Day 356 | Wishful Beginnings

For New Years Day I am posting a song with a deceptively hopeful, seemingly future-oriented title.  As is the case with many Bowie songs, it is not what it appears, which was much the situation a year ago- 2016 seemed to be a wishful beginning for unsuspecting Bowie fans.  As with the year, this song is filled with pain and sorrow- “the flames burn my body…” and “the pain must feel like snow.”  Why was Bowie thinking of such things?  Well, this song is part of the narrative of the album, 1. Outside, which non-linear though it was, was nonetheless an actual story (about murder as art).  Still, the abject darkness of this song was too much to translate into touring material, and my understanding is that it is missing from at least one reissues of the album.  I include it here because it is yet another take on death from Bowie, here linking death to “unbearable lives.”  Actually, the song doesn’t explicitly mention death at all, just miserable existence.  This is the dark side of the kind of alienation that connected so many fans to Bowie’s music.  Album: 1. Outside