The Bewlay Brothers - We Frightened the small children away……

Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations

Now, when looking at interesting lyrics, a couple songs stick out and BEG for some type of translation. None of which could possibly be more confusing than The Bewlay Brothers. The Bewlay Brothers was recorded for Hunky Dory, one of his premier lyrical albums. Without further ado, here are the lyrics :

And so the story goes they wore the clothes They said the things to make it seem improbable
The whale of a lie like they hope it was
And the good men of tomorrow had their feet in the wallow and their heads of brawn were nicer shorn and how they bought their positions with saccharin and trust
And the world was asleep to our latent fuss
Sighing, the swirl through the streets like the crust of the sun The Bewlay Brothers
In our Wings that Bark
Flashing teeth of Brass
Standing tall in the dark
Oh, And we were Gone
Hanging out with your Dwarf Men
We were so turned on
By your lack of conclusions I was Stone and he was Wax So he could scream, and still relax, unbelievable
And we frightened the small children away
And our talk was old and dust would flow thru our veins and Lo! it was midnight back o’ the kitchen door
Like the grim face on the Cathedral floor
And the solid book we wrote Cannot be found today

And it was Stalking time for the Moonboys
The Bewlay Brothers
With our backs on the arch
In the Devil-may-be-here
But He can’t sing about that
Oh, And we were Gone
Real Cool Traders
We were so Turned On
You’d thought we were Fakers

Now the dress is hung, the ticket pawned The Factor Max that proved the fact is melted down
And woven on the edging of my pillow
Now my Brother lays upon the rocks he could be dead, he could be not, he could be You
He’s Chameleon, Comedian, Corinthian and Caricature
“Shooting-up Pie-in-the-Sky”
The Bewlay Brothers
In the feeble and the Bad
The Bewlay Brothers
In the Blessed and Cold
In the Crutch-hungry Dark
Was where we flayed our Mark
Oh, and we were Gone
Kings of Oblivion
We were so Turned On
In the Mind-Warp Pavilion

Lay me place and bake me pie I’m starving for me Gravy
Leave my shoes, and door unlocked I might just slip away

Just for the Day, Hey!
Please come Away, Hey!

OK, don’t think I can translate that? Well, guess what.

I can’t. That’s the point of the song.

Bowie’s half-brother, Terry Burns, was apparently schizophrenic, trying to commit suicide several times, and eventually doing so in 1985. In my opinion, this song, along with “All The Madmen” and “The Width of a Circle”, was Bowie struggling to understand what was going on with Terry. I’ve worked with schizophrenics in the past. Their logic leaves you almost stunned at times. The pace at which ideas flow out is overwhelming if you try to understand what they’re conveying during an event. In The Bewlay Brothers, Bowie rushes nonsensical phases out until he’s breathless. He’s emulating . Whether or not these are actual quotes or not I have no clue obviously. But, this is definitely a song about schizophrenia. I really see it as someone who cared about someone else struggling to make sense of what they were witnessing. With All the Madmen and The Width of a Circle, I think Bowie tries to explain what he’s seeing to some degree, but really can’t. As Bowie slipped into his own self-imposed mental chaos, he lost track of Terry. He apparently made a brief attempt to re-connect with his brother after the 1982 suicide attempt. However, from my own experiences, trying to connect with a full-blown schizophrenic is both impossible and terribly disappointing. Bowie never saw Terry after 1982 ( from all I’ve read ). I don’t fault him for that. Terry would not have known who he was.

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Permalink | June 26th, 2006

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    • 7 Squawks to “The Bewlay Brothers - We Frightened the small children away……”

    1. mary everett Squawked:
      June 26th, 2006 at 4:08 pm

      I feel that Bowie Was also wondering
      if the same thing was going to happen to
      him as happened to Terry.

    2. Moonage Squawked:
      June 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm

      I don’t think he was so much wondering about that in this particular song. I think he was just witnessing it and trying to understand what was going on. Not being able to do so, he just put what he was witnessing to words and music. I think he did explore that aspect of what might happen to him in other songs such as “The Width of a Circle” and “Running Gun Blues”. As best I recall off the top of my head, that’s the only time he sang of delusions and nightmares in the first person. It can be argued other songs adressed similar issues, but they were usually transposed to a third imaginary person. “Jump They Say” is supposedly also about Terry after his suicide. I think in a lot of ways he obtained his closure with that effort in regards to Terry and insanity in general.

    3. Londonboy Squawked:
      June 30th, 2006 at 9:30 am

      Nice interpertation. I agree that it is probably Bowie’s reaction to witnessing the mental breakdown of his sttep brother Terry. They were very close.

      I think with Bowies lyrics though there is usually more than one dimension to them. In some ways it like looking at a pice of art. We can all see different things in it and our interpertations are valid onto us.

      Did you know that the Bewlay was a tobacconist shop Bowie used to pass everyday? The song obviously means a lot to Bowie. He named his publishing company after it.

      Like your bit about Warzawa, for me, Bowies lyrics and music are alsoabout creating moods. It doesnt always matter if you don’t know what the lryics mean or they don’t make sense. BB is a fantastic closer to Hunky Dory. It even spawned a band -’Kings of the Oblivion’ which I think was originally the title of a King Crimson album or song.

    4. Moonage Squawked:
      June 30th, 2006 at 10:34 am

      I had read about The Bewlay, but didn’t think it really added to the interpretation of the song itself. It was a name he gave himself and whoever he was associated with at the time. The studio Bewlay Brothers were Bowie and Visconti. Real life Bewlay Brothers I think were Bowie and Terry. I totally agree with the multiple layers and interpretations. I used to precede all my interpretations with “I’d like to hear yours”, being as a long of songs could be interpreted different ways depending on particular parts and phrases of any song. A lot of his songs are very ambiguous, a lot confusing due to his cut and paste method, and some just totally meaningless. Warszawa has no meaning, it’s a mood piece. Why he picked the name Warszawa is anyone’s guess. Given his location and influences, I’d thought he would have called it “Berlin”.

      Really enjoy your comments!

    5. Ubermansch Squawked:
      September 5th, 2007 at 1:58 pm

      I dont really know what to make of it, its a great song but as to its meaning, who knows but Mr.Bowie himself.

    6. sofasurfer Squawked:
      November 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

      i think it is party, afterparty and reflection.

    7. Moonage Squawked:
      November 6th, 2008 at 11:33 pm

      Given the fact that a schizophrenic event and hallucinogenic trips are very similar in reflection by an observer, you could be right. Given Bowie’s reflection on the creation of the song, we’ll never know.

    Squawk like a pink monkey bird!