rabbithowl's observation about the line "Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it," is spot on IMO. I'd like to point out how Bowie is saying there is something that you can hear, see, but can never touch. The song is a lot less disjointed than it appears. I think it has to do with Bowie's shattered ego and his attempt to reassemble a new persona out of the pieces. He fucked up his mind with drugs, he strained his psyche with occult practice, and created a persona that's wonderful but has problems. He can experience this ideal through second-hand experience, but he'll never really touch it. I think the entire concept of "Low" itself deals largely with the trials of trying to achieve a state of self-perfection; the frustrations of trying to bring the pureness of thought from Kether into the world of Malkuth. Occultism is the constant, blatant-but-hidden center to Bowie's entire body of work, and to truly grasp some of his lyrics you must have an understanding of these things.
rabbithowl's observation about the line "Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it," is spot on IMO. I'd like to point out how Bowie is saying there is something that you can hear, see, but can never touch. The song is a lot less disjointed than it appears. I think it has to do with Bowie's shattered ego and his attempt to reassemble a new persona out of the pieces. He fucked up his mind with drugs, he strained his psyche with occult practice, and created a persona that's wonderful but has problems. He can experience this ideal through second-hand experience, but he'll never really touch it. I think the entire concept of "Low" itself deals largely with the trials of trying to achieve a state of self-perfection; the frustrations of trying to bring the pureness of thought from Kether into the world of Malkuth. Occultism is the constant, blatant-but-hidden center to Bowie's entire body of work, and to truly grasp some of his lyrics you must have an understanding of these things.