Song for eternity... Five Years... 37 years later, it seems Bowie was right to me

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 21:23.

I can't help but think what the world would be like today if all the people listening had paid attention to David Bowie's prophetic song, Five Years, back in 1972... had really believed it... taken it to heart... changed their lives like we only had five years left to save the world. What a beautiful world this could be.

What if David Bowie was right, and we only had five years, as of 1972... "that's all we got", and now we are just living out the end. That is how it seems to me. Could we be beyond the point of no return? Was Bowie right, back then?

What if, today, "News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying"? Do you think anyone would really change?

Great 1972 live David Bowie performing Five Years on YouTube, here.

Pushing thru the market square, so many mothers sighing
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying
I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies
I saw boys, toys electric irons and t.v.s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
I never thought Id need so many people

A girl my age went off her head, hit some tiny children
If the black hadnt a-pulled her off, I think she would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheels of a cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, and a queer threw up at the sight of that

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour, drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine, dont think
You knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, youre beautiful, I want you to walk

Weve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
Weve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all weve got
Weve got five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
Weve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all weve got
Weve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
Weve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all weve got
Weve got five years, what a surprise
Weve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Weve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all weve got
Five years
Five years
Five years
Five years

 

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"...dont think you knew you were in this song"

"Smiling and waving and looking so fine"

"What a surprise..."

Makes me cry.

Disrupt IT