Five Years
Produced by
Five Years Lyrics
Pushing through the market square
So many mothers sighing (Sighing)
News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in (Cry in)
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying (Dying)
Cried so much his face was wet
Then I knew he was not lying (Lying)
I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TVs
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
[Verse 2]
A girl my age went off her head
Hit some tiny children
If the Black hadn't have 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 parlour
Drinking milkshakes 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
We've got five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
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
We've got five years, what a surprise
We've got five years, stuck on my eyes
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
Five years
Five years
Five years
Five years
About
Perhaps one of the best album openers of all time, “Five Years” crescendos beautifully. A sparse fade in introduces a few verses set to piano, chronicling the panic that accompanies news of Earth’s imminent demise. Bowie crams in details, mostly focusing on the people. Then it soars and becomes a love song, with Bowie’s narrator desperately clinging to the memory of a lost love as he comes to terms with his mortality.
The stage is set for Ziggy’s entrance.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In an interview with William S. Burroughs in 1974, Bowie described the significance of the “five years” mentioned in the song in his Ziggy mythos:
The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything.
Within the album’s narrative, this song is an exposition, talking about Earth’s current situation. Panic sets in as the end of the world is announced.
- 1.Five Years
- 2.Soul Love
- 4.Starman
- 7.Star
- 10.Suffragette City