How Does The Grass Grow?

Still trying to figure out this cryptic song. Definitely about someone who was likely a soldier and forced to do some bloody, horrible things during his career. And it seems that experienced has warped him. Maybe some horrible sort of PTSD.

He can't get his life together and feels isolated from the rest of society and lonely. He hates it, but can't escape the lessons he learned in the military (the chorus is a reiteration of these "lessons").

The chorus also seems to be related to this scene from Full Metal Jacket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsUtIWzRkQI (What makes the grass grow? Blood, blood, blood. What do we do for a living, ladies? Kill, kill, kill.

"There’s a graveyard by the station Where the girls wear nylon skirts and Sandals from Hungary ..."

Yes... but the entire first verse references scenes and conditions in post Soviet Russia (or the 'buffer states')... the Riga One was a late soviet (Latvian) moped, much beloved of teenagers from Russia to East Germany, also seen in Berlin in the late 70s.... in more detail, it sounds post Soviet, from the satellite states which since floundered in civil wars... or maybe Jugoslavia, which was torn apart and 'joined the west'... the yayaya chorus is in fact a loose version of the 1960s pre-Beatles instrumental hit (for The Shadows) called 'Apache', which may reference another Empire, and the genocide which helped create it (it's also why the song gets a co-writer credit, even though that writer passed away in the 90s) a very sad song, a very beautiful song, maybe also having echoes of PJ Harvey's track Our Glorious Land from Let England Shake, which was the big offbeat hit while Bowie was recording this album.

Yes... but the entire first verse references scenes and conditions in post Soviet Russia (or the 'buffer states')... the Riga One was a late soviet (Latvian) moped, much beloved of teenagers from Russia to East Germany, also seen in Berlin in the late 70s.... in more detail, it sounds post Soviet, from the satellite states which since floundered in civil wars... or maybe Jugoslavia, which was torn apart and 'joined the west'... the yayaya chorus is in fact a loose version of the 1960s pre-Beatles instrumental hit (for The Shadows) called 'Apache', which may reference another Empire, and the genocide which helped create it (it's also why the song gets a co-writer credit, even though that writer passed away in the 90s) a very sad song, a very beautiful song, maybe also having echoes of PJ Harvey's track Our Glorious Land from Let England Shake, which was the big offbeat hit while Bowie was recording this album.

Yes... but the entire first verse references scenes and conditions in post Soviet Russia (or the 'buffer states')... the Riga One was a late soviet (Latvian) moped, much beloved of teenagers from Russia to East Germany, also seen in Berlin in the late 70s.... in more detail, it sounds post Soviet, from the satellite states which since floundered in civil wars... or maybe Jugoslavia, which was torn apart and 'joined the west'... the yayaya chorus is in fact a loose version of the 1960s pre-Beatles instrumental hit (for The Shadows) called 'Apache', which may reference another Empire, and the genocide which helped create it (it's also why the song gets a co-writer credit, even though that writer passed away in the 90s) a very sad song, a very beautiful song, maybe also having echoes of PJ Harvey's track Our Glorious Land from Let England Shake, which was the big offbeat hit while Bowie was recording this album.