David Bowie -- "Five Years" (1972)

Five years, what a surprise

Five years

"Five Years" is the opening track on David Bowie's legendary 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.  I was in college when that album was released, and I just about wore my copy of the LP out before I graduated.

The song describes an Earth reeling in shock after it is announced that the world will end in five years:

News had just come over

We had five years left to cry in

News guy wept and told us

Earth was really dying

Cried so much his face was wet

Then I knew he was not lying . . .

We've got five years

My brain hurts a lot

Five years

That's all we've got

According to David Buckley's book about Bowie's music, Bowie picked five years because he had a dream in which his dead father told him he would die in five years.  (Supposedly Bowie's dead father also told his son never to fly in an airplane again.  But if you've only got five years tops to live anyway, why not take a chance?)

Speaking of five years . . .

It's been exactly five years since 2 or 3 lines got started with a post featuring the Last's "She Don't Know Why I'm Here."  

I don't think anyone expected my wildly successful little blog to be wildly successful enough to last five years.  But 2 or 3 lines is not only still around – it's better than ever.

This is the 771st post to date on 2 or 3 lines.  Take that, bitches!  

Here's "Five Years":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: