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It Ain't Easy Lyrics
When you climb to the top of the mountain,
Look out over the sea,
Think about the places perhaps
Where a young man could be.
Then you jump back down to the rooftops,
Look out over the town,
Think about all the strange things
Circulating round.
It ain't easy, it ain't easy,
It ain't easy to get to heaven
When youre going down.
Well all the people have got their problems
That ain't nothing new,
But with the help of the good Lord
We can all pull on through
We can all pull on through,
Get there in the end.
Sometimes it'll take you right up
And sometimes down again.
It ain't easy, it ain't easy,
It ain't easy to get to heaven
When youre going down.
Satisfaction, satisfaction,
Keep me satisfied.
I got the love of a hoochi-coochi woman,
She's calling from inside
She's a-calling from inside,
Tryin' to get you.
Look out over the sea,
Think about the places perhaps
Where a young man could be.
Then you jump back down to the rooftops,
Look out over the town,
Think about all the strange things
Circulating round.
It ain't easy to get to heaven
When youre going down.
That ain't nothing new,
But with the help of the good Lord
We can all pull on through
We can all pull on through,
Get there in the end.
Sometimes it'll take you right up
And sometimes down again.
It ain't easy to get to heaven
When youre going down.
Keep me satisfied.
I got the love of a hoochi-coochi woman,
She's calling from inside
She's a-calling from inside,
Tryin' to get you.
Song Info
Submitted by
thedindaniel On Sep 05, 2002
More David Bowie
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Space Oddity
The Man Who Sold the World
Ashes to Ashes
Ziggy Stardust
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In my opinion, the song is just about how it's easier to dream than it is to do something good. "It ain't easy to get to heaven when you're going down." The beginning is saying when you're looking at the sea (or just in deep thought) you can think about everything possible, but when you look at the town, you just see all of the problems.
clearlygonemad pretty much has it right, in my opinion. I think it's Ziggy talking about what a hard time he's going to have meeting his goals. He wants to make a change, and that's fine when he's looking out over everything. But when he jumps back down the rooftops of the world, all he sees are problems. The second verse is his present solution of getting everyone to follow one thing or god towards happiness. The third verse is, perhaps, where he changes his mind? He goes for "satisfaction" through company and love. That last bit I'm not very sure about, but that's the best I have.
@peasantchick I believe that "She calling from inside She's a-calling from inside Trying to get to you All the woman really wants you can give her something too" Is about the woman be calling him back to the real life (town), and, yet, be needing from him to bring some of his dreams (from the top of the mountain) with him, that it could bring, somehow, balance to their lives. Once she can give him some "Hoochie Koochie love and he have this urge to climb to a real satisfaction level, they can achieve it together only by getting in real touch with each...
@peasantchick I believe that "She calling from inside She's a-calling from inside Trying to get to you All the woman really wants you can give her something too" Is about the woman be calling him back to the real life (town), and, yet, be needing from him to bring some of his dreams (from the top of the mountain) with him, that it could bring, somehow, balance to their lives. Once she can give him some "Hoochie Koochie love and he have this urge to climb to a real satisfaction level, they can achieve it together only by getting in real touch with each other. Yet, none of this is easy and, I believe, this is why Bowie repeats the chorus after that verse.
Is this song a cover song, or was it written for David Bowie? This has to be my least favourite track on ziggy stardust
"I've got the love of a hoochie koochie woman She calling from inside"
"The hoochie coochie was a sexually provocative belly dance term" : from wiki. She's a-calling from INSIDE Trying to get to you All the woman really wants you can give her something too
I think it's Bowie expressing the feminine component of his bisexualiy and the guilt/ / inner delight associated with a sexually (more so in the 70's) repressive society
"It ain't easy, it ain't easy It ain't easy to get to heaven when you're going down"
@LungilHagfishl He didn't write this song, it's a cover. But at the same time, he may have related to the lyrics and that's why he chose to cover this particular song. Good interpretation.
@LungilHagfishl He didn't write this song, it's a cover. But at the same time, he may have related to the lyrics and that's why he chose to cover this particular song. Good interpretation.
It reminds me of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Freddy Nietszche - except of course Nietzsche was anti-God
Wow really scimitar? It's one of my favourite tracks on the album along with starman!
Written by a guy named Ron Davies - been covered by a few other people also
The "love of a hoochie-coochie woman" that "calling from inside"... this is the same "woman" he invokes in "Sorrow". Starting back with his "Kether to Malkuth" reference in "Quicksand" any reference to a benevolent female is an invocation of the first "station" below the up-most station of Kether in the kabbalistic Tree of Life, aka the Sephiroth/Sefirot which happens to be the feminine principle station of Binah. In "Sorrow" we hear of "long blond hair" that kept him from sleeping, "with your long blond hair I couldn't sleep last night". Now what could metaphorically be liked to "long blond hair"? Streams of sun light. And if Binah is the foremost feminine nourishing agent at the outmost reaches in the universe-totale that is represented by Kether, then the astral Sun is Binahs astronomical habitation. And with all things, "that which is above is also below"... so this series of stations and paths are also inside each of us. "Binah on the inside" is the thing the main character finds at the "top of the mountain"; it is what allows him see all that he sees. As in many of Bowie's songs, he is referencing his own practice of meditation(Kether, top of the mountain) and the mindfulness through exacting these visions in the real world(Malkuth). Binah is special in this respect in that "she" is that "inner light", much like the Sun, that allows us to see the visions of our own thoughts. You may have heard of the "philosopher's stone"... well this is it... the "black sun", the "Starry faced virgin", the "black country rock".
Absolutely central to understanding any of Bowie's lyrics.
Oh yeah, "eyes of blue" is the sky of this "woman", as I explained as being Binah, the "womb of all creation", both astronomically and in the interior uni-verse of the mind. The sky as an archetype is positioned as a binary against the earth; the sky being the Subjective with the earth being the Objective. Raphael's painting "The School of Anthens" has Plato and Aristotle standing as figures of this concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens The colors each one wears is essentially the team-color of their opponents hand-direction.
(Red-robe/Hand-up) is a view that the earth creates the Subjective. (Blue-robe/Hand-down) is a view that the Mind("sky") creates the understanding of the Objective.
The Kabbalah and the Tao are both of a similar view in that all is a perpetually cyclically discourse, one creating the other and necessitating that the other stand as the primary for eachother to even exist. I'm not a student in any capacity of philosophy so I'll stop here.
A Ray Davies song, this is a great cover. In a nutshell, this song means 'easier said than done.'
No, his name was Ron Davies, not Ray. Brilliant musician and songwriter. He passed away in 2003.
No, his name was Ron Davies, not Ray. Brilliant musician and songwriter. He passed away in 2003.