Be My Wife

This song is actually incredibly sad, once one knows the story behind it. David made it in response to his failing marriage with his then wife Angie, with whom he was separated. He'd been traveling and living a fragmented life for so long, and he was just breaking away from his drug addiction. It's not a story, it's not a metaphor, it's David revealing how lonely he was traveling all the time without a constant companion, and asking someone he was already married to to be his wife. He was regaining his stable mentality and was trying to reconnect with people again. He didn't have many friends at this time because all the people he knew previously only fueled the life he was getting away from by moving to Berlin. He was isolated. It was a simple song with a simple message: I'm lonely. Come be my companion.

I agree that it could very well be about Angie. Upon examining the lyrics, though, I get the impression that it was stream-of-consciousness, perhaps not intended to have a deep meaning. That's just me, though.

I think this song's a bit of a piss take. Have you seen some of his facial expressions in the video? He's not serious. He's taking the piss out of the ideal of marriage. He and Angie tried to be open and laid back but the ideal was not so. He appears to be wearing his, or a, wedding band. Like the ones he and Angie exchanged instead of wedding rings. I think he is writing from the point of view of a lonely man, who thinks the ideal of marriage is for him. But in doing that, sort of mocking him for thinking so? But there is no denying that the lyrics do hold an element of truth. Perhaps he thinks himself to be the lonely man? I'm not sure. But I do think he is not 100% serious.

Just love this track, one of my favourites from Low and indeed the entire Bowie back catalogue. Despite the dark edge to the lyrics it’s actually a very catchy pop song. Lyrically very simple but for me it’s all about the overall sound created by the squalling guitar, pounding piano, drums, and that bopping melodic bass line. And then there's the fantastic weary laid back vocal delivery from Bowie which sounds cool as f. All this combines to make a wondrously unique sound to a great pop song which sounds like nothing before or since. The only thing which resembles this for me is some of Blur's stuff - I'm sure they used this track as a template to some of their tracks from Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife.

I always assumed it was about a world-weary man finally settling down. Pretty good song. I especially like the piano bit.

A song of desperation and obsession.

He went to Berlin to kick his coke addiction. This was quite qa desperate song, if you know what I mean. this was probably his weirdest televised moment up to date.

A marriage proposal. Pure and simple. A gentleman who has traveled a lot and gone places and done things feels that he has milked single "freedom" for all it's worth, and is now proposing to his sweetheart

To me this song can be summarised by the words 'I'm so lonely'. The marriage proposal is an attempt to end this gnawing feeling of loneliness. The focus is on the troubled state of the protagonist though. This is underlined by the irritating and agonizing guitar bit which is played after the first rendition of the verse, in between the lines of the verse the second time it is sung and at the end of the song after the final (double tracked) 'sometimes you get so lonely'.

I agree with Bokno. It's not a marriage proposal, if you watch the video you can see David's kind of ironic look. It's more of a "You're my wife and there I am all on my own, would you please act as a wife?"