2016 Demo excerpt (featuring daughters Persia & Echo on vocals)
2016 Pledge Demo
Album Version
The earliest clip shows Numan’s two younger daughters singing along to part of the finished demo. It’s a heartwarming clip, partway through you can hear one of the two asking “did you make this up?” to Gary, eliciting a small nod from their father.
The longest track from the ‘Savage’ sessions, ‘If I Said’s final arrangement favours a cinematic bent with drums and vocals pushed up front and centre. Seeing release as a bonus track on the deluxe CD and vinyl pressings, the mix is sparse in places due to a last minute decision.
“Originally, we had a call to prayer sample on one of the bonus tracks, “If I Said”, but we decided to take it out in the end even though it fitted beautifully with Gary’s chord progression. A bit of a commotion started to surface with Gary having to explain why he was using the Middle Eastern typeface and post-apocalyptic imagery, so although the album was mastered on May 24, we decided to take it out on the evening of May 23.”
- Ade Fenton (Native Instruments, 2017)
Upon ‘Savage’s release The Quietus notoriously took Numan to task for the album artwork, and in all fairness perhaps the word ‘Savage’ written in an Arabic inspired font wasn’t the most considered of decisions. Regardless it was too late to alter the imagery, the main shoots having completed months beforehand. Instead, one would-be offender took the bullet.
This has previous precedence, The Legend Of Zelda’s acclaimed 1998 release ‘Ocarina of Time’ initially featured the star and moon symbol of Islam as the insignia of the desert dwelling Gerudo tribe, birthplace of main antagonist Ganondorf. The Fire Temple dungeon’s music also featured an excerpt of Islamic prayer from a royalty-free compilation.
Once the connotations were apparent later pressings had both of these altered to remove the symbolism and avoid controversy.
A string bit that appears an cuts out for a split second after the line “so it all comes back to haunt me” is the most likely spot where the sample once was.
Any political arguments aside the track is strong enough to withstand this loss and it is my preferred of the two ballads on the full album.
In an era where bonus tracks often remain throwaway remixes or just-for-fun cover songs, “If I Said” is a near essential piece of the ‘Savage’ narrative as both a reprieve from the all-out assaults of the second half and one of the more ambitious numbers. It’s demotion to bonus track below weaker album fare like ‘What God Intended’ was a misstep.
Top: ’Vehicles in Prypjat’ by Wendell Jacober, 2016. Picture is public domain.
Middle: The Mirror Shield as it appeared in ‘Ocarina Of Time versions 1.0 and 1.1’, 1998.
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