The goal of this page is to introduce fans of two singer/songwriters, Chris Whitley and Gary Numan, to each other. Both are musical geniuses and are my top two favourite artists of all time.
Chris Whitley passed away on November 20th 2005. His posthumous release, which was released in early 2006, is entitled "Reiter In" and contains a cover of Gary Numan's 1979 hit, "Are 'Friends' Electric?" For me, this is a bittersweet occasion - my two favourite musicians have come together, but it will never happen again.
"Are 'Friends' Electric?", which happens also to be one of my favourite Numan songs, was Gary Numan's breakout single in the UK and Canada in 1979, and launched him on a rollercoaster career that continues to this day. He had to wait another year, and the North American release of his now-classic single "Cars", before achieving success in the USA. Like Chris, Numan has a new album out this year, entitled Jagged.
Chris Whitley's long and checkered career reached its pinnacle when he was "discovered" by Daniel Lanois, who persuaded Sony to release his debut album Living With The Law in 1991. A huge commercial and critical success, Chris followed up with 11 more albums, all widely varied and diverse and none treading the same ground.
While the two men have much in common career-wise, their musical stylings are as different as can be... which makes a Whitley cover of Numan seem highly unlikely. That is, until you learn that Chris Whitley was a Gary Numan fan. In one interview, he spoke of busking on the streets of New York City trying to sound "like Gary Numan on a dobro". :-)
Anyways, without further ado, here are the two versions of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" side-by-side for you to listen to and compare.
Gary Numan's original version from the album Replicas
Chris Whitley's cover version from the album Reiter In
Please Note: I have deliberately encoded these MP3 files at a very low sample rate, which results in audio quality about on a par with AM radio. The goal here is to allow you to compare the songs, but if you want to burn them to a CD or play them on an iPod, you really need to purchase the CD's to get the full experience. Both albums are available on Amazon.com and other retail outlets - please, if you like what you've heard, buy these records - it's the right thing to do.
Chris Whitley's music, like Numan's, is not just to be heard, but to be experienced. Most of the following MP3 tracks come from legal downloads sanctioned by his record labels. Please give them a listen, and if you like what you hear, do purchase some of his music - preferably new copies rather than used. My goal is to increase royalties to help Chris' daughter Trixie get a good start - these royalties will help! Chris Whitley was a "struggling artist" and died penniless.
To save these to your hard drive, right-click the links and choose "Save as".
For more brief samples from Reiter In, please visit the Morning Dew Records website.
And, just for good measure, here are some (lo-fidelity - buy the discs!) Gary Numan tracks, for those of you unfamiliar with his work.
To save these to your hard drive, right-click the links and choose "Save as".
I highly recommend a visit to Numan's Jagged micro-site where you can listen to audio clips of several songs and view three videos from the album (two concert performances and one produced video). Note: some Firefox users have trouble with the videos - if that happens, use Internet Exploiter.