Song Interpretation: Life On Mars?

If Roy Orbison and Bruce Springsteen sing for the lonely, then surely David Bowie sings for the alienated. The alienated are not only lonely, but feel uncomfortable wherever they are. Their quiet discomfort is not universal, obviously, but everyone knows at least one person that just doesn't feel like they fit in, even when everyone else thinks they do. Even in a crowd of friends having a party, I feel alienated and sometimes just have to leave to feel better. If you have never felt this way, then there is not much I can say to explain it to you, but it is obvious to me that Bowie has felt this way. He speaks to us, not just to the closeted gays, transvestites and otherwise tormented souls, but the seemingly average Joe like myself. I am sure you have a Bowie fan in your life. Chances are, there was a time in their life that they were dying inside. A few years ago, I was in a room where a Unitarian Universalist minister asked us all to think of someone who inspired us in their childhood. Of the eight people or so in the room, I was the only person that could not come up someone that he knew. While other people mentioned favorite aunts, neighborhood mentors or teachers, all I could come up with is writers and musicians. It may sound trite, but if not for the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Walt Whitman and Kurt Vonnegut ... I don't think I would have survived my childhood. Bowie, a true Renaissance Man, reached across the ocean, across the cosmos, and touched me in a way that those closest to me could not even comprehend. This is the power of art, is it not?

Alienation is nothing new in art. I don't know if Bowie is the first person to actually use an alien to personify it. His most famous album from 1972, The Rise and Fall  of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, tells a vague story of a bi-sexual alien rock star coming to Earth to inform us that we have five years left before we destroy ourselves. The song "Life on Mars?" from the previous album from 1971, Hunk Dory, could be seen as a setup to Ziggy. It tells a story of a "girl with mousy hair" who just got into an argument with her parents and wanders into a movie theater. She is completely disconnected to what she sees on the screen, "sailors fighting in a dance," "cavemen," and "lawmen beating up the wrong guy" ...she could spit on them. It is the early 1970's and quasi-revolutionary pretensions are sweeping through Western Europe, "from Ibiza to Norfolks Broads." Capitalism and empty patriotism has gone awry. "Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow" and "Lennon's on a sale again" (or is it Lenin?). Is she disappointed in the film or in reality? She asks "Is there life on Mars?" because surely, life sucks here. Like most of his early work, the imagery suggests that life is futile. How can be anything but futile when we are so small and insignificant?

Also, the Rick Wakeman piano is so haunting.  What a perfect song!

Like many people, I awoke on Monday with the news of Bowie's death crying out of my radio. I spent most of the day listening to him. I did my share of whimpering and singing that day. My wife bought me some maple cookies to cheer me up. My Facebook feed is still bleeding Bowie so I know I am not alone in this. I usually don't consider myself a lucky man, but I do in this case consider myself lucky that I lived at the same time Bowie did. If not for him, I'd feel much more lonely.

LIFE ON MARS?

by David Bowie

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
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 America'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 Ibiza 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
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?