June 14, 2024
The Intro From Gary Numan’s America On The Roland D-50
My sixth video blog is up on Youtube and can be found by clicking right here.
This is what I had left in the description of the video:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, English musician Gary Numan had a great run of several recordings that included sounds from the classic Roland D-50. A perfect example of that is the album ‘Metal Rhythm’ from 1988. For the intro of the song ‘America’, the preset ‘Soundtrack’ is used. The countless records where I have heard this patch – as a factory preset or slightly adjusted – would make a list too long to include here. I consider the Soundtrack patch – and I have written about it before – to be one of my favourite presets of all time. Metal Rhythm was the first record of a total of three albums that Numan would release on the label I.R.S. Records. The other two albums from that era; The Skin Mechanic (1989) and Outland (1991) are also heavily influenced by the use of the Roland D-50. Without going into great detail; the Metal Rhythm album was released – in America – under a different name (New Anger) with different mixes, a different tracklist and the original artwork changed from dark/black to blue. This was against Numan’s wishes.
Many thanks for reading and watching. I salute you all, Numanoids!
DG