Let's have a think about David Bowie's "Life on Mars?"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by onlyconnect, Mar 17, 2016.

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  1. eskaton

    eskaton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania, USA
    To add to this, Bowie was a staunch proponent for Duchamp's idea that an artist's piece of work isn't truly "complete" until the audience can interpret it, and that the give and take between artist and audience, and the gray space it creates, is what the piece is all about. It's not that Bowie didn't have a specific intent behind his writing, but rather he thought it was more important for listeners to find their own meaning in it.
     
  2. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    Very good, and here's a source:

    David Bowie, The Internet Visionary »

    “The idea that the piece of work is not finished until the audience come to it and add their own interpretation, and what the piece of art is about is the gray space in the middle.”

    [also worth watching the video, an interview with Jeremy Paxman, for how Bowie understood the disruptive power of the Internet when Paxman clearly did not!]

    Tim
     
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  3. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    My take is that there's nothing mysterious about the lyrics and in David's explanation he seems to want to feed into some sort of myth that it has greater gravitas.

    Why not just say this is what it was about, perhaps he'd forgotten(?) or he's embarrassed. It a song not some Kabbalistic secret, that what I meant by disappointed, irony was my starting point.
     
  4. eskaton

    eskaton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania, USA
    That's exactly the article/quotation I was paraphrasing but couldn't find. Thanks!

    That Paxman interview is fantastic. Bowie was an eerily accurate prognosticator in so many respects.
     
  5. Exit Flagger

    Exit Flagger Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I think Bowie enjoyed being cagey about his lyrics. Remember the recent anecdote about him telling one of the musicians who worked on the song Blackstar that it was about Isis. Many people interpreted that to mean the terrorist group but he probably meant the goddess. Or maybe he meant both. Either way he probably would have enjoyed the confusion this created.
     
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  6. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    I doubt he's referring to Lenin here. I think he's simply referring to the recently released Plastic Ono Band album, and in particular the song, "Working Class Hero". The lyric sheet in Hunky Dory also lists the spelling as "Lennon".
     
  7. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    Or perhaps his pronunciation is intentional given the Marxist Working Class Hero connection. This obviously gives space to make it YOUR song. Then again if the lyric sheet spells it out......
     
  8. Rubber65

    Rubber65 Forum Resident

    Interesting. His use of words are outstanding which could lead a person to interpret his lyrics every which way. the Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow line can bee seen as an insult by those living behind the iron curtain towards those living the American Dream. Mickey Mouse, a symbol of the bright and happy image of America, and that America has gotten bloated with it's own success and money starving capitalists who fuel the idea (figuratively and literally) of the american dream.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2016
  9. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    Never trust a lyric sheet!

    Tim
     
  10. olsen

    olsen Senior Member

    Location:
    los angeles
    "Life on Mars" shares intriguing melodic similarities to Charlie Rich's "Pretty People" but for the life of me I can't find copyright info on Charlie's to see which tune came first..
     
  11. vonwegen

    vonwegen Forum Resident

    Ms. Farthingale's hair was brilliant crimson.

    I read on the blog Pushing Ahead Of The Dame, probably in the comments, that the girl in the song was a fan whom DB met while on tour somewhere in the hinterlands of England.
     
  12. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    The BBC broadcast a 1 hour documentary on the song:

    BBC Radio 2 - Exploring 'Life on Mars?' »

    It's a good listen for a Bowie fan with some great snippets of various performances, including an early demo "it's a simple but small affair".

    I have to say though, it didn't really go in-depth on the lyrics which disappointed me a bit.

    Best bit though: Ronno swearing when the phone rings at the end of the recording, spoiling a take!

    You can faintly hear the first part of this on the released version but not the swearing.

    Tim
     
  13. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    For what it's worth: This is my absolute, most-favourite song by Mr. Jones.
    That's what I think.
     
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  14. mretrain

    mretrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I always read the opening lines as the girl having an argument with her parents over something that she regarded as trivial in a typical teenage fashion - so "affair" as in "matter" rather than romantic entanglement.

    Incidentally, I was in Beckenham on Sunday, and noticed that to get back to his house after hopping off the bus & leaving the bandstand in the park, Bowie would have had to pass the local cinema which may well have given him another lyrical push...
     
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  15. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    @ onlyconnect

    Generally, I don't need or want to have lyrics explained to me, so I won't read what you wrote. :). Because I have my own sense of them. And I think the best things are the ones that resist interpretation, even by the author (see below).

    Writers often write things they don't fully understand. They are only the co-author. It's a well understood aspect of writing. Heidegger.

    This wild assumption probably says more about yourself than Bowie. :)
     
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  16. paolo

    paolo Senior Member

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  17. Rufus McDufus

    Rufus McDufus Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Actually "Lenin's on sale again" is a delicious paradox, or perhaps a cynical take on Lenin's written (?) work being sold in a capitalist society.

    Though I have to admit I always thought it was "Lennon" as that's how I'd read it on the album sleeve lyrics. That could even be Bowie's little joke, who knows.
     
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  18. mretrain

    mretrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Not quite...

    DB - A London Boy »
     
  19. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I always thought that the following lyrics and the sailor fight scene in the Coen Brothers' film Barton Fink had a common origin. Perhaps it was just Bowie's song that was in the back of the Coens' head when they wrote the scene. Bowie's lyrics suggest a movie scene, but I don't know what that would be.

    Sailors, Fighting in the dance hall
    Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
    . . .
     
  20. Pastle

    Pastle Forum Resident

    Yes that's what I remember reading at the time (maybe in a Rolling Stone review), plus the Beatles were working class lads from Liverpool.
     
  21. footprintsinthesand

    footprintsinthesand Reasons to be cheerful part 1

    Location:
    Dutch mountains
  22. slinkyfarm

    slinkyfarm Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winchester, KY
    My think on it is that it was just another song in the catalog to me until the BBC TV series was named after it, and I've played it more than any other song of his since then. I didn't have a similar upswing in plays with "Ashes to Ashes".
     
  23. Holy Joe

    Holy Joe Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I feel that a lot of David's lyrics are open to individual interpretation. So the songs will mean something different to each person listening. I don't get the impression that he tries to convey a message to his audience to grasp. In fact, I don't think "Life On Mars" means anything at all. Make of it what you will.
     
  24. duggan

    duggan Senior Member

    Location:
    sydney
    Interesting thoughts, I enjoyed reading the post but wonder whether it took longer to write than Bowie took to compose Life On Mars.
     
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