Five Years

Introduction

I have been playing a lot of David Bowie albums over the last few days, and to be quite honest, I wrote this piece about my attitude to favourite albums and songs:

I have also written a lot on Vocal about various aspects of Bowie and his music here:

While certain songs always stand for me, "Cygnet Committee", "Heroes", and "Station To Station" are three that I will always name drop. There is always one song that stops me in my tracks.

These are my impressions, but you can find out more on Wiki and read the lyrics below:

I didn't realise that the Genius link would display all the lyrics, but you can see them now hopefully.

Five Years

This opens Bowie's 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", although it was recorded in 1971.

The song is about what would happen if we knew the end was coming globally, with no way of avoiding it. We have seen many Armageddon scenario films, and there is almost always a way out, but this song does not have one.

There are numerous instances of people caring for others, while others completely lose their composure. This is probably an accurate illustration of what would happen.

We don't know why Earth is dying, but the method is not what is being focused on here; it is the results of the situation. Many of my Vocal stories are like that. I do not specify what is happening and leave that to the mind of the reader.

Some of the lines are a bit blunt and might cause offense in today's climae, but maybe add to the power of the song:

If the Black hadn't have pulled her off

I think she would have killed them

A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest

And a queer threw up at the sight of that

There are other lines that show that, whatever the situation, some people try to make the best of it.

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour

Drinking milkshakes cold and long

Smiling and waving and looking so fine

Conclusion

Will I listen to "Five Years" today? I don't know, but for me it never loses its power. For me, it may be the best song on a brilliant album, and I am always tempted to play it once more.

It is only one song, but it impressed me the first time I heard it, and I feel the same about it today.