David Bowie: Life on Mars Meaning
Life on Mars Lyrics
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I think it's a combo of two of the suggestions above. The girl comes from an abusive home and has been kicked out of the house a number of times (Her mummy is yelling "No!"/ and her daddy has told her to go). She tries to escape her life by going to the cinema and watching movies, but because she has actually lived through these dramas they don't appeal to her (But the film is a sadd'ning bore/For she's lived it ten times or more) She sees the "entertaining versions" of violence, and how little we've evolved (Look at those cavemen go/It's the freakiest show) and wonders if this is all there is (Is there life on Mars?)
The second verse is a little more tricky for me personally but I think it's talking about the commercialization of ideals. Things that used to be representations of innocence or beliefs have become cheep, bastardized and gimmicky (It's on America's tortured brow/That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow/Now the workers have struck for fame/'Cause Lennon's on sale again) leaving many of the generation apathetic and jaded just like the girl with the mousy hair.
However, in a really weird way Bowie seems to understand that he too is contributing to the situation as his songs at turned into the thing he is against- Beliefs and Ideals plundered for profit. (But the film is a sadd'ning bore/'Cause I wrote it ten times or more) And not only his previous songs but this song as well. (It's about to be writ again/As I ask you to focus on...) -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:In the first verse we see a rather plain girl who tells her parents that she is pregnant. Her parents react abusively to her announcement, and tell her to leave home. And she is also abandoned by her lover.
The first place that she runs away to, is a movie theater. But now the movies have no real message about existence, and are dominated by simplistic views of love and gratuitous violence. She can no longer believe in Hollywood's version of love, because in real life love ends with disappointment and possibly an unwanted pregnancy.
Disillusioned by the insensitivity of her parents, the abandonment of her boyfriend, and the shallowness of American films, she wonders if there is any place in the universe where she could find intelligent life. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:life on mars is about society.
how its all a ridiculous joke.
how people stil act like "cavemen".
but he's hoping that maybe there's something better on mars.
that somewhere there's some intelligent life or society better than this.
"take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy I wonder if theyll ever know that they're the best selling show"
people are stupid and they make a ridicuolos scene out of everything
"the film was a saddened bore becoause I've lived it ten times or more"
its all gotten boring society everything
its gotten old like when you watch a movie too many times in row
everything the same and it never ends -
I’m at a party in the Hollywood hills and this song is playing. I asked several people what they think this song means. Everyone had no idea. Manson lamps.
Reality is 99% = It just has a great melody and a few words u can sing along too. Sort of like life I guess. Get a good job….make some money, take your two weeks then fade out.
Does anyone really live or understand why they are here? -
Bowie did write a note on his demo' stating it was about a girl who is oversensitive to the media, This is too simplistic for the overlying layers. Bowie said often he found the confines of convention stifling. Life was repetitive convention, without imagination. Entertainment previously viewed as an escape from the humdrum everyday life had come to mirror of the mundane or unrelatable fairy-tales. He expands the view to millions of people trying to escape boredom. Like the Disney workers, the poor do not feel part of the glory of Britannia. He excludes himself as part of the unbound institution of privilege who is defining their lives. It is a yearning for a new free society of imagination.
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I love this song regardless if it has meaning or not.. he may have been reading the paper for all we know and the headlines was Sailors were fighting in a dance hall, is there life on Mars?, Lawmen beat up the wrong man. David Bowie sang great songs and would not want us fighting or calling names, he would want us to enjoy the song and take from it what you will. If someone thinks it is about a pregnant girl let them or if someone else thinks it is about a better place to go let them... point is enjoy the song.. just sit back and enjoy
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I am surprised at the name calling a few of you people have done
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Btw, the friend who's nowhere to be seen is the guy who impregnated her
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The "God awful small affair'" is the girl is pregnant. Not unusual in those days for Dad to kick her out. Does she want to bring a kid into this world?
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Its amazing how many idiots think this song is about alien life, just like they think REM's "Losing My Religion" is about a loss of faith/religion, or Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" is about not being sad at being single. They take a title and think they know a song, without bothering to even listen to the song. It fu**ing beggars belief!
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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The first line is reference to the size of the spacecraft, someone is talking to the girl suggesting it’s a bit of a squash. Her folks have argued about whether she should take the trip and be “saved” – her friend it seems has eventually decided not to go. She ambles along knowing something is wrong, she was supposed to be famous and now this, leaving the earth before it collapses in line with biblical and historical predictions the aliens have previously handed down. Thus she gets a good seat to see the earth as it takes off to Saturn where the bigger transports are moored.
The inflight movie is boring because it’s been drummed into her all her life, religion but she has seen through the scam and thus could ‘spit in the eyes of fools’ – and the ask her to focus on –(the chorus)
Sailors fighting in the dance hall is what she is leaving behind, the world has basically erupted into world war three as religion has been ridiculed by the return of the aliens and the films shows news reports of killing by various relgious factions whose ideology has been destroyed; what with that and the synthetic earthquakes it’s a good escape. The film changes to show Jesus and the crucifixion and the song changes to the narration of the alien charged with the care of the passengers; the Lawman is Pontious Pilot and of course, the wrong guy is Jesus, who is really an alien too (sorry folks, it’s only a song though eh) – the man who sold the world, on religion.
America is by this time tortured by debt, war and indecision but Mickey Mouse is alien speak for the homo sapien – as opposed to homo superiour - which has grossed out on burgers and is ready for farming, though really just for hair – for semi-conductors for solar panels, if you really stretch the notion.
Manual and trade labour has been defeted in ambition by celebrity, hence the workers striking for fame – Lennon on sale again is a nod to a) the conspiracy theories that have kept mankind busy cerebally – save them looking too much to the stars and b) give peace a chance is likely to have been realsed due to wars etc mostly in the middle east as the Jews and Muslims (mostly) have been fighting it out like crazy most like (by this time).
Mice in their million hoards – two possibilties, a) mice being humans, denied contraception/homosexuality by religion have bred like rabbits, again, ready for farming or b) the nano robots designed to ‘mop up’ the rest of humanity. Rule Britania is out of nounds refers to some kind of cosmic agreement to a) let the Royal Family go, or b) possibly the whole UK.
Mother, my dog and clowns – mother ship or overall commander of the operation, dog, the diamond dogs really, the celebrities, gangsters, DJ’s – famous people really who will act essentially as sheepdogs to encourage people onto the ships; clowns are the lo-level security folk who will be more ‘encouraging’ – if all else fails.
David Bowie once famously said that ‘the internet changes everything’ one can only hope he was just talking about music.
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
Because Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
Because I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars? -
Bowie is drawing a picture about the absurdity of our existence - the absurdity of human mankind on this planet. And he says that unjustice and cruelty is not just a Single Case - it is happening again and again since man has Left the cave. He asks the question if there's Life on Mars. Its an indirect question about our life on planet earth. a similar question could be asked by an intelligent being living on mars asking if theres life on earth. Would he then imagine life being so absurd and silly as it is?
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Bowie, at the time of Hunky Dory's release in 1971, summed up the song as "A sensitive young girl's reaction to the media". In 1997 he added "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality ... that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it". What can I say. The man understood his own lyrics.
(I got this off wikipedia by the way. No breach of any possible copyright intended and I'm not the original source of this.) -
I think it is about a girl who thinks that our society is in tatters and hopes that there is life on Mars so there is something better out there. I agree with her whole heartedly.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Perhaps this is relying too much on the song title but I always thought of it as a girl sick of life with men (mars, cavemen) and wondering if anyone is really out there or if they're all just idiots ("beating out the wrong guy")
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