Bowie songs of the year #8: “Changes” (1971)

Bowie’s career spanned more than 50 years. Yet long before Bowie’s career began, and for years after his death, his country of origin had one monarch. The death of Queen Elizabeth is probably the top news story of the year that has the least direct impact on most peoples’ lives, but it marks the passage of a period of time that can best be characterized by ch-ch-changes.

Personally, I am fascinated by the passage of time. I am attracted to continuities, and I am struck by the speed at which reality evolves. A few examples of what all happened while Elizabeth reigned as queen include the entire history of rock music (at least since the genre got a name); the release of every James Bond novel and movie; the proliferation of television and introduction of color television; every video game that was ever played; computers became personal and the internet was born and became ubiquitous. Obviously, this is just a (very short) list of developments related to entertainment. The changes in politics and government, science, economics, the environment and just about every other aspect of life are all even more astounding.

Its also worth noting that while a handful of world leaders were alive during World War II (Joe Biden, for instance, was born in 1942), Elizabeth was the last who would have been known to her people at the time, in so far as she was a princess. And at the beginning of that war, Elizabeth was in line to inherit an empire. So that changed, too.

Bowie never mentioned Queen Elizabeth in any song. He refused a knighthood and, as far as I can tell, never performed before the Queen (although he recorded with Queen, but that’s a different story). In thinking about songs of his I could associate with her death, I thought about a few that didn’t quite speak to the moment. “The Battle for Britain (the Letter)” (1997) was, according to Bowie, a rumination about whether or not he still considered himself British. But that is indecipherable from the lyrics, and even then the concept would have been far removed from the death of the Queen. I thought about, “Dollar Days” (2016) in which the dying Bowie wondered whether he would see England again. So that one had death and England, but it wasn’t quite right. Bowie recorded at least three songs that mention London— “The London Boys” (1966); “London Bye Ta Ta” (1968) and the Gershwin song, “A Foggy Day in London Town,” but none of these really had anything to do with Elizabeth. But I also don’t think the significance of her passing has as much to do with the death of a person than the end of an expansive period of time that say a lot of changes. And Bowie did have a song about that…