ONION TACOS: Self-Indulgence Post: Bowie Said It Best: "I Know When to Go Out, I Know When to Stay In; Get's Things Done!"
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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Self-Indulgence Post: Bowie Said It Best: "I Know When to Go Out, I Know When to Stay In; Get's Things Done!"

RE: Modern Love by David Bowie (1983)
(The lyrics I am referencing begin at 17 secs into this song.)
The 'genius annotations' by thousands of people in trying to explain what Bowie meant in his famous verse, "I know when to go out. I know when to stay in. Gets things done" are much too simple for this avid Bowie fan to acquiesce. The people who dare try to interpret the thoughts of a genius such as Bowie are ignorant at best in their futile attempts. Therefore, I guess I, too, am a fool for trying to interpret anything written by Bowie or any other musical or literary genius. As I try to decode a brilliant work of art, it makes me feel as I am full of all of vanity and narcissism. Hell, I could even be compared to the Marquis de Sade, Ernest Hemingway, or Leo Tolstoy: crazy. But, hey, those men were also considered geniuses although they were each mentally disturbed. Wow. Maybe I don't really want to compare myself to those guys after all. 
Anyway, I am not an expert in many things, so pardon me as I try to avoid seeming ever so maladroit. I assure you I do know many other things; just not the decoding of another person's intended meaning for anything. I am no Alan Turing here trying to crack the Enigma Code. Furthermore, if I was in a state of moribund that required me to dare try to explain a piece of poetry in order to save my life, I would completely fail -- I would be dead. I adore poetry, but it does not always reciprocate my romantic feelings. People would laugh and call me a simpleton. I won't even try to placate the naysayers who would look upon me with pity. I may not be a genius, but I can kind of understand poetry. I might even understand the sadness that muddled the life of one great poet: Sylvia Plath. However, I am glad to say that I do not understand the kind of sadness that led her to killing herself as she did. She did kind of make me afraid of ovens. Oops. Another dry joke and another tangent.
I am simply a fan of music, which is poetry within itself. I am a person who has known great love and heartache; often simultaneously. I am simply a human being trying to live life to the best of my abilities. So, I beg both your indulgence and your forgiveness as I try not to completely blunder my cinch explanation of Bowie's opening lyrics to Modern LoveTo me, the aforementioned words in Bowie's song Modern Love mean that perhaps he was a “man of the world” – and knew about certain things; when to stay grounded and when to let loose. At the end of the day, he knew how to handle himself. He had his shit together. If I seem too inept or dull in trying to decipher the meaning of such haunting lyrics, so be it. Personally, I have always felt that was what Bowie meant by those words as they begin his beautiful song: Modern Love. The only adjective I had never used before in explaining my own definition of the lyrics is the word "haunting." Haunting is used by me now only because the genius of musical lore is gone. 
Is it weird or strange for me to miss someone I never met? Well, that query is for another day, another post.

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