Personally, I always considered it to be basically a more upbeat version of Quicksand. Bowie, singing about how everything's going to Hell, and managing to make it sound cheerful and fun.
As far as an analysis of the title line goes, I'm not sure which, but I'd go with "up the hill backwards it'll be alright" meaning that up the hill, reversed, is downhill; and so either things are going downhill, but it'll be alright, or alternatively, that it's easier to go downhill than up. So just take a different approach to the problem, and it'll be alright.
Personally, I always considered it to be basically a more upbeat version of Quicksand. Bowie, singing about how everything's going to Hell, and managing to make it sound cheerful and fun.
As far as an analysis of the title line goes, I'm not sure which, but I'd go with "up the hill backwards it'll be alright" meaning that up the hill, reversed, is downhill; and so either things are going downhill, but it'll be alright, or alternatively, that it's easier to go downhill than up. So just take a different approach to the problem, and it'll be alright.