David Bowie-Life on Mars?

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cannibaljuice
November 09, 2009

"Life on Mars?" is a song by David Bowie first released in 1971 on the album Hunky Dory. The song—which BBC Radio 2 later called "a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dalí painting"[1]—featured guest piano work by keyboardist Rick Wakeman. When released as a single in 1973, it reached #3 in the UK and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks. The song re-entered the UK charts at #55 over 30 years later, largely because of its use in the television series Life on Mars.

Neil McCormick of the Telegraph ranked it as #1 in his 100 Greatest Songs of All Time list.[2]

He also commented on the song:

"A quite gloriously strange anthem, where the combination of stirring, yearning melody and vivid, poetic imagery manage a trick very particular to the art of the song: to be at once completely impenetrable and yet resonant with personal meaning. You want to raise your voice and sing along, yet Bowies abstract cut-up lyrics force you to invest the song with something of yourself just to make sense of the experience. And, like all great songs, it's got a lovely tune."

In 1968, Bowie wrote "Even a Fool Learns to Love", a song with lyrics by Bowie set to the music of a 1967 French song ("Comme d'habitude"). Bowie's song was never released, but Paul Anka bought the rights to the original French version, and rewrote it into "My Way," made famous by Frank Sinatra in a 1969 recording on his album of the same name. The success of the Anka version prompted Bowie to write "Life on Mars?" as a parody of Sinatra's recording.[1]

In notes for a Bowie compilation CD that accompanied a June 2008 issue of The Mail on Sunday,[3] Bowie described how he wrote the song:

Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a bargain-price art nouveau screen ('William Morris,' so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else. I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon.
Bowie noted that Wakeman "embellished the piano part" of his original melody and guitarist Mick Ronson "created one of his first and best string parts" for the song.[1]

The liner notes for Hunky Dory indicate that the song was 'inspired by Frankie'.[1]

BBC Radio has described "Life on Mars?" as having "one of the strangest lyrics ever" consisting of a "slew of surreal images" like a Salvador Dalí painting.[1] The line "Look at those cavemen go" is a reference to the song "Alley Oop", a one-off hit in 1960 for American doo-wop band The Hollywood Argyles.[4]

Bowie, at the time of Hunky Dory's release in 1971, summed up the song as "A sensitive young girl's reaction to the media". In 1997 he added "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality ... that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it

It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks
through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it
ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

[CHORUS]
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerika's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse
has grown up a cow
Now the workers
have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it
ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

[CHORUS]
Dring-dring-dring......
[Mind the phone]

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MelissaFiordaliso (1 week ago) Show Hide

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I have only 13 years, yet I love this old song ... some modern songs are very beautiful, but also some older songs are fantastic ... my peers do not understand, only listen to techno music, and not even realize that there are some good modern songs, but there are also beautiful old songs and some old songs that suck, but also modern ... why I'm the only one who understands it?

PatRiceTastyGoal (1 week ago) Show Hide

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Techno Pop is not real music, anyone with a computer can manufacture it. Keep listening to real music like Bowie, Rollingstones, old time blues...you will understand what music can be. Not just a beat, but a melody as well.

MelissaFiordaliso (1 week ago) Show Hide

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In fact I do believe that I will continue to listen to music of this kind, precisely because this is real music ... and not one that really like my intelligent peers, who say that the old music sucks!
W The Old Music! :D

MelissaFiordaliso (1 week ago)

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MelissaFiordaliso (1 week ago) Show Hide

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This song is epic, is fantastic, is very, very beautiful...

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David Bowie-Life on Mars?

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