The song David Bowie’s father gave to him in a dream: “It just feels right”
When David Bowie first burst onto the scene with his hit ‘Space Oddity’, it was evident that he was going to be an exceptional artist with music that varied in scope and could be interpreted in multiple different ways. As people tried to work out who the elusive ‘Major Tom’ was and better understand the hidden meaning behind the song, Bowie set the groundwork for what would be a career filled with interesting concepts and a lack of definitive answers behind any of them.
One of his most confusing tracks was ‘Five Years,’ as the meaning of the song continues to be lost among many fans. The track served as the opening number for Bowie’s legendary album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. In the song, Bowie talks about the end of the world, meaning many people have interpreted it to mean the world will end in five years’ time.
Drummer Woody Woodmansey backed this theory as he spoke about drumming on the track and eluded to its meaning. The track opens with a drum beat, and given that it is the first song on the album, creating a drumbeat that sets the tone was particularly tricky, but Woodmansey looked toward the meaning of the track when delivering it.
“What was wanted was a drum beat to introduce the song itself and to set an atmosphere for the whole album,” he said, “The idea of the song is that the world is ending in five years, so it was about finding a drumbeat that got that across – which was quite a challenge!”
Woodmansey continued talking about his thought process when imagining the kind of music that might accompany the end of days, “I remember going through drum rolls, cymbal crashes and I kind of thought: ‘Well if it’s the end of the world… I can’t be bothered! Haha!’ You wouldn’t be excited and you wouldn’t feel like doing a lot.”
He added, “So, that beat came out of sort of despair and apathy, and then when the band comes in and David starts singing, it just feels right.”
While the song certainly does feel like a ballad about the end of the world, Bowie may have dispelled this meaning, as talking about the song once, he implied it was more of a reference to the end of his world as opposed to the world at large. He said that his late father gave him the song in a dream and told Bowie that he only had five years left to live and that he shouldn’t fly anymore.
Given the track came out in 1972 and Bowie didn’t die until 2016, it’s nice to know that he had a lot more than five years left on the planet. Throughout that fear-induced period, however, he made an exceptional song that opened one of his greatest albums.
