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Subterraneans Lyrics
Share bright failing star
Care-line
Care-line
Care-line
Care-line
Riding these Shirley, Shirley, Shirley on.
Share bright failing star
Care-line
Care-line
Care-line
Riding these Shirley, Shirley, Shirley on.
Song Info
Submitted by
saturnine On Apr 09, 2004
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heyyyy i'm a subterranean
Prettiest Bowie song imo.
The lyrics here are incorrect. "Shelly" should be replaced with "Shirley" as it is in the CD booklet.
Interestingly enough, "Care-line" might be interpreted as the name "Caroline", whereas "Shirley" might be heard as "surely" a la Airplane!.
As a philosophy grad the first thing this song makes me think of is Chomsky's linguistic theories. Chomsky argued that the human mind has an inborn faculty of language comprehension that recognizes the underlying structure of language, without requiring the content of a given sentence to be, itself, comprehensible. Chomsky's famous example is the sentence "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously." which, syntactically speaking, is a perfectly acceptable sentence, and is recognized by the mind as such - despite it's being nonsense. I've always wondered if Bowie was aware of this theory and cleverly making art out of science.
@terrykb - I believe you are on the right track as he seems to do the same in Warszawa. Chili venco raro, muthafuckahhhs! God I miss him. Never got to see him live. Never got to pick him up hitchhiking along a desolate stretch of desert highway and sing all of Lodger with him: "No, no, David... you sing 'wait-ing so long' and I'll do the 'look back in ay-ay-anger' part... just, just try it. What? What do you mean, pull over? Seriously?? Fine, you sing whatever you want. Whatever. Or silence is good... I have to pee? Do you...
@terrykb - I believe you are on the right track as he seems to do the same in Warszawa. Chili venco raro, muthafuckahhhs! God I miss him. Never got to see him live. Never got to pick him up hitchhiking along a desolate stretch of desert highway and sing all of Lodger with him: "No, no, David... you sing 'wait-ing so long' and I'll do the 'look back in ay-ay-anger' part... just, just try it. What? What do you mean, pull over? Seriously?? Fine, you sing whatever you want. Whatever. Or silence is good... I have to pee? Do you have to pee? It's these damn Gatorades.".
Wonderful saxophone. No idea about the meaning though.
I was thinking the same thing. Did Bowie play the sax on this track?
I was thinking the same thing. Did Bowie play the sax on this track?
@flavour country Yes he did
@flavour country Yes he did
@flavour country Yes he did
@flavour country Yes he did
A beautiful tune.Dreamy and romantic. I think the vocal sounds like Share bright failing star Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline Riding there, surely, surely, surely on
He stands beneath bright stars that are on the verge of dying ("white dwarves," these stars are called) Thinking of a lady he loves (Caroline) Riding the bus or the tube, having moved on with her life, certainly to be out of his l. And he's thinking of how he and his sweetheart, his Caroline, walked and kissed under these bright "white dwarf stars" together, and the poor feller's got the sorrows. Awwwww.
So, there you go. It's a broken-heart song. It's a song about romantic parting and the sorrow it brings
Sorry about the repost. Typo
like Share bright failing star Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline Riding there, surely, surely, surely on
He stands beneath bright stars that are on the verge of dying ("white dwarves," these stars are called) Thinking of a lady he loves (Caroline) Riding the bus or the tube, having moved on with her life, certainly out of his. And he's thinking of how he and his sweetheart, his Caroline, walked and kissed under these bright "white dwarf stars" together, and the poor feller's got the sorrows. Awwwww.
So, there you go. It's a broken-heart song. It's a song about romantic parting and the sorrow it brings
The final song of Low, "Subterraneans" was meant to invoke the misery of those in East Berlin during the Cold War. According to Bowie, people who "got caught in East Berlin after the separation - hence the faint jazz saxophones representing the memory of what it was."
Beautiful song, great album.
I interpret this as either he talked Caroline and Shelly into a threesome back at the Sharebright Motor Lodge but his credit card was declined, or he accidentally called Shelly "Caroline" back at the Sharebright Motor Lodge and now everything has been declined. Either way the night has turned out to be far less terranean than he had hoped...
...or that East Berlin thing.
Shoot. Didn't copy enough. Third time's the charm.
A beautiful tune.Dreamy and romantic. I think the vocal sounds like Share bright failing star Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline Riding there, surely, surely, surely on
He stands beneath bright stars that are on the verge of dying ("white dwarves," these stars are called) Thinking of a lady he loves (Caroline) Riding the bus or the tube, having moved on with her life, certainly out of his. And he's thinking of how he and his sweetheart, his Caroline, walked and kissed under these bright "white dwarf stars" together, and the poor feller's got the sorrows. Awwwww.
So, there you go. It's a broken-heart song. It's a song about romantic parting and the sorrow it brings