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When I was a kid, I used to watch Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert a lot. I also was glued to The Midnight Special. One particular evening this oddball guy with bright red hair and wearing bizarre clothes came on and sang a couple of songs on Don Kirshner’s show. I loved both songs and decided I had to have them. Now, you gotta understand, living in a small rural town pre-MTV and pre-internet made that no small task. I searched K-Mart and the local stores and just couldn’t figure out what the songs were. So, I did what most people did at that time, I went to the local head shop. The hippie running the place immediately identified the first song, Space Oddity, but he couldn’t put his finger on the second song. So, I did what every kid did at that time with money to spare and no bills to pay, I ordered Bowie’s first five LP’s. When they arrived, I started in chronological order with Space Oddity. My second fave song at that point was there, but not the one I had to have. The first album was a folksy sounding album with ultra-strange lyrics. But, it didn’t really catch me at that time. The second album, Hunky Dory, was more of the same. Folksy sounding, but a little brasher, with ultra-strange lyrics. However, I had a hard time getting past the third album. I couldn’t stop playing it. The Man Who Sold The World was completely different than the previous two. It was loud, it was in-your-face, it had LONG guitar solos, but it still had the strange tales. It was everything I wanted in a rock album right there. Several songs stood out, all in their own way. The album started off with a major bang with The Width of a Circle. This was the type of song usually reserved as the last song of a major effort. The Width of a Circle would become the highlight of the Ziggy Stardust tour. However, the second song was the one that stuck with me the most. All The Madmen flowed smoother, the lyrics seemed to mean something, but I couldn’t say what. And, it had one of those catchy refrains at the end, “Zane, Zane, Zane. Ouvre le chien”. Now, living in rural Kentucky, I did what any logical teen would do, I asked my French teacher what it meant. She just looked blankly at me and said “Open the dog”. Needless to say, for a fourteen year old, that was DEEP. I later learned she was wrong. I also later learned that the cover I got was not the original, this was:

Getting past All The Madmen, the album took a breather with a couple of songs, then came hammering back with Running Gun Blues. Now, this song would make Slipknot and Korn nervous with lyrics like:

I count the corpses on my left, I find I’m not so tidy
So I better get away, better make it today
I’ve cut twenty-three down since Friday
But I can’t control it, my face is drawn
My instinct still emotes it

But I’ll slip out again tonight
Cause they haven’t taken back my rifle
For I promote oblivion
And I’ll plug a few civilians

And, the chorus went something like:

I’ll slash them cold, I’ll kill them dead
I’ll break them gooks, I’ll crack their heads
I’ll slice them till they’re running red
But now I’ve got the running gun blues

That was kinda unnerving to me. I hadn’t heard quite a harsh tune like that before. Saviour Machine didn’t let up too much either with lyrics like:

‘Please don’t believe in me, please disagree with me
Life is too easy, a plague seems quite feasible now
or maybe a war, or I may kill you all

Don’t let me stay, don’t let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I’ve seen
You can’t stake your lives on a Saviour Machine

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more violent, along comes She Shook Me Cold:

We met upon a hill, the night was cool and still
She sucked my dormant will
Mother, she blew my brain, I will go back again
My God, she shook my cold

I had no time to spare, I grabbed her golden hair
And threw her to the ground
Father, she caved my head, Oh Lord, the things she said
My God, she should be told

I wasn’t really sure what to make of that. He was either getting a blow job or committing violent rape. I went with the blow job. He then returned to his older style with The Man Who Sold The World and the spacey The Supermen.

It took me a while to move on through the other albums. The song I was looking for was Time from Aladdin Sane. Once I got back to Aladdin Sane, I grew to like that album almost as much as The Man Who Sold The World. To this day, this is probably my third favorite Bowie album.

Here’s my versions:

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