Back at It Again With the Mousy Hair

Information technology'southward a God-atrocious small affair
To the girl with the mousy pilus

There can exist no doubt that David Bowie was one of the almost colorful, eccentric and inspired minds to grace the music world. An innovator and pioneer, Bowie has been an inspiration for multiple generations to spread their wings and fly, and in that location can be no doubt that his mark will be well-remembered in the annals of history. His death marks the tragic loss of a cultural icon, yet it also offers an opportunity to celebrate his life and his oeuvre.

Atwood Mag has chosen a runway review of a favorite Bowie song, "Life on Mars?" every bit anin memoriam for this neat man.

Spotter: "Life on Mars?" – David Bowie

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

Equally I struggle to come to terms with not only his passing, but besides the way in which Bowie has influenced me, I hope to gain insight into whatever it is that makes this 45-yr-erstwhile song so special and timeless.

But her friend is nowhere to be seen
At present she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen

Perhaps it'due south considering of the song's complexity: Bowie gives us and then much to dissect in lyrics that are function-story and part-commentary. The story of the "girl with the mousy hair" is all simply lost by the time nosotros reach the second verse, as Bowie attempts to concentrate his lyrics around a crudely-constructed commentary on corruption andhistory repeating itself.

Only the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived information technology ten times or more than

Perhaps it's considering of the song'due south deception: "Life on Mars?" presents itself as an innocent love song, yet it dives deep into the human psyche, pressing us to ponder politics and abuse, perception and reality, conception and existence – "the works," if y'all will.

It is far easier to say what "Life on Mars?" is not, rather than what it is: Though it is musically disguised every bit a carol, driven by an embellishing piano arrangement with tender orchestral accessory, by whatever measure, "Life on Mars?" isnot innocent.

But the pic is a saddening bore
For she's lived information technology ten times or more

Hunky Dory – David Bowie

I truly don't believe that even the late David Bowie himself knew altogether what "Life on Mars?" was nearly. The song reaches a number of levels and touches on and so many abstruse, loosely interconnected concepts that, but similar whatsoever of the great nineteenth century operas, defining "Life on Mars?" by any singular plot line would be doing the song and its creator a significant disservice.

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

The song does seem to carry ane predominant, subtle motif: That of human being abuse. Rather than take a superlative-down approach, I prefer to offering a bottom-upward analysis, realizing the song past the sum of its parts, rather than as a whole. Is "Life on Mars?" a quasi-commentary on corruption and the cyclic repetition of mankind's mistakes? Permit's find out!

She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they enquire her to focus on –

Our introduction to "Life on Mars?" comes to us through the eyes of "the girl with the mousy hair," who experiences some form of abandonment from her parents: A mother yelling "no" and a father telling her to go out can exist 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 television set is described here as "the sea t with the clearest view;" meanwhile, the girl is "hooked" –a reaction to order's dependence on media, perhaps?– to the "silver screen."

Crash!Tension enters in the course of orchestral strings that tear into the clean piano. Bowie starts to shift the focus abroad from the daughter and onto the media content, which is described as a reflection of existent life: "… the film is a saddening bore, for she's lived information technology x times or more." What does it mean for the shows to exist a direct reflection of life feel? We tin can learn this from the chorus:

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh homo look at those cavemen get
Information technology's the freakiest testify
Take a look at the constable
Beating up the incorrect guy
Oh man wonder if he'll always know
He's in the best selling evidence
Is there life on Mars?

"The freakiest show" is certainly right. The sailors and cavemen may be separate entities entirely, just information technology is simply as fair to entertain the prospect that they are one and the same: Sailors become cavemen, i.eastward. they act unintelligent, aggressive, and uncivilized. "The lawman chirapsia up the wrong guy." Deplorable to say this seems not to have changed in the past twoscore-five years; the concept ofsociety losing sight of itselfis predominately stiff in the chorus' imagery.

This ultimately leads to the final line:

Is in that location life on Mars?

Which tin easily have two dozen interpretations. Here are a few:

1. The narrator, in antipathy for the uncivilized, foul state of life on World – which we understand to be that way from its reflection on Television set – would rather be elsewhere. "Is in that location life on Mars?" is an honest inquiry into, shall we say, a potential change of address. The narrator would do anything to get off this planet and find another, more hospitable and warm domicile.
2. The question oflife on Mars – and moreover, is there life beyond Globe– is certainly 1 of mankind's greatest unanswered questions. However, permit'south consider the context of the song: "Life on Mars?" was released as a single off David Bowie's anthologyHunky Dory in 1971, just two years after the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969. In 2016, the question oflife on Mars doesn't feel all that alien: With multiple rovers in that location, Mars is no longer as far away as information technology in one case was. In 1971, Mars felt calorie-free-years abroad. Ane can nearly hear a motherly scold: Mankind has merely reached the moon, and you already want to go to Mars?
3. As potent as the question's context is its contrast within the chorus. The dynamic juxtaposition between the previously-stated societal problems and the ultimate question is so strong that it nigh feels ironic. Again, I choose to invoke the motherly scold:All of these bug on Earth, and hither you are thinking well-nigh Mars?! Why don't you fix the Earth earlier venturing off into space?

All three of these interpretations hold weight and demand not be entirely separated, but I find myself fatigued most to the tertiary point – that society has all these bug, yet we dwell on the least pressing, nigh abstract one: Life on Mars. Mars is our escape. It is our manner of masking the bug that really matter – domestic violence; corruption; endless war. These are the things that affect our daily lives, yet at the end of the day, what does everybody want to know? Bowie fifty-fifty made it the title of his song:Is there life on Mars?

Bowie dives deeper into lodge's corruption in his second verse:

Information technology'south on America'due south tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon'southward on auction again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Dominion Britannia is out of bounds
To my female parent, my dog, and clowns

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

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow

• Mickey Mouse has lost his purpose due to capitalism – he exists to make money. "America" is presented hither as the ultimate backer state.

Now the workers have struck for fame
'Crusade 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 counterbalance (or perhaps 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 premises
To my mother, my dog, and clowns

• "Rule Britannia," an old British patriotic vocal, is considered amidst the nearly lasting expressions of the formulation of Britain and the British Empire. It is itself quite the hypocritical song, jubilant "victory" in the confront of the merciless slaughtering of innocent lives. For the vocal to exist "out of bounds," or banned in any way by the proverbial mother and clowns might be a reference to Great britain trying to hide its shameful past, which, to a younger generation, might seem merely as inadmissible equally the historical events themselves.

But the picture show is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It'southward about to exist writ over again
Equally I ask you to focus on

History repeats itself… And on, into the chorus. I honey the fact that Bowie takes ownership here. He would technically accept to say "I" – or mayhap "we" – in order to fit the song'due south structure, just the personal ownership expressed in "I wrote" serves as a claim to the narrative, and therefore to this world, equally seen through Bowie's optics.

All beautiful melodies and inspiring music bated, "Life on Mars?" appears to be a turbulent and critical commentary on the country of society. Bowie offers his statement through bright depictions of seemingly fantastical beings, yet once the song is broken downwards into its sub-components, everything seems to brand relative sense. Humanity has lost its humanness; we no longer care about helping our fellow person in need. Despite the myriad issues facing Bowie's not-so-distant dystopia, people are focused – hooked, to use Bowie's language – on the well-nigh inconsequential and to the lowest degree-immediate issues of the day. The question, "Is there life on Mars?" feels at present like the almost offensive things someone could bring up, in calorie-free of all these topical problems.

"Life on Mars?" is most certainly David Bowie'southward vessel for calling out society's corruption, just the vocal is far more organized and focused than I had initially thought. Once you lot pause it downwardly, the song makes terrific sense, but it's difficult to imagine any unmarried mind concocting such a seemingly erratic, yet immensely succinct critique. This is David Bowie'southward genius: A small, four-minute example of the groovy lyrical and musical mastermind. Rest in Peace.

David Bowie // vrworld.com

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