Blackstar by David Bowie Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Enigmatic Genius of a Rock Icon
Lyrics
Stands a solitary candle, ah ah, ah ah
In the centre of it all, in the centre of it all
Your eyes
On the day of execution, on the day of execution
Only women kneel and smile, ah ah, ah ah
At the center of it all, at the center of it all
Your eyes
Your eyes
Ah ah ah
Ah ah ah
In the villa of Ormen, in the villa of Ormen
Stands a solitary candle, ah-ah, ah-ah
At the center of it all, at the center of it all
Your eyes
Your eyes
Ah ah ah
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre then stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
How many times does an angel fall?
How many people lie instead of talking tall?
He trod on sacred ground, he cried loud into the crowd
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangster)
I can’t answer why (I’m a blackstar)
Just go with me (I’m not a filmstar)
I’ma take you home (I’m a blackstar)
Take your passport and shoes (I’m not a popstar)
And your sedatives, boo (I’m a blackstar)
You’re a flash in the pan (I’m not a marvel star)
I’m the great I Am (I’m a blackstar)
I’m a blackstar, way up, oh honey, I’ve got game
I see right, so wide, so open-hearted it’s pain
I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre then stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a star star, I’m a blackstar)
I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangster)
But I can tell you how (I’m not a flam star)
We were born upside-down (I’m a star star)
Born the wrong way ’round (I’m not a white star)
(I’m a blackstar)
(‘m not a gangster)
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
(I’m not a pornstar, I’m not a wandering star)
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
In the villa of Ormen stands a solitary candle
Ah ah, ah ah
At the centre of it all, your eyes
On the day of execution, only women kneel and smile
Ah ah, ah ah
At the centre of it all, your eyes
Your eyes
Ah ah ah
At the twilight of his career, a musical savant turned to the cosmos to etch his legacy. ‘Blackstar’, the titular track from David Bowie’s final album, is a cryptic puzzle—one that fans and analysts have wrestled with since its release. The song is less a casual listen and more a deep dive into the psyche of an artist facing his own mortality.
Through the haunting verses and stark imagery, Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ has been dissected for its nod to numerous themes—identity, legacy, and transformation. This feature aims to peel back the layers of Bowie’s complex masterpiece, aiding the quest to understand the man behind the music and the cryptic messages left for us in the shadow of his passing.
The Village of Ormen: A Peek into Bowie’s Mind Palace
The enigmatic opening lines take us to the ‘Villa of Ormen’, a possibly non-existent, spiritually charged location that sets a tone for the song’s explorations of life, death, and rebirth. The ‘solitary candle’ serves as a beacon—a guiding light amidst ambiguity. It’s Bowie’s allegorical nod to the ritualistic, the primal and the celestial.
A significant undercurrent here is Bowie’s elaborate staging of his own demise. Faced with the inevitable, Bowie crafts imagery that resonates with religious undertones and reflects the intensity of human experience. In this villa, where a candle flickers with significance, we find ourselves at the center of it all, fixated on a presence not entirely of this world.
Unmasking the Blackstar: The Song’s Hidden Meaning
In tackling the song’s title and repeating refrain, ‘I’m a blackstar’, there’s a layer of cosmic allegory underscored by personal metamorphosis. The black star—akin to a collapsed star, a dark counterpart to the bright celebrity he was for decades—symbolizes Bowie’s reinvention and the darker tone of his final works.
On a deeper level, the term speaks to the heart of existentialism. A ‘blackstar’ may represent the unclassifiable, the outlier, an entity that resists simple categorization. Indeed, Bowie played many roles throughout his career, refusing to be pigeonholed, continuously rising anew from his own creative ashes.
From Execution Day to Spiritual Ascent: A Journey Through Bowie’s Lyricism
The lines ‘On the day of execution, only women kneel and smile’ evoke a scene of stoic acceptance, maybe even pleasure, amid grim proceedings. The women kneeling perhaps symbolize the muses of Bowie’s life—his influences and lovers—who bore witness to his transformations.
The spiritual ascent described as the spirit rising ‘a meter and stepping aside’ might speak to Bowie’s conscious exit from the material world, leaving behind a space for his creative legacy to breathe and inspire, as if granting permission for his influence to persist beyond his physical form.
Spiritual Echoes and Intertextual Play: The Memorable Lines
Not bound by materialistic labels, Bowie’s declaration ‘I’m not a filmstar, popstar, marvel star’ and the rest symbolizes his divorce from these transient roles. ‘I’m the great I Am’, is the most striking assertion—a possible link to the biblical name of God. This line hints at Bowie’s self-awareness of his mythic persona in popular culture.
These declarations serve as a revolt against the commodification of identity in show business. Bowie positions himself against the fickleness of fame, reiterating ‘I’m a blackstar’, a recurring mantra that elevates his state to something eternal and unbound by earthly ties.
The Cosmic Curtain Call: Bowie’s Parting Gaze
In the denouement of ‘Blackstar’, the imagery suggests an alignment with the universe’s vast expanse. The lines ‘Something happened on the day he died’ intimate a transformation not of this earth, as if with death, Bowie transcended to become an imperishable part of the cosmos.
The finale brings us full circle, back to ‘the centre of it all’, where we are left gazing into Bowie’s eyes—a mirroring of the beginning. As the candle burns in ‘the villa of Ormen’, we understand it is not merely the end of one man but the genesis of a myth, an ethos. In his parting, Bowie has not faded; instead, he has become a ‘Blackstar’, an enigma shining brightly within the dark.
