Bowie songs of the year #3: “How Does the Grass Grow?” (2013)

If there is one individual most responsible for the most evil in the world, surely it is Vladimir Putin. From undermining democracies and sewing discord to aggravating Europe’s and the world’s reliance on climate-change-fostering fossil fuels, Putin’s the guy. But his war against Ukraine took his diabolical plan to promote human misery to a new level in 2022. Representing the war on this list is one of Bowie’s war-related songs, “How Does the Grass Grow?”

It’s no coincidence that the war against Ukraine is connected to several of the other stories on this list. Putin’s interest in fostering authoritarianism worldwide, influencing democratic elections including those in the US, spreading disinformation via social media (and other forums), playing games with the oil and natural gas markets and so much more make more sense viewed in the context of his desire to recreate the Soviet Empire and perhaps expand beyond that. More like a medieval warlord or mob boss than statesman, Putin appears to be trying to reorder the world for the simple purpose of enriching himself and his small cabal of followers. The idea that his tenure is threatened by shadowy hard-liners dissatisfied with the war’s progress is a disquieting notion.

“How Does the Grass Grow?” is, on one level, a fairly straightforward song about the horrific consequences of war. The most understandable lines from the song are the most obvious— “How does the grass grow? Blood, blood, blood. Where do the boys lie? Mud, mud, mud.” The meaning is as straightforward as it gets— Bowie’s painting a picture of a blood-soaked, muddy battlefield, strewn with the bodies of soldiers. Some of the other discernible lyrics evoke the sequence of events— “If the clocks could go backwards; the girls would fill with blood and the grass would be green again…” With these words, Bowie reverse engineers an image of how the blood of “the girls” was spilled over the field in the first place.

As clear as those lines are, however, much of the rest of the song is tough to understand. Bowie emphasizes words and syllables in ways that are not like we would normally speak them. Listen to the opening of the song— can you tell he’s singing about a graveyard where girls wear nylon skirts and sandals from Hungary, while boys ride Riga 1s? Do you know what a Riga 1 is? (It’s an old Soviet-era moped). I think the obfuscation is on purpose. All context is obscured in the face of carnage.

That there’s a vague Russian connection to the song makes it even more appropriate to represent the Ukraine war. Bowie has other songs that have to do with war, or more specifically, other aspects of war. “I’d Rather Be High,” (2013) also from The Next Day is about a soldier dealing with the trauma of what he recently experienced. “Aladdin Sane” (1973) is roughly about willing, societal ignorance of the horrors that are on the verge of happening in the form of impending war. “Bombers” (1971) is a fairly immature song about nuclear war. There are others. I considered using “I’ll Take You There” (2013), which is about a couple fleeing some place for a new life and new identity ion the United States. It’s not really about war, but I thought both of refugees fleeing Ukraine and Russians trying to get out so as not to be sent to war. But “How Does the Grass Grow?” is most appropriate — context and subtlety are obscured in the face of carnage. In the end, that’s what this war is.

One other note about the song— Bowie borrowed some of the music from the 1960 song, “Apache,” by the Shadows. That’s why Jerry Lordan, who wrote Apache, is listed along with Bowie as co-writer. I’ll post “Apache” and share some thoughts on that at a later date.