‘Dollar Days’ and David Bowie’s most devastating lyric
While grasping at the remnants of his mortality and coming to terms with his rapidly approaching death, David Bowie released Blackstar, his 26th and final studio album, just two days before he passed.
Collectively, the album is reverential and nihilistic. It is flooded by the collision of life and death as Bowie experiences a sort of purgatory. The storytelling is omniscient as it bounces between Bowie’s past and future perspectives while he lives in the present and deals with the knowledge that he is reaching the end of his life. Sonically, the album is a startling diversion from the work previously produced by the artist, as it explores and engages with more jazz influences.
Though he had always been experimental with his sonic and artistic choices, with a few duds and failures here and there, the jazz influence on Blackstar stands out as a particularly resonant and poignant choice. It is largely reflective of who Bowie was at his end. The implementation of jazz suggests a play on nostalgia as a potential call back to his youth since it was the saxophone which was the first proper instrument he learned to play. As it is, David Bowie is undoubtedly the owner of one of the most groundbreaking and awe-inspiring careers.
Bowie’s genius is boundless, but it’s on Blackstar where the true depth of his lyrical capabilities is revealed. The album provides a variety of earth-shattering lines that unveil Bowie’s psyche. As far as lyrics go, the most devastating lines live within ‘Dollar Days’, the penultimate track from the project. It is by far one of Bowie’s most introspective and self-meditative songs. It seemingly feels like it could either be an explicit conversation Bowie is having with himself or with his listeners about death. It’s the first track where he lets his mask slip and directly addresses the fact of his mortality.
While so many of the lines are crushing, it’s the one that simply says, “The bitter nerve is never enough, I’m falling down” that acquires the title of most gut-wrenching for what it implies about Bowie’s lasting thoughts about his legacy. The lyric ruminates on feelings of regret, of feeling like, despite his efforts, he feels he hasn’t done enough. This is an absurd implication considering the true impressiveness that spans Bowie’s career.
“The bitter nerve” of ambition he cultivated and followed wasn’t enough to satisfy his dreams before his life came to an end. The phrase “I’m falling down” is indicative of Bowie recognising his perceived fall from the pedestal due to his inability to do all that he sought to. In short, the line is a poetic ode to the restless. It speaks directly to ambitious souls who, for whatever reason, are limited and deprived of the privilege of feeling satisfied with what they’ve done with their allotted time on Earth.
It’s especially devastating because David Bowie has had and continues, posthumously, to have one of the most awe-inspiring legacies. He is an artist for artists whose work, in all regards, from music to film, will have some impact on generations to come. Few artists of the past and modern times quite live up to the standards he established. There’s Prince, of course, Queen, and Talking Heads who could be considered his direct contemporaries, but beyond them, it’s hard to say who else lives up to such an impressive level of innovation and breadth in their artistic evolution.
As it is, ‘Dollar Days’ endures as a lasting heart-shattering remark from David Bowie, who sings of his inability to comprehend his successes and the reality for listeners that there might have been so much more to come from Bowie, had he enough time.
