Replicas
Gary Numan; Tubeway Army Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It was hard to avoid
I suppose it was the shame
But they didn't even try

You see we'd never met
And they didn't have names
There was nothing I could do

So I turned on the crowd
And I screamed, "You and you"
"It could have been you"

And they seemed to think
That I looked that way or maybe I was wrong

So I said "Do you know Mr wall?"
And they looked the other way
And then they smiled at me

But the police came and I said it was me
And I just walked away

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Gary Numan / Tubeway Army's song Replicas paint a picture of a dystopian society where individuals have become so dehumanized that they are nameless and can be discarded easily. The opening lines of "It was hard to avoid, I suppose it was the shame, but they didn't even try" give a sense of sadness and helplessness. The singer seems to be witnessing something terrible, something shameful, but nobody is even trying to stop it.

As the song continues, we see the singer turning on the crowd and screaming, "It could have been you." This suggests that whatever is happening could happen to anyone. The lines "And they seemed to think that I looked that way or maybe I was wrong" indicate that the crowd is unsure of what is happening or who is responsible. The singer then asks if they know Mr. Wall, a symbolic reference to the wall separating people, and the crowd looks away, avoiding eye contact. The police arrive, and the singer takes responsibility and walks away.

The song's lyrics suggest themes of alienation, dehumanization, and loss. The verses convey an apocalyptic mood, foreshadowing a post-human era through the rise of anarchist machines seeping through the social fabric. The use of the wall as a metaphor and the absence of personal names shows the disconnection and anonymity of the singer's society. The crowd's indifference to the situation reflects the importance of self-preservation over justice, truth, or anything else. Overall, the song reflects the singer's feeling of displacement and confusion amid a corrupted society.

Line by Line Meaning

It was hard to avoid
Being in this situation was difficult to avoid

I suppose it was the shame
It's likely the shame led me to avoid them

But they didn't even try
They made no effort to know me or learn my name

You see we'd never met
We'd never met before

And they didn't have names
I didn't know their names

There was nothing I could do
I had no influence over the situation

So I turned on the crowd
I directed my attention towards the people surrounding us

And I screamed, "You and you"
I angrily singled out random individuals

"It could have been you"
I made them realize that they, too, could be in my position

And they seemed to think
They seemed to believe

That I looked that way or maybe I was wrong
They thought I was misguided or perhaps mistaken