What is the meaning of the lyrics to Bowie's Subterraneans?

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Share bride failing star
Care-line
care-line
care-line
care-line driving me
Shirley, Shirley, Shirley own

Share bride failing star

― zane, Friday, 30 July 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"This'll sound kinda cool"

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 30 July 2004 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Get up in the morning, baked beans for breakfast
Sold out to every monk and beefhead
Oooooooh, me ears are alight!

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 30 July 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a reference to Shirley Owen, wife of SDP leader David Owen, who as part of the deal with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats agreed to become David Steel's concubine - the two David's apportioning conjugal rights on the basis of their respective approval ratings as party leaders in a series of monthy polls held especially by the MORI organisation.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 30 July 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"I have so much love to give, baby"

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 30 July 2004 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

A Bowie nerd speaks:

"Failing star" is a nice enough image, sitting well with the lugubrious feel of the song. Apart from that, the lyrics don't mean anything. And that's the point. On "Warszawa" the lyrics literally don't mean anything, because they're made-up phonetics. The second side of Low is partly about sound textures, that's why the lyrics deliberately don't have semantic content. There's also a symmetry with side one. On side one, the first and the last songs are wordless. On side two, only the first and the last songs have words.

― Bela Lugosi's Dad, Friday, 30 July 2004 11:15 (twenty-one years ago)

... also he couldn't be arsed to write any lyrics

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 30 July 2004 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Line-by line analysis:

1. "Share bride failing star" means "The tactful cactus by your window."
2. "Care-line" means "Surveys the prairie of your room."
3. "care-line" (#2) means "Mobile spins to its collision."
4. "care-line" (#3) means "Clara puts her head between her paws"
5. "care-line driving me" means "They've opened shops down on the west side."
6. "Shirley, Shirley, Shirley own" means "Will all the cacti find a home?"
7. "Share bride failing star" means "But the key to the city
is in the sun that pins the branches to the sky."

― Dr Benway (dr benway), Friday, 30 July 2004 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm. And I'd always thought it was: "Riding the Chevy, Chevy, Chevy home..."

― the visitor, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

"Meaning"?!?!

Something to do with Jack Kerouac, maybe?

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The second side of Low is partly about sound textures, that's why the lyrics deliberately don't have semantic content.

Ah, but what about the record's Semitic content?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

'Subterraneans' was a leftover from a projected soundtrack for 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' which never got used. So I'm guessing the line 'failing star' has something to do with the film.

― fragile protection, Monday, 27 September 2004 08:15 (twenty-one years ago)

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