I know that some of you will not like this post, but I want you to know that I posted it without wanting to hurt people's feelings.

Yesterday I was reading an article about the attacks of 9/11, like anyone else, I've felt very bad about it. Afterward I put on "Never Let Me Down" and reading the lyrics along with the cd, some phrases had a whole new meaning for me.

Before you think I'm into Nostradamus and stuff: absolutely not! But I've formed a text consisting of verses and pieces of the NLMD album and maybe then you will understand what I mean.

This city's all clean and waiting
I don't mean to wait too long
But this joint can't get much higher

Rockets shooting up into space
Buildings they rise to the skies

Rise buildings
Rise to the sky

You've arrived in the land of a thousand different names
And the fabulous sons have crashed their planes in flames
Rocket on thru the sky
Too much smoke, air conditioning gone
Now tomorrow's back claiming redemption is on your heels

New York's in flames

Stay low on the ground,
fire can drive you, savage and afraid

It's now the dead speak to the living
Nothing left here but a raging blaze

First thing she learns is she's a citizen,
some things they turn out right
When you're under the USA

Suddenly there's angels everywhere
Angels in a ton of sound
Bang Bang you all Angels

a macabre shrine of remains
it had many layers
Like floors in a building
When the breeze blew thru this construction
It produced sounds of wailing, crying

No hope heroes cover the page with depts in hell
And fingers in blood
Poor little bodies all covered in scabs threw it all away
Another life in the grave
Another life in the grave





God doesn't care if I'm good

I enjoyed that.

I hope that I can say the things I wish I'd said.

I knew a government man
He was as blind as the moon
He took a top gun pilot
and made him fly thru a hole
and he never came down
he just flew till he burst.

Brilliant, Cryx. Chilling.

That was very good indeed. Though it would probably be possible to make something like that from any album (especially Bowie's album, since they're mostly about deranged people or unban decadence). But it was never the less rather good.


Bowie-Eno is Finnish for Uncle Bowie

I listened to NLMD last week very loudly in the car for the first time in a long time. I sang along like I was 18 again and I had the same thoughts as this post Cryx... many of the lyrics were so relevant to now I couldn't believe it.

I also recently re-read the Tom Robbins novel "Skinny Legs and All" and it's relevance to post-9/11 is very scary indeed. Hugely recommended for an interesting and historical insight into the history of the middle east and it's conflicts while reading a story about a can of beans crossing the States with a dirty sock and a painted stick on their way to Jerusalem .

Get Bowie to Australia.
G.B.A - All The Way

I've been thinking about this for a while now. Coming back to this forum I can't believe people haven't played around more with the connections that can be made with this album and 9/11 which are so plentiful as to be frightening.

As soon as I get me a working scanner, or get hold of one, I'll scan my lyric sheet to NLMD (I'm not sure if everyone elses is the same). Turn it on it's side and the hackles on the back of your neck will stand up. You get an image of a city skyline with smoke above it.

TIME WILL CRAWL

I never sailed on a sea (Afganistan, landlocked country)
I never challenged a giant (Their war against the USSR and USA, two giants)
I could not take on the church (Taliban's splintering of Islam and it's ambition to BE Islam totally)
Time will crawl till the 21st century lose (A long long war, who is the loser spoken of?)

I know a government man (Osama Bin Laden, polital figure enforcing his power through religious dogma)
He was as blind as a moon (speaks for itself, except for the meaning behind the moon)
...
He took a top gun pilot
He made him fly through a hole
...
and he never came down
he just flew till he burst (events of 9/11)

I felt a warm warm breeze
That melted metal and steel (Watch : Why the towers collapsed)

and really, I don't mean to frighten anybody, but :

You were a talented child (AQ agent, young, very well trained)
You came to live in our town (As their agents do, for years integrating themselves)
We never bothered to scream
When your mask went on
We only smelt the gas
As we lay down to sleep......(now that's scary)

Please note : don't let my stupid post scare you, it's only playing around with lyrics which you can do matching nearly any song to any event/time in history

On looking at the album further I just have to add more. Look at the album cover, what's prominent on it? Look :

Fire
Smoke
What looks to be a skyscraper
A cannon
A black angel
...all part of a mad circus

NEVER LET ME DOWN

Bits and pieces again and again centering on the towers collapse :

Trapped in a high-dollar joint
She was shakin'
When I was falling to pieces
You were shakin'
I screamed in pain
till the bad stuff breaks

THE FIRST FOUR LINES OF ZEROES speak for themselves, especially the "fabulous sons who crashed their planes in flames"

GLASS SPIDER

It's web was also unique in that it had many layers, like the floors of a building.
...it produced sounds of wailing, crying

NEW YORK'S IN LOVE

Isn't it just the strangest thing that New York should be mentioned in an album filled with a frightening array of lyrics seemingly connected with 9/11?

...this city's all clean and waiting...

'87 AND CRY

If the war is lost in the year 2087, then this album will go down in history

BANG BANG

(which reminds me, video tape, video cameras, catching things on film are mentioned so many times in this album, why?)

A few last words from the bastard terrorists :

Bang bang, I got mine
Bang, bang, and you are next in line
Bang bang, reach for the sky (now mocking)
Bang bang, sun don't shine

Rise buildings
Rise to the sky...

Edited by PHOENIX on 03/08/02 08:49 AM (server time).

In reply to:

---

He took a top gun pilot
He made him fly through a hole
...
and he never came down
he just flew till he burst (events of 9/11)

I felt a warm warm breeze
That melted metal and steel (Watch: Why the towers collapsed)

---

Boy, that is scaring. I will definitely give NLMD a hearing tonight. The first in years.



And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

wow. I don't have NLMD, so I would never make the comparisons, but that is amazing....

red, white, and blue make light purple

You almost forgot:

WE'LL GIVE EVERY LIFE
FOR THE CRACKPOT NOTION

And I’ll give Too Dizzy a mention too.

I'm trying not to lose control
But you're just pushin' for a fight
You look trapped, turn the radio on
Too much smoke, air conditioning gone

Who's this guy I'm gonna blow away
What kind of love is he giving you

One explanation is that David was trying to describe a great city that faces decline under any circumstances, whether it be through war or huge social problems that await us in the future.

Another explanation is that he's talking about his music career after he's released the album.

Helibo seyoman, Cheli venco raero and stuff