The question "Is there life on mars?" is, I think, like saying "Is this the best we can do? Help! Stop the world I want to get off!" I think he wrote it as a stream of consciousness. maybe not...
@georgy You are entirely correct, and I am afraid all other (lengthy) explanations are wrong.
@georgy You are entirely correct, and I am afraid all other (lengthy) explanations are wrong.
Bowie actually gave an interview about writing this song, stating it came to him after a group of sailors got into a fight in a park, where he was one morning. He took the bus back to his studio and composed.
Bowie actually gave an interview about writing this song, stating it came to him after a group of sailors got into a fight in a park, where he was one morning. He took the bus back to his studio and composed.
The girl protagonist can't find an escape from her family problems, not in film, not elsewhere. And on a larger scale, America's rise to power after the horizon of the British empire where once the sun never sat, is not without its own compromises. The escapes of media are insufficient to cope with bitter realities. As you have said, "is this the best we can do"? Gosh, I hope there is "Life on Mars", because this here is a mess.
@georgy@georgy thanks for confirming what I thought about the song. Yes I've read a lengthy explanation that I think is lost I its own confusion. "Is there life on Mars"... Screams of escape to me. Is there somewhere better than here.
@georgy@georgy thanks for confirming what I thought about the song. Yes I've read a lengthy explanation that I think is lost I its own confusion. "Is there life on Mars"... Screams of escape to me. Is there somewhere better than here.
@georgy agreed. Although in nostalgic retrospect, it's hard for me to imagine wanting to stop the world and get off as you sat and wrote this , the summer after I graduated from high school. Especially considering how the world is now. It's even harder to imagine it in '71. Literally as I was not yet born. Figuratively because I've always imagined that if I could time travel to a different time, it would be the early 70s.
@georgy agreed. Although in nostalgic retrospect, it's hard for me to imagine wanting to stop the world and get off as you sat and wrote this , the summer after I graduated from high school. Especially considering how the world is now. It's even harder to imagine it in '71. Literally as I was not yet born. Figuratively because I've always imagined that if I could time travel to a different time, it would be the early 70s.
2024 blows. Social media blows. Or is it that I'm becoming increasingly jaded? If I'm still around in my very early 60s, maybe this page will still be here and Gen Z can tell me. Although I will probably just have to ask my kids since technology has progressed so much in the past 22 years that I'm sure in another 22 years if the world is still even here and not some post apocalyptic wasteland... I'll likely have no idea how to use it anymore. Barely do now and I haven't hit 40 quite yet.
Damn I miss 2002 internet. Met my husband back in those "wild west" days of the "here"
My God I need to go to bed and quit reading song analyses...
The question "Is there life on mars?" is, I think, like saying "Is this the best we can do? Help! Stop the world I want to get off!" I think he wrote it as a stream of consciousness. maybe not...
I agree, tells the story of a innocent girls who is disappointed and yearns for something else.
I agree, tells the story of a innocent girls who is disappointed and yearns for something else.
A 'scream' of consciousness, perhaps?
A 'scream' of consciousness, perhaps?
@georgy You are entirely correct, and I am afraid all other (lengthy) explanations are wrong.
@georgy You are entirely correct, and I am afraid all other (lengthy) explanations are wrong.
Bowie actually gave an interview about writing this song, stating it came to him after a group of sailors got into a fight in a park, where he was one morning. He took the bus back to his studio and composed.
Bowie actually gave an interview about writing this song, stating it came to him after a group of sailors got into a fight in a park, where he was one morning. He took the bus back to his studio and composed.
The girl protagonist can't find an escape from her family problems, not in film, not elsewhere. And on a larger scale, America's rise to power after the horizon of the British empire where once the sun never sat, is not without its own compromises. The escapes of media are insufficient to cope with bitter realities. As you have said, "is this the best we can do"? Gosh, I hope there is "Life on Mars", because this here is a mess.
@georgy I heartily agree, George.
@georgy I heartily agree, George.
@georgy @georgy thanks for confirming what I thought about the song. Yes I've read a lengthy explanation that I think is lost I its own confusion. "Is there life on Mars"... Screams of escape to me. Is there somewhere better than here.
@georgy @georgy thanks for confirming what I thought about the song. Yes I've read a lengthy explanation that I think is lost I its own confusion. "Is there life on Mars"... Screams of escape to me. Is there somewhere better than here.
@georgy agreed. Although in nostalgic retrospect, it's hard for me to imagine wanting to stop the world and get off as you sat and wrote this , the summer after I graduated from high school. Especially considering how the world is now. It's even harder to imagine it in '71. Literally as I was not yet born. Figuratively because I've always imagined that if I could time travel to a different time, it would be the early 70s.
@georgy agreed. Although in nostalgic retrospect, it's hard for me to imagine wanting to stop the world and get off as you sat and wrote this , the summer after I graduated from high school. Especially considering how the world is now. It's even harder to imagine it in '71. Literally as I was not yet born. Figuratively because I've always imagined that if I could time travel to a different time, it would be the early 70s.
2024 blows. Social media blows. Or is it that I'm becoming increasingly jaded? If I'm still around in my very early 60s, maybe this page will still be here and Gen Z can tell me. Although I will probably just have to ask my kids since technology has progressed so much in the past 22 years that I'm sure in another 22 years if the world is still even here and not some post apocalyptic wasteland... I'll likely have no idea how to use it anymore. Barely do now and I haven't hit 40 quite yet.
Damn I miss 2002 internet. Met my husband back in those "wild west" days of the "here"
My God I need to go to bed and quit reading song analyses...
Okay, um... Gonna awkwardly leave now.