Its About to Be Writ Again

It's a God-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair

There can be no doubt that David Bowie was i of the nearly colorful, eccentric and inspired minds to grace the music globe. An innovator and pioneer, Bowie has been an inspiration for multiple generations to spread their wings and fly, and there can be no doubt that his mark will be well-remembered in the annals of history. His decease marks the tragic loss of a cultural icon, all the same it likewise offers an opportunity to celebrate his life and his oeuvre.

Atwood Magazine has chosen a track review of a favorite Bowie vocal, "Life on Mars?" equally anin memoriam for this great man.

Watch: "Life on Mars?" – David Bowie

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To be perfectly honest, I don't really know why "Life on Mars?" is my favorite David Bowie song. What I do know is that I take e'er felt a special pull – an allure, if you lot will – to this vocal in detail. Its lyrics are mesmerizing, bringing up many questions and offering surprisingly few answers. Its music is lilting, hypnotizing and mostinnocuous.

As I struggle to come to terms with not only his passing, but likewise the fashion in which Bowie has influenced me, I hope to gain insight into whatever information technology is that makes this 45-twelvemonth-onetime song so special and timeless.

Merely her friend is nowhere to exist seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen

Perchance information technology's because of the vocal's complexity: Bowie gives us so much to dissect in lyrics that are part-story and office-commentary. The story of the "girl with the mousy hair" is all simply lost past the time nosotros reach the second verse, every bit Bowie attempts to concentrate his lyrics around a crudely-constructed commentary on corruption andhistory repeating itself.

But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it 10 times or more

Peradventure information technology's because of the song's deception: "Life on Mars?" presents itself equally an innocent love vocal, still it dives deep into the man psyche, pressing us to ponder politics and corruption, perception and reality, conception and existence – "the works," if you will.

It is far easier to say what "Life on Mars?" is not, rather than what information technology is: Though it is musically disguised every bit a carol, driven past an embellishing pianoforte organisation with tender orchestral accompaniment, by any measure out, "Life on Mars?" isnot innocent.

But the moving-picture show is a saddening bore
For she'due south lived it ten times or more

Hunky Dory – David Bowie

I truly don't believe that even the belatedly David Bowie himself knew birthday what "Life on Mars?" was nearly. The vocal reaches a number of levels and touches on so many abstract, loosely interconnected concepts that, but like any of the not bad nineteenth century operas, defining "Life on Mars?" past any singular plot line would exist doing the vocal and its creator a significant disservice.

Songs likewise serve multiple purposes – if they were meant to be essays, so they would be essays! Instead, they exist as much to entertain every bit they practise to offer a betoken of view. Indeed, some lack the point of view altogether. If anything, "Life on Mars?" offers multiple points of view.

The song does seem to carry one predominant, subtle motif: That of human abuse. Rather than accept a top-down approach, I prefer to offering a bottom-up analysis, realizing the song by the sum of its parts, rather than as a whole. Is "Life on Mars?" a quasi-commentary on corruption and the circadian repetition of mankind's mistakes? Permit's observe out!

She could spit in the optics of fools
As they ask her to focus on –

Our introduction to "Life on Mars?" comes to u.s. through the optics of "the girl with the mousy hair," who experiences some form of abandonment from her parents: A mother yelling "no" and a begetter telling her to get out tin can be interpreted as some sort of domestic spat, an estrangement, or other. Nevertheless, she finds herself alone, without a friend, and in her sullen state turns to the television for refuge and escape. The tv set is described here as "the sea t with the clearest view;" meanwhile, the daughter is "hooked" –a reaction to lodge'southward dependence on media, perhaps?– to the "argent screen."

Crash!Tension enters in the course of orchestral strings that tear into the clean piano. Bowie starts to shift the focus away from the daughter and onto the media content, which is described equally a reflection of real life: "… the film is a saddening bore, for she's lived information technology ten times or more." What does information technology hateful for the shows to exist a direct reflection of life feel? Nosotros can larn this from the chorus:

Sailors fighting in the trip the light fantastic hall
Oh homo expect at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest testify
Accept a await at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh human being wonder if he'll ever know
He'south in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

"The freakiest bear witness" is certainly right. The sailors and cavemen may be separate entities entirely, but information technology is just as off-white to entertain the prospect that they are one and the same: Sailors get cavemen, i.e. they act unintelligent, ambitious, and uncivilized. "The lawman beating up the incorrect guy." Sad to say this seems not to have changed in the past forty-five years; the concept oflodge losing sight of itselfis predominately strong in the chorus' imagery.

This ultimately leads to the last line:

Is there life on Mars?

Which can easily take two dozen interpretations. Here are a few:

1. The narrator, in antipathy for the uncivilized, foul state of life on Globe – which we understand to be that way from its reflection on Television – would rather be elsewhere. "Is there life on Mars?" is an honest inquiry into, shall we say, a potential alter of address. The narrator would do anything to go off this planet and notice another, more hospitable and warm home.
2. The question oflife on Mars – and moreover, is there life beyond Earth– is certainly one of mankind'south greatest unanswered questions. Notwithstanding, allow's consider the context of the song: "Life on Mars?" was released every bit a single off David Bowie's albumHunky Dory in 1971, only two years later the Apollo xi landing in July 1969. In 2016, the question oflife on Mars doesn't experience all that alien: With multiple rovers there, Mars is no longer every bit far abroad as it once was. In 1971, Mars felt light-years away. Ane can almost hear a motherly scold: Mankind has just reached the moon, and you already want to go to Mars?
3. As stiff as the question's context is its contrast within the chorus. The dynamic juxtaposition betwixt the previously-stated societal issues and the ultimate question is so stiff that it nearly feels ironic. Once more, I cull to invoke the motherly scold:All of these problems on Earth, and here you are thinking about Mars?! Why don't you fix the Earth before venturing off into infinite?

All three of these interpretations concur weight and need not exist entirely separated, but I find myself drawn most to the 3rd point – that gild has all these issues, yet we dwell on the to the lowest degree pressing, most abstract 1: Life on Mars. Mars is our escape. Information technology is our way of masking the bug that really matter – domestic violence; corruption; endless war. These are the things that bear on our daily lives, yet at the finish of the twenty-four hours, what does everybody desire to know? Bowie fifty-fifty made it the title of his song:Is there life on Mars?

Bowie dives deeper into society's abuse in his 2nd verse:

Information technology'south on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on auction once more
See the mice in their 1000000 hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of premises
To my mother, my dog, and clowns

This poetry reads more than like one man'southward laundry list of rant topics, rather than the poetic storyline through a young girl'south viewpoint. The dichotomy between the outset and 2d verses speaks much to the Bowie's frustrations: He has so much to say, only he tin can just fit that which the stanzas volition allow. Hence he creates volatility in the second verse, a move that keeps listeners uncomfortably on their feet. There's no time to settle back into whatsoever normalcy or parallel structures:

Information technology's on America'due south tortured forehead
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow

• Mickey Mouse has lost his purpose due to commercialism – he exists to brand money. "America" is presented hither as the ultimate backer land.

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

• Here Bowie inserts communist and socialist rhetoric to weigh (or maybe destabilize) the prior capitalism reference. His clever Lennon/Lenin, Beatles/socialism pun serves as a nod to both capitalist consumption (Lennon) and socialist idealism (Lenin).
• The million mice reference farther pushes socialist/communist ideas. Giving them homes both in Mediterranean Isle of Ibiza, all the way to Norfolk, in the Northeast of England, adds tension in the form of real places.This is not Mars. This is Earth.

Dominion Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my canis familiaris, and clowns

• "Rule Britannia," an old British patriotic song, is considered among the most lasting expressions of the conception of Britain and the British Empire. It is itself quite the hypocritical song, celebrating "victory" in the face of the merciless slaughtering of innocent lives. For the vocal to be "out of bounds," or banned in any fashion by the proverbial female parent and clowns might be a reference to Britain trying to hide its shameful past, which, to a younger generation, might seem just as inadmissible every bit the historical events themselves.

But the picture show is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote information technology ten times or more
It'south virtually to be writ once again
Equally I ask you lot to focus on

History repeats itself… And on, into the chorus. I love the fact that Bowie takes ownership here. He would technically have to say "I" – or perhaps "we" – in order to fit the song'southward construction, merely the personal buying expressed in "I wrote" serves every bit a claim to the narrative, and therefore to this world, as seen through Bowie'southward eyes.

All beautiful melodies and inspiring music aside, "Life on Mars?" appears to be a turbulent and disquisitional commentary on the state of society. Bowie offers his argument through vivid depictions of seemingly fantastical beings, even so in one case the song is broken down into its sub-components, everything seems to brand relative sense. Humanity has lost its humanness; we no longer care nigh helping our fellow person in need. Despite the myriad issues facing Bowie'southward not-so-distant dystopia, people are focused – hooked, to use Bowie'due south language – on the well-nigh inconsequential and to the lowest degree-immediate issues of the day. The question, "Is there life on Mars?" feels now like the most offensive things someone could bring up, in low-cal of all these topical issues.

"Life on Mars?" is most certainly David Bowie'south vessel for calling out lodge's corruption, only the song is far more than organized and focused than I had initially thought. Once you break it downward, the song makes terrific sense, but it's hard to imagine any single mind concocting such a seemingly erratic, notwithstanding immensely succinct critique. This is David Bowie's genius: A small, 4-minute case of the corking lyrical and musical mastermind. Residuum in Peace.

David Bowie // vrworld.com

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Source: https://atwoodmagazine.com/life-on-mars-david-bowie/

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