Fünf Jahre noch, bis die KI uns auslöscht?
Aufgenommen am 15. November 1971, Trident Studios London.
„News had just come over“: fünf Jahre verbleiben der Menschheit noch. Die Panik und das Chaos, das die Nachricht auslöst, die absurden Szenen, die sich abspielen, der Strom der Erinnerungen, der plötzlich einsetzt, die veränderte Wahrnehmung, die Erkenntnis, daß es keine Zukunft mehr gibt, keine Regeln; Verzweiflung, Hoffnungslosigkeit, aber Kollaps aller bestehenden Ordnung und Entregelung bedeuten auch Befreiung, die Zeit läuft ab und alles ist erlaubt – das brennende Verlangen, das noch verbleibende Leben in vollen Zügen und ohne Einschränkungen leben zu wollen. Die Welt bereits ein soziales, emotionales, reales Trümmerfeld, jemand bahnt sich seinen Weg durch die Straßen und versucht, alles festzuhalten, bis er ein vertrautes Gesicht in einer Eisdiele entdeckt, „smiling and waving and looking so fine“. Dieses Bild! Schönheit wird die Welt nicht retten, aber sie wird ein solcher Trost sein beim Untergang.
Phantastisch das Streicher-Arrangement von Mick Ronson, das so eine dichte, dramatische Atmosphäre erzeugt – bis, so Peter Dodgett, „by the finale, the orchestral players were fighting for air against amplified guitar static, scraping despairingly at their own instruments while the last of the human race screamed around them.“
„And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor“ und „I kiss you, you’re beautiful, I want you to walk“ in der (sehr sehr langen) Shortlist der schönsten Bowie-Zeilen.
Co-Produzent Ken Scott erklärt 2012, „95 percent of the vocals on the four albums I did with him as producer, they were first takes.“
Und 2015: „So many first takes on this track. Ronno’s two ending guitars, one take each. David’s vocal, first take beginning to end. Well if I’m to be totally honest we did have to punch [drop-in] for four words, ‚We’ve got five years‘. We had to do that because by the end of the take David was bawling his eyes out. He put so much into that vocal performance he was sobbing and just once those four words were completely incomprehensible and so we re-did them.“
Schlagzeuger Mick „Woody“ Woodmansey bestätigt 2018: „I remember when we recorded it, he was actually in tears. He was doing the vocal and he was actually crying.“
Jemand, für viele von uns, auf YT: „When I listened to this song for the first time I started crying, I just couldn’t handle the desperation in Bowie’s voice, the melody, the way he describes people… This is an absolute masterpiece.“
Pushing through the market square
So many mothers sighing
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
I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TV’s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat-skinny people
And all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people
And all the somebody people
I never thought I’d need so many people
A girl my age went off her head
Hit some tiny children
If the Black hadn’t a-pulled her off
I think she would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm
Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest
And a queer threw up at the sight of that
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine
Don’t think you knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, you’re beautiful, I want you to walk
We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that’s all we’ve got
(David Bowie by Reinhard Kleist)
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