All the Young Dudes Lyrics
This song is not a "gay anthem." Bowie, and Mott the Hoople, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Marc Bolan, etc, et al, were Glam rockers. Glam was neither gay nor straight. It was a refutation of sexual stereotypes. The movement said, "It doesn't matter what I look like. I can wear a dress and be a man, or a suit and be a woman. I don't care what you think of me, and I will wear makeup if I want." Glam rock was an offshoot of the rebelious hippie movement, and paved the way for the metal image in the 80s. 80s bands like Poison, Montley Crue, Guns and Roses --- long haired guys, wearing makeup and possessing a general "F.U." attitude towards the establishment. Some of the Glam rockers were bisexual (though certainly not all of them), and that was yet another way of thumbing their noses at the people in charge. Just like the hippies of the previous decade had done pot and acid, and had "free love," in order to piss off their parents. The glam generation kicked it up a notch. They had "free love," as well -- regardless of gender -- and they graduated to harder drugs - more club-type varieties - speed and amyl nitrate amongst them.
Anyway, Bowie sings backup on Mott the Hoople's version of this song (you can clearly hear him singing the main hook, "All the young dudes..." etc...)
I have to agree with others here, who are complimenting Mott the Hoople. It's a shame they were only a one-hit wonder, because so much of their other stuff deserves more credit, too.
Mott the Hoople's version of this song came out back in 1972. I was 13 years old, and I remember the first time I heard it on the radio - it sounded so weird and different from everything else on the radio. That strange chord sequence and the odd chorus anthem with those singalong glam vocals. Back then, radio stations had real humans spinning songs, and somehow this song got just enough attention to get played a few times among all the pop star Carpenters, Jim Croce and Harry Chapins of that era. Eventually it became a very minor radio hit here in the US, barely making it into the top 40 for a week or two. But that was enough for the local K-Mart to carry the 45 single, so I used my allowance that week to buy it, so I could listen to it all summer long. I could never really understand the words except "all the young dudes, carry the news" and something about T.Rex (Bang A Gong was my other favorite song that year) and Beatles and Stones, but it didn't matter. It was the sound and the look - I found a Creem magazine with pics of Mott and Bowie and Bolan and all the British glam rock stars splashed everywhere on the pages. I just went nuts over it all.
JUst to clue in some American posters to the lyric
Marks and Sparks - a retail shop ( its actually called Marks and Spencer ) and is a little like a department store.
Boat race - Rythming slang for 'face'
I was in the same crowd as Ian Hunter from this period ( and Bowie for that matter ) its really a pastiche of street life.
Billy talking all night about suicide while being on 'speed'. They dont need TV because they have T-Rex - I'm never sure if thats ironic or fandom there.
Jimmy looks sweet because he's probably male prostitute or effiminate gay but he can fight hard - not all gays have limp wrists and I used to know a few like that in London in the 70s.
The late 70s turned their backs on stuff like Lennon and the Beatles and talk of revolution and settled down to get stoned and just have fun being weird.
Concrete all around - its a townpersons view of England in the 70s when there were vast construction projects turning our inner cities into concrete blocks - or it in in my head - because it was ghastly it was hard to believe it was real.
Bowie supposedly just wrote this on the spot. Not one of his "deeper" lyrical explorations, although it's very good. If you compare this to some of his other "glam" work, for example Lou Reed's Transformer, it fits perfectly in context. It's nearly identical in content. Hunky Dory has some other explorations of the same territory (drugs, prostitution, sleeping on the street, transvestitism, etc.). The music is all beautiful and the lyrics bohemian - where the mind-space was in that era/clique Reed/Bowie/T Rex/etc. Hunky Dory still my favorite Bowie album.
Bowie supposedly just wrote this on the spot. Not one of his "deeper" lyrical explorations, although it's very good. If you compare this to some of his other "glam" work, for example Lou Reed's Transformer, it fits perfectly in context. It's nearly identical in content. Hunky Dory has some other explorations of the same territory (drugs, prostitution, sleeping on the street, transvestitism, etc.). The music is all beautiful and the lyrics bohemian - where the mind-space was in that era/clique Reed/Bowie/T Rex/etc. Hunky Dory still my favorite Bowie album.
Bowie wrote the song for Mott the Hoople. its originally a part of the Ziggy Stardust story:
""The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. 'All the young dudes' is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite. "
And "boat race" is London slang for "face".
He's saying "he has a funky little face"
It's just a man in his life, out on the tiles trying to escape the rather boring home world with his non revolutionary brother.
It is really just a rally cry for the youth.
These are the correct lyrics: Well billy rapped all night about his suicide How he kick it in the head when he was twenty-five Speed jive don’t want to stay alive When you’re twenty-five And wendy’s stealing clothes from marks and sparks And freedy’s got spots from ripping off the stars from his face Funky little boat race Television man is crazy saying we’re juvenile deliquent wrecks Oh man I need tv when I got t rex Oh brother you guessed I’m a dude dad All the young dudes (hey dudes) Carry the news (where are ya) Boogaloo dudes (stand up come on) Carry the news All the young dudes (I want to hear you) Carry the news (I want to see you) Boogaloo dudes (and I want to talk to you all of you) Carry the news
Now lucy looks sweet cause he dresses like a queen But he can kick like a mule it’s a real mean team But we can love oh yes we can love And my brother’s back at home with his beatles and his stones We never got it off on that revolution stuff What a drag too many snags Now I’ve drunk a lot of wine and I’m feeling fine Got to race some cat to bed Oh is there concrete all around Or is it in my head Yeah I’m a dude dad All the young dudes (hey dudes) Carry the news (where are ya) Boogaloo dudes (stand up) Carry the news All the young dudes (I want to hear ya) Carry the news (I want to see you) Boogaloo dudes (and I want to relate to you) Carry the news All the young dudes (what dudes)
Carry the news (let’s hear the news come on) Boogaloo dudes (I want to kick you) Carry the news All the young dudes (hey you there with the glasses) Carry the news (I want you) Boogaloo dudes (I want you at the front) Carry the news (now you all his friends) All the young dudes (now you bring him down cause I want him) Carry the news Boogaloo dudes (I want him right here bring him come on) Carry the news (bring him here you go) All the young dudes (I’ve wanted to do this for years) Carry the news (there you go) Boogaloo dudes (how do you feel) Carry the news
Those are the lyrics to the Mott the Hoople version. Bowie left out the "Speed jive" and all the nonsense in parentheses.
Those are the lyrics to the Mott the Hoople version. Bowie left out the "Speed jive" and all the nonsense in parentheses.
marcevan, where did you get this infomation from? Every Bowie fan knows that David wrote this and then let Mott the Hoople sing it...he didn't get to cover it cus its his song. He was originally gonna give them Suffragette City, but they refused it, so he gave them All the Young Dudes instead. The "correct" lyrics are still David's, and also, different from the correct lyrics of this version in a few ways
I've heard this is not only an anthem for young gay males, but for old ones......
Where did you hear that?... they must have been a brain-dead moron or something.
Where did you hear that?... they must have been a brain-dead moron or something.
The song is part of the Ziggy Stardust story. Bowie offered them either this track, or Suffragette City, and they chose this.
The characters in the song are basically Ziggy Stardust fans. And he's telling them to carry his message.