The lyrics are self explanatory, but the question for me is whether Bowie wrote this song from the perspective of a fictional character or himself. Obviously Bowie didn't kill himself so from that argument you could say it's from a character viewpoint. Also it's well known that Bowie is able to create and write songs from the perspective of made up characters. However, I'm not sure if he actually lived above and Austrian's grocery store, but if he didn't, the idea of placing false details into the song sounds like a strategy to prevent people from assuming the song's about Bowie himself. I mean, there's a lot of emotional and observational detail in this song that would be too difficult to come up with alone without experiencing it. I relate to this song immensely, so the idea that Bowie actually felt like an outcast wrote a song about it sounds lovely to me.
The lyrics are self explanatory, but the question for me is whether Bowie wrote this song from the perspective of a fictional character or himself. Obviously Bowie didn't kill himself so from that argument you could say it's from a character viewpoint. Also it's well known that Bowie is able to create and write songs from the perspective of made up characters. However, I'm not sure if he actually lived above and Austrian's grocery store, but if he didn't, the idea of placing false details into the song sounds like a strategy to prevent people from assuming the song's about Bowie himself. I mean, there's a lot of emotional and observational detail in this song that would be too difficult to come up with alone without experiencing it. I relate to this song immensely, so the idea that Bowie actually felt like an outcast wrote a song about it sounds lovely to me.