Probably obvious, but the title is likely a reference to the 1958 film Look Back in Anger, or less likely but also possibly the 1956 play on which it was based. The film's a look at a doomed relationship during a pretty bleak time in England's history, centred on an angry, abusive protagonist (played by Richard Burton -- the term "angry young man" wasn't coined for the character, but it was popularized by it). However the relationship between the lyrics and the film isn't obvious. Maybe he just liked the phrase.
@lydgate It is definitely from the film Look Back in Anger 1958 Richard Burton Dorian Grey with the mirror self identity with post cocaine as the man in the mirror and even a reference to Goethe's Faust with the angel appearing but he is saved.he even paints the mirror mage in paints ( maybe a reference t acid and self identity ) . Bowie paid for lessons in art and literature living in Germany after he left the USA to get educated and he would have easily come across Germany's greatest writer Goethe as his lecturers and teacher...
@lydgate It is definitely from the film Look Back in Anger 1958 Richard Burton Dorian Grey with the mirror self identity with post cocaine as the man in the mirror and even a reference to Goethe's Faust with the angel appearing but he is saved.he even paints the mirror mage in paints ( maybe a reference t acid and self identity ) . Bowie paid for lessons in art and literature living in Germany after he left the USA to get educated and he would have easily come across Germany's greatest writer Goethe as his lecturers and teacher he paid were Austrian. It is an eclectic mix and saying even though he has been through choosing to live the sins of the world like Dorian ( and it plays also to a homoerotic audience and meaning as well in part as bonus )but it above that as art as love should be and his individual soul... he s struggling with his identity and solitary being but his choses he has done so for knowledge and out of love and thus has eventually been saved from what is inside of him or the angel wild not be there. Bowie would have loved the mix of modern contemporary culture of a 1950's film look Back in Anger and the reference of an angry young man.......and the angry young men in general of pop culture youth ,and literature and painting, self identity and post drug references .. trust me that is exactly what he is doing. I love the song and the video is chugs alone great. : )) The leafing through a magazine s the contemporary culture as well ignoring the arts like many are ignoring his work youth and critics and public.. lie that idea and also it is him as the angel and as the none angel and the being self corrupted and even .... it plays on a lot of images and references really..........even the vision of an angel appearing with let's be going is more akin to Mephistopheles turning up who is a winged devil trapped in his own hell by the devil for selling his soul in German folklore. Bowie was living in Berlin at the time, reading alt and doing his own shopping.The word Mephistopheles , may derive from the Hebrew מֵפִיץ (mêp̄îṣ) which means "scatterer, disperser", and tophel, short for ט֫פֶל שֶׁ֫קֶר (tōp̄el šeqer) which means "plasterer of lies". The name can also be a combination of three Greek words: μή (mḗ) as a negation, φῶς (phō̃s) meaning "light", and φιλις "philis" meaning "loving", making it mean "not-light-loving", possibly parodying the Latin "Lucifer" or "light-bearer".whch can be an atatck on what ART is as lies and drugs and relationships as the song is playing on waiting for someone, an angel, himself, someone else some one real some one real , some not real even to the point you can think of it as a vision of a tormented soul and the loss of love and the angst of that. So you are left wondering if it is real or not as there is far more of a story to put round it left to what it means to you. Do I get my A-level Englsh Grade A now ?
I also want to echo the angel of death idea as well as where else would an angel be taking one and when.... and yet he is leaving behind the life the angel rubbing out his life as if nothing......and it seems long overdue the person seems to wish for and embrace death.... even yawning at the world and of the nn consequential act of ceasing life doing this....a matter of fact the erasing of life which seems very sane thing to be doing.. we are left wondering who the angel is and if it a real one...
I also want to echo the angel of death idea as well as where else would an angel be taking one and when.... and yet he is leaving behind the life the angel rubbing out his life as if nothing......and it seems long overdue the person seems to wish for and embrace death.... even yawning at the world and of the nn consequential act of ceasing life doing this....a matter of fact the erasing of life which seems very sane thing to be doing.. we are left wondering who the angel is and if it a real one and mirror image of Bowie and throwing Dorian Grey and Faust in both great works for disaffected youth in early and mid modern periods we are again asking what life is as a question....and the contrast with a 1950's ( late modern ). British film that gave us the phrase for " angry young men " seems to be what is going on in a self referential form and even parody of Bowie himself and yet also to and for us all. it must certainly comes under the heading art, the video adds a whole new dimension to it with such limited lyrics. Bowie does this often few lyrics such huge meaning. He has his moments of poetic genius does Bowie. Referring to all in late 70's Bowie is cutting edge cusp of post modernist eclecticism which really does not take to the late 1980's... but it is still of the avant-garde ( end of the modern ) but it is actually more than that and Bowie knows it. ( Even with these words .. trust me he does my late 1970's ).. you cld see it and miss the meaning just like you could an angel..... I say it is that clever. It i still avant-garde the end of the modern is.... but t is also something else of post modernist stirrings in a pop song. Which if you are philosophical , the only way out ironically of the post modern bit is though romanticism and we are left yet again wth Wilde and Goethe and where we came in again. Trapped in life n an existential crisis as a angry young man.
Probably obvious, but the title is likely a reference to the 1958 film Look Back in Anger, or less likely but also possibly the 1956 play on which it was based. The film's a look at a doomed relationship during a pretty bleak time in England's history, centred on an angry, abusive protagonist (played by Richard Burton -- the term "angry young man" wasn't coined for the character, but it was popularized by it). However the relationship between the lyrics and the film isn't obvious. Maybe he just liked the phrase.
I'd always believed this song was about a rather dishevelled Angel of Death, arriving to take his charge
I'd always believed this song was about a rather dishevelled Angel of Death, arriving to take his charge
Oasis did not like the phrase.
Oasis did not like the phrase.
@lydgate It is definitely from the film Look Back in Anger 1958 Richard Burton Dorian Grey with the mirror self identity with post cocaine as the man in the mirror and even a reference to Goethe's Faust with the angel appearing but he is saved.he even paints the mirror mage in paints ( maybe a reference t acid and self identity ) . Bowie paid for lessons in art and literature living in Germany after he left the USA to get educated and he would have easily come across Germany's greatest writer Goethe as his lecturers and teacher...
@lydgate It is definitely from the film Look Back in Anger 1958 Richard Burton Dorian Grey with the mirror self identity with post cocaine as the man in the mirror and even a reference to Goethe's Faust with the angel appearing but he is saved.he even paints the mirror mage in paints ( maybe a reference t acid and self identity ) . Bowie paid for lessons in art and literature living in Germany after he left the USA to get educated and he would have easily come across Germany's greatest writer Goethe as his lecturers and teacher he paid were Austrian. It is an eclectic mix and saying even though he has been through choosing to live the sins of the world like Dorian ( and it plays also to a homoerotic audience and meaning as well in part as bonus )but it above that as art as love should be and his individual soul... he s struggling with his identity and solitary being but his choses he has done so for knowledge and out of love and thus has eventually been saved from what is inside of him or the angel wild not be there. Bowie would have loved the mix of modern contemporary culture of a 1950's film look Back in Anger and the reference of an angry young man.......and the angry young men in general of pop culture youth ,and literature and painting, self identity and post drug references .. trust me that is exactly what he is doing. I love the song and the video is chugs alone great. : )) The leafing through a magazine s the contemporary culture as well ignoring the arts like many are ignoring his work youth and critics and public.. lie that idea and also it is him as the angel and as the none angel and the being self corrupted and even .... it plays on a lot of images and references really..........even the vision of an angel appearing with let's be going is more akin to Mephistopheles turning up who is a winged devil trapped in his own hell by the devil for selling his soul in German folklore. Bowie was living in Berlin at the time, reading alt and doing his own shopping.The word Mephistopheles , may derive from the Hebrew מֵפִיץ (mêp̄îṣ) which means "scatterer, disperser", and tophel, short for ט֫פֶל שֶׁ֫קֶר (tōp̄el šeqer) which means "plasterer of lies". The name can also be a combination of three Greek words: μή (mḗ) as a negation, φῶς (phō̃s) meaning "light", and φιλις "philis" meaning "loving", making it mean "not-light-loving", possibly parodying the Latin "Lucifer" or "light-bearer".whch can be an atatck on what ART is as lies and drugs and relationships as the song is playing on waiting for someone, an angel, himself, someone else some one real some one real , some not real even to the point you can think of it as a vision of a tormented soul and the loss of love and the angst of that. So you are left wondering if it is real or not as there is far more of a story to put round it left to what it means to you. Do I get my A-level Englsh Grade A now ?
I also want to echo the angel of death idea as well as where else would an angel be taking one and when.... and yet he is leaving behind the life the angel rubbing out his life as if nothing......and it seems long overdue the person seems to wish for and embrace death.... even yawning at the world and of the nn consequential act of ceasing life doing this....a matter of fact the erasing of life which seems very sane thing to be doing.. we are left wondering who the angel is and if it a real one...
I also want to echo the angel of death idea as well as where else would an angel be taking one and when.... and yet he is leaving behind the life the angel rubbing out his life as if nothing......and it seems long overdue the person seems to wish for and embrace death.... even yawning at the world and of the nn consequential act of ceasing life doing this....a matter of fact the erasing of life which seems very sane thing to be doing.. we are left wondering who the angel is and if it a real one and mirror image of Bowie and throwing Dorian Grey and Faust in both great works for disaffected youth in early and mid modern periods we are again asking what life is as a question....and the contrast with a 1950's ( late modern ). British film that gave us the phrase for " angry young men " seems to be what is going on in a self referential form and even parody of Bowie himself and yet also to and for us all. it must certainly comes under the heading art, the video adds a whole new dimension to it with such limited lyrics. Bowie does this often few lyrics such huge meaning. He has his moments of poetic genius does Bowie. Referring to all in late 70's Bowie is cutting edge cusp of post modernist eclecticism which really does not take to the late 1980's... but it is still of the avant-garde ( end of the modern ) but it is actually more than that and Bowie knows it. ( Even with these words .. trust me he does my late 1970's ).. you cld see it and miss the meaning just like you could an angel..... I say it is that clever. It i still avant-garde the end of the modern is.... but t is also something else of post modernist stirrings in a pop song. Which if you are philosophical , the only way out ironically of the post modern bit is though romanticism and we are left yet again wth Wilde and Goethe and where we came in again. Trapped in life n an existential crisis as a angry young man.