In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Like to take a cement fix
Be a standing cinema
Dress my friends up just for show
See them as they really are
Put a peephole in my brain
Two New Pence to have a go
I'd like to be a gallery
Put you all inside my show
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Andy walking, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he's fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise
When he wake up on the sea
He sure to think of me and you
He'll think about paint and he'll think about glue
What a jolly boring thing to do
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Be a standing cinema
Dress my friends up just for show
See them as they really are
Put a peephole in my brain
Two New Pence to have a go
I'd like to be a gallery
Put you all inside my show
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Andy walking, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he's fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise
When he wake up on the sea
He sure to think of me and you
He'll think about paint and he'll think about glue
What a jolly boring thing to do
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Lyrics submitted by magicnudiesuit
Andy Warhol Lyrics as written by David Bowie
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Appearantly, Warhol came to Bowies studio while Hunky Dory was under recording, and Bowie played this for him. Warhol didn't like it, and got so mad he left, but before he shut the door he said: "You have very nice shoes David".
Just a bit of weird trivia.
Andy Warhol had a shoe fetish too ;D
It does seem to be poking fun at andy with lines like: He'll think about paint and he'll think about glue What a jolly boring thing to do So I can understand why warhol might have been offended, but I would imagine Bowie really respected him, being a former art teacher.
Bowie > Metallica.
David Bowie actually played Andy Warhol in the movie <i>Basquiat</i>
Does the first 40 seconds of this song remind anyone else of The Legend of Zelda??? lol. :P
@lastoftherockstars Metroid more like XD
Thanks genetru, for pointing something out that suckmykiss mentioned at the very first comment.
After Bowie had written this song, I heard that Andy was pissed out of his mind. He did not like this at all. Kind of ironic, after the things Bowie said about him in 1971, only to play him 24 years later in Basquiat.
Apparently Bowie and Warhol got on fairly well after the ice was broken. True, he didn't really like the song because he thought it was making fun of the way he looked, and at the beginning of the conversation there was a couple of minutes of awkward silence, but then they got into the conversation about shoes.
There was no storming out it appears. Very exccentric though, shoes.
Not too eccentric. I bet they really were cool shoes.
To me, this song is about blurring the line between the artist and his art. Think about it: "be a standing cinema"; "put a peephole in my brain/two new pence to have a go/I'd like to be a gallery." The first verse basically expresses themes of not making the art, but becoming it. He wants to reinvent himself in such a way that he is a walking art piece. Just my take on it, anyway. Granted, the second verse doesn't seem to support this theory...I have no idea what that's about.
Personally, I'd be more than happy to shell out two pence for a look in Bowie's brain! :D
"Andy walking, Andy tired..." is a sarcastic reference to Andy Pandy, a children's puppet show on 1950s/1960s British TV. The world-famous artist is being likened to a marionette of a toddler in a clown costume...