 Genius Meanings
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David Bowie – Eight Line Poem
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[Verse] / The tactful cactus by your window / Surveys the prairie of your room / The mobile spins to its collision / Clara puts her head between her paws / They've opened shops
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David Bowie – Quicksand (San Francisco Hotel Recording)
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[Verse 1] / I'm closer to the Golden Dawn / Immersed in Crowley's uniform / Of imagery / I'm living in a silent film / Portraying Himmler's sacred realm / Of dream reality / I'm
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David Bowie – Changes (2021 Alternative Mix)
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[Intro] / (One, two, three, four) / Oh yeah / Mmm / [Verse 1] / Still don't know what I was waiting for / And my time was running wild, a million dead-end streets and / Every time
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David Bowie – Life On Mars? (Original Ending Version)
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[Verse 1] / 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
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David Bowie – Shadow Man (Demo)
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There's a man back-a-ways / Who believes that where he is / That there's a girl up ahead / Who says she knows / And the street overflows / With folk who understand / But for the
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David Bowie – Right On Mother
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(Verse 1) / Right on, Mother / You've really blown my mind / I never thought we'd hit it off until today / Right on, Mother / You know the way I feel / Now you know I'm living with
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David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things (BOWPROMO Mix) [2022 Remaster]
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[Verse 1] / Wake up, you sleepy head / Put on some clothes, shake up your bed / Put another log on the fire for me / I've made some breakfast and coffee / Look out my window, what
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David Bowie – Andy Warhol (Live Friars, Aylesbury, 25th September, 1971)
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[Intro] / This is, uh, called "Andy War- Warhol" / It's alright, I won't give you a key, you jump in when you can / [Verse 1] / Like to take a cement fix / Be a standing cinema
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David Bowie – Andy Warhol [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Verse 1] / Like to take a cement fix / Be a standing cinema / Dress my friends up just for show / See them as they really are / Put a peephole in my brain / Two New Pence to have
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David Bowie – King Of The City (Demo)
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Come back to the city / They tell me you're sad / Come back if you can, just take a train / I'm sorry you left me / It's hard to be real when / Everyone is so hot to be king of the
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David Bowie – Lightning Frightening (aka The Man)
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I'll give you back my farm and I'll give you back my house / I'll give you back my right to be free / I'll give you back my farm and I'll give you back my house / I'll give you
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David Bowie – Lady Stardust [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Verse 1] / People stared at the makeup on his face / Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace / The boy in the bright blue jeans / Jumped up on the stage / And lady
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David Bowie – Let Me Sleep Beside You [Bowie at the Beeb]
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Baby, baby, brush the dust of youth from off your shoulder / Now the years of threading daisies lie behind you / Don't return to fields of green where rainbow secrets were told
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David Bowie – Space Oddity
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‘Major Tom’ is a fictional character created by David Bowie for this song in 1969. That same year marked the first moon landing, so space was “in”; this was a year after Stanley
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David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Verse 1] / Wake up you sleepy head / Put on some clothes, shake up your bed / Put another log on the fire for me / I've made some breakfast and coffee / Look out my window and
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David Bowie – Life on Mars?
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“Life on Mars?” is often considered one of the true masterpieces of the Bowie Canon. Originally released on the Hunky Dory album in 1971, it was made a single in 1973 during the
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David Bowie – Almost Grown
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Yeah 'n' I'm doin' all right in school / They ain't said I broke no rule / I ain't never been in Dutch / I don't browse around too much / Don't bother me, leave me alone / Anyway I
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David Bowie – How Lucky You Are (aka Miss Perculiar)
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[Chorus] / When you speak, you speak to me / When you sleep, you sleep by me / When you wake, you wake with me / When you walk, you follow two steps behind in life / [Verse 1
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David Bowie – Rock 'n' Roll Suicide [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Verse 1] / Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth / You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette / The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you
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David Bowie – Blue Jean
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A 1984 hit (UK – #6, US – #8) that according to David Bowie –
‘Blue Jean’ is a piece of sexist rock ‘n roll. [laughs] It’s about picking up birds. It’s not very cerebral, that
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David Bowie – Andy Warhol
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According to actor Tony Zanetta, when David Bowie first went to New York and got to meet his idol Andy Warhol in The Factory, he played him this tribute song. Warhol, however, “
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David Bowie – Queen Bitch
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“Queen Bitch” was written as an homage to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, two massive sources of influence for David Bowie.
Bowie first discovered the Velvet Underground when
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David Bowie – Queen Bitch [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Verse 1] / I'm up on the eleventh floor / And I'm watching the cruisers below / He's down on the street / And he's trying hard to pull sister Flo / Oh, my heart's in the basement
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David Bowie – Cygnet Committee [Bowie at the Beeb]
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[Chorus 1] / I bless you madly / Sadly as I tie my shoes / I love you badly / Just in time, at times, I guess / Because of you I need to rest / Because it's you / That sets the
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David Bowie – Looking for a Friend
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Hmm ah (giggle) / Gather round all you people / Watch me while you can / I've been trawling too long / I've been losing out strong / For the strength of another man / I've been
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David Bowie – Quicksand
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“Quicksand” is about David Bowie’s philosophical struggle with the unknown. He is stuck in deep thought about unanswerable questions. What does it mean to exist? What is after
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David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things
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Written and recorded by Bowie as a demo, the song was first released by Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits fame. As a solo artist, it was Noone’s first album and first single
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David Bowie – Changes
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Despite its poor chart performance, the song frequently appears on “Best of” compilations including Changesonebowie, which takes its title from the track.
“Changes” originally
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David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World
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“The Man Who Sold the World” is the 8th track of the 1970 David Bowie album by the same name. Bowie had written the song 4 years earlier, in 1966, at the age of 19.
The song was
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David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
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The title track and second single off of Bowie’s 1974 album, Diamond Dogs. This song further explores the dystopian future set up in Future Legend.
Bowie uses the cut up technique
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David Bowie – Kooks
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On May 30, 1971, David Bowie’s wife Angie gave birth to a young baby boy, who they named Zowie. Bowie was listening to a Neil Young record at home when he heard the news he’d
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David Bowie – Magic Dance
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[Intro] / You remind me of the babe (What babe?) / The babe with the power (What power?) / The power of voodoo (Who do?) / You do (Do what?) / Remind me of the babe / [Verse 1] / I
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Phoebe Bridgers – Smoke Signals
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Smoke signals are a form of communication in which a person would use fire and smoke to transmit or communicate a message to another person across a long distance.
In the song
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David Bowie – Bombers
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[Chorus] / "All clear" wail the sirens / Sunshine on the wasteland / Old man sitting in the white sand / Think we're in for a big surprise / Right between the eyes / [Verse 1
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David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
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“Moonage Daydream” initially failed to chart when released as a single in 1971 by Arnold Corns, Bowie’s side project that has come to be seen as a “dry run” for the Ziggy
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David Bowie – Fill Your Heart
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A follow-up to the previous song “Quicksand”, “Fill Your Heart” is about escaping the perplexing deep questions in your head, mentioned in the previous song, by filling your heart
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David Bowie – The Bewlay Brothers
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“The Bewlay Brothers” is the eerie conclusion to Bowie’s landmark album, easy to dismiss as creepy nonsense.
But the meaning snaps into place when you learn the story of Terry
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David Bowie – Song for Bob Dylan
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One of the semi-sketches on Hunky Dory, “Song For Bob Dylan” offers David Bowie the opportunity to engage with a towering music icon (and partial inspiration): Bob Dylan.
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David Bowie – "Heroes"
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During his Berlin Period, Bowie spied Tony Visconti kissing backing vocalist Antonia Maaß by the Berlin Wall. Their love was doomed, as Visconti was married.
I thought, of all the
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David Bowie – Quicksand (Demo Version)
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I'm closer to the Golden Dawn / Immersed in Crowley's uniform of imagery / I'm living in a silent film / Portraying Himmler's sacred realm of dream reality / I'm frightened by the
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