Joe the Lion Lyrics
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house an' he said
"Tell you who you are if you nail me to my car"
Thanks for hesitating
This is the kiss off
Thanks for hesitating
You'll never know the real story
Just a couple of dreams
You get up and sleep
You can buy God
You slither down the greasy pipe
So far so good no one saw you
Hobble over any freeway
You will be like your dreams tonight
You get up and sleep
Joe the lion
Made of iron
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house an' he was
A fortune teller he said
"Nail me to my car and I'll tell you who you are"
Went to the bar, yeah yeah
A couple of dreams and he was
A fortune teller he said
"Nail me to my car tell you who you are"
The wind blows on your cheek
The day laughs in your face
Guess you'll buy a gun
You'll buy it secondhand
You get up and sleep
"You get up and sleep" sums up this song -- sleeping though life wityhout truly living -- only in his death will he know all. A nice compliment to the previous track, the drug debate "Beauty and The Beast" -- HEROES is definaetly an album about conflict between two ideas that one is dealing with on an epic level. That and disillusionment coupled with seperation brought on my artificial means, like governments (As in Heroes or Secret Life Of ArABIA)
I eventually found the meaning of the line "nail me to my car", when I saw the performance by the American artist named Chris Burden. See the following photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden
The song was inspired by Chris Burden https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-song-inspired-by-conceptual-artist-chris-burden/
GUESS WHY MY NAME IS JOE THE LION
I'm not a native-english-speaker. Can anyone tell what the line "This is the kiss off" means? And waht does the line "Joe the lion = Made of iron" mean? Does it mean that "Joe is a macho man"?
kkoichi---I think "This is the kiss off" means, "This is goodbye" and yeah... made of iron probably means he's a macho man.
This song reminds of the story, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". Mitty is a boring, submissive, weak, man; but in his dreams he is the bold hero everyone looks to in awe. I think Joe refers to the "average Joe" and how he wishes he could be more than average.
No, nope, Nada... This song rings of bisexuality. Joe the Lion? Seems go be a nickname for a lover..."made of iron"? He has a hard dick.... Bowie is writing in innuendo, much like Elton John..
This is definitely about a perfomance artist that Bowie saw. I dont think its about bisexuality. Somebody else the link to the artist on Wikipedia
GUESS WHY MY NAME IS JOE THE LION