The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
There's a brand new dance but I don't know its name
That people from bad homes do again and again
It's big and it's bland full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don't do it here
Fashion!
Turn to the left
Fashion!
Turn to the right
Oooh, fashion!
We are the goon squad and we're coming to town
Beep-beep, beep-beep
Listen to me, don't listen to me
Talk to me, don't talk to me
Dance with me, don't dance with me, no
Beep-beep
There's a brand new talk, but it's not very clear
Oh bop
That people from good homes are talking this year
Oh bop, fashion it's loud and tasteless and I've heard it before
Oh bop
You shout it while you're dancing on the ole dance floor
Oh bop, fashion
Fashion!
Turn to the left
Fashion!
Right
Fashion!
We are the goon squad and we're coming to town
Beep-beep
Beep-beep
Listen to me, don't listen to me
Talk to me, don't talk to me
Dance with me, don't dance with me, no
Beep-beep
Beep-beep
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
That people from bad homes do again and again
It's big and it's bland full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don't do it here
Fashion!
Turn to the left
Fashion!
Turn to the right
Oooh, fashion!
We are the goon squad and we're coming to town
Beep-beep, beep-beep
Listen to me, don't listen to me
Talk to me, don't talk to me
Dance with me, don't dance with me, no
Beep-beep
There's a brand new talk, but it's not very clear
Oh bop
That people from good homes are talking this year
Oh bop, fashion it's loud and tasteless and I've heard it before
Oh bop
You shout it while you're dancing on the ole dance floor
Oh bop, fashion
Fashion!
Turn to the left
Fashion!
Right
Fashion!
We are the goon squad and we're coming to town
Beep-beep
Beep-beep
Listen to me, don't listen to me
Talk to me, don't talk to me
Dance with me, don't dance with me, no
Beep-beep
Beep-beep
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Lyrics submitted by bright eyes burn me, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Fashion Lyrics as written by David Bowie
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Royalty Solutions Corp
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I love this song. Ridicules slavish following of ANY kind of fashion, be it musical, clothing, political, etc.
Fashion! Turn to the left Fashion! Turn to the right
The fashion politizia tell you what to do
Oooh, fashion! We are the goon squad and we're coming to town Beep-beep Beep-beep
Get out of the way, old timers, the new fashion is taking over!
I love how the opening beats are on the upbeat compared to the main beat of the song. You hear it and start adjusting to it... then the rest of the song comes in and you realize you're out of step... out of FASHION!!! Also, the "turn to the left, turn to the right..." second time you hear it, you're expecting "turn to the right", but IT DOESN'T COME... Whoops! Gotta stuck with the FASHION! Can't turn right this time...!!!!
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so vulgar we have to change it every six months" - Oscar Wilde
Anyway, if you can't tell yet, I love this song. Very much on target.
Fashion! Turn to the left Fashion! Turn to the right Oooh, fashion! We are the goon squad and we're coming to town Beep-beep Beep-beep
Those are possibly the most amazing lyrics i have ever heard. the song it so random but wicked catchy and David Bowie is totally Awesome
"Listen to me, don;t listen to me. Talk to me, don't talk to me. Dance with me, don't dance with me." This is from an old nursery rhyme, I think he mentioned some time ago. That's where he got it. And, like most songs in Scary Monsters, this one had a different name. You ready for this? Jamaica. Yup, it's a fact. But this has a lot to do with the mix of cultures and maybe hoping that they could get along better.
A comment on trends and the social hierarchy
I love the end bit. I find myself going "fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion" without realising it. I may have done it on the bus once. I also sing it at my friends to annoy them. And I made up a dance to the chorus. Gosh, I'm so sad.......
You are not alone in this! I find myself singing it ALL the time! Once I was in the car with a friend, they turn to me and said, "what did you say?" Me, being unaware I was saying anything at all, was very confused. And they said, "It sounded like you said fashion?" - from there i just went into hysterical laughter.
There is an unspoken context to this song that relates to David Bowie's odyssey through the turbulent, late-seventies period in which he wrote it. I shouldn't need to mention here that Bowie had only a few years earlier invented the idea of the "character" front man. I never thought Bowie was really Ziggy, or Major Tom, or Aladdin. I always believed that these were characters Bowie created to express things directly, that he couldn't as David Jones. I also realize that when he played these characters, he did a bit more than act: he lived them out on stage and off. This was hard for Bowie. The Thin White Duke was the hardest, and In my opinion, this song is Bowie's 1980 rejection of that character.
I will always associate this song with the Thin White Duke. I interpret it as an openly political statement about how the mainstream social media enforces political agendas through conformity (during this period, young people listened to music and went to concerts for information about their peers' political ideas and how to "fit in"). The hard thing to accept about this song is that it is about Fascism, and Bowie's commentary doesn't necessarily lead you to conclude that he thinks it is such a bad thing. That's actually the Thin White Duke you're hearing, not Bowie. Not that you'd get it from the song, but really everybody should know why he rejected the Thin White Duke and why the guilt about that period of his life hounded his private thoughts to the grave. He felt responsible for Lennon's death.
In 1976 he gave an interview to Cameron Crowe (for Playboy) in which he said the following: Playboy: You’ve often said that you believe very strongly in fascism. Yet you also claim you’ll one day run for Prime Minister of England. More media manipulation? Bowie: "Christ, everything is a media manipulation. I’d love to enter politics. I will one day. I’d adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible. People have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership. A liberal wastes time saying, “Well, now, what ideas have you got?” Show them what to do, for God’s sake. If you don’t, nothing will get done. I can’t stand people just hanging about. Television is the most successful fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars."
This reminds me of John Lennon declaring the Beatles more popular than Jesus in 1966. It's not that we intellectually can't follow Bowie and understand, as in the case of Lennon, that he is making a rhetorical argument about mass media's political influence and its manipulation of class conflict and society. Like Lennon, he came to regret the analogy quickly. Lennon, by 1980, had been associated with the failure of the 60's left, and hadn't released an album in years. The Metal, Disco and Punk scenes then nascent had completely rejected the Lennon utopia envisioned by Imagine, and left it behind for a brave new world of fascism. Now the Thin White Duke's comments in Playboy didn't seem so tame.
With the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, Ronald Reagan in November 1980, and a month later, the assassination of John Lennon, many of the things he forecast as desirable in his 1976 interview had come true - to his horror! He gave this interview to NME in 1980, by which time he had already realized the damage he had done:
"That whole Station To Station tour was done under duress. I was out of my mind totally, completely crazed. Really. But the main thing I was functioning on was, as far as that whole thing about Hitler and rightism was concerned, it was mythology."
"This whole racist thing which came up, quite inevitably and rightly. But, and I know this sounds terribly naive, but none of that had actually occurred to me, inasmuch as I’d been working and still do work with Black musicians for the past six or seven years. And we’d all talk about it together: about the Arthurian period, about the magical side of the whole Nazi campaign, and about the mythology involved."
Mixed up too of course were my own fucking characters. The Thin White Duke, and throwing him, it was like kicking a drug. There was such an addictive thing about what was happening there, that actually being able to ride that particular storm, I was able to send a lot to those demons back to their — well, wherever it is they live. Altogether, none of it is something to be dealt with unless you’re in a particularly stable frame of mind."
Bowie is a complex character. I wrote this because this song goes a lot deeper in his overall work than the comments give it credit for.
You haven't seen the video for Be My Wife have you?Now that video is TERRIFYING!
Cool song btw.
Yeah, it compares the fashion industry to facisim.
The brand new dance is New Wave style. This song came out in 1980 and the sound of music were rapidly changing from classic rock and disco to new wave.
Beep-beep! =D