David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things

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  General Comment:This song, for me, was about teenage exploration, and more importantly, about the "parental unit(s)" dealing with that inevitable launch from the nest. I hear Bowie understanding what it must be like, from a parent's perspective, to find a teen, in bed long after he/she "should be up". Wake up, shake it off, i've made breakfast. The crack in the sky, is the friends reaching down to the child, he/she is lost to the parent, they are here to stay, those that will take your little one away. It's the realization moment that your precious little child is (maybe) gone, off into the "real world." Don't you know you're driving your Mothers and Fathers insane? To me, It's that "let go" moment, when teens become adults and there isn't a f'ing thing you can do about it.

  Flagged kevmson February 20, 2013   Link

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• -2
  General Comment:I don't think I have it right by any means, but to me the song is about an alien invasion of superior beings and the disruption of our way of life. The "all the nightmares came today" sounds spooky to me. Honestly, though, I believe in the Nietsche interpretation. I just can't help but imagine a horrible alien invasion when I hear this. The cheerful tone juxtaposes the subject matter.

  Flag sergeantnion February 13, 2013   Link

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• -2
  General Comment:It may well not be about homosexuality but I'm sure, as a songwriter and lyricist, Bowie was aware that such lyrics had those connotations.
  If he didn't want some of that meaning to come through he'd have probably found something else to go in there. Just my 2 bob.
  It seems quite a camp, bouncy song so I think those lines can be read into in such a way.

  Flag bdementiaon October 11, 2012   Link

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• -1
  General Comment:I think this song is based on The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (aka as the film Village of the Damned).
  
  Synopsis.
  Everyone in the village is made unconsious for a day and an unidentified craft is seen in the centre of the village but disappears after a day. Life returns to normal except that all the women are pregnant, and give birth at the same time 9 months later to 61 children, 31 boys, 30 girls (known as The Children) who are all golden eyed and silver skinned and look similar to each other, but nothing like their parents. Without going into too much detail, it is believed The Children are the children of aliens (a new race). The Children have telepathic and telekentic abilities and look after each other, and attack anyone who looks like attacking them.
  
  Look at your children
  See their faces in golden rays
  Don't kid yourself they belong to you
  They're the start of a coming race
  The earth is a bitch
  We've finished our news
  Homo sapiens have outgrown their use
  All the strangers came today
  And it looks as though they're here to stay

  Flag TerryTregon May 21, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:once again I have to point out the bullshit meanings this website is getting for a song.
  
  Sorry. This song is about the superman theory by Nietsche. Google it. Bowie, around this time was a strong supporter of that theory, but being inconsistent, he did eventually change his mind. He believed in the evolution of man into a Homo Superior, a better man in every way.

  Flagged SilverScreen89on December 27, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:cs.tau.ac.il/~alper/…
  This is interesting.

  Flag Isaakon July 14, 2011   Link

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  Song Meaning:The song is very good! Thinking the song was when Bowie was Ziggy Stardust and if you follow the story line of Ziggy Stardust the world is gonna end in five years as the song explains.. and Ziggy Stardust is this good Rock 'N' Roll alien sent frim his planet to help Earth also the kids are free to do what the want and the children have been given whatever they wanted from Ziggy as they understood what was going to happen in five years. The adults wouldn't listen so Ziggy decided to sing a song to make them understand and that's where Oh! you pretty things comes in. Homo Sapiens is another word for super humans. The martians are coming and Ziggy dies because he ripped to shreds by the martians and planet earth is doomed and so the adults will be destroyed, but the children are still surviving and will start a new generation. Sorry I've done quite a bit Ziggy Stardust research love him Sorry if it doesn't make alot of sense I'm 12 and it's really quite complicated to explain I'm open minded so please tell me your points of view! Thanks for Reading =)

  Flag Bowiesbiggestfanon June 29, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I think Rainbow and Rammsteingirl are both part-right - but more than anything else this is a song about the early-20th-century sci-fi novel "The Coming Race", whoever that was by...
  
  I'm not sure that Bowie's "bisexuality" was completely put-on. He's said that, but only in times when he felt under pressure to clean up his image (like when Thatcher and Reagan were in power, a time when sexually ambiguous and/or homosexual performers were only tolerated if they kept quiet about sex itself). He may never have gotten it on with Lou or Iggy (Todd Haynes please note!) - but there's the little matter of Calvin Mark Lee...

  Flag imrazoron July 30, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Anyone ever listened to Elton John's "Mellow"? Released about a year after "Oh, You Pretty Things" came out. The "Mellow" lyrics are similar in style to the first verse of this song, and the choruses even sound similar. I think Elton must have been greatly influenced by Bowie. He was the American copycat, but credit to Bernie Taupin - great lyricist.

  Flag NellieWhiskeyon June 19, 2010   Link

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    0

    American?

    Flag kevmson February 20, 2013  
• +1
  General Comment:I'm with the 'Nietzsche' interpretation. I'm not sure that Nietzsche himself ever actually used the phrase 'homo superior', but it is a term that anyone would associate with him. As for the Arthur C. Clarke connection, obviously Bowie had some interest in science fiction, but Clarke himself was probably drawing on Nietzschean themes, so the two interpretations are not mutually exclusive. Nothing to do with homosexuality, of course.

  Flag DavidBon January 13, 2010   Link

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