EXHIBITION
Which could bring us on to another of his most remarkable songs (there are so many remarkable songs that the phrase is a little meaningless) - 'Exhibition'. It was originally the B-side to the 12" version of 'She's got claws' and it appears as a bonus track on Dance. Again it concerns an old man, but this only becomes obvious at the very end. Then we can see the bizarre disjointed earlier verses as evidence of dementia. The music has a relaxed, tottering quality to it, accompanied by a slightly deranged attempt to whistle it. Again the old man is obsessed with 'clean young flesh', though in this case the flesh may be female (as Numan's songs progress the homosexual element diminishes, without disappearing completely - until perhaps he found lasting love with his wife, Gemma O'Neill):
'Someone took pictures
Just look at her go
Her presence exhausted me
Like spectators we are'
Hints of a line from 'War Songs':
'I like old heroes
I like old film stars
Dirty pictures - snap, snap
I like intrusion
When she's dressed in white.'
And again a hint of identification with Numan himself:
'Simulate phone call
Face to face
Newspaper loose talk
You wreck my dreams'
Well, maybe this is me getting carried away but 'Newspaper loose talk' evokes the various songs in which Numan refers to his 'kiss and tell' lover Debbie Doran who 'told the papers everything' ('Devious'). 'Face to face' evokes the song of that name which Numan recorded with Dramatis (the backing musicians on Pleasure Principle and Telekon who formed their own group when Numan, with Dance, changed his style, though most of them, happily, joined him again later on). 'Face to face' includes the line 'Pictures of my face disappear with time'.
But 'Exhibition' reveals itself at the end:
'Exhibit 'A' dog
So few of them left
Exhibit 'B' god
The problem of death'
Then, sung by a small chorus, perhaps Numan's voice multitracked):
'Old sex, unclean
Do you still need the moon?
Recall no names
Don't ask me 'how are you?'
Then back to the solo voice:
'Where's my attendant
And where is my wife
Wait in the doorway
While I say goodnight'
So the old man, like the old man in 'Only a Downstat' and 'We have a technical' is living in some sort of institution. 'Do you still need the moon?' evokes the idea of romantic love as, powerfully, in 'This prison moon' on Warriors:
'Keep your love songs
We've all heard
Keep your pictures
We've all seen
Keep your kind words
And keep your tears
[Shades of 'Don't ask me "How are you?"' - PB]
'I'm only here
For a thousand years
Here on this prison moon.
'Have you been here?
Have you ever been here?
If only the sun would shine tonight
If only the sun would shine.'
But we haven't finished with 'Exhibition'. It ends with the most astonishing line, repeated over and over again (remember the exchange of faces in 'Tracks'?):
'He looks like me.'