When all the world was very young
And mountain magic heavy hung
The supermen would walk in file
Guardians of a loveless isle
And gloomy browed with super fear their tragic endless lives
Heaves nor sighs in solemn, perverse serenity
wondrous beings chained to life
Strange games they would play then
No death for the perfect men
Life rolls into one for them
So softly a super god cries
Where all were minds in uni-thought
Power is weird by mystics taught
No pain, no joy, no power too great
Colossal strength to grasp a fate
Where sad-eyed mermen tossed in slumbers
Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold
A man would tear his brother's flesh, a chance to die
To turn to mold
Far out in the red-sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a super god cries
Far out in the red-sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a super god dies
And mountain magic heavy hung
The supermen would walk in file
Guardians of a loveless isle
And gloomy browed with super fear their tragic endless lives
Heaves nor sighs in solemn, perverse serenity
wondrous beings chained to life
Strange games they would play then
No death for the perfect men
Life rolls into one for them
So softly a super god cries
Where all were minds in uni-thought
Power is weird by mystics taught
No pain, no joy, no power too great
Colossal strength to grasp a fate
Where sad-eyed mermen tossed in slumbers
Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold
A man would tear his brother's flesh, a chance to die
To turn to mold
Far out in the red-sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a super god cries
Far out in the red-sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a super god dies
Lyrics submitted by scottathon1, edited by spacebat11
The Supermen Lyrics as written by David Bowie
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is great because of the power of the imagery. What it does is it makes me imagine what it must have been like to actually believe with all your heart the tales of the mythical greek gods. Wow, what a trip! To actually believe that teh world was created by superpowerful gods with human-like qualities...it's a thought that has an intrinsic attractiveness though, especially when the gods are masculine. Plenty of women still act on a sort of belief in polytheism, but their gods are faeries or angels with only good intentions, e.g. to make your pregnancy go well. These gods are badasses with good and bad intentions. It would be pretty interesting if this kind of polytheism came back into style.
The second to last stanza is especially epic. What imagery!!! "minds in uni-thought?" FREAKY "Nigtmare dreams no mortal mind could hold?" WOAH This is some heavy shit, and fascinating! Way to go Bowie. This is Bowie's masculine side coming through.
Such a one-of-a-kind song from a one-of-a-kind album. David Bowie was so unique.. it blows me away.
This is one of my favorite Bowie songs... it so Bowie
some old gods coming back or something? who knows.. its great
Great song i love how you can feel the emotion in bowies Voice in the third verse. through out the whole song bowie talks about how the super men are immortal and would do any thing to die.i feel there could be some deerper meaning and maybe a connection to bowies life and that he felt like he had been liveing forever and was just waiting for a chance to die, To turn to mold
Considering this was originaly written before Bowie made it big I doubt at this point he was just "waiting for a chance to die..."
a great song to end a great album
This is most likely refrence to nietzsche's supermen writings.
with a nod to Lovecraft
This is why I love Bowie, he writes songs that make you think. To me, he is the rock and roll equivalent of Stanley Kubrick.
This is reminiscent of Nietzsche, I love love love this song