It seems to me these two songs share a very common thematic heritage.

On the one hand we have 'Life On Mars?', whose heroine is disappointed with the banality of her existence and seeks refuge in the cinema theatres and the glow of the silver screen.

Then we have 'Drive-In Saturday', where the lovers must relearn sex by watching old movies.

It seems Bowie is almost placing film (or theatre) as an almost a god-like symbol for the protagonists. Rather than turning to religion, it is to the glitz and glamour of theatricality. The lovers in 'Drive-In Saturday' could then almost be perceived as a futuristic Adam and Eve.

And then came Ziggy - the leper Messiah. The prophet of this new 'religion'...



Its about time I had a signature

The Thin White Duke: David Bowie Tribute Band

I hate to respond because I don't really have anything interesting to say, but that is one of the most inspiring things I've read in a while.

Playing hide and seek inside of my brain.

You're clearly grasping at straws.

TW ALIVE IN '05!!

I, personally, am only interested in wildly-implausible interpretations.

Playing hide and seek inside of my brain.

yes, those are the best. the others could be made by anyone.

Are you bad enough?

In reply to:

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It seems Bowie is almost placing film (or theatre) as an almost a god-like symbol for the protagonists. Rather than turning to religion, it is to the glitz and glamour of theatricality. The lovers in 'Drive-In Saturday' could then almost be perceived as a futuristic Adam and Eve.

And then came Ziggy - the leper Messiah. The prophet of this new 'religion'...

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That's a superb insight. Bowie has always said all of his music is about the tug between the spiritual and the material, and you can see where he has replaced the spiritual things with machines, guitars, movies, and false messiahs.

Maybe, but there are way more prosaic explanations.

'Drive-In-Saturday' is Bowie's response to seeing large mysterious domes while travelling across USA. He envisages people living in them in a sex-less post-nuclear apocalypse future;

"gee it's hot let's go to bed
don't forget to turn on the light
don't laugh babe it'll be alright
pour me out another foam
perhaps the strange ones in the dome
can lend us a book we can read up along"

( they need porn to revv up )


'His name was always Buddy
and he'd shrug and ask to stay
and she'd sigh like Twig The Wonderkid
and turn her face away
she's undercertain that she likes him
but she knows she really loves him
it's a crash-course for the Ravers
it's a Drive-in Saturday"

"it's hard enough to keep formation
with this fall-out saturation..."

"what once had raged the sea that raged no more
like the video films we saw...."

I read that somewhere in a bio.

'Life On Mars' might also be a reaction to Hermione dumping him, and either taking up trashy movies, or consorting with actors.

"...and she's hooked to the silver screen
but the film is a saddening bore
tho she's lived it 10 times or more
she could spit in the eyes of ghouls
as they asked her to focus on
sailors fighting on the dance floor
oh man, look at those cave men go"

"...but the film is a saddening bore
cos I wrote it 10 times or more...."

just an alternative reading...

cheers