Quaaludes, Red Wine and No Berlin Wall

Time- Bowie, Aladdin Sane, 1973

Time - He's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boy

Time - He flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy

Time - In Quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time

The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain, and many other last names
I look at my watch it say 9:25 and I think "Oh God I'm still alive"

We should be on by now
We should be on by now

Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai

You - are not a victim
You - just scream with boredom
You - are not evicting time

Times - Goddamn, you're looking old
You'll freeze and catch a cold
'Cause you've left your coat behind
Take your time
Breaking up is hard, but keeping dark is hateful
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind, but love has left you dreamless
The door to dreams was closed. Your park was real and greenless
Perhaps you're smiling now, smiling through this darkness
But all I had to give was the guilt for dreaming

We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now

Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la

Yes time

2080-Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals, 2007

I can’t sleep when I think about the times we’re living in,
I can’t sleep when I think about the future I was born into,
Outsiders dressed up like Sunday morning,
With no Berlin wall what the hell you gonna do.


It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s a fresh spring, So let’s sing.

In 2080 I’ll surely be dead
So don’t look ahead, Never look ahead

It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s the first spring, So let’s sing.

And the moon shines bright On the water tonight
So we won’t drown In the summer sound.

If you find me I’ll be sitting by the water fountain,
Picket signs, letdowns, meltdown it’s Monday morning
But it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
It’s alright, Cause in no time,
They’ll be gone I guess I’ll still be standing here.

It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s a fresh spring, So let’s sing.

In 2080 I’ll surely be dead
So don’t look ahead, Never look ahead

It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s the first spring, So let’s sing.

And the moon shines bright On the water tonight
So we won’t drown In the summer sound.

Yeah Yeah we can all grab at the chance and be handsome farmers,
Yeah you can have twenty one sons and be blood when they marry my daughters,
And the pain that we left at the station will stay in a jar behind us.
We can pickle the pain into blue ribbon winners at county contests.

It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s a fresh spring, So let’s sing.

In 2080 I’ll surely be dead
So don’t look ahead, Never look ahead

It’s a New Year, I’m glad to be here
It’s the first spring, So let’s sing.

And the moon shines bright On the water tonight
So we won’t drown In the summer sound.


Bowie's "Time" is a really dark glam rock anthem about mortality; it's a look at the dark side of the decadent "Quaaludes and red wine" lifestyle that most artists at the time were glorifying, and still do. But the reason "Time" is so timeless is because it's about more than Bowie's own approaching death (he fooled us all!)-- he's singing about the human condition! Everyone dies after a long twisted mess of love, guilt, darkness and lai lai lais.

Yeasayer's "2080" is coincidentally also pretty glammy (and not even in that crappy self-conscious way of sad bands from suburban Chicago that try to sound like Bowie et al although they bought his greatest hits two years ago). This song in particular really jumps off All Hour Cymbals because of its subject matter; most bands today are, again, re-heating the sounds and themes of the past 80 years. There's more to life and art than the love song and its cousins of despair, the age-old self-centered existential dilemmas of being sad, alone and bored. "2080," however, calls out the fucked up nature of the World Right Now in the first line! Wow. That's a statement that can contend with Bowie's imagery of Time as a wanker.

"2080" alludes to the paradox of being born into a post-revolutionary age (with"no Berlin wall," all of our needs are met, so why are we still unfulfilled?), and finally dream of cashing it all in to drop out and live in the country. The only thing that keeps this song and its narrator from tipping into abject nihilism is nature: Spring, the moon and the dream of a farm are the saving grace in a mess of societal monstrosities.

While 1973 Bowie is content to wallow in the inescapable pain of greenless parks and dreamless love, we've had a lot to mull over in the three and a half decades of Aladdin Sane's existence. Times have undoubtedly gotten darker, parks less green and love less dreamy since Bowie was in eyeshadow. In "2080" Yeasayer has possibly articulated a view we've all adopted if only to sleep at night: if times are scary, you have to appreciate the things that still make it all worth it, and take comfort in the fact that at least we won't be around forever.


Also, it's pretty cool and non-depressing that David Bowie is still alive and not even a huge embarrassment ie hawking foot cream or dueting with some 15 year old. Still not as cool as Lou Reed, but that's ok because no one is, and that's a whole nother story for another time.