Eight Line Poem

O.K., anyone that has clicked on this song is really the Bowie fan --congratulate yourself!

What a great song and a great album. I think this song has to do with celebrating London as a city. This is a guess.

One thing that shows throughout many Bowie songs, particularly this one, is that the very sound of his lyrics strongly complements the music. I'm basically certain he's describing his yearling child's bedroom in the first four lines; they're quite direct for Bowie lines. Clara sounds like a cuddly toy. The last four lines zoom out to show the greater scene, and get a bit oblique. The words and music portray a relaxed, content attitude, and it is the lack of pomp that makes this song an alternative kind of excellent.

It's a perfectly warm Summer day. Bowie is standing in his baby son's room. There is a crib with a mobile hanging over it. Clara, the Collie mix dog who is resting on the floor, calmly puts her head between her paws. There is an open window across the room. It is opened with a screen in it. There is a small cactus on it's sil. There is a strong breeze coming in the window moving a sheer curtain and spinning the baby's mobile more than enough. David doesn't move but looks beyond the cactus, out the window to the street below, where new shops have opened and he wonders if they will be successful. Will the cactus shop he was just at find buyers for their goods. When you look up into a tree and the brightest part of the sun is behind a branch, it's as though it's pinned there. Move a little and you can't see the Sun, it's too bright. Move a little more and can't really see the branch. The sight of both are elusive, just like the answer to What is the key to the city's success.

As I see it.

it's got 8 lines in it and it's called eight line poem :) bowie knows.

i love this song, London was also the first thing i thought about when i heard it for the first time and have since associated it with the place.. glad to know i'm not insane! (or just alone) :P

Wow. A song about a cactus. Imagine that. Well, in a lot of his songs I know he may not mean to do this but he mentions titles or lyrics for future songs. For example, in Cracked Actor (the David Live version) he adds, 'Just for a day.' Coincidential? Or, in Buddha of Suburbia, he says, 'Never born so I'll NEVER GET OLD.' Still coincidential? There's plenty like that. Anyway, this is quite a haunting melody and I love it.

it reminds me of "queen bitch" because i dont see any microcosm description as in "Oh you pretty things" and The brilliant micro-erudition of "Life on Mars" have you gone through Disney's micro - world next to Autopia? You get really small. and in "Queen Bitch" He's up on the 11 th floor. so the eight line poem is a haiku and it does instil peace and frolic and sense of frozen time. So i like it. and I Like Clara, because shes aware of the Tom Foolery of humans. .

This song is so chill. It just describes this room from a cactus' point of view. Not sure what the last two lines mean, any ideas?

love the guitar in this song