The Man Who Sold The World

The Man Who Sold The World album was apparently written and recorded in about 3 weeks, surely David Bowie’s fastest recording feat. There were apparently two songs written, both of whom had the working title “The Man Who Sold The World”. In the end, the other song was given the title “Saviour Machine”.

Besides the catchy guitar riff, discovered for another generation by Nirvana’s cover version, TMWSTW itself has interesting and somewhat mysterious lyrics. Who was the Man Who Sold The World? Some mysterious stranger who passed upon the stair and never lost control? Maybe he was Ziggy Stardust, the soon to be Rock God and Bowie alter ego, who would “sell” the world before disappearing behind Bowie’s “retirement” after a short career that launched Mr Bowie to superstardom ?

The first time I heard The Man Who Sold The World, I assumed it was about an insurance scam. Someone who had apparently died “ a long, long time ago”, but who was still alive, living off the insurance money!

In reality, the time pressure to complete the songs on the Man Who Sold The World album, probably meant that many of the lyrics were left somewhat vague and half-finished (although the lyrics are a lot less impenetrable than much of Bowie’s work). They represent the beginning of a shift away from the ballad style of Bowie’s early work, extending even through to the Space Oddity album, although maintain a strong storyline feel. The music is almost heavy metal in texture, with guitar solos more reminiscent of Led Zeppelin than Mick Ronson. The song, The Man Who Sold The World has a strong pop feel, with the guitar hook and staircase guitar chords of the chorus.

However, my favourite version is the first one I heard, a cover by mainstream pop mistress Lulu, with Bowie’s elegant saxophone replacing the lead guitar of the original version. Brilliant!

Eight Line Poem

Many of David Bowie’s lyrics are opaque, but Eight Line Poem does not even merit a title that gives a clue to its meaning. Maybe there is no literal interpretation, but for me, this poem is about life in the city and the growing urbanisation of modern life.

Here’s the actual lyrics to Eight Line Poem:

The tactful cactus by your window
Surveys the prairie of your room
The mobile spins to it’s collision
Clara puts her head between her paws
They’ve opened shops, down on the Westside
Will all the cacti find a home?
But the key to the city is in the sun
That pins the branches to the sky

And here’s my personal, less poetic interpretation, which runs to just seven lines …

An empty room, with a plant on the windowsill
The sound of a car crash in the distance
My cat, oblivious, puts her head between her paws

The city is becoming more about commerce
There’s less room for the city dwellers to live their lives
But the heart of the city is still
The life within it.

I really love Eight Line Poem. I don’t know of any other popular artist other than David Bowie who could have pulled it off. Tucked in between the twin classics of “Oh! You Pretty Things” and “Life on Mars”, Bowie’s exaggerated country crooning of “Will all the cactii find a home?” against Mike Ronson’s restrained but soulful guitar really is a unique and succinct contribution to probably Bowie’s best album, Hunky Dory.

David Bowie: Aladdin Sane

David Bowie’s instructions to Mike Garson to “just go mad” on the piano in Aladdin Sane paid off handsomely. It is probably the most brilliant piece of discordant music in a pop song ever!

As the title track on the follow up to the hugely successful The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane is an odd song, dominated by Garson’s piano over dark, sombre minor chords. Most of the album was written while on tour in America (a place which Bowie initially hated) and Bowie originally was going to call the Album “Aladdin Vain”, but thought that the drugs reference would be overplayed.

Although most of the album is more mainstream rock than most Bowie, Aladdin Sane sticks out in its bleakness. The lyrics are typically opaque, although perhaps a clue is given in the sub title, 1914-1918, 1939-1945, ???? , evoking the image of an imminent third world war.

When I think of Aladdin Sane, I think of Bowie, touring the US in 1973, as a sad, fraught futuristic figure, knowing that he was heading for a crash in the very near future (“Paris or maybe hell, I’m waiting”) Stringing the “old bouquet” that was maybe his relationship with Angie, or maybe the ghost of Ziggy, with his “sad remains” in clear view.

Rebel Rebel and Winston Smith

I remember being in bed sick when I heard Rebel Rebel for the first time. It was 1984 and Bowie was back, with Rebel Rebel entering the UK top ten at number 5. The first notes of that incredible riff made the song instantly a hit. Within the context of the Diamond Dogs album, Rebel Rebel is somewhat of an oddity. The album is loosely based upon the George Orwell novel, 1984 (Bowie tried and failed to get the rights to make a musical of it) and is one of Bowie’s most downbeat and bleak records, depicting the world of Diamond Dogs roaming the streets “like packs of dogs, assaulting the glass fronts of love-me avenues”.

At first glance, Rebel Rebel seems like a throwaway rock jingle, with it’s catchy chorus and killer riff (which took me ages to perfect on the guitar, by the way). “Rebel, Rebel … you’ve torn your dress, Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess” …. Simple, throwaway pop.

But on another level, for those who are familiar with the plot of 1984, maybe there is more going on. In 1984, the hero, Winston Smith, battles against the depersonalisation of a society dominated by Big Brother (the original title was “The Last Man in Europe”) engaging in an illicit affair with Julia (powerfully depicted in the song “We Are the Dead”, also on Diamond Dogs) as he fights his losing battle with the Big Brother society. In this light, I imagine “Rebel Rebel” as a playful but desparate conversation between Winston and his fellow-rebel girlfriend. His affair still secret, he croons to her “Rebel Rebel, how could they know? Hot tramp, I love you so”.

Brilliant, on many levels.

In the beginning there was Starman

For a lot of David Bowie fans, it all began with Starman. Bowie with his arm around Mike Ronson, crooning about a "Starman, waiting in the Sky" on Top of the Pops. Like a soothing sci-fi fairy tale for angst ridden seventies teenagers, Bowie sang about the hope that there was someone bigger than all of us, a benevolent alien who "would like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds".

Starman was the hit single from the "Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" album, a pop masterpeice that catapulted Bowie to fame after several years struggling as a niche artist. He had tried many styles before hitting on the Sci-Fi formula, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, pop star who would supernova in "Rock n Roll Suicide", at the end of the Ziggy album.

But is Starman just a simple pop ballad or is there more to it than that? In the context of the Ziggy album, which I believe only became a "concept" album in retrospect ( it was a collection of songs later rationalised to be a rock opera), Starman certainly has the immediate pop appeal, a catchy chorus with great "la las" from Mr Bowie in excellent voice. The lyrics are simple, but capture an intimate conversation between two teenagers, although it's not clear are they close friends or just that they have a lot in common: " I had to phone someone, so I picked on you" .

Starman is a song of hope: the hope that there is more to life than what we see on earth. In later years, Bowie reflected on death and religion in "Heathen", on Hunky Dory, he reflected his short infatuation with Buddism, and in the depths the worst period in his life he wrote the prayer that is "Word on a Wing". So, maybe Starman is a religious song of sorts, with Starman being the benevolent God. If so, it is his most optimistic one ....

What do you think?

The Songs of David Bowie

I have been a David Bowie fan since I was twelve years of age. His songs have always meant a lot to me, even when I didn't really understand them. From the first time I heard "The Jean Genie", "Changes" or listened to "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", I have been hooked.

Since then, both David Bowie and I have gone through "ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" (Mr Bowie apparently hates when journalists describe his career in the that way) but I remain absolutely fascinated by him. I still listen more to his songs than to any other artist, but I also am fascinated by the man. He has done so much, experimented in so many different areas, both within and outside of music, and has never seemed afraid to fall on his face, or suffer the ridicule of critics or the ignomy of dissappointing record sales. Most of his fans remain loyal to him, and he has picked up many more over the years and his back catalogue remains one of the most sought after in the music world. (He showed his innovation in that regard too, by leveraging future sales of his CDs to raise money, before anyone else has thought to do something similar.

David Bowie has written and recorded hundreds of songs. Over the next year (or so), I intend to post my thoughts on most (if not all) of the Songs of David Bowie. Some of my comments will be on what those songs mean personally to me, some will analyse the (possible) meaning of his songs and some will draw on trivia and facts that I have collected over the years.

Hopefully, for anyone who is interested in David Bowie, these musings will prove interesting and hopefully thought provoking. I also intent to set up an associated website which will have both the lyrics and guitar chords for all the songs of David Bowie and which will include some further reflections, thoughts and trivia.

I welcome comments, from David Bowie fans or others and look forward to sharing the experience and possibly making new friends along the way.

May the adventure begin ....