What is Bowie's:

a) most surreal lyric

b) most experimental lyric

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

d) most silly lyric

e) most romantic lyric

f) most annoying lyric.


Answer all questions or part thereof.


Bowie in Australia 2004 | Join the Community

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f) most annoying lyric.

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I find the ending of Looking For Water really annoying! (Where he kees repeating the phrase.) I don't know if I'd consider this his most annoying lyric, but it definately came to mind first.

The sisters fell back and said "Don't that man look pretty!"

a) most surreal lyric
"Zane, zane, zane, ouvre le chien"? it's not really surreal in its meaning but not knowing what is behind this, it would sound weird to open a dog.
b) most experimental lyric
"shelly, shelly, hummmmmmm" or whatever it is. but perhaps its rather chanting than experimentation...
c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person
i'd say "ch-ch-ch-changes" if it wasn't too obvious...
d) most silly lyric
girls.
e) most romantic lyric
letter to hermione.
f) most annoying lyric.
87 and cry? i dunno. perhaps it's just the most annoying song...

"Have you tried... not being a mutant?"

most silly lyric: "I've got eyes on my backside, that see electric tomatoes."

"you'd get less bruises if you didn't act that way" -DB

What about "Be real deranged Salaam before we reel" (from "I'm Deranged")as a surreal lyric? Well, the whole song is quite strange...

Most silly lyric: My little China Girl...

Lyric, that describes Bowie: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes???? (But that's too uncreative.)

Just because I believe don't mean I don't think as well

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e)

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One thing kind of touched me today
I looked at you and counted all the times we had laid
Pressing our love through the night
Knowing it's right, knowing it's right]

I`ve no-one to talk to, anyway

I'd actually say Warszawa over Subterraneans for most experimental, if they count.

a) most surreal lyric
"Oh by jingo"
-After All. It looks silly written down, but the way it's sung and the effects put on it gives it quite a surreal twist.

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person
"I've no defence
I've got to keep my veil on my face

Janine, Janine, you'd like to know me well
But I've got things inside my head
That even I can't face

Janine, Janine, you'd like to crash my walls
But if you take an axe to me
You'll kill another man
Not me at all"
-Janine. Not Changes, surprisingly.

d) most silly lyric
"Lonely-Ha Ha-what does it mean"
-Bang Bang. The rest of the lyrics are pretty crap, too. This is also a candidate for most annoying lyric.

e) most romantic lyric
"We could steal time, just for one day."
-'Heroes.' This is a given.

But then, why should I speak, since I know nothing.

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This is also a candidate for most annoying lyric.

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Then it will make you happy to note that 'Bang Bang' is not a Bowie lyric but a cover of an Iggy Pop song. I'm sorry, I get nitpicky when I'm tired.

f) Most annoying lyric

The end of the song Chant Of The Ever-Circling Skeletal Family

FUNKIE MUNKIES ARE OK WITH ME

)most surreal lyric: "But the little green wheels are following me
Oh no, not again" -Ashes to Ashes. Perhaps not as quite as surreal as electric tomatos, but this one's rather strange for me.


b) most experimental lyric: Wild Is The WInd...I think the whole song is experimental. It's got some good vocals

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person: "I'm goddamn rich
I'm exploading, man" -Fall Dog Bombs The Moon. ((Okay, so it's not HIM but it is about him, being Mr. Money bags and all))

d) most silly lyric: "I'm a Laughing Gnome and You Can't Catch me"

e) most romantic lyric: "I'll Paint You Mornings Of Gold, I'll Spin you Valentine Evenings, But we're strangers till now, we're choosing the path between the stars, I'll lay my love, between the stars" -As The World Falls Down.
((first thing that came to mind)

f) most annoying lyric...have to agree with "Lookin' For Water"



Hello, I love you...

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not a Bowie lyric but a cover of an Iggy Pop song

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Well, yes, but if instrumentals count, I'd say anything goes.
No offence meant, of course.

But then, why should I speak, since I know nothing.

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a) most surreal lyric

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I'd have to agree with blooby's response there.

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b) most experimental lyric

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Surely surrealism and experimentalism are fairly closely related.

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c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

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The less we know, the better we feel (Miracle Goodnight)

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d) most silly lyric

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Adam's nemesis: I wish I'd play the doodah horn / The doodah horn is fine (the forgotten verse of Ching-A-Ling)

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e) most romantic lyric

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Don't sit down (Don't Sit Down)

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f) most annoying lyric

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Ha ha ha (Reality)

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g) worst lyric

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I'll cover your head till the bad stuff breaks (Never Let Me Down)

Question Marks

a) "As a love machine lumbers through desolation rows" Cygnet Committee

b) "Zane, Zane, Zane, ouvre le chien." All The Madmen

c) "A cock ain't a cock on a 12 inch screen" Candidate (demo)

f)" I bless you madly, sadly as I tie my shoes, I love you badly, just in time at times I guess..." Again, Cygnet Committee

Anyway, ask me again in a week, might get a slightly different answer.

What about;

g) Most sexual lyric

h) Most perverted lyric (in a bad way)





"The time is sublime and the moon is so right"

Edited by cucumber on 03/24/04 02:38 AM (server time).

Most sexual/perverted

I was stone and he was wax/ so he could scream and still relax

if you dont behave, I'll turn this message board around and we'll just go home

Okay, by perverted I meant disturbing and by sexual I meant something that really turns you on. Like:

g)"I've been waiting for you, and you've been coming to me...for such a long time now. FOR SUCH A LONG TIME NOW!"

h) "Soon you'll grow so take a chance with a couple of kooks, hung up on romancing"

Well Kooks was written about Zowie so I guess this makes it a little bit less disturbing but still.



"The time is sublime and the moon is so right"

a) most surreal lyric

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through (Memory of a Free Festival) The way this song seems to suddenly change topic and start talking about spacemen is kind of..surreal.


b) most experimental lyric

Research has pierced
All extremes of my sex (Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)) or several others from the same album


c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

Something about me stood apart (Thrusday's Child) I've always suspected that deep down Bowie is a bit of an awkward misfit.


d) most silly lyric

"Haven't you got an 'ome to go to?"
(No, we're gnomads) (The Laughing Gnome) I'm a sucker for a really bad pun


e) most romantic lyric

I'll kiss you in the rain (Blackout) especially contrasting as it does with the decidedly unromantic lyrics and music surrounding it.

f) most annoying lyric.

Do I need a friend?
Well I need one now (Days) It's just so clunky. It reminds me of those letters that start "Dear Fred, How are you? I am fine..." Pity because otherwise it's a beaut little song.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine - Ernest Dowson

These are off the top of my head, and answers would change if you asked me again later, but for now:

a) most surreal lyric--"He's cameleon, comedian, Corinthian and charicature" from "The Beweley Brothers." It could mean a million things, or nothing at all.

b) most experimental lyric--
"Nowhere
Shampoo
TV
Come back
Boy's own
Slim tie
Showdown
Can't stop"--from "Looking for Satellites." Nice stream of consciousness experimentation--yet it evokes nice images that fit the theme of the song.

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person--"I've never done good things, I've never done bad things, I never did anything out of the blue." Very confessional little lyric from "Ashes to Ashes." An admission that most of his art is "contrived" and not really always a true reflection of him as a person. Although I don't buy it entirely--I think his work really is confessional in a true sense and very revealing of his inner thoughts/fears/psyche. So, as for a truly confessional lyric, I'd also choose "I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things" from "Word On A Wing" or maybe "Even the best men shiver in their beds" from "Prisoner of Love," which I take to mean that no one--not even the wealthy or famous, or successfull--is above fear.

d) most silly lyric--"Abracadoo, I lose you" or "I really can't look at your little empty shelf, a ragged teddy bear"--both are sheer crap from "Something In the Air." Actually, I would call this his most stupid lyric, because "silly" is not necessarily a bad thing, but stupid sure is. As for pure silliness (in a good way), I'd go with anything from "Laughing Gnome."

e) most romantic lyric--"I love you madly, sadly as I tie my shoes" from "Cygnette Committe." Or "the sun comes up, the man goes down, the woman comes again" from "BTWN." Or the lyrics from "The Wedding Song." Sentimental and quite pretty.

f) most annoying lyric--Yep, it has to be that "abracadoo I lose you" lyric from "Something In The Air."

g) most sexual lyric--"We move around like tigers on Vaseline" from "Hang On To Yourself" or "This mellow-thighed chick just put my spine out of place" from "Suffragette City."

h) most perverted lyric-- "Let your hair hang down, wear that dress your mother wore, let me sleep beside you," from "Let Me Sleep Beside You." Now, this is kinda perverted in a sexy-sexy sort of way. The idea of asking a girl to wear her mother's dress before you shag her is certainly kind of kinky, no? Hmmm, I can't think of anything he's sung that's perverted in a bad way . . . maybe that makes me a pervert. Who knows?

zigbot

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Well, yes, but if instrumentals count, I'd say anything goes.
No offence meant, of course.

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errr... well, actually, the instrumental I mentioned contain some lyrics written by Bowie...

In reply to:

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"Let your hair hang down, wear that dress your mother wore, let me sleep beside you", from "Let Me Sleep Beside You". Now, this is kinda perverted in a sexy-sexy sort of way. The idea of asking a girl to wear her mother's dress before you shag her is certainly kind of kinky, no?

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It's interesting that you should raise that as Bowie introduces it on Bowie At The Beep by stating that "my mother thought the lyrics were dirty" but, in fact, he meant them to be "very ethereal". Just what they're actually supposed to mean, other than an expression of some sort of twisted Œdipus complex, though, is a very good question.

Question Marks

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The idea of asking a girl to wear her mother's dress before you shag her is certainly kind of kinky, no?

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The concept gets much more interesting if the person who is sung to is a boy.
I remember someone bringing it up a long time ago, it might have been Emil?

I support sex with imaginary friends.

I believe in the Power of Good
I Believe in the State of Love
I Will Fight For the Right to be Right
I Will Kill for the Good of the Fight for the Right to be Right

a) most surreal lyric

"We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained

'The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party...' "
- Memory of a Free Festival (I find a lot of the imagery in his earlier works to be quite surreal. This just seems so outerworldy and beautiful to me. Reminds me of my childhood.)

b) most experimental lyric

"The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers' eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff
From where dreams are woven
Bending sound, dredging the ocean, lost in my circle
Here am I, flashing no colour
Tall in this room overlooking the ocean

Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth *
There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, making sure white stains..."
- Station to Station (Actually, the whole song gets my vote, but this part especially. The first time I heard it, it just jumped out at me as something fantastic.)


c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

Well, considering that I don't know the man as a person, I don't think I can answer that.

d) most silly lyric

This is an easy one:

"Ha ha ha
Hee hee hee
I'm the laughing gonme
And you can't catch me"

e) most romantic lyric

"I love you in the morning sun, I love you in my dreams
I love the sound of making love, the feeling of your skin
The corner of your eyes, I long forevermore
I never want to say goodnight, miracle goodnight"
-Miracle Goodnight (So corny, but so adorable.)

f) most annoying lyric.

"Abracadoo, I lose you..."
- Something in the Air *cringe*

Bridget

"There is a crack,
A crack in everything
That's how the light gets in..."

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The concept gets much more interesting if the person who is sung to is a boy.

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Yeah, kinky indeed.

I do love that intro to Let Me Sleep Beside You, where young David explains he's not played the song in public before because his mother thought the lyrics "dirty" (am I the ONLY person who gets a bit hot when a man with an English accent says the word "dirty"?). I agree that the song was not really meant to be kinky, but I like to inject kink into things!

zigbot

e)most romantic lyric
"We jump in a river holding hands"

Not just the words but also the music that follows -this is what true love sounds and feels like.

h)most disturbing lyric

"Marry-Ann was only 10, full of life and oh so gay, I was the wicked man who took her life away"


"The time is sublime and the moon is so right"

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(am I the ONLY person who gets a bit hot when a man with an English accent says the word "dirty"?)

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"Dirty"

There. Have your nipples gone all hard?

Sorry, mate, I couldn't exactly hear the ACCENT there, so . . . no, no hard nipples.

zigbot

Very interesting answers!
However, I'm not sure how "experimental" the song "Station to Station" would be.
Yes, he's certainly experimenting something, but perhaps nothing really so new.

Or perhaps most people just "bypassed" the meaning of the lyrics. Do people actually notice he's talking about the sephiroth of the Kaballah in that song?

He does mention all the sephiroth, or stations, if you will...

My answers would be:
a) most surreal lyric
I'd be stuck between "The Supermen" and "Seven years in Tibet".

b) most experimental lyric
Everything Bowie wrote was somewhat experimental, although he did seem to know precisely where he's treading on every song. If I have to pick one song, though, I think it would be "Baal's Hymn"

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person
I don't think anyone knows what Bowie is like as a person.
He probably doesn't know it himself.
I wouldn't even go for Changes, as he's more like 'nothing has changed, everything has changed', which would force me to choose the song "Heathen", if I have to pick one.

d) most silly lyric
I'd say it's "Chilly Down". But since it was a children's piece, I guess it's expected to be so.

e) most romantic lyric
That would be either "Within you" or "Survive". I can't pick one.

f) most annoying lyric.
"Let's dance". Or maybe it's just an annoying song.

g) Most sexual lyric
"Cracked actor".

h) Most perverted lyric (in a bad way)
"Segue: Baby Grace (a horrid cassette)". Or perhaps it's simply the most disturbing one. It's brilliantly perverted. Still brilliant, anyway.

a) most surreal lyric - Beware the savege jaw
b) most experimental lyric -
I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa coming for you
c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person - Gotta make way for the Homo Superior
d) most silly lyric -
My girl calls my name "Hi Dave/Drop in, see you around, come back/If you're this way again"
e) most romantic lyric -
As long as you're still smiling/There's nothing more I need
f) most annoying lyric - Drive you crazy, really lazy, eye rollin', funky strollin', ball playin,' hip swayin', trouble makin', booty shakin', tripping, passing, jumping, bouncing, drivin', stylin', creeping, pouncing, shoutin', screamin,' double dealin', rockin', rollin', and a reelin'
With the mackin' sex appealin'.
Can you dig our groovy feelin'?

I'll be seeing YOU in Philadelphia, Boston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Moline, Wantagh, and Holmdel. So dress sharp.

Zigbot I'f have to agree with you on the Let Me Sleep Beside You interview. When he first said something along the lines of "...My mum said it was "dirty"" I thought "How adorable...he listens to his mom" but the way he said "dirty" in the way he said it, I had chills down my spine.

Hello, I love you...

Most Surreal: I always found these two quite dreamlike:

When comes the shaking man
A nation in his eyes
Striped with blood and emblazed tattoo
Streaking cathedral spire

and

I saw a black black stream
Full of white eyed fish
And a drowning man
With no eyes at all
I felt a warm warm breeze
That melted metal and steel
I got a bad migraine
That lasted three long years
And the pills that I took
Made my fingers disappear.

Most experimenta

Baby, I've been, breaking glass in your room again
Listen
Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it
See
You're such a wonderful person
But you got problems oh-oh-oh-oh
I'll never touch you

(I mean, that's the whole song...)

Bowie as a person

Please help me
Who can I be now? You found me
Who can I be? Fell apart, you found me
Now can I be now? You found me
Now can I be real?
Can I be real? (somebody real)

Most Silly Lyric

Doodah doo, doodah (etc.)

Most Romantic Lyric

Somewhere there's a morning sky
Bluer than her eyes

Most Irritating Lyric

Come on here, woo-woo
And kiss it for me
Woo Hoo!!
Woo Hoo!!
Woo Hoo!!



You'd die for diamonds, but you won't live for love

a) most surreal lyric

Agreed on "ouvre le chien" from All the Madman / Buddha of Suburbia... But a good also-ran is the "cursing at the astronette" bit from Drive-in Saturday.

b) most experimental lyric

"There's always a diamond friendly sitting in the laugh hotel." - more experimental than the funnytalk in Low, IMO. There's a lot of overlap between this and "most surreal," of course...

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

I don't know him as a person. How about "Once there were mountains on mountains, and once there were sunbirds to soar with, and once I could never be down."

d) most silly lyric

"Ashes to ashes / fun to funky" still strikes me as silly, although I'm sure The Laughing Gnome would have it beat, if I could stand to take the time to remember its lyrics.

e) most romantic lyric

"Keep your electric eye on me babe / put your raygun to my head / press your space-face close to mine, love..." Seriously, that is the song I will have played at my wedding. (Followed shortly thereafter by Gary Numan's "I Nearly Married a Human" for irony.)

f) most annoying lyric.

"All I have is my love of love, and love is not loving..." Soul Love is such a great song, lyrically, aside from that. Why, David, why?

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.

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"Ashes to ashes / fun to funky" still strikes me as silly

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I assume you know the line is actually "funk to funky", so I won't bother pointing that out.

Nothing Is New

I can remember reading an interview once that Mr Bowie had supposed to have given ?

He went on to say that, he only wrote those lyrics with the word junky in, to irritate the BBC.

Now we all know Mr Bowie and his lil fibs

Makes ya wonder though..

______________________
Humming Rheingold
We scavenge up our clothes
______________________
London Bye Ta-Ta...

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I assume you know the line is actually "funk to funky", so I won't bother pointing that out.

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Actually, I didn't, but "funk to funky" is less terrible how?

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.

In reply to:

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Actually, I didn't, but "funk to funky" is less terrible how?

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It's slightly less tacky. "Fun to funky" is truly cringeworthy.

Nothing Is New

F) most annoying lyric:
FASHION - you shout it while you're dancing on the-e-e dance floor - it's like he couldn't be arsed trying to get words to fit in any more.

Most romantic lyric - As the World falls down.

If you think we're gonna make it...
http://groups.msn.com/keithism

a) most surreal lyric:

Yesterday was horrid day, 'cause Raymond kicked my shin
And mummy says if I am good, she'll let me go to school in August
Daddy shouted loud at mummy and I dropped my toast at breakfast
And I laughed when Bonzo licked my face, because it tickled

b) most experimental lyric

Baby, I've been, breaking glass in your room again
Listen 
Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it
See

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

He struck the ground a cavern appeared
And I smelt the burning pit of fear
We crashed a thousand yards below
I said "Do it again, do it again"

d) most silly lyric

I lost God in a New York minute
Don't know about you but my heart's not in it

e) most romantic lyric

As long as we're together
The rest can go to hell
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
With eyes completely open
But nervous all the same

f) most annoying lyric.

Pictures on my hard drive

I could be a genius if I just put my mind to it.

ha-ha-ha-ha-ha :)

i tottally agree with you guiltpuppy,
and please, invite me to your wedding (with such music must be fun) ;)

A) Most Surreal:

Don't set me free
I'm as helpless as can be
Just my librium and me
And my EST makes three

B)Most Experimental

the weather's grim
ice on the cages
me i'm robin hood and i puff on my cigarette
panthers are steaming, stalking, screaming

C) Bowie as a person

I say, "Don't ask me,
I don't know any hallways"
But they move in numbers
And they've got me in a corner

D) Most silly

Uncle Arthur - follows Batman!

E) Most Romantic

There's such a sad love
Deep in your eyes
A kind of pale jewel
Opened and closed
Within your eyes
I'll place the sky
Within your eyes

F) Most Annoying

the whole of 'Black Country Rock'



...The sheer wit of the witless...

All the madmen? Not quite sure how you can see that as a surreal line? It's perfectly straightforward within the context of the song... And Black Country Rock is Bowie's hilarious attempt at being T-Rex. Very funny, methinks, not so much annoying. Anyway - enough complaining:

Here are my choices for this interesting take on the "name your-****-Bowie-song-game":

A: Surreal:

Bleed Like A Craze, Dad - most notably the lines:
Astral, Kestrel,/ Fed into the featherfall/ Fed him on a pencil carving/ You will never get - which make absolutely no sense to me, really...

B: Experimental:

African Night Flight, all of it really but especially:
African nightmare one-time Mormon
More men fall in Hullabaloo men
I slide to the nearest bar
Undermine chairman I went too far
Bent on a windfall rent a sony
Wonder how the dollar went down
Gotta get a word to Elizabeth's father
Hey no, he wished me well

C: The Man:

Teenage Wildlife, funnily enough. I've always thougth this to be the most autobiographical song in the entire back catalog - even mentions his name... A perfect view into the psyke of a man hounded by the likes of ms. Numan and Steve Strange down the hallways of the record industry...

D: Silliness:

An early song, admittedly, but who knew mr. T was such a fan?
Well, I pity the fool
I said I pity the fool
You know I pity the fool

E: Romance:

No romance like the doomed, starcrossed kind! We Are The Dead, indeed:
One thing kind of touched me today
I looked at you and counted all the times we had laid
Pressing our love through the night
Knowing it's right, knowing it's right

Now I'm hoping some one will care
Living on the breath of a hope to be shared
Trusting on the sons of our love
That someone will care, someone will care

But now
We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature
Heaven's on the pillow, its silence competes with hell

F: So annoying!

Just all of Tonight really. Reggae, Tina Turner - oh do go away...

(G: Kinky:)

Well... Subtle it aint
Sweet head, give you sweet head
(spoken: while ya down there)

See my eyes of blocked emotion, see my tremble, see my fall
Traumatics thick and fast, your faith in me can last
Besides I'm known to lay you, one and all

A ritual in search of a philosophy

a) most surreal lyric

But we can't stop trying 'til we break up our minds
Til the sun drips blood on the seedy young knights
Who press you on the ground while shaking in fright

b) most experimental lyric

TVC15, Beauty And The Beast

c) lyric that best describes Bowie as a person

Every chance,
every chance that I take
I take it on the road
Those kilometres and the red lights
I was always looking left and right
Oh, but I'm always crashing
in the same car

d) most silly lyric

Ziggy Stardust

e) most romantic lyric

We'll buy some drugs and watch a band
Then jump in the river holding hands

f) most annoying lyric.

The Jean Jenie