I think this song is about New York, where Bowie lived.
New York attracts people who are chasing dreams. For many, this means living shoulder-to-shoulder in "tenement halls", working a lot to make ends meet, while trying desperately to remember the dream that brought them there. And this can go on and on for years or decades, while your friends back home age and get married and move on, but the dream keeps you hanging on. That's the slow burn.
"Here are we, at the center of it all" (NY is the center of the world in many minds)
"Where the price for our minds shall squeeze them tight like a fist" - the cost of living keeps you tense
"But we'll dance in their dark and they'll play with our lives" - "They" might be the landlords, the wallstreet brokers, the wealthy powers all around that seem to own the city, the building, the museum, the cultural institutions... It's their town, we're living in it, and they play with our lives.
Bowie was probably wealthy enough to avoid some of the pitfalls described in the song, but maybe absorbed the atmosphere of the city and the feelings of the people around him. I think this does a great job of capturing the exhaustion and stress of living in that city for many people. As a former resident myself, this resonated.
I think this song is about New York, where Bowie lived.
New York attracts people who are chasing dreams. For many, this means living shoulder-to-shoulder in "tenement halls", working a lot to make ends meet, while trying desperately to remember the dream that brought them there. And this can go on and on for years or decades, while your friends back home age and get married and move on, but the dream keeps you hanging on. That's the slow burn.
"Here are we, at the center of it all" (NY is the center of the world in many minds) "Where the price for our minds shall squeeze them tight like a fist" - the cost of living keeps you tense "But we'll dance in their dark and they'll play with our lives" - "They" might be the landlords, the wallstreet brokers, the wealthy powers all around that seem to own the city, the building, the museum, the cultural institutions... It's their town, we're living in it, and they play with our lives.
Bowie was probably wealthy enough to avoid some of the pitfalls described in the song, but maybe absorbed the atmosphere of the city and the feelings of the people around him. I think this does a great job of capturing the exhaustion and stress of living in that city for many people. As a former resident myself, this resonated.