxx , released as a single in1980 . It was his third solo single, following "Underpass" and "No-One Driving" earlier in the year. The track was not included on Foxx's debut solo album "Metamatic ", post-dating its January 1980 release, but has been included as a bonus track on the 2001 and 2007 CD reissues. It was Foxx's last 1980s record in a hard-edgedelectronica style (his next single, "Miles Away", featured acoustic drums and a somewhat warmer production)."Burning Car" developed "
Metamatic "'s futurist style and was pacier than most of the album's material. Its staccato introduction was reminiscent of the metallic guitar notes that kicked off the track "Some of Them" from "Systems of Romance ", Foxx's last album with former bandUltravox . The title came from a chapter inJ.G. Ballard 's SF novel "Concrete Island " and its automobile reference was shared by a number of tracks on "Metamatic". The B-side, "20th Century", was used as the theme for theLondon Weekend Television arts and music show "20th Century Box".The songs were recorded in the same "eight-track cupboard in
Islington " [John Foxx (1992). [http://www.metamatic.com/zDiscdocs02/metamatic.html "Assembly" CD liner notes] ] as "Metamatic", and again engineered by Gareth Jones. No instrumental credits appeared on the original single, however Foxx's studio equipment at the time includedARP Odyssey andMinimoog synthesizer s, an Elka 'String Machine', aRoland CR-78 drum machine , an ARP Analog Sequencer and various phasing and flanger units. The recording of "Burning Car" features a prominent use of the "metal beat" hi-hat sound from the CR-78; Foxx used the name MetalBeat for his ownrecord label . A heavily-flangedbass guitar may also be providing some component of the bass line on the song, but it is hard to be certain as the resulting timbre is very similar to a synthesizer in any case.The single made #35 in the UK charts and was also released in picture disc form with a different image to the original cover. "Burning Car" appears on the John Foxx compilations "Assembly" (1992) and "Modern Art" (2001), and both the A- and B-sides are included on the 2001 and 2007 reissue of "Metamatic" (the 1993 edition had featured only "20th Century"). Extended live versions of both songs appear on Foxx's album "Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour" (1998) with Louis Gordon (reissued in 2002 as the second of a 2-disc set, "The Golden Section Tour + The Omnidelic Exotour"). "Burning Car"'s style and subject matter have been echoed in Foxx's recent original albums with Louis Gordon: "Shifting City", "Pleasures of Electricity" and "Crash and Burn".
Track listing
#"Burning Car" (
John Foxx ) – 3:13
#"20th Century" (John Foxx) – 3:05Personnel
* John Foxx – rhythm machine (
Roland CR-78 ),synthesizer s, vocalsNotes
External links
* [http://www.lyricz.net/F/Foxx+John/118847/ Lyrics]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.