Once upon a time there was a toy soldier and he lived in the play room

Once upon a time there was a toy soldier with a whip lash in his hand
and every night little girl Sadie would take all her clothes off and wind up the toy soldier and he raised his whip and said

On your knees little sadie
Little Sadie on your knees
Taste the whip and love might given likely
Taste the whip and bleed for me

Little Sadie loved her little toy soldier
And she run home from school each day

Little Sadie loved her little toy soldier
And she locked her door so she could play

Little Sadie got ambitious
And wound the clockworks so to tighter
So he could whip her harder and harder

On your knees little sadie
Little Sadie on your knees
Taste the whip and love might given likely
Taste the whip and bleed for me

One day Sadie wound and wound
and wound and wound
and wound and wound

Til suddenly the little toy soldier spring, went. . .

(ugly, beat her to death)

Ahhhh

Cough, cough, cough




Lyrics submitted by SINKINGx3HEARTS

Little Toy Solider song meanings
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4 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    someone maybe wanna clear this one up for me?

    LittleD3on July 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    If the lyrics are taken literally, this is scary stuff and probably one of the most disturbing tunes Bowie ever did. However, I don't think it's literally about a child and a toy. Methinks The Gentleman is using the child and the toy as a metaphorical comparison in a deranged ditty about a sadomasochistic relationship between an adult couple.

    CuteSparkinaon September 29, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Actually, this song is as disturbing as it reads. It is about a girl who has a sexual BDSM fetish with her toy, getting whipped to death. The lyrics are so disturbing that Bowie eventually decided not to include the song on the album (it was recorded for his self titled LP debut in 1967), and has disowned and banned the release of the song ever since. When the plan to reissue his Deram catalog was devised in the late 90's, the release was meant to be a 2CD set, but Bowie objected the inclusion of many previously unreleased tracks, including this one, and the official release was slimmed down to a 1CD ("The Deram Anthology 1966/1968"). The material that was cut off surfaced on the semi-legal release "The Forgotten Songs Of David Robert Jones", and while some of those tracks eventually saw the light of day when the 1967 album was re-released by Universal as a 2CD deluxe edition in 2010, "Little Toy Soldier" was omitted once again.

    BFQon January 24, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Fact

    "Taste the whip and love might given likely Taste the whip and bleed for me" is from The Velvet Underground's song "Venus in Furs" based off the 1870 album of the same name. He was given a copy of the album "The Velvet Underground and Nico" before the release. He was heavily influenced by it as you can tell from his covers and this song.

    vanessa108on February 01, 2016   Link

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