Aladdin Sane (Photo by Brian Duffy)
I only ever saw David Bowie in concert once.
David hit the Nissan Pavilion (now Jiffy Lube Live) on July 28, 2002, as part of a festival called Area 2, organized by Moby. David was promoting the album Heathen, which he toured extensively to support. It was a solid album, certainly, but if you’ll look at the setlist from that show, you’ll see it was a special show indeed to be able to see David perform some of his signature tunes.
He opened the show with a very favorite song, “Life on Mars,” which many people have misinterpreted as a literal statement, particularly given that Bowie was always fascinated with science-fiction and space: “Oh, hey, this song called ‘Life on Mars’ must be about life on other worlds.” But it wasn’t. It was a song about life among ourselves. It was not a song about an *alien*, but rather a song about *alienation.* The protagonists of the song are left to wonder why things have gone awry.
But her friend is nowhere to be seen/
Now she walks through her sunken dream/
To the seat with the clearest view/
And she’s hooked to the silver screen
