@@hevsuit5142 switch stance face plant napalm fire starters Flatlander plug puller no thought turbulence charted *i fucking remember the entire first verse, this song is gold*
Can you believe he was only 23? he was incredibly well read, took inspirations from Nietzsche, Jung, Lovecraft and other philosophers, you can write essays about Bowie's songs, I love him and miss him so much, after all we were lucky to have him in our time
All this lovely music is bringing back memories of my David Bowie days and as a result I am restoring gradually slowly but surely my favorite Bowie Collection.
OOOOHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHH. So softly the supergod cries! Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold! Far out, in the red skies! Strange, mad celebration! Well, only describes Bowie in tune with the imaginations of wonders of things that normal mortals would not dare consider. He was lofting into the realm of places no one else had gone. Some ideas were borrowed from politics and science fiction. But Bowie's goal was to go beyond that: to incite an audience to things as powerful as they could be made!
This alway seemed like a crazy album of his...but I still love it just the same. I love his young voice. David Bowie, just stariting out, but it didn't seem that way. It seemed like he was showing me things I never thought of before. This David Bowie was someone different than I had ever heard before. I loved him then...I love him now.
I didn't realise Bowie had actually said that! Everyone was trying to understand Nietzsche, Sarte and even Lovecraft in that era! The philosophers gave rise to some great conversations and even greater music from artists like Bowie.
Understanding Lovecraft is easy. He's a nerd raised entirely by matriarchal women who grew up with an understandable fear of pussy. Which explains why most of his "Old Gods" looked like vaginas with teeth.
Want weird fiction worth reading that rises above the middle school level? Try Bierce, Machen, or Lord Dunsany. And Poe but that's a given. You'll thank me later.
@averilleX Could be but I'm no expert. lol I don't know why Bowie chose the softer acoustic version but I think it makes the song much more atmospheric.
Fans SHOULD imbue his songs with more meaning than even he intended. "Greater works than this, shall you do." Transference of energy: He discovered that looking backward on work, was NOT his best focus. Keeping works ALIVE, fresh (even whilst performing established repertoire), being eager, ravenous for the next cutting edge of the Bowie knife, sights on the future, bringing it on, WAS his talent. That's what keeps art alive, going even BEYOND visions of the visionary! Strange, mad celebrations!
The more I listen to this, the more I think it was inspired by his brother being in a lunatic system, where these 'wondrous beings' (the insane, whom he respected and romanticized) were kept in this grey world, prevented from committing suicide, or going anwhere else. I think he took imagery from lovecraft, and overal saw Nitschean themes and the treatment of "freaks" in general by small minded, mediocre conformists of society...
If you really want to hear Bowie's take on insanity, the song you want to check out is The Bewlay Brothers. Possibly (probably) about his half-brother Terry. The Supermen I think is about older beings. Pre-human civilizations.
be... Well, it wound up being this song here! And when he announced that he will play The Supermen - everyone in the theater went berserk. This song will always hold a special place in my heart for having the luxury of hearing it live.
it has nothing to with that, Nietzsche is a factor but not the certainty (a complex lyric is great) its about fallen angels - its to do the ancient beings left from the Adam and Eve as depicted in the film Noah.
Arguably one of the best songs Bowie has ever made... I saw Bowie perform this song during his "Earthling" tour in Winter '98. It was somewhere in Detroit - a real small theater that at most seated 2,000 people. It was a small place...can't remember the name of the theater for the like of me. Anyways...Bowie said to the audience something along he lines of that he never performed this song in 25 years. All of the sudden everyone in the theater was screaming - wondering what tune it would
When this album came out I took my copy round to my school friends house, Caroline Grey in Billingham and we sat playing records upstairs in her bedroom. Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were Caroline's favourites. When it was David Bowie's turn to enthrall us, I was singing along to this entire album with gay abandon only to look up to find my friend now standing in the corner of her bedroom, shoulders shaking up and down with her hand over her mouth trying to stifle laughs much to my surprise. "What? What are you laughing at?" I asked rather indignantly. "You sound just like him!!!" she replied. Result! ❤ x
When all the world was very young And mountain magic heavy hung The supermen would walk in file Guardians of a loveless isle And gloomy browed with superfear Their endless tragic lives Could heave nor sigh In solemn, per serenity Wondrous beings chained to life Strange games they would play then No death for the perfect men Life rolls into one for them So softly a supergod cries Where all were minds in uni-thought Power weird by mystics taught No pain, no joy, no power too great Colossal strength to grasp a fate Where sad-eyed mermen tossed in slumbers Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold A man would tear his brother's flesh A chance to die To turn to mold Far out in the red-sky Far out from the sad eyes Strange, mad celebration So softly a supergod cries Far out in the red-sky Far out from the sad eyes Strange, mad celebration So softly a supergod dies Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: David Bowie
The Spiders From Mars especially Mick Ronson, backing Bowie on this album shapes what many critics consider the to be the first Heavy Metal Album you can really notice when Ronson begins playing.
@MenkeriosAndemicael Indeed!! I think his fans imbue his songs with much more meaning than he ever did. But that's what I like about Bowie - he made me think.
I know Bowie released a lot of mastered ones but I took this from a cd I've had a very long time so I don't think it is mastered. I have the old vinyl album too - must have a listen!!
MedbCruachan, this is the original. I know it inside out, have this on vinyl. Even a minor change would stand out. Every bit of this version is original. Yes, it's the coolest, darkest Bowie album of them all :)
Should do a trawl of YT more often. Just see this now. The song has been often been said to reflect the influence of German Romanticism. The theme and lyrics refer to the apocalyptic visions of Friedrich Nietzsche. Bowie did say "I was still pretending that I understood Nietzsche... And I had tried to translate it into my own terms to understand it so 'Supermen' came out of that.
You're welcome and thank you for the nice comment. It's another favourite of mine but I don't like to see anyone perform it...feels like the people get in the way of the song. Strange, I know, particularly as I am such a Bowie fan!
Thanks, The statues are the Moai on Easter Island. The mountains are the Yellow mountains in China. My sister is just back from there and she says the photos don't do the beauty of the place justice.
