Bowie Songs of the Year Part 2: #1-5

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post in which I selected Bowie songs to represent what I thought were the top news stories of the year. I started with #6-10, and today includes the top 5:

5. “Never Get Old” (2003). 2023 is the year an 80 year old president announces his candidacy for re-election. The Rolling Stones released a new, hit record and announced their next world tour. Summer blockbuster action stars included senior citizens Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone. Our very concept of what “old” means changed in 2023.
4. “Dollar Days” (2016). Well, I’m really selecting this song’s title rather than the song itself to represent the persistent issue of confusion about the economy, which was a weird trend for the entire year. Is the American economy in great shape or is it teetering on the brink? The answer seems to have something to do with an insidious disinformation campaign designed to compliment other efforts to weaken American resolve about its institutions. Well, “Dollar Days” is actually also a quite confusing song that has something to do with dollars, so maybe it makes sense to represent the issue after all.
3. “Aladdin Sane” (1973). This is actually a song about war, and sadly, war— especially the wars raged in 2023, especially those in Ukraine and Israel.
2. “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1975). A while back I listed this as Bowie’s #1 song that could have been about Donald Trump but isn’t. Well, Trump himself— his trials, his candidacy, his threats, his conspiracy theories, his vows of vengeance— they all continued to dominate the news this year. Bowie wrote many songs about demagogues and dictators, like he was anticipating someone like Trump. What a strange coincidence that he Bowie the year his warnings that such a figure was coming panned out.
1. “Under the God” (1989) This Tin Machine song is about neo-fascism, which seemed to be on the rise at the time. But Bowie’s timing was off. It’s time we stop using “authoritarianism” as a euphemism — fascism is once again on the march across the globe, including in the United States. The story is much bigger than Donald Trump— the dominant faction of the Republican Party has become anti-Democratic, lawless, violent and oppressive. The best argument I’ve heard for distinguishing what we’re currently seeing and the correct use of the term, “fascist,” is that at least the American version is isolationist rather than expansionist. Yet, like the fascist movements across contemporary Europe, the American version in fact does support expansion— Russian expansion. “Under the God” is not an especially great Bowie song, but it is directly on point and its ugly topic maybe deserves an ugly song. Plus, somehow I never previously posted this “official video.” Hopefully there will be reason this time next year to select something like, “Fill Your Heart” or “Golden Years,” but for now “Under the God” is the 2003 Bowie song of the year.