Tuesday, April 5, 2011

David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes (album: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 1980)

This next song is by David Bowie. This is one of my favourite Bowie songs, the music is brilliant and it’s basically a continuation of the Major Tom story from his early 1969 song “Space Oddity”, if you thought Major Tom is about an astronaut lost in space then it’s actually about a drug addict, Bowie meant a different kind of space travelling. This is just an amazing idea of Bowie to create a sequel to his old and good song. Isn’t he a genius?!?

Speaking of ashes, when I was a teenager my friends and I used to play a game with the cigarette ashes. We called it “a whore cigarette” we would all sit in a circle and pass a cigarette from one another and whoever dropped the ashes would have to complete a stupid funny task that we all made up. It was funny because we made up stupid tasks like running around naked in the park or licking each other ears and all kind of really stupid teenager ideas. This game was similar to truth or dare just without the truth and a lot of dare. If someone would get naked we would throw his clothes on top of a tree so he would have to climb naked to get it. It was really fun playing that game. I don’t remember doing anything degrading, usually it was the boys that dropped the ashes a lot and had to cope with really silly tasks. Check out his wonderful ashes song…

Link to the song: Ashes to Ashes David Bowie



Lyrics: Ashes to Ashes Lyrics



What’s this song about?
Melancholic and introspective, "Ashes to Ashes" featured Bowie's reinterpretation of "a guy that's been in such an early song", namely Major Tom from his first hit in 1969, "Space Oddity". Described as "containing more messages per second" than any single released in 1980,instead of a hippie astronaut who casually slips the bonds of a crass and material world to journey beyond the stars, the song describes Major Tom as a "junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low". This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie's 1977 album Low, which charted his withdrawal inwards following his drug excesses in America a short time before, another reversal of Major Tom's original withdrawal 'outwards' or towards space.
Bowie himself said in an interview with NME shortly after the single's release, "It really is an ode to childhood, if you like, a popular nursery rhyme. It's about space men becoming junkies (laughs)." (Wikipedia – Ashes to Ashes)

David Bowie Official Website: David Bowie

Info about David Bowie: Wikipedia - David Bowie