Down in the park
Where the machmen
Meet the machines
And play 'Kill by numbers'
Down in the park
With a friend called 'Five'

I was in a car crash
Or was it the war
But I've never been
Quite the same
Little white lies
Like 'I was there'

Come to 'Zom Zoms'
A place to eat
Like it was built
In one day
You can watch the humans
Trying to run

Oh look
There's a rape machine
I'd go outside
If he'd look the other way
You wouldn't believe
The things they do

Down in the park
Where the chant is
'Death, death, death'
Until the sun cries morning
Down in the park
With friends of mine

We are not lovers
We are not romantics
'We are here to serve you'
A different face
But the words never change



Lyrics submitted by epitome_of_hate

Track duration: 04:24

"Down in the Park" as written by Gary Anthony James Webb

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Down In The Park song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:The novel Numan wrote, was one in a world ran by men in grey suits who give orders to a class of emotionless and efficient android creatures, the Machmen. The humans who felt negative emotions, like depression, for being enslaved, were called Downstats. People who tried to fight against the Machmen, they were The Crazies, and they lived like rats in the sewers. Still with me? OK, good.

    The Park is where the Machines publicly abuse, rape, torture and kill humans to serve as a warning to the rest of the human race, not to oppose the control machine. The Park is set up as an amusement attraction, built around the killing prisoners for sport.

    The song is from the standpoint of a Machman, I believe he's watching the carnage in the park from a restaurant window. He is trying to explain who or what he is, but his memories are implanted, fabrications, and underneath it he doesn't know. But ultimately, it doesn't matter, he is here to serve you.

    That is, quite literally, what it is about. I remember distinctly reading an old Numan interview where he explains his unwritten novel and how it turned into Replicas. This was, however, in, like 1999, so finding it is an issue.
    Flag parkerdannielon February 02, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Wow! How refreshing to come by a bunch of posts that are dead on, where those who post actually read up on Gary and know his music. Can't believe the stupid things on here people misread into some songs...no insight into the artistic mind at all! Guess that's because 99% of what plays now is made by people looking to make money and not artists therefore all todays lyrics are very literal and/or plain stupid. I find young people on here who have grown up on such crap will then hear Numan or other older songs and take the lyrics to mean exactly as they say...kids have no imagination to be able to see the meaning behind the words as songs aren't written from imagination nor muse anymore.
    Flag spiderplanton February 27, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Gary numan had a fascination with technology, but he also feared what could happen if technology got to sophisticated in the future and turned on us (well thats what i think anyway), kind of like terminator, but down in the park was ofcourse written before terminator.
    Flag Parry1991on July 30, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I like how on the album cover he's looking out there's "the park". Great song...
    Flag DJgifon July 14, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons have a model called "5" and rape machines (of sorts at the Farms) with machines who play kill by numbers (Centurions/Raiders).
    Flag Skooma2112on August 02, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Actually YouTube is the place to go these days--you can even type in Tubeway Army using their search box and boom! Live versions of such classics like "Are 'Friends' Electric?" abound as videos of old BBC music shows. Somebody on the Frenz (Split Enz, Crowded House, Neil Finn, and all) message board put it the best way I've ever thought of this website: It's like crack cocaine. And I think she's right. One thing I'm searching for on YouTube right now are videos of old Doctor Who episodes, especially the Tom Baker years with his own Screaming Mimmies, Sarah Jane Smith & Leela, who's a shorter English version of Xena with less IQ points but wow! can she wield a knife! But getting back to this song's relation to Doctor Who, as I see it, those Machmen could easily become Cybermen--they pop up from time to time since they are robot-type metallic beings whose only driving desire is to rid the universe of anything remotely human. These Cybermen are creepy, cold little suckers, LOL! So I'll leave you to imagine Cybermen picking off people 'down in the park', but before I do, I do remember an episode where the Doctor and co. had to save an entire planet from slave labor and destruction due to some element on that planet that the Cybermen were"allergic" to since, by nature, the Cybermen were impervious to most anything. Yet get _gold dust_ in their inner workings and it's goners for these guys...how convenient! But a 'rape machine'? That's would've never flew through the BBC censors...LOL.
    Flag pharmageekon September 15, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:VH1 that is
    Flag MrLongroveon August 08, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Replicas was reissued back in the late 90s with a bunch of b-sides. The story behind the music is also included in the booklet. I sure with VH! would do a Behind The Music featuring Gary Numan.
    Flag MrLongroveon August 08, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I actually have an old cassette copy of Tubeway Army's "Replicas" and yes! "Down in the Park" is the last song on side 1! :))
    Flag pharmageekon May 10, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Ugh, it makes me so mad everyone thinks that this is a Gary Numan song from when he became a solo artist. He was in a band called Tubeway Army when they made it. Its on a Tubeway Army album called Replicas. No disrespect to Gary, I mean I love him, but its just a thing that bugs me a lot.

    MrLongrove is right, this is based on an unfinished novel Gary wrote when he was younger, I believe the place was called Replicas and the machines were the government. The machmen were kinda like robots livng among humans. The 'friends' referred to in Are 'Friends' Electric and Me! I Disconnect From You were also kinda like robots, but they were rented (or something like that) by people and used to entertain. The Crazies were the few remaining humans left in Replicas, they lived underground.

    Thats all I can really remember without rereading the album sleeve....
    Flag PtolemyKittyon March 25, 2006   Link

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