THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

5-David Bowie-Life on Mars.

1971-It wasn’t released as a single until 1973 when it reached Number 3.

Best Bit-At 2.57. Bowie had struggled for many years to make the big breakthrough, but success finally came in 1969 with ‘Space Oddity,’ so it is no big surprise that many of his songs have celestial themed titles, such as ‘Starman,’ ‘Blackstar,’ and ‘Lady Stardust.’ ‘Life on Mars’ is very well named, because it is truly ‘out of this world.’

David Bowie (see also best songs 807-440-334-302-209-186-118-47 and 31) (see also his production work 701-131 and 58) was born David Robert Jones on January 8th, 1947, in London, England, he died of liver cancer two days after his 69th birthday, on January 10th, 2016.

The discography of David Bowie includes 26 studio Albums released between 1967-2021, and 128 singles issued between 1964-2021, there are also 46 compilation Albums, and 24 live Albums available. Bowie also released two studio Albums in 1989 and 1991 as a member of the much underrated British/American Rock group ‘Tin Machine.’ In the UK, including teaming up with other artists he has achieved 60 top 40 singles, with five of those tracks reaching the Number 1 spot, while in America on the Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles chart he has had 13 hits, with ‘Fame’ from 1975, and ‘Let’s Dance’ from 1983, both making the top spot. David Bowie is one of the worlds best selling artists of all time, with sales in excess of 100 million records sold.

‘Life on Mars’ was written by David Bowie, and produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, who worked with Bowie in the 1960’s and 1970’s on five of his studio Albums. ‘Life on Mars’ was the second of two singles released from his fourth studio Album ‘Hunky Dory’ from December 1971, although ‘Life on Mars’ wasn’t issued as a single until after the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ Album had propelled Bowie to the next level in 1973.

In 1968 Bowie had been asked to write English lyrics to the French melody ‘Comme d’habitude,’ which on completion was rejected. The Canadian singer/songwriter Paul Anka stepped in with his own lyrics, and the song was made world famous when sung by Frank Sinatra, (1915-1998) and called ‘My Way’ (see also best songs 120.) This annoyed and fired up Bowie who in a 2002 interview said,’That really made me angry for so long, for about a year, eventually I thought, ‘I can write something as big as that, and I’ll write one that sounds a bit like it.'” On the liner notes on the sleeve of the ‘Hunky Dory’ Album it states that the song was ‘Inspired by Frankie.’

David Bowie has stated that he found writing ‘Life on Mars’ easy,’Being young was easy, a really beautiful day in the park. I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus but couldn’t get the riff out of my head. I started working it out on the piano, and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Rick Wakeman (see also best songs 386 and 203) came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part, and Mick Ronson (see also best songs 661-405-131 and 58) created one of his first and best string parts.’ Rick Wakeman has said,’I remember leaving (the studio) and saying to a couple of friends that I met that evening in a local pub that I’d just played on the best song that I’d ever had the privilege to work on.’

Since first hearing ‘Life on Mars’ many years ago I have spent many hours trying to decipher the enigmatic lyrics, but thankfully in different interviews Bowie has shed light. He has said that it’s about,’A sensitive young girl’s reaction to the media. 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.’ In my opinion the opening verse tells of a young girl wanting to escape her everyday mundane existence, so for escapism she regularly visits the cinema, but soon realises that she has done this before, and the film is only reflecting what she already knows about her own reality. The second verse expands the situation, dealing with people as a whole, and how we get sucked in by commercialism, and into thinking that the grass is always greener on the other side. When Bowie sings ‘Is there life on Mars,’ he is saying, is there a better life I can make for myself.

‘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. 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.’