Oh! You Pretty Things Lyrics
Wake up, you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
Put another log on the fire for me
I've made some breakfast and coffee
Look out my window, what do I see?
A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me
[Pre-Chorus]
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay
[Verse 2]
What are we coming to?
No room for me, no fun for you
I think about a world to come
Where the books were found by the Golden ones
Written in pain, written in awe
By a puzzled man who questioned what we were here for
[Pre-Chorus]
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay
[Chorus]
Oh, you Pretty Things (Oh, you Pretty Things)
Don't you know you're driving your Mamas and Papas insane?
Oh, you Pretty Things (Oh, you Pretty Things)
Don't you know you're driving your Mamas and Papas insane?
Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the Homo Superior
Look out at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don't kid yourself, they belong to you
They're the start of the coming race
The Earth is a bitch, we've finished our news
Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use
[Pre-Chorus]
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay
[Chorus]
Oh, you Pretty Things (Oh, you Pretty Things)
Don't you know you're driving your Mamas and Papas insane?
Oh, you Pretty Things (Oh, you Pretty Things)
Don't you know you're driving your Mamas and Papas insane?
Let me make it plain
Gotta make way for the Homo Superior
About
Written and recorded by Bowie as a demo, the song was first released by Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits fame. As a solo artist, it was Noone’s first album and first single. Featuring Bowie on piano, the song hit #12 (in the UK), making it Bowie’s second charting single as a writer. “Space Oddity” landed 2 years earlier.
The song is a general critique of the older generation’s reaction to what the new generation is doing. The new generation’s actions and goals to shape the world are “driving their mamas and papas insane”. Bowie sides with the younger generation (which is evident in this song as well as others on this album, e.g., “Changes” and “Quicksand”), although his tone in delivering the sentiments might be construed as anything but didactic and harsh; the lines are often obtuse in their references. Bowie suggests, but does not dictate, that the older generation accept the new changes and “make way for Homo Superior”. Because “homo sapiens have outgrown their use”? Change and progress is always a good thing. Identifying the specifics referred to in the lyrics would require some digging, if they’re even there.
These aren’t protest songs, and arguably, they’re not quite “folk” songs, either. On this track and others the word-play is more nuanced and clever; e.g., The Pretty Things and The Mamas and the Papas were two major acts of the 1960s. Bowie covers two Pretty Things songs on “Pin Ups, his 1973 covers album.
See the comment below by Bowie himself, which changes the meaning proposed above, entirely, making it about a sentiment so traditional by expectant fathers it’s downright archetypal. Of course, Angela was pregnant at the time. See “Kooks”, Track 5, devoid of ambiguity.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
From David’s original notes, distributed as a press release:
The reaction of me to my wife being pregnant was archetypal daddy – Oh he’s gonna be another Elvis. This song is all that plus a dash of sci-fi."
- 1.Changes
- 2.Oh! You Pretty Things
- 5.Kooks
- 6.Quicksand
- 8.Andy Warhol
- 10.Queen Bitch