After All

This song is blatantly satanic. Lets analyze line by line...

"Please trip them gently, they don't like to fall" Many devout Christians are afraid of evil and of sin, so Bowie is suggesting to trick them subtlety. 'Fall' meaning 'fall from grace'. Trip could also allude how drugs can be used to alter a persons perception, but in this case Bowie says to go gently, as in using clever messages in music.

"There's no room for anger, we're all very small" Bowie suggests that otherwise, the Christians will get angry. A person is very small and won't make much of an impact being forthcoming

"We're painting our faces and dressing in thoughts from the skies, From paradise" Bowie is saying we believe in Heaven, in the skies but it is all fake, like wearing a costume and painting ones face

"But they think that we're holding a secretive ball. Won't someone invite them They're just taller children, that's all, after all" Christians think of Satanism as occult, mysterious and magical. In this lyric, children are equated to children of God who hold themselves higher due to their faith.

"Man is an obstacle, sad as the clown...So hold on to nothing, and he won't let you down" Bowie says only care for oneself, caring about others is just a roadblock. If you don't care about others, they won't let you down.

"Some people are marching together and some on their own...Quite alone" Some Christians stand together in a congregation while other Christians don't worship in Church. This message is ominous because 'quite alone' seems to signify that latter Christians are more vulnerable to suggestion.

"Others are running, the smaller ones crawl But some sit in silence, they're just older children That's all, after all" Some Christians run away from evil and see it at every corner, other ones struggle with sin (crawl). Yet others have learned from experience on how to avoid sin.

"I sing with impertinence, shading impermanent chords, with my words"

"I've borrowed your time and I'm sorry I called But the thought just occurred that we're nobody's children At all, after all" Not able to trick the faithful through subtle messages, the satanist will try to convince the Christian that God (and therefore Satan) doesn't exist (nobody's children).

"Live till your rebirth and do what you will" A spin on the infamous credo of Aleister Crowley, 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'. Bowie is basically saying live the way you want to regardless of the moral or spiritual consequences, selfishly, hedonistically until the day you die and get reborn into the afterlife. This acknowledges the existence of an afterlife, so it isn't an atheist ideal, but alludes to hell.

"Forget all I've said, please bear me no ill After all, after all" This final lyric holds a lot of meaning. Many satanists and atheists proclaim that as long as they aren't hurting anyone, it shouldn't matter what they do. However, with this philosophy, one is still apt to hurt oneself and by spreading this philosophy, it is in essence telling others it is okay to hurt themselves therefore eliminating the need to get ones hands dirty. Think of the Manson Family and how Charlies Manson was able to corrupt his followers through drugs, music and a warped philosophy (influenced by popular music, namely 'The Beatles') but not having to pull the trigger himself. It is this very same kind of seduction and corruption that Satan uses, never harming anyone outright, but tricking people into making bad moral decisions that lead to their downfall, leading back to the first lyric "please trip them gently, they don't like to fall". The lyric "by Jingo" is a transparent euphemism for "by Jesus", which is essentially a corruption of Christ's name and perhaps symbolizes Satan. On "Quicksand", featured on his album Hunky Dory, Bowie makes the reference "I'm closer to the Golden Dawn, immersed in Crowley's uniform of imagery..."