[Update: Bowie was sharp at guerilla marketing from an early age. At 17 he founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.]"I'd love to be a film star [...] But you gotta do all this work to do that." - David Bowie
David Bowie interview on Dick Cavett 1974 (man, that's long ago).
He's more twitchy than I've ever been! Maybe I could do that.
Dick asks Bowie: "Did you ever try to picture yourself at sixty?"
Hey, Bowie just turned sixty in January!
I'm not sure what his young self would think of him, but I don't think he has anything to be ashamed of. (Granted, I don't care too much for his work in this millennium (!), but many people adore it, and it's certainly done with care and love.) He comments a bit on this here.
He's a lot more erudite in 2002.
Funny quote from that: "They fuck you up, your mom and dad/They may not mean to but they do/ They fill you full of faults they had/ And they add some extras just for you"
Bowie is quoting Philip Larkin:
They fuck you up, your mom and dad
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-stylen hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can
And don't have any kids yourself.
7 comments:
Man hands on misery to man
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can
And don't have any kids yourself.
What sad lyrics. But often true to form. Makes me wonder if (sometimes we are responsible for the sins of our fathers?) Not really I suppose but we do take traits from them. It's often genetic I'm told. My depression comes from my mother (who is now deceased but lives permently in my heart and my anger comes from my father.)
Yet my sensitive side came from mom. At any rate we are a mix of both. But to "never" have any kids myself......couldn't have imagined that ever.
I love my boys (men now) more than ever. Been through a lot with my kids. But I don't regret one day of being their "dad." I have been blessed.
Good post Eolake.
I think the poem is humorous. And very funny.
Before having kids on my own, I'm training to hand on happiness rather than misery with my brother's kids.
If I succeed, I will consider perpetuating a lineage. No offense, Mr Bowie. ;-)
terry said...
"but we do take traits from them. It's often genetic I'm told."
Well, if they give you life and then raise you, it becomes hard to differenciate the parts of heredity and family environment. As one little boy told his father when asked to explain his very bad school grades. :-)
There is a bit of both, of course. I'd say we are one third birth, one third education, and one third free choice, whatever our innate or deep-rooted personality may be. Equal parts of predestination, chance and free will. Which is a convoluted way of saying that we do have a saying in what and who we are. We have a nature, which is us. And we also have a freedom, which allows us to choose how much of our nature we wish to really be. How much of ourselves we like, versus how much we prefer to change.
This is a complex issue. I just think we can neither proclaim the supremacy or predestination, nor deny its influence.
Same could be said about hazard, chance. We cannot foresee the unexpected things that'll come upon us, like an accident for instance. But we have full control on how we decide to react to it, how it will affect us.
We are not gods. We are not powerless either, far from it. Our self is ours to control, and the life that comes from it. Always, in some way or another.
So, if you ask me how useful my ramblings can be on the field, I'd say this: remember, maybe you cannot control the Universe, but you are yourself a universe which you can control. Remember this every time you feel helpless or lost or confused. "I-have-power."
We only give up or become passive if we choose to.
Hey, Terry, didn't know you had children (men now). I'm sure you have been blessed and felt it. And I'm also sure they're good people, and an asset to this world. Bowie's too pessimistic sometimes. Or too ironic!
Perhaps he had a point to make to his own parents, who knows?
Profanity! Ow, my eyes. How can one stand to read this? It stands against reading... My eyes!
Hey, Terry, didn't know you had children (men now). I'm sure you have been blessed and felt it. And I'm also sure they're good people, and an asset to this world.
Yes Pascal, two sons who are 26 and 27. Both married and I'm a proud grandfather of a beautiful 4 yr old girl named Mariah.
They have been an asset to me :) Thank you for saying you believe they are good people. In my opinion they are.
Last presidential election we three campaigned for John Kerry at our courthouse square in a republican town and were mocked and screamed at but we tried to keep dubya out of office.
I'll never forget the overwhelming sense of pride of having my boys stand up with me agaisn't this ultra-conservative town and protesting the oil-war in Iraq too.
The memory still brings happy tears to my eyes. Appreciate your kind thoughts about my children Pascal. Honestly. We need more people like you in our world :)
Be well my friend.
Paraphrene,
Just for the sake of clarity, would you mind expliciting what exactly you find painful to read? The original post, or something in the comments?
Because, you know, the curiosity is burning my insides. ;-)
Terry,
To be perfectly honest, it wasn't a hard guess for me to make. :-)
By coincidence, I just found back this reference yesterday, about who said «A war is called just when it is necessary.» It was Machiavel.
Interesting source, with the USA fighting a "just war" today in Iraq...
You might dare and write it on a sign next time you protest, Terry.
But I take no responsibility for your ensuing arrest...
You know, watching Bowie's Cavett interview, I'm struck by how much of what Bowie was into back in '74 I got into a dozen or more years later. He was truly ahead of his time... or us in later times I think have stagnated.
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