Bowie used religious terms in his music far more frequently than casual fans might realize. I was thinking about putting together a list of songs with such terms, but such a list would be too long to be entertaining. I will revisit the topic again, but here are 10 songs that simply mention, “Heaven” (not even counting covers, like “Imagine” and “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” or songs like “Loving the Alien” that seem to reference Heaven without using the word:
(1) Young Americans, 1975. “She took his ring, took his babies; It took him minutes, took her nowhere; Heaven knows, she’d have taken anything…” This would not be the last time Bowie would use the common phrase, “Heaven knows.” But why? Did the words just fit, or was he trying to suggest some sort of higher-order mystery? The conclusion is also a sentiment Bowie expressed elsewhere, for instance in “Stay,” where the narrator contemplates taking something to help him. Bowie would connect drug use with “Heaven” again in “Ashes to Ashes” (see below), so he might have deliberately been trying to evoke a misty, cloudy fog of uncertainty.
(2) Word on a Wing, 1976. “Just because I believe, don’t mean I don’t think as well; Don’t have to question everything in Heaven or Hell.” This song is as close to a genuine prayer as exists in Bowie’s catalogue, yet much as with the phrase “Heaven knows,” the song itself is an expression of uncertainty. Typical of Bowie’s multiple layers of meaning, “Heaven” here is clearly referencing the supernatural place, but is the concept of “Heaven and Hell” metaphorical?
(3) Beauty and the Beast, 1977. “Nothing will corrupt us; Nothing will compete; Thank god Heaven left us; Standing on our feet.” Here, Bowie uses two of his favorite words— “nothing” and “Heaven.” He might be suggesting in a typical Bowie-esque twist that “nothing” is something and “Heaven” is not. The rest of the song does not seem to be about the absence of corruption, so “nothing will corrupt us” does not mean that we will not be corrupted but rather that we will be corrupted, by nothing. But “god” and “Heaven” are metaphorical here. He’s basically saying he’s lucky to be alive. Oddly, this song sets the stage for “The Wedding Song” (see below).
(4) Ashes to Ashes, 1980. “ We know Major Tom’s a junkie; strung out in Heaven’s high; hitting an all-time low.” Here again Bowie conflates the fog of drug abuse with Heaven. In so doing, he’s suggesting multiple meanings of “high”— and as Heaven is the highest of the highs, Major Tom’s drug addled state is extreme.
(5) Glass Spider, 1987. “Don’t you hear this wasted cry; Life is over you; (Mummy come back ’cause the water’s all gone); But you’ve seen who’s in Heaven; Is there anyone in hell”. This song is full of surprises. Beginning with a cheesy spoken word introduction about a mythical eastern giant spider, Bowie opens the singing part with this dark and confusing second-opening. “Wasted cry”? “Life is over you”? That’s dark. Later, the lyrics suggest suicide as an option (“If your mother don’t love you then the riverbed might”). The song isn’t so much about a glass spider as it is about abandonment. Heaven and Hell here may or may not be literal, but they are used to evoke death. You’ve seen a lot of good people (baby spiders?) die and not a lot of bad ones. Only the good die young, etc. Virtue alone is not enough for survival, which in the end might be hard to justify in the first place. This isn’t empty 80s pop— it’s terrifying.
(6) Zeroes, 1987 “You are my moon, you are my sun; Heaven knows what you are.” Believe it or not, these are among my very favorite Bowie lyrics. Again he uses the “Heaven knows” formulation to evoke mystery. And again he plays with word associations— the moon and the sun are heavenly bodies.
(7) Heaven’s In Here, 1989. “Heaven” is all over this Tin Machine song— it’s hard to pull just one or two lines. Aside from the title and refrain, the most memorable part for me is, “Heaven lies between your marbled thighs; The rustle of your falling gown,” which leads me to think the song is about sex. Be that the case or not, “Heaven,” being “in here,” is clearly metaphorical. Whatever else the song is or isn’t about, it isn’t about a portal to the great beyond.
(8) The Wedding Song, 1993. In “Beauty and the Beast,” the song’s narrator reflects on his intentions before giving in to some unspecified temptation: “I wanted to be good; I wanted no distractions; Like every good boy should.” He echoes the sentiment in “The Wedding Song,” which Bowie wrote for his actual wedding (to Iman), but this time you get the sense that he meant it: “I’m going to be so good, just like a good boy should.” And, much as “Beauty” evoked Heaven as a stand-for luck to simply be alive, Bowie again uses Heaven here is a metaphor: “Heaven is smiling down; Heaven’s girl in a wedding gown.” The song is loaded with images of Heaven, angels, saints, magic, and even, once again, the juxtaposition of the word “high” to “Heaven”— “Though I’ll never fly so high; I’m smiling.” But Bowie makes it clear that, while very happy, he’s not being supernatural — “she’s not mine for eternity.” This is an extraordinary line in a love song about his bride. Despite all the Heaven talk, what he’s saying is that he’s going to make the most of his marriage with his new bride in this life. Heaven, as it were, is in here.
(9) The Stars Are Out Tonight, 2013. “We live closer to the earth; Never to the heavens; The stars are never far away; The stars are out tonight.”. Here Bowie uses the plural, “heavens,” to set the stage for the “stars.” “Star,” in this song is doing the work of having two meanings. Still, in evoking vampiric “stars” with seemingly, endless, tragic lives, Bowie is at least contemplating eternity. So his use of “heavens” rather than, say, “space” was probably intended to blur the notion of what’s out there, above us.
(10) Lazarus, 2016. “Look up here, I’m in Heaven.” One of Bowie’s final songs can be heard as a message from beyond the grave. Of course, he wasn’t actually in Heaven when he sang the song, but he was aware of his own mortality. Some fans find it difficult to even listen to this song, despite its beauty. Did he think there was a Heaven and that he’d be there? I don’t know, but in one of his final metaphors, Bowie seemed to be acknowledging that he wouldn’t be here, with us, much longer.
###
