Bowie was writing of his psychic impressions as Ziggy in his time touring America. He was not "making his way to school" in Detroit. It's free poetry that has no direct relation to any one city. It just came out that way for art's sake. Not to take anything away from Detroit or anyone's analysis of what it means to them. But these words are to be taken as tapestry and not historical accuracy of any particular time.
This song kicks ass! Better as time goes by. What a sincere artist! Panic in our city as we realize that this quality of rock no longer is being generated! A shambles to have to resort to an early memory from a time when we were supposed to be learning to progress! Bruce Lee, never bettered, nor this man, who captured the imaginaton of millions. We have no further to look than within ourselves at where the spirit went. It remains in a few who can look back and appreciate that this man IS spirit!
It's not about Detroit specifically. I'ts about paranoia and getting anxious to get out, but feeling agoraphobia simultaneously. It's about loneliness and needing to connect with someone but at the same time it's getting off on trading dangers of the city with fueling adventurous narcissistic fantasies that implode inward to adrenalin results (listen to the background vocals jumping up the hyperventilation) that just might get you worked up to go out of doors to publicly trip down that sidewalk.
I grew up in Detroit and i work there now immigrants from mexico are trying to rebuild town one house at a time muslims are no better than prevous animals that ruined town
Bowie, lofted to a position of friend to man. Listen to his voice. He is just singing, not wanting to impress his personal strife. David is Bowie: a performer delivering lyrics and music, not foisting ego or pretension, delivering his goods with no pretense. He is so minimalized here! This is not a man interested in anything else but what is thrown into the hat, as long as he can help change the world into a cooler place to be. That's all it was at this point: altruistic performance for pennies!
I try to allow myself the impressionistic overall feeling first. But, inevitably, when you do look up a song, lyrics, background, etc., you gain something fresh and new. The mind blower is that the artist may have intended something completely different than what you take away from a work. And that's great! Art should never be locked in to one thing. If it is, then it's dead. Like a movie you revisit and gain something new upon each review: it's because you have moved on, are bigger than before.
this was electronic ear play. it is more than you know. it involved 3-deminsional theater spacial concepts. they became this 2 demintional ... may be more?
This is Bowie making something of nothing! Absolutely nothing! Writing for impetus. He got himself up to get everyone up! This song takes a simple sunny day in a city and launches off on an excursion into the unknown, for its own sake. Became one of the greatest rock songs of any time. It catches hysteria for its own need, a self-induced adrenalin rush making moments and meanings out of imagination of how things might be if only we could get up and run to a window, make an adventure on the spot!
@MrMajorTime Well, the original vinyl cover had specific cities placed by the song titles. In 1972-3 I am sure he was influenced by the amount of damage there still existed from the Detroit riots in 1967. So, something out of nothing, no, but I agree that it is a great song. It is interesting that he bacame great friends with Iggy Pop who also was no stranger to the Panic in Detroit that set Detroit on a very tragic path in 1967.
@wpollock1 Don't panic! I have the original vinyl cover around here somewhere. I wasn't saying that he had absolutely no inspiration from the times he lived in. But where he went with it was all Bowie's own concoction and had little to do with anything based in politics; a song invoking paranoia for its own fun sake. You know, that feeling when you incite your own adrenaline to provoke something happening, if only in your own exagerated imagination, which is potentially a very powerful medicine.
@MrMajorTime Yes, you are right on that...Bowie certainly conjured up creative juices both in his different personas, and in songs. Certainly Drive In Saturday is a very good example on this album. Panic In Detroit seemed to be more rooted in the reality of the destruction of Detroit, combined with his own artistic spin - poetic license. Love the drums and bass in it.
@wpollock1 I trust my visual imagery, latch on to a few lyrics, conjur a feeling, sometimes wait years to research the intended lyrics, if ever! My visual impression here is of frantically running to a window, looking for a plane or two, wishing someone would phone. He's stoned, anxious and lonely, trying to work himself up to make a move. Another great artist, Seal, was ambivalent about putting lyrics to the album sleeve, not wanting to interfere with another's impression of alternate meanings.
Ouch! I can expand to a point that squelches all the disruption. But I won't, 'cause I enjoy anyone gleaning anything from this time that no longer exists, except in vision of a few who dredge up energy within themselves to feel the "panic" that becomes real when you need it. Having scored a trillion dollars is equivalent to listening to this track, knowing it hits home across the world as a representative of a glorious time before computers or people that can't get by a day without cell phones.
ok look here zygstarust you don't even have a clue about anything never mind bowie!! he was a self appointed relater of ideas that he had in his mind, and related to us the chosen few which is us dammit!!!! smarten and realize bowie was trying to express himself through his awesome music
In 1967 there was panic in Detroit. The National Guard shooting rioters out of windows (43 dead), US Army tanks rolling down the streets, 100's of buildings on fire. It was fierce.
The feel is about paranoia and excitement at once. Under the influence of something, our perspectives change, time bends, and we may be seeing and feeling exagerated aspects of reality that may or may not affect our personal idea of security. Sometimes we embrace impending danger as panic, not knowing what to do. But the adrenalin of excitement of the stress can lead us down some fantastic journeys of our own making, like a child playing and caught up in new worlds, temporarily very real indeed.
the day this album came out my mate went to the town during dinner time and came back with his hair a perfect copy of the album cover , this was early 70s in north east England , i will remember the looks on the faces of teachers etc till i die . i really thought his dad was going to kick him within an inch of his life ! great memories .
@CoastGuardIDC no, it's not just YOUR opioion. i'm here aren't i? yes. but i'm just pissed because he didn't come to my town and i really wanted to see him. don't you think that transition on the diamond dogs album i think it's in between the song "hot tramp" and the song before it, is the greatest transition you ever heard?? me too!!
@CoastGuardIDC i bet you were in the coast guard. no i'm not physic or anything, i just have a strong intuition... :) just kidding. my best friend was in. me, it was the army. and the airforce. we all loved panic in detroit. and, "i had too much to dream last night" by electric prunes. go figure.
@m1kewithaone yeah, I'm a CPO in the CG...did 4 years in the Navy back in the 80s..brothers were in the Army...dad retired rom the Army...I like "I had too much to dream last night"....good tune..
When we wake up to the truth of life, inspired music like this will emerge and flourish again, and all the uninspired crap that people call "music" these days will fade away and be forgotten. Search "Truth Contest" in Google and click the 1st result, then open The Present and read what it says to learn the truth of life.
Shoulda been..."Panic on 3rd Rock" instead...This tune is too deep for any one city... He shoulda known that, being a time-traveler with alien technology and all...
Back when this came out Detroit had nearly 2 million people living in the city. Now there is less than 800,000, Now there really is Panic in Detroit. No more motor city, just empty buildings.
Great song. This was right around the time Hawkwind, Roxy Music and T Rex were making waves. Bowie was great but was nowhere in the class of Hawkwind or Roxy, IMHO. Listen to Lost Johnny!
Great song. This was right around the time Hawkwind, Roxy Music and T Rex were making waves. Bowie was great but was nowhere in the class of Hawkwind or Roxy, IMHO.
my thoughts exactly, Aladdin Sane is my absolute Favourite. I can't say one itty bitty bad thing about any of the songs on the album and Let's Dance is quite possibly my next favourite...
i was there! i was at my cousins in detroit and remember seeing the fires burning,im from toronto...all i know is after that they moved to warren mich.
If this song is about Iggys experiences in Detroit, then it was from the 1967 riots in Detroit. If you think the city looks bad today, it was on fire in 1967. "Detroit, where the weak are killed and eaten". The city never really recovered and now the ex mayor and various other Detroit politicians are in jail.
This guy was big when I was in college in the early 70's. If you get past his gay-ness, his music was great. One thing I could never understand was how just the mention of his name would bring tears to some female student's eyes.
This will really date me, but Panic in Detriot, the Frazer Smith show intro on KROQ in LA on Friday in the late 1970's, was my decompression. Well, that and a couple of bowls.
This will really date me, but Panic in Detriot, the Frazer Smith show intro on KROQ in LA on Friday night in the late 1970s, was my decompression. Well, that and a couple of bowls...
Wow... Bowies earring at 1:03 is awesome! XD I love this song, and personally, the whole dang Aladdin Sane album itself. The cover is one of the best. I love that lightning bolt makeup! However, my iTunes purchase of this album had Bowie's voice at a surprisingly low volume.. which somewhat ticked me off a bit at first... but then I love DB so I can't quibble too much!
Surprising, but Rozz Williams' version with Christian Death was actually better than David Bowie's original. Still, a great song and David Bowie is fucking awesome
When I was 18 I craved the orange album my older friend kept spinning..soon I was like oh man that orange album is great..then a few months later ..Hollywood Palladium Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. First and best show I ever saw. 1973.
hey lyinehall, i'm 49 and will be 50 next year in april. wow where has time run to i remember some of the best music of all time was made a the short time when we were kids running around the heighborhood raising havoc. bowie is 1 of my all time favs PEACE
I was 13 when I first heard David Bowie..I'm going to be 50 this year and I still love this song...I don't feel 50 tho..lol Have this on my ipod when I do water at the golf course..great song of all time!! You go David...you are the best!! Love ya :)
@lyniehall goin on 50 next august...water at the golf?? whats that?? retreiving balls??...make sure you revolutionise that country club golf scene!!...if they cant appreciate you then fug 'em
A great song! I first saw Bowie in Detroit at the Masonic in 1973 - the Ziggy Era. Unbelievable. Detroit was a great music town, but we had never seen anything like this guy with flaming orange hair coming onstage to Beethoven's 5th and strobe lights wearing the most bizarre outfit I had ever seen - the op art orange & black striped huge-legged thing. Rock & Roll had been pretty drab until then (except for Iggy & Alice Cooper) - I wish you could have been there to experience the excitement.
@zygstardust I loved growing up in Detroit in the 70's. W4,WABX,WRIF Rock and roll radio was great back then when you see where it has ended up today.Bowie took rock in a new direction.
@zygstardust That makes you about 5 years older than me. I managed to see David Bowie for the first time in 1978 when Iggy came to Aylesbury on his Lust for life, Idiot tour. Memorably, Bowie sat at the piano all night but the show was amazing. Wish I'd seen the Aladdin tour in the US though.
@zygstardust well i wish that too, because every body else came to denver except him!! and i really really wanted to see bowie!! i don't know why he didn't come. denver was a heavy meddle town, pink floyd didn't come either, but everybody else did, i saw them all from 10 years after to jethro tull and zepelin to deep purple, but not bowie.... and i think the diamond dogs album is the best, that was 1973 wasn't it? hell the denver post wrote, " led zeppelin brought the house down" damn.
73 I was sixteen and felt part of something different glam was all the rage the world was at my feet Bowie was god. WHAT HAPPENED ????????????? Oh I know......... life took over. the Album still reminds me of innocent days and experimentation of all things sexual and otherwise open to a teenager in the seventies. fond fond memories.
@bobomajoe - but many kids are into Bowie. On top of that there are plenty of 20-somethings who were first introduced when they saw Labyrinth as children.
The 40-something accusation would hold water with other artists but not one who continuously produced new albums all the way to the 00's. That's 5 decades of new music. At least 3 decades with parents playing his music around the house.
Only when new "artists" stop biting off of David will he even begin to lack relevance.
Hey BreeOhshitt...Michael Jackson's crotch grabbing had little to do with why he was thought of as gay. The fact that he climbed into bed with little boys and did god only knows what, is the main reason! David Bowie may have been different from most, by the way.....he is bi.....but he didn't get his rocks off with little boys.
I first heard this song during Bowie's Station to Station Tour at the Montreal Forum, February 25, 1976. The night was magic. You just knew your world was about to change forever when the concert opened with the Bunuel /Dali's 1929 black and white film" Un Chien Andalou". Pure Bowie. That concert experience has never left me.
I first heard David perform this at the Ziggie Stardust Tour show at the Tower in Philly. Aladdin Sane was still unreleased at the time. I turned to my date, and she turned to me, and we both said "Ohhhhhhhhhhh." From the first Mick Ronson chords, I loved it.
I've recently that the Muslim's have taken over a big part of Detroit in Deerborn. They seem very predudice and hateful. See them on You Tube, what a shame to Detroit.
There's never been a better rock'n'roll song than this. Absolutely magisterial. Primitive rhythms, brilliant guitars, allusive lyrics with just the right kind of alienated, adolescent distance. And a one off. Bowie was always evolving, never milking a formula. He had a real knack for identifying sidemen with something to offer. I think his low in this period was 'Diamond Dogs', before he spotted Carlos Alomar on the Philly leg of the tour.
Incidentally why should people instruct little white women to go to a gas station in order to avoid trouble if the eventuality of trouble was not a possibility?
thegirl44. This was back in 93 in June 12 13th. The day after the USA beat England at football. I'm just telling what I saw and experienced back then, it has sod all to do with racism. Have you viewed the "Tour of Detroits Ghettos" clips on you tube.
The best song David Bowie ever made.He had a couple of good ones in the 80's but nothing compares to this. He just looked so bizarre then,but now in the most recent pic in this video,he looks great. Thanks to Iman, his beautiful wife. And poor Detroit! GM, you should be ashamed of yourself for destroying Flint and Detroit. You devasted these cities by closing plants there. Hats off to Michael Moore with his film Roger & Me! His films will make you sick, talking about the truth! Just watch them!
@keaster55 Should GM have stayed in Flint and Detroit and watched their company fail...causing large problems for the entire national economy and not just those localized ones?
The company was failing anyway. They took a government bailout, since they didn't look into the future & make better cars. I have always owned Chevy's, but I hate GM now, because our mortgage is with them. They gave us a break on our payments last year & now they want us to payback $10,000.00 NOW or they are going to foreclose. They got a bailout, but refuse to help bail us out! Detroit was Motor City, where all the car companies were founded. The rest of the country are making Hondas & Toyotas.
True, true. Definitely a company that has fucked up...over and over again.
I have empathy with you, a similar situation happened to my parents when I was growing up. I just got a degree in Civil Engineering and currently work retail thanks to the subprime crisis.
I guess my point was globalization is inevitable, those jobs had to go over seas at some point. Not just GM, but the rest of the country/govt. has failed Detroit over the last few decades.
@keaster55 ..Partly true...But I grew up around those car plants and the attitude of most of the workers ..mostly negative and unappreciative. Look in the mirror mr. auto worker..you were so greedy and selfish and the Japanese knew that about us.
@billyjo1881 So now the Japanese are greedy & selfish! Selling cars that they knew had mechanical problems. Had a good lobbyist that kept things hush hush, until people started to die. They were fined millions of dollars for hiding the truth! But I'll never buy another GM car! Their mortgage company is a disaster! & our mortgage is with GMAC!
grass growing up through the parking lot?..in December? No one walking around? You weren't in Detroit. Sounds like a bunch of racial nonsense. 3 weeks ago in Detroit,the international auto show was in full swing and the city was hopping.
Next day got a taxi to Dearborn Fairlane mall, on returning back to the bus station a seriously angry black dude was accosting the ladies behind the counter and the old bill were called. What a place.! I've been on the streets of Belfast and Londonderry back in the troubles, this place freaked me out more I can tell you.
"Menacing voice heading our way?" The Detroit that I know has people instructing little white woman me to go to the gas station to get directions because they don't want any trouble.
I'd worry about the racial problems in your own Fair Isle before I go online making up stories about the Motor City, mate.
I crossed over into Detroit with my wife from Windsor back in 93 on a Greyhound bus, I was on holiday from England. Started to have a walk round, what an eye opener. Grass growing up thru parking lots, hardly anyone walking around just black guys cruising slowly round the hood, the occasional menancing voice heading our way I didn't hang around long went straight back to the bus station got a taxi and went straight back over the border.
Bowie was writing of his psychic impressions as Ziggy in his time touring America. He was not "making his way to school" in Detroit. It's free poetry that has no direct relation to any one city. It just came out that way for art's sake. Not to take anything away from Detroit or anyone's analysis of what it means to them. But these words are to be taken as tapestry and not historical accuracy of any particular time.
MrMajorTime 3 weeks ago in playlist Bowie
This song kicks ass! Better as time goes by. What a sincere artist! Panic in our city as we realize that this quality of rock no longer is being generated! A shambles to have to resort to an early memory from a time when we were supposed to be learning to progress! Bruce Lee, never bettered, nor this man, who captured the imaginaton of millions. We have no further to look than within ourselves at where the spirit went. It remains in a few who can look back and appreciate that this man IS spirit!
MrMajorTime 3 weeks ago in playlist Bowie
Bowie then, Bowiie now, Bowie forever........how awesome he is!!!!!!!!!!
raytodd8155 3 weeks ago
The multi-talented man of his time. "Artists" these days have gobs of consultants to pull this off!
reposage 1 month ago
Who's David Bowie? Is he some kind of actor / revolutionary / model / singer?
mattjostr 1 month ago
Bowie was like Garbo in this period. "I want to be alone" But don't you dare leave me!
MrMajorTime 2 months ago in playlist Bowie
It's not about Detroit specifically. I'ts about paranoia and getting anxious to get out, but feeling agoraphobia simultaneously. It's about loneliness and needing to connect with someone but at the same time it's getting off on trading dangers of the city with fueling adventurous narcissistic fantasies that implode inward to adrenalin results (listen to the background vocals jumping up the hyperventilation) that just might get you worked up to go out of doors to publicly trip down that sidewalk.
MrMajorTime 2 months ago in playlist Bowie
@MrMajorTime wow. just wow. you should write poetry.
soakupthesunman 1 month ago
@soakupthesunman Thanks. Nice of you to respond so warmly to my wordage.
MrMajorTime 1 month ago
Ronno and the spiders sound fantastic on this
feritsbum 2 months ago
'He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van' has to be one of the greatest opening lines ever.
TenWhoWereTaken 3 months ago
I grew up in Detroit and i work there now immigrants from mexico are trying to rebuild town one house at a time muslims are no better than prevous animals that ruined town
rbrb1558 3 months ago
@rbrb1558 Can you say it in English?
Hollandia777 2 months ago
@Hollandia777 Mexican immigrants are ruining detroit so are the arabics.
rbrb1558 2 months ago
@rbrb1558 Everything clearly.
Hollandia777 2 months ago
@Hollandia777 Yeah, they need to fuck off.
rbrb1558 2 months ago
@rbrb1558 Well, I believe u can guess what i think 'bout this issue! :DDD
Hollandia777 2 months ago
Bowie, lofted to a position of friend to man. Listen to his voice. He is just singing, not wanting to impress his personal strife. David is Bowie: a performer delivering lyrics and music, not foisting ego or pretension, delivering his goods with no pretense. He is so minimalized here! This is not a man interested in anything else but what is thrown into the hat, as long as he can help change the world into a cooler place to be. That's all it was at this point: altruistic performance for pennies!
MrMajorTime 3 months ago in playlist Bowie
I try to allow myself the impressionistic overall feeling first. But, inevitably, when you do look up a song, lyrics, background, etc., you gain something fresh and new. The mind blower is that the artist may have intended something completely different than what you take away from a work. And that's great! Art should never be locked in to one thing. If it is, then it's dead. Like a movie you revisit and gain something new upon each review: it's because you have moved on, are bigger than before.
MrMajorTime 4 months ago
its two thirty in the morning and im coked as a motherfucker right now, gettin my shit on to some of bowie's :)
Adarvuli 4 months ago
holy shit i feel like im coked just from listening to this song 0.0 not that im not enjoying it ;)
Adarvuli 4 months ago
Panic In Detroit, 1967
jdhj25 5 months ago
Bowie music and his own is absolute different, weird and GREAT!!!! Fantastic! Panic in detroit!!! Super Ronson's guitar!~ Ronno was genius
markxlinaa5 5 months ago
this was electronic ear play. it is more than you know. it involved 3-deminsional theater spacial concepts. they became this 2 demintional ... may be more?
cshargeit 5 months ago
This is Bowie making something of nothing! Absolutely nothing! Writing for impetus. He got himself up to get everyone up! This song takes a simple sunny day in a city and launches off on an excursion into the unknown, for its own sake. Became one of the greatest rock songs of any time. It catches hysteria for its own need, a self-induced adrenalin rush making moments and meanings out of imagination of how things might be if only we could get up and run to a window, make an adventure on the spot!
MrMajorTime 5 months ago in playlist Bowie
@MrMajorTime Well, the original vinyl cover had specific cities placed by the song titles. In 1972-3 I am sure he was influenced by the amount of damage there still existed from the Detroit riots in 1967. So, something out of nothing, no, but I agree that it is a great song. It is interesting that he bacame great friends with Iggy Pop who also was no stranger to the Panic in Detroit that set Detroit on a very tragic path in 1967.
wpollock1 4 months ago
@wpollock1 Don't panic! I have the original vinyl cover around here somewhere. I wasn't saying that he had absolutely no inspiration from the times he lived in. But where he went with it was all Bowie's own concoction and had little to do with anything based in politics; a song invoking paranoia for its own fun sake. You know, that feeling when you incite your own adrenaline to provoke something happening, if only in your own exagerated imagination, which is potentially a very powerful medicine.
MrMajorTime 4 months ago
@MrMajorTime Yes, you are right on that...Bowie certainly conjured up creative juices both in his different personas, and in songs. Certainly Drive In Saturday is a very good example on this album. Panic In Detroit seemed to be more rooted in the reality of the destruction of Detroit, combined with his own artistic spin - poetic license. Love the drums and bass in it.
wpollock1 4 months ago
@wpollock1 I trust my visual imagery, latch on to a few lyrics, conjur a feeling, sometimes wait years to research the intended lyrics, if ever! My visual impression here is of frantically running to a window, looking for a plane or two, wishing someone would phone. He's stoned, anxious and lonely, trying to work himself up to make a move. Another great artist, Seal, was ambivalent about putting lyrics to the album sleeve, not wanting to interfere with another's impression of alternate meanings.
MrMajorTime 4 months ago
@zygstardust I was there too and he didn't play Panic In Detroit!
JoeAble72 5 months ago
TRUE, Look at the complete WRECKAGE and DESTRUCTION that MTV and black nigger gangster RAP has done to todays youth.
What a fucking TRAVESTY.
Makes me want to VOMIT.
VIKINGxDNA 5 months ago
@VIKINGxDNA me too
420Meatwad 5 months ago in playlist bowie youtube
@VIKINGxDNA YOU make me want to vomit, racist cunt.
PKing411 4 months ago
Mayby panic in the UK !
TheBirdboots 5 months ago
Ouch! I can expand to a point that squelches all the disruption. But I won't, 'cause I enjoy anyone gleaning anything from this time that no longer exists, except in vision of a few who dredge up energy within themselves to feel the "panic" that becomes real when you need it. Having scored a trillion dollars is equivalent to listening to this track, knowing it hits home across the world as a representative of a glorious time before computers or people that can't get by a day without cell phones.
MrMajorTime 5 months ago in playlist Bowie
I also laughed at accidental sirens
marcuscato 6 months ago
ok look here zygstarust you don't even have a clue about anything never mind bowie!! he was a self appointed relater of ideas that he had in his mind, and related to us the chosen few which is us dammit!!!! smarten and realize bowie was trying to express himself through his awesome music
topcatroar61oliosc 6 months ago
My favorite Bowie song EVER!!!!!!!!! <333
psychoangel20 6 months ago
thank you 'The Kids Are Alright' for introducing me to this amazing song :))
planexxjane 6 months ago
In 1967 there was panic in Detroit. The National Guard shooting rioters out of windows (43 dead), US Army tanks rolling down the streets, 100's of buildings on fire. It was fierce.
illustrate100 6 months ago 4
@illustrate100 After so many decades, I still cannot get over Bowie, I do not want to!!
ewancorral1959 3 months ago
@illustrate100 i was there....very fierce!!
rowlffffff 1 week ago
The feel is about paranoia and excitement at once. Under the influence of something, our perspectives change, time bends, and we may be seeing and feeling exagerated aspects of reality that may or may not affect our personal idea of security. Sometimes we embrace impending danger as panic, not knowing what to do. But the adrenalin of excitement of the stress can lead us down some fantastic journeys of our own making, like a child playing and caught up in new worlds, temporarily very real indeed.
MrMajorTime 6 months ago
the day this album came out my mate went to the town during dinner time and came back with his hair a perfect copy of the album cover , this was early 70s in north east England , i will remember the looks on the faces of teachers etc till i die . i really thought his dad was going to kick him within an inch of his life ! great memories .
dave2806 7 months ago
@dave2806
I went to the disco at stockton YMCA one Sunday in the early 70s and half the lads sprouted bright orange bowie hair, Freeky but oh so cool.
northernraider 7 months ago 3
denver isn't very far from detroit, why didn't he come???
m1kewithaone 7 months ago
Bowie had such a nice body.
XxBeatlesforeverxX 7 months ago
I think this is David's best song....just my opinion..
CoastGuardIDC 8 months ago
@CoastGuardIDC no, it's not just YOUR opioion. i'm here aren't i? yes. but i'm just pissed because he didn't come to my town and i really wanted to see him. don't you think that transition on the diamond dogs album i think it's in between the song "hot tramp" and the song before it, is the greatest transition you ever heard?? me too!!
m1kewithaone 7 months ago
@m1kewithaone ...yeah, I can dig it.... ;)
CoastGuardIDC 7 months ago
@CoastGuardIDC i bet you were in the coast guard. no i'm not physic or anything, i just have a strong intuition... :) just kidding. my best friend was in. me, it was the army. and the airforce. we all loved panic in detroit. and, "i had too much to dream last night" by electric prunes. go figure.
m1kewithaone 7 months ago
@m1kewithaone yeah, I'm a CPO in the CG...did 4 years in the Navy back in the 80s..brothers were in the Army...dad retired rom the Army...I like "I had too much to dream last night"....good tune..
CoastGuardIDC 7 months ago
When we wake up to the truth of life, inspired music like this will emerge and flourish again, and all the uninspired crap that people call "music" these days will fade away and be forgotten. Search "Truth Contest" in Google and click the 1st result, then open The Present and read what it says to learn the truth of life.
vividDC 8 months ago
One of my favourite mucisians/lyricists of all
TheEhce 8 months ago
Shoulda been..."Panic on 3rd Rock" instead...This tune is too deep for any one city... He shoulda known that, being a time-traveler with alien technology and all...
DRGONZO714 8 months ago
This Album and the Ziggy album my friends for life.
kew4612 8 months ago
Back when this came out Detroit had nearly 2 million people living in the city. Now there is less than 800,000, Now there really is Panic in Detroit. No more motor city, just empty buildings.
billyjo1881 9 months ago 2
@billyjo1881 If you grew up in detroit back then you grew up right between eithjer factories or rock n roll... Now its all ghetto.
RayManzarekGod 8 months ago
I could only afford this album back in the day!
Lanndy94 9 months ago
one of my all time favs of his rock on!
Lanndy94 9 months ago
Great song. This was right around the time Hawkwind, Roxy Music and T Rex were making waves. Bowie was great but was nowhere in the class of Hawkwind or Roxy, IMHO. Listen to Lost Johnny!
johntcolo 9 months ago
Great song. This was right around the time Hawkwind, Roxy Music and T Rex were making waves. Bowie was great but was nowhere in the class of Hawkwind or Roxy, IMHO.
johntcolo 9 months ago
Thanx for the great info about Bowie and the song.
hank1972 10 months ago
he looked a lot like che guevara, drove a diesel van! kept his gun in quiet seclusion, sucha humbkle man!
andrew19vato 10 months ago
Absoulute beaty! Best of British.
alexandermorison 10 months ago
この頃のボウイさんが一番すき！！
この曲も本当に大好き！カッコイイ！！
TheGyousai 11 months ago
"Aladdin Sane" is by far Bowie's best, most creative, and flat out amazing album.
Although "Let's Dance" is not far behind...
starXelfXyeshua 11 months ago
@starXelfXyeshua i always thought lets dance was considered his worst, then again ive never even listened to it lol
andrew19vato 10 months ago
@starXelfXyeshua
my thoughts exactly, Aladdin Sane is my absolute Favourite. I can't say one itty bitty bad thing about any of the songs on the album and Let's Dance is quite possibly my next favourite...
TheVikkiki 9 months ago
i was there! i was at my cousins in detroit and remember seeing the fires burning,im from toronto...all i know is after that they moved to warren mich.
thewish4 1 year ago
If this song is about Iggys experiences in Detroit, then it was from the 1967 riots in Detroit. If you think the city looks bad today, it was on fire in 1967. "Detroit, where the weak are killed and eaten". The city never really recovered and now the ex mayor and various other Detroit politicians are in jail.
wpollock1 1 year ago 5
@wpollock1 I can raep you now?
Quetzacoatl2 1 year ago
to get the best stereo effect of the electric tom-tom drums, set up your speakers on each side of your head and play the song at full volume
ohboyatoytruck 1 year ago 3
This guy was big when I was in college in the early 70's. If you get past his gay-ness, his music was great. One thing I could never understand was how just the mention of his name would bring tears to some female student's eyes.
motorcityquig 1 year ago 2
great video! good work, dude ;)
Avenue2Fame 1 year ago
Pure genius from a master showman!
stargell777 1 year ago
I have Peter Murphy and Rozz Williams to thank for getting me into Bowie (and Ian Curtis to thank for getting me into Iggy Pop)
vladdt 1 year ago
BOWIE=COOL
wilxx102938476 1 year ago
SO COOL
wilxx102938476 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
This will really date me, but Panic in Detriot, the Frazer Smith show intro on KROQ in LA on Friday in the late 1970's, was my decompression. Well, that and a couple of bowls.
kdiabloj1 1 year ago
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This will really date me, but Panic in Detriot, the Frazer Smith show intro on KROQ in LA on Friday night in the late 1970s, was my decompression. Well, that and a couple of bowls...
kdiabloj1 1 year ago
"He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van..."
As opening lyrics to songs go, this has to be one of the best ever IMO. Epic song form the incomparable Bowie and Ronson.
Glennfaw 1 year ago 2
Wow... Bowies earring at 1:03 is awesome! XD I love this song, and personally, the whole dang Aladdin Sane album itself. The cover is one of the best. I love that lightning bolt makeup! However, my iTunes purchase of this album had Bowie's voice at a surprisingly low volume.. which somewhat ticked me off a bit at first... but then I love DB so I can't quibble too much!
SuperKawaiiPandaGirl 1 year ago
MUSICAL HEROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wilxx102938476 1 year ago 2
Personally, to me this is Bowie's best song...just sayin'.....
CoastGuardIDC 1 year ago
AHHHHH OOOOOOO! Che Guevera!...REVOLUTION! ...just a great tune.
jdmars02 1 year ago 3
Mick Ronson, Never Forget You.
Beautiful Guitar. Thanks mate.
Thanks Forever.
guthywoodry 1 year ago 32
@guthywoodry most under rated guitarist ever dude
made me pick my guitar up every day!!
yngwierhoads1989 1 year ago 2
@guthywoodry amen to that...Ronno the best!!
springycfc1 1 year ago 2
Surprising, but Rozz Williams' version with Christian Death was actually better than David Bowie's original. Still, a great song and David Bowie is fucking awesome
Assiman 1 year ago
@Assiman gotta check that out. thanks!
zaynzaynzayn 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
The Man Who Fell To Earth.
ottowes 1 year ago
He asked me to stay home, I wish someone would phone. PANIC IN DETROIT!!
manmanguy 1 year ago
@manmanguy GREAT COMMENT
buscargo89 1 year ago
When I was 18 I craved the orange album my older friend kept spinning..soon I was like oh man that orange album is great..then a few months later ..Hollywood Palladium Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. First and best show I ever saw. 1973.
Lvpeoples 1 year ago
You got to admit Mick Ronson's playing was brilliant, very much missed
kew4612 1 year ago 5
@kew4612 there really isn't anyone around who exudes his charisma. His loveliness died with him sadly.
manmanguy 1 year ago
Music historians give the future a nuance that is measurable. thx. DETROIT! 4 techno remixes/mashups
luxxxcorp 1 year ago
Damn, Arch Enemy ripped this song's main riff off for the chorus to "Pilgrim."
ParadigmGhost 1 year ago
hey lyinehall, i'm 49 and will be 50 next year in april. wow where has time run to i remember some of the best music of all time was made a the short time when we were kids running around the heighborhood raising havoc. bowie is 1 of my all time favs PEACE
topcatroar61oliosc 1 year ago
I was 13 when I first heard David Bowie..I'm going to be 50 this year and I still love this song...I don't feel 50 tho..lol Have this on my ipod when I do water at the golf course..great song of all time!! You go David...you are the best!! Love ya :)
lyniehall 1 year ago 3
@lyniehall "HERE HERE" my good friend....
murfdasurfer 1 year ago
@lyniehall goin on 50 next august...water at the golf?? whats that?? retreiving balls??...make sure you revolutionise that country club golf scene!!...if they cant appreciate you then fug 'em
ioriorioriorio 1 year ago
I'm from Oakland CA, and this song kicked ass in Nam. I was there bitches, and I'm still an ass-kicking SOB!!!
HarryAreola0 1 year ago 2
The guitar in this song is amazing.
stoprejectingmynames 1 year ago
David make the opening riff a ring tone.
billyjo1881 1 year ago
That Bowie iPod is the coolest thing I have seen. I want one!
WoodRatGirl 1 year ago
A great song! I first saw Bowie in Detroit at the Masonic in 1973 - the Ziggy Era. Unbelievable. Detroit was a great music town, but we had never seen anything like this guy with flaming orange hair coming onstage to Beethoven's 5th and strobe lights wearing the most bizarre outfit I had ever seen - the op art orange & black striped huge-legged thing. Rock & Roll had been pretty drab until then (except for Iggy & Alice Cooper) - I wish you could have been there to experience the excitement.
zygstardust 1 year ago 51
@zygstardust The MC5 wasn't cool enough to get a nod?
JLWing77 1 year ago
@zygstardust I WAS there!
anablic 1 year ago
@zygstardust I loved growing up in Detroit in the 70's. W4,WABX,WRIF Rock and roll radio was great back then when you see where it has ended up today.Bowie took rock in a new direction.
generationx1966 11 months ago
@zygstardust I fucking wish i was even alive
gordthelord12 10 months ago
@zygstardust That makes you about 5 years older than me. I managed to see David Bowie for the first time in 1978 when Iggy came to Aylesbury on his Lust for life, Idiot tour. Memorably, Bowie sat at the piano all night but the show was amazing. Wish I'd seen the Aladdin tour in the US though.
alexandermorison 8 months ago
@zygstardust well i wish that too, because every body else came to denver except him!! and i really really wanted to see bowie!! i don't know why he didn't come. denver was a heavy meddle town, pink floyd didn't come either, but everybody else did, i saw them all from 10 years after to jethro tull and zepelin to deep purple, but not bowie.... and i think the diamond dogs album is the best, that was 1973 wasn't it? hell the denver post wrote, " led zeppelin brought the house down" damn.
m1kewithaone 7 months ago
@zygstardust Lucky dog!
slickjilly 6 months ago
@zygstardust , I was and it was just as exciting as you think it was!!!; even more so!!!!!!!. PEACE!!!!!!!...
Goupul7 4 months ago
@zygstardust I was there too! Totally awesome!
bowiemichelle 4 months ago
sounds limea city song
BaalZobel 1 year ago
bowie had quite a few good songs but rebel rebel is his best the riff in that song is awesome one of the best ever
royalnash 1 year ago
@royalnash Apparently, it's the Stones's 'Satisfaction' riff backwards. Mick Ronson. Genius.
jumhed 1 year ago
luv to have the opening riff 4 ring tone
billyjo1881 1 year ago
73 I was sixteen and felt part of something different glam was all the rage the world was at my feet Bowie was god. WHAT HAPPENED ????????????? Oh I know......... life took over. the Album still reminds me of innocent days and experimentation of all things sexual and otherwise open to a teenager in the seventies. fond fond memories.
kew4612 1 year ago
i mean, u know that all of you are over 40`s right? prophetic :), yes nice nice
blanoz 1 year ago
i`ve tried, i`ve tried David, sorry. But your music......, maybe because i didn`t grow with u, like the rest of the melancolic fans.
blanoz 1 year ago
@blanoz Good point. I think when one was born and where/how one grew up has a large effect upon who is or is not a Bowie fan.
bobomajoe 1 year ago
@bobomajoe - but many kids are into Bowie. On top of that there are plenty of 20-somethings who were first introduced when they saw Labyrinth as children.
The 40-something accusation would hold water with other artists but not one who continuously produced new albums all the way to the 00's. That's 5 decades of new music. At least 3 decades with parents playing his music around the house.
Only when new "artists" stop biting off of David will he even begin to lack relevance.
NolitaDenise 1 year ago
Hey BreeOhshitt...Michael Jackson's crotch grabbing had little to do with why he was thought of as gay. The fact that he climbed into bed with little boys and did god only knows what, is the main reason! David Bowie may have been different from most, by the way.....he is bi.....but he didn't get his rocks off with little boys.
cashbill457 1 year ago
my all-time favorite Bowie song
ejp42 1 year ago 4
ya knoo i love how everyone called Michael Jackson a fag.
and how alot of people were homophobic
and mainstream society didnt accept anything different.
sure there were some changes in the 70's
but if someone was weird they were weird
yet you dont hear any gay jokes about David Bowie.
Come on now like R u fucking serious.
Im just saying if the King of Pop is called gay because he grabbed his crotch.
Then how come Bowie doesnt get called gay wen he wears ....
well when he wears something gaayy
BreeOhshitt 1 year ago
I first heard this song during Bowie's Station to Station Tour at the Montreal Forum, February 25, 1976. The night was magic. You just knew your world was about to change forever when the concert opened with the Bunuel /Dali's 1929 black and white film" Un Chien Andalou". Pure Bowie. That concert experience has never left me.
GerryJMTL 1 year ago
Vini vidi vici.
Michlimania 1 year ago
@Michlimania
lol................
huntercalgary 1 year ago
I first heard David perform this at the Ziggie Stardust Tour show at the Tower in Philly. Aladdin Sane was still unreleased at the time. I turned to my date, and she turned to me, and we both said "Ohhhhhhhhhhh." From the first Mick Ronson chords, I loved it.
Tedisntakidanymore 1 year ago 2
Go Coyotes...Beat the Red Wings!!
pechinrules 1 year ago
@pechinrules CANCELLED
Michlimania 1 year ago
Keep buying foreign and the rest of America will mirror Detroit. But we all so greedy, our little ego's come first.
billyjo1881 1 year ago
I've recently that the Muslim's have taken over a big part of Detroit in Deerborn. They seem very predudice and hateful. See them on You Tube, what a shame to Detroit.
hackman55able 1 year ago
@hackman55able shut the fuck up
DimebagsLeftToe 1 year ago
There's never been a better rock'n'roll song than this. Absolutely magisterial. Primitive rhythms, brilliant guitars, allusive lyrics with just the right kind of alienated, adolescent distance. And a one off. Bowie was always evolving, never milking a formula. He had a real knack for identifying sidemen with something to offer. I think his low in this period was 'Diamond Dogs', before he spotted Carlos Alomar on the Philly leg of the tour.
puskascat 1 year ago 2
@puskascat I don't think he had a low during this period tbh. Xx
averilleX 1 year ago
And you thought Detroit was wild then.
billyjo1881 1 year ago
my favorite song of all time. hands down.
hackman55able 1 year ago 2
I screamed and ran and smashed my
favorite slot machine...............
and jumped the silent cars that slept at
traffic lights............ pure genius...
stonelove919 1 year ago 2
Alot of good tunes came out back in 73
kblopp 1 year ago 3
AS GOOD AS MUSIC GETS!
evillee63 1 year ago
Incidentally why should people instruct little white women to go to a gas station in order to avoid trouble if the eventuality of trouble was not a possibility?
Enquiringmind777 1 year ago
thegirl44. This was back in 93 in June 12 13th. The day after the USA beat England at football. I'm just telling what I saw and experienced back then, it has sod all to do with racism. Have you viewed the "Tour of Detroits Ghettos" clips on you tube.
Enquiringmind777 1 year ago
It's a wonder that he and Iggy made it out of the 1970s alive and in one piece.
Simply amazing.
TsugaC 1 year ago
I agree.
He was so fucked off his mind with every drug known to man.
Hell, probably a few that aren't known D:
Hybrid933 1 year ago 4
i totally agree,rock masterpiece !
FGISweetPeas 2 years ago
This is a rock masterpiece.........
stonelove919 2 years ago 4
The best song David Bowie ever made.He had a couple of good ones in the 80's but nothing compares to this. He just looked so bizarre then,but now in the most recent pic in this video,he looks great. Thanks to Iman, his beautiful wife. And poor Detroit! GM, you should be ashamed of yourself for destroying Flint and Detroit. You devasted these cities by closing plants there. Hats off to Michael Moore with his film Roger & Me! His films will make you sick, talking about the truth! Just watch them!
keaster55 2 years ago
@keaster55 Should GM have stayed in Flint and Detroit and watched their company fail...causing large problems for the entire national economy and not just those localized ones?
deadzeppelin 1 year ago 2
The company was failing anyway. They took a government bailout, since they didn't look into the future & make better cars. I have always owned Chevy's, but I hate GM now, because our mortgage is with them. They gave us a break on our payments last year & now they want us to payback $10,000.00 NOW or they are going to foreclose. They got a bailout, but refuse to help bail us out! Detroit was Motor City, where all the car companies were founded. The rest of the country are making Hondas & Toyotas.
keaster55 1 year ago 2
True, true. Definitely a company that has fucked up...over and over again.
I have empathy with you, a similar situation happened to my parents when I was growing up. I just got a degree in Civil Engineering and currently work retail thanks to the subprime crisis.
I guess my point was globalization is inevitable, those jobs had to go over seas at some point. Not just GM, but the rest of the country/govt. has failed Detroit over the last few decades.
deadzeppelin 1 year ago
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keaster55 1 year ago
@keaster55 ..Partly true...But I grew up around those car plants and the attitude of most of the workers ..mostly negative and unappreciative. Look in the mirror mr. auto worker..you were so greedy and selfish and the Japanese knew that about us.
billyjo1881 1 year ago
@billyjo1881 So now the Japanese are greedy & selfish! Selling cars that they knew had mechanical problems. Had a good lobbyist that kept things hush hush, until people started to die. They were fined millions of dollars for hiding the truth! But I'll never buy another GM car! Their mortgage company is a disaster! & our mortgage is with GMAC!
keaster55 1 year ago
grass growing up through the parking lot?..in December? No one walking around? You weren't in Detroit. Sounds like a bunch of racial nonsense. 3 weeks ago in Detroit,the international auto show was in full swing and the city was hopping.
yeahyeahyeah64 2 years ago 2
No..... The city is not hopping
kblopp 1 year ago
Bowie looks like an Avatar character here...talk about a vision of the future!
tripperdoo 2 years ago 2
about as surprising as some guy shooting 8 people, taking a shot at a State trooper helicopter, and then turning himself in.....
cavemanhookers 2 years ago
Christmas Eve 2009,
A Nigerian Moslem got on a flight to Detroit....
-With a deadly bomb in his underpants.......
Fortunately he Failed, managing only to incinerate his own gonads!
No one, anywhere, found any of this surprising.
guthywoodry 2 years ago
Next day got a taxi to Dearborn Fairlane mall, on returning back to the bus station a seriously angry black dude was accosting the ladies behind the counter and the old bill were called. What a place.! I've been on the streets of Belfast and Londonderry back in the troubles, this place freaked me out more I can tell you.
Enquiringmind777 2 years ago
@Enquiringmind777
Doesn't sound like the Detroit that I know.
"Menacing voice heading our way?" The Detroit that I know has people instructing little white woman me to go to the gas station to get directions because they don't want any trouble.
I'd worry about the racial problems in your own Fair Isle before I go online making up stories about the Motor City, mate.
thegirl44 1 year ago 2
I crossed over into Detroit with my wife from Windsor back in 93 on a Greyhound bus, I was on holiday from England. Started to have a walk round, what an eye opener. Grass growing up thru parking lots, hardly anyone walking around just black guys cruising slowly round the hood, the occasional menancing voice heading our way I didn't hang around long went straight back to the bus station got a taxi and went straight back over the border.
Enquiringmind777 2 years ago
Makthing220 i am so jealous i would loved to have been able to see him in 1973 but i was only eight and my parents were into going concerts
IanBrains 2 years ago
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Now its depression in Detroit.
kblopp 2 years ago 6
True.
Depression in Detroit....
So sad as this song came out in the near post hay-day of the Motor City.
Let me collect dust... I wish someone would phone.
the82spartans 2 years ago
COOOL
Paulluv 2 years ago 3
David Bowie wrote this song about Iggy Pop.
Pupsario 2 years ago
Interesting, that I didn't know.
dalmatian847 2 years ago
gr8 music, mate. keep up the good work! you'll make it big some day!
valdezmiguel2 2 years ago 3
Comment removed
rugar17 2 years ago
detroit dont go if your not brave.
rugar17 2 years ago 2
GENIUS! BRILLIANT!
jdmars02 2 years ago 2