"front and no sides" would be a flattening effect... 3-d down to 2-d. The 2-d would be the "metal faced boy" and the 3-d would be the "psychodelicate girl". I'll explain what each one stands for in the next paragraph.
The mid section:
"He punishes hard
Was loving her such a crime
She took back everything she said
Left him nearly out of his mind"
...seems to be about the unbending, hard nature of the masculine "metal faced boy". This is a side of one person (himself, perhaps) but any person will do, really. The masculine being the objective self commiserating with the internal, soft, feminine/subjective self. In this case I believe it's a self-referential statement about Bowie's difficult times when "extracting the subjective/psychodelicate" from his mind with chemical means and how this wrought "hard punishment" upon his body. If anyone has experienced a placid mind though constant meditative practice as did Bowie (or in my own case, the placid and boring nature of a mind that is balanced by Chinese Medicine...or in Bowie's case a mind that is boring because he's drained all his neurochemicals through drug-use leaving him on the crash/burn side of the trip (see "Always Crashing In the Same Car"). "Left him nearly out of his mind" is about his difficulties with drug-use...it gained him much by way of creative/human insight but almost took away his sanity.
"Hope I'm wrong but I know" is a reference to this idea that he hopes his view of the world is wrong because it contains no afterlife. "But I know" speaks of his certainty of this worldview.
"But it makes me sad / so I'll dance my life away" is his understanding of the inevitable arrival of death and his fall into oblivion and so he dances while he can. This ties into the larger paragraph I referenced above which ends with:
"They're people I know
People I love
They seem so unhappy
Dead or alive"
He's found a way of making the best of his situation in the face of this tragic, universal demise to come. Some may not take him seriously for staying in the world of fantasy/subjective but it's how he deals with it all...he's "happy" or at least aware, but there are so many that aren't happy/content ("with coping method").
================================
A million dreams (childhood)
A million scars (adulthood)
A million, A million ("years" is implied... a phrase which equals "infinity" or "oblivion")
These three are the choices: you can dream, you can complain, or you can die... but you will eventually die... so why not make the best of it and enjoy your time; be happy, son!
Touching song with a hint of the straining air that surrounds confronting your mortality and how to approach that final period.
"these pieces are broken"... no idea other than it might reference a shattered "metal faceboy"... the body will fail in your attempts to squeeze the juice of life out of it... realize that there is an negative for every great positive... that obtaining the subjective costs an objective price.... and avoiding this will leave you as nothing BUT a "metalfaced boy" that is unhappy "dead or alive".
Hope you've enjoyed my rambling style. It saves me time.
Realize now it's so much about drugs but just existence in general... being human and alive and knowing it's going to end ...that context in itself can bring about all of these ideas that I framed as being tied to Bowie's debasing drug experience.
Realize now it's so much about drugs but just existence in general... being human and alive and knowing it's going to end ...that context in itself can bring about all of these ideas that I framed as being tied to Bowie's debasing drug experience.
"front and no sides" would be a flattening effect... 3-d down to 2-d. The 2-d would be the "metal faced boy" and the 3-d would be the "psychodelicate girl". I'll explain what each one stands for in the next paragraph.
The mid section: "He punishes hard Was loving her such a crime She took back everything she said Left him nearly out of his mind" ...seems to be about the unbending, hard nature of the masculine "metal faced boy". This is a side of one person (himself, perhaps) but any person will do, really. The masculine being the objective self commiserating with the internal, soft, feminine/subjective self. In this case I believe it's a self-referential statement about Bowie's difficult times when "extracting the subjective/psychodelicate" from his mind with chemical means and how this wrought "hard punishment" upon his body. If anyone has experienced a placid mind though constant meditative practice as did Bowie (or in my own case, the placid and boring nature of a mind that is balanced by Chinese Medicine...or in Bowie's case a mind that is boring because he's drained all his neurochemicals through drug-use leaving him on the crash/burn side of the trip (see "Always Crashing In the Same Car"). "Left him nearly out of his mind" is about his difficulties with drug-use...it gained him much by way of creative/human insight but almost took away his sanity.
"Hope I'm wrong but I know" is a reference to this idea that he hopes his view of the world is wrong because it contains no afterlife. "But I know" speaks of his certainty of this worldview.
"But it makes me sad / so I'll dance my life away" is his understanding of the inevitable arrival of death and his fall into oblivion and so he dances while he can. This ties into the larger paragraph I referenced above which ends with: "They're people I know People I love They seem so unhappy Dead or alive"
He's found a way of making the best of his situation in the face of this tragic, universal demise to come. Some may not take him seriously for staying in the world of fantasy/subjective but it's how he deals with it all...he's "happy" or at least aware, but there are so many that aren't happy/content ("with coping method").
================================
A million dreams (childhood) A million scars (adulthood) A million, A million ("years" is implied... a phrase which equals "infinity" or "oblivion")
These three are the choices: you can dream, you can complain, or you can die... but you will eventually die... so why not make the best of it and enjoy your time; be happy, son!
Touching song with a hint of the straining air that surrounds confronting your mortality and how to approach that final period.
"these pieces are broken"... no idea other than it might reference a shattered "metal faceboy"... the body will fail in your attempts to squeeze the juice of life out of it... realize that there is an negative for every great positive... that obtaining the subjective costs an objective price.... and avoiding this will leave you as nothing BUT a "metalfaced boy" that is unhappy "dead or alive".
Hope you've enjoyed my rambling style. It saves me time.
Realize now it's so much about drugs but just existence in general... being human and alive and knowing it's going to end ...that context in itself can bring about all of these ideas that I framed as being tied to Bowie's debasing drug experience.
Realize now it's so much about drugs but just existence in general... being human and alive and knowing it's going to end ...that context in itself can bring about all of these ideas that I framed as being tied to Bowie's debasing drug experience.