Day 220 | The Loneliest Guy.

This song is clearly about someone who lives amidst the debris of a shattered life, but nonetheless is in denial. What’s unclear is whether he is literally the last man on Earth. There aren’t a lot of words to this song- basically there is a description of a desolate place, which could either be literal or metaphorical, and then there’s Bowie denying that he’s the loneliest guy and insisting he’s the luckiest guy in the world. While I am sure the ambiguity is deliberate, I think the hints that this is as post-apocalyptic as “Diamond Dogs” are strong. He describes an environment that not only seems broken but bombed- why is steam under the floor? Why are the clouds green and low? Then there’s the contrast between being lonely versus being lucky. The two are not opposites. He can be lucky if he survived rather than lonely because he’s the only one who survived. But he clearly doesn’t believe what he’s saying, that he’s lucky. And the giveaway there is in the title. Album: Reality.