Life on Mars
Life
on Mars?
It's
a God-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling no
And her daddy has told her to go
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 she's hooked to the silver screen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But
the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her 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?
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
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But
the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on
'Cause 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?
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?
Songwriters: David Bowie
Chords
An easier way to play it (learn it in D and then transpose it to F with a capo)
Origins
In 1968, Bowie wrote the lyrics "Even a Fool Learns to
Love", set to the music of a 1967 French song "Comme
d'habitude", composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. Bowie's
version was never released, but Paul Anka bought the rights to the original
French version and rewrote it into "My Way", the song made famous by
Frank Sinatra in a 1969 recording on his album of the same name. The success of
the Anka version prompted Bowie to write "Life on Mars?" as a parody
of Sinatra's recording. In notes for iSelect, a compilation that accompanied a
June 2008 issue of The Mail on Sunday, Bowie described how he wrote the song:
Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a
bargain-price art nouveau screen ("William Morris," so I told anyone
who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little
else. I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody
finished by late afternoon.
Bowie noted that Rick Wakeman "embellished the piano
part" of his original melody and guitarist Mick Ronson "created one
of his first and best string parts" for the song. The liner notes for
Hunky Dory indicate that the song was "inspired by Frankie".
One reviewer suggested the song was written after "a
brief and painful affair" with actress Hermione Farthingale. While on tour
in 1990, Bowie introduced the song by saying "You fall in love, you write
a love song. This is a love song."
Lyrics
BBC Radio has described "Life on Mars?" as having
"one of the strangest lyrics ever" consisting of a "slew of
surreal images" like a Salvador Dalà painting. The line "Look at
those cavemen go" is a reference to the song "Alley Oop", a
one-off hit in 1960 for American doo-wop band The Hollywood Argyles.
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."
Comme d'habitude
(Notice the how Bowie's video parodies this one!)
Think about the melody of Life on Mars. In what ways does it imitate the melody of My Way and Comme d'habitude?
It gets even weirder. Bowie actually came up with the original lyric "my way", in an unpublished verse he recorded over Comme d'habitude. This was before My Way had been written.
There was a time
The laughing time
I took my heart
To ev’ry party
They’d point my way
‘How are you today?
Will you make us laugh?
Chase our blues away?’
Their funny man
Won’t let them down
No, he’d dance and prance
And be their clown
That time
That laughing time
That Even A Fool Learns To Love…
David Bowie: ‘Life On Mars Was My Revenge Song For Missing My Way’
(Notice the how Bowie's video parodies this one!)
Think about the melody of Life on Mars. In what ways does it imitate the melody of My Way and Comme d'habitude?
It gets even weirder. Bowie actually came up with the original lyric "my way", in an unpublished verse he recorded over Comme d'habitude. This was before My Way had been written.
There was a time
The laughing time
I took my heart
To ev’ry party
They’d point my way
‘How are you today?
Will you make us laugh?
Chase our blues away?’
Their funny man
Won’t let them down
No, he’d dance and prance
And be their clown
That time
That laughing time
That Even A Fool Learns To Love…
David Bowie: ‘Life On Mars Was My Revenge Song For Missing My Way’
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