But I’ve always got a battery pack
In case I get another heart attack
This kind of song is the reason the Internet exists. It appears to be a one-shot single, released in 1981 by Magnet Records (now part of Warners), with a not particularly memorable B-side: “Working Model”, which, well, here you go:
The band is The Quarks: the duo of Rod Bowkett and Martin Ansell . In 1982, the Quarks rebranded as President President and released a second single (All Good Men / b-side Skin of the Salamander), but neither of those quite do it for me. Bowkett and Ansell continued with separate careers and remain active today.
Update June 2016: Martin Ansell is still active! As of May this year, he’s released a compilation album of the Quarks and President President material, as well as more recent work. It’s on Bandcamp, here: martinansell.bandcamp.com/album/the-quarks
I don’t recall hearing the song itself at all before I found it on Youtube; though the cover art and the name stirs faint resonances. I’m guessing I maybe saw it in a record store, or a magazine?
At over 6 minutes it feels a little long for radio and not quite high-energy enough for dance. But as a time capsule of that brief era when it was okay to make pop songs about industrial malaise and the fear of automation… or, well, any idea at all… it’s brilliant.
If anyone can help translate all of the words, I’d appreciate it.
He said I’ve got my father’s aching hands
I’ve got ulcers too
You’ve got your mothers looks but she’s forty-five
And I’m twenty-two
We go to work and we take the strain
Slip off the head and remove the brain
The technological 80s, oh it’s growing
Mechanical
Mechanical
I could’ve sworn I saw a key in your back today
He said it might be true
We took a look in the workshop window
And I’ve got one too
We clocked out and I drove you home
We talked of metal and the price of chrome
The technological 80s, oh it’s growing
Mechanical
Mechanical…
Somebody blew a fuse in our office
They told his wife
If he’d only had a circuit diagram
They could have saved his life
She cried and cried until she finally died
She wasn’t waterproof, it got inside
The technological 80s, oh it’s growing
Mechanical
We’re mechanical now, we’re mechanical now, we’re mechanical now
I have to spend a lot of time these days
Beside the sea
I have to keep well away from city life
My allergy
But I’ve always got a battery pack
In case I get another heart attack
The technological 80s, oh it’s growing
Mechanical
Mechanical…