Bowie, David - Cygnet Committee Lyrics

pure genius.... prophetic

"dear prudence"

I believe in the power of love, I see a child lay slain on the ground
Paridigm shifter and we want to live we want to live. I Xxx

Great great poetry.

This might be a controversial opinion, but I think this song is way better than Space Oddity. The vocals sound as emotional as they do on Heroes and Five Tears and the lyrics construct a chilling image, it’s probably David’s first masterpiece

You all should have learned English. The title of the song need merely be correctly understood to grasp the lyrics.

But I was so much older then....I'm younger than that now. He kept me alive when all around me were dying.

This song used to bring tears to my adolescence eyes every time I heard this quite deep song.

David Bowie is more ahead of his time than we know. Just as we today hold the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Shakespeare in so high regard, in the future Bowie will be held with the same esteem by our great great great grandkids.

"Someone else to hear" min 1:20 in this version it sounds good, but in spotify there is another version witch sounds terrible. So sad :(

Bowie was so fucking talented

This is his best song. That’s it, and that’s that!

Bowie lived 69 years. 1947-2016.
He sang he wanted to live when he was 22 years old. And he achieved Deaths Release on Jan 10, 2016.

You know I used to listen to this and love every minute as a 15 year old and it all made so much sense but I dont think I actually understood it fully till my age now........quite old to some.........it is still fantastic as then and as inspiring and populist and dare I say white .

I believe in bowie

he made it

Masterpiece, well ahead of it's time

Bowie was and still is a top man of men!

+matt black Yes he is!

First Lp I brought 1971. Loved Bowie this lp and the man who sold the world were my favourite.

Amazing piece of work and a huge contribution to all who love mystical music. Well done Bowie-boy!!!xxx

What more can I nad!

I am french and I don't know what CYGNET COMMITTEE means
can you help me ? 😉

Magic intro

I really don’t understand how he wasn’t popular during the 60s. His lyrics have this Syd Barrett vibe in the 60s and early 70s. Ziggy Stardust is amazing, I just don’t understand why only Space Oddity the song got people interested. I think that all his early albums are brilliant from his debut album all the way to hunky dory they are great I just don’t why they didn’t appeal to the public at the time. R.I.P. David ❤️

👍 Superb

David's ability to write lyrics that go much deeper into human frailties, consciousness and societies frailties is something that he is not, as far as I'm concerned, recognised nearly enough for. This song, Bewlay brothers, all the madmen, saviour machine and many more are songs of which hardly any other artist has come close to in terms of the depths of the lyrics. But instead all we hear on commercial stations is, in my opinion, one of his worst songs.

Hence, "commercial"... It's about money, not the art. I agree with you 100 percent, but such is this world. The worst of Bowie is still better than none at all... And the Bewley Brothers is of my favourite Bowie songs...

My first album loved bowie .still playing all that vinyl to day. 🎶🎸

I was chatting to Pavarotti and he said he wanted to branch out and try other things beside mainstream opera but his audience wouldn't tolerate it. I said you cant go to your deathbed an old man with major regrets of not trying something you have a passion for and even if some intolerant idiots hate it you can still win them over by going back to the style you have proved your self with. I then recommended Cygnet Committee and told him it was a mini opera in a song. He liked the idea and did it and then went on to be part of "the passengers" project. he had some fun then went back to main stream opera after getting it out of his system.

My first listen to this. Never heard it cause Space Oddity is way overplayed. This tune is fantastic however. Whenever I hear him, I feel joy, but always, there's a deep underlying sadness, because he is gone

We were so amazed by his concert in Memphis Tn. that when we heard he was going to play in Nashville Tn. later, we piled in the car and caught that show as well. Looking back, what a great move, I loved this song then, and even more now. Mic Ronson's guitar at the end is great.

he does get better and better

keep going back

Wonderful song.

so good, you can hear people mimic it nowadays

When I first heard this, age 10, I knew then I was a witness to unmatched genius. I love it as much today as I did back in 1969, after several hundred plays.

The single greatest song ever recorded about the shadow side of the sixties. Period. Definitive. Genius.

This was before ziggy! One of my favorite songs. He was so ahead of the times.

Started listening to Bowie in 74. My dad gave me a hard time because I had my ear pierced like most Bowie fans did. We where called Bowie freaks and I remember lads who dyed their hair red & shaved their eyebrows off! I didn’t go that far but I did have it cut like Bowie. We’d go to Griffin hotel pub in Wakefield on Thursday nights for the Bowie night. Great times. RIP Bowie

Everyone should have the chance to live their life.

i bless david more now he always was a rock god from start to finish in alot of ways not known he could have been a great anything he didnt think too much of his own stuff sometimes because he should of done more other things film writing etc. and he knows the modern day limits set on art are an evil in action it takes others and its a shame that were setting bar so strangely low these days. this is the album i left alone till 05 0r so cuz theres limited material. love bowie miss ziggy and the spiders but i can hear them bowie is bad boy later at this point when writing some of older material MR Jones was a young man getting around formalities and long ties to education mainstream work ect because he was a musician and a very high minded english angel of a sortsp not that hadnt been seen before but a hardly seen these days anywhere near my taste. I want to live i want to live let me touch you let me help gimme yoour hands dont let me forget im an idiot piece of shit headed for the place i cant go cause i want to live to just do nothing but take down the people who think that
they are gonna be making nothing worthy till hell freezes over cause they need a place to ice skate or something fuck that no way . there is a truer real guild of artists in UKactually but most quite old now not that rest of world dont have ideas but im proud of AMERICAN right to say nothing i wanna hear nothing new nothing on upward trend za parabola is big blue eyed black and white bogeyman. the snowman onlyn= weeps. rest in peace DAVID untill we can be in touch again. kev
time will come that day.

The weather is getting really oppressive where I live. Literally dripping sweat yet, as I listen to this I have goose bumps all down my body.

David Bowie is in my soul...always will be. I have loved him since 1971

Beautiful song.As beautiful as Dear Prudence.⏩🐦⏩🐦⏩🐦⏩🐦⏩🐦🔄

He was observing an interchange of symbols. What did they mean? Quite soon...strangled.

I totally agree with you Charles Simpson it is a masterpiece from a genius I’m 50 yrs old now and been a fan it must be 42 years now, Bowie will always be in my heart. Rip pal.🇮🇪

I bless you madly,
Sadly as I tie my shoes
I love you badly,
Just in time, at times, I guess
Because of you I need to rest
Because it's you
That sets the test
So much has gone
And little is new
And as the sparrow sings
Dawn chorus for
Someone else to hear
The Thinker sits alone growing older
And so bitter
"I gave Them life
I gave Them all
They drained my very soul
...Dry
I crushed my heart
To ease their pains
No thought for me remains there
Nothing can they spare
What of me?
Who praised their efforts
To be free?
Words of strength and care
And sympathy
I opened doors
That would have blocked their way
I braved their cause to guide,
For little pay
I ravaged at my finance just for those
Those whose claims were steeped in peace, tranquility
Those who said a new world, new ways ever free
Those whose promises stretched in hope and grace for me"
I bless you madly,
Sadly as I tie my shoes
I love you badly, just in time,
At times, I guess
Because of you I need to rest, oh yes
Because it's you
That sets the test
So much has gone
And little is new
And as the sunrise stream
Flickers on me,
My friends talk
Of glory, untold dream, where all is God and God is just a word
"We had a friend, a talking man
Who spoke of many powers that he had
Not of the best of men, but ours
We used him
We let him use his powers
We let him fill our needs
Now we are strong
And the road is coming to its end
Now the damned have no time to make amends
No purse of token fortune stands in our way
The silent guns of love
Will blast the sky
We broke the ruptured structure built of age
Our weapons were the tongues of crying rage
Where money stood
We planted seeds of rebirth
And stabbed the backs of fathers
Sons of dirt
Infiltrated business cesspools
Hating through our sleeves
Yea, and we slit the Catholic throat
Stoned the poor
On slogans such as
'Wish You Could Hear'
'Love Is All We Need'
'Kick Out The Jams'
'Kick Out Your Mother'
'Cut Up Your Friend'
'Screw Up Your Brother or He'll Get You In the End'
And we know the flag of love is from above
And we can force you to be free
And we can force you to believe"
And I close my eyes and tighten up my brain
For I once read a book in which the lovers were slain
For they knew not the words of the Free States' refrain
It said:
"I believe in the power of good
I believe in the state of love
I will fight for the right to be right
I will kill for the good of the fight for the right to be right"
And I open my eyes to look around
And I see a child laid slain
On the ground
As a love machine lumbers through desolation rows
Plowing down man, woman, listening to its command
But not hearing anymore
Not hearing anymore
Just the shrieks from the old rich
And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'Now'
And I want to believe
That a light's shining through
Somehow
And I want to believe
And you want to believe
And we want to believe
And we want to live
Oh, we want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
Live
Live
Live

I need you bowie 😍

We can all go back and listen to all the great things he did a to z

That way he will last for ever!!!!

I still have fond memories of listening to this in the 1970s. The emotional connection will last for ever.

Piece of Art

this could have been on man who sold the world-that intense

Amazing song.. and from such a young man. Some people were born to create and the energy lives in us

Extraordinary

superb, I love it!

Fantastic!

I feel sort of sorry for those who don't "hear" this song and other Bowie songs.. happy most of us do,

Sin ningún pretexto en honor a la verdad sin pretender ser lo mas onesto y esforzarme en no caer bajo mi percepción de alimentar mi ni ego porque no soy quien para calificar a BOWIE Y me atrevo a decir estaba a otro nivel igual que el polvo estelar creo la tierra la tierra creo a BOWIE mi modesta opinión y intentado como dogma comprender que tal vez DIOS exsiste..bueno para todos aquellos que hemos tenido el privilegio de reir y llorar con el un saludo a todas-os ADEU ...ADIÓS te quiero tanto DAVID....

The only song that comes close to the tingles i get from this is the demo acoustic version of Quicksand

You know I am 60 this September I bought pin ups when I was 16 the album cost around 20 dollars Im earned 35 a week and had to pay mum and dad 10 board a week what great times

There's cheap, commercial Bowie, and there is real, honest Bowie.

One of the best criticisms of socialism and revolution ever.
And I Want to Believe In the madness that calls 'Now' And I want to Believe That a light's shining through Somehow
Well, just ask the people of Venezuela. There is no light shining through, unless you get rid of socialism.

When was this recorded ? in his early years or later i cannot tell.

An early masterpiece. 1969

'Infiltrated Businesses pulsating through our sleeves...''

I never get why people dont like this album. With songs like memory, cygnet and an ocasional dream you cant go wrong. Great songs, better than anything on low!

What was he, 21 when he recorded this? 22 maybe. Awesome, so mature, so lovely. It evolves and ends with the lines "We want to be free, I want to be free", wonderful and mind-expanding, yes, mind-blowing! So beautiful! "I bless you madly, sadly as I tie my shoes." "So much has gone and little is new." But new it is, still today.

I agree, this is a masterpiece, one of the best songs published ever. The bass lines, the 12-string, the keyboards, the drums, the lyrics, the extatic vocals, the build-up, everything, amazing, I've heard it for 45 years now, will never tire of it, "now we are strong" ...

Bowie was born at a time that his childhood would have known the aftermath of the Blitz. Americans have no equivalent.

Our weapons were the tongues of crying rage!

Back in 1997, I painted the final lyrics of this song on our kitchen wall, in red --starting with "And I want to believe..." I still remember the paint streaming down from the corner of the "V" in the last "I want to LIVE"... Like living blood. It was, perhaps, the only time I bonded with my mother who was very abusive. Somehow I persuaded her in letting me paint over the walls. I covered them all with David Bowie lyrics, folks. It kinda fascinated her, but not for long. She actually shamed me for being a DB fan. What to say -- he always felt like more of my family than her.

I would say " Still holds up".
But thats a lie.
David Bowie was 50 years ahead of his time, he was our generations Mozart.
Maybe music will catch up with HIM...I like to think so.

I first got this album in the early 70s and as an early teen i was I was mesmerised, in particular this song, it is best heard with a great pair of head phones and you can hear the sonic qualities of it’s production. Not only that DB was in his young years and the way this song twists and turns with different layers and shifts in chord tones...an absolute masterpiece.

So much has gone and little is new

Best lyrics in the world

meraviglia delle meraviglie!

Have to say I just heard this song for the first time and wow, really blew me away.

I want to LIVE!

and I will fight for the free states refrain

my vinyl copy from the time sticks  at takes the test I can live with that

Still hearing it. Master of that sweet spot musically mentally.

me corro toooooooo

Wow this song is so intense.

The king

I want to live...so i do need to stop smocking cigarretes............

Bowie has so many great songs its hard to say which is best. But if someone forces me with a gun to say just one i would choose this.

Relistening to this after 45 years ,wow I had incredibly good taste at 15 !

Must people are dead

More 420 baby (up here in Canada eh!).

'.. where all is gooonnne and God is just a word..'

This is Bowie's masterpiece it goddamn is for sure. I've always been pulled right into this song since I got the record at 15 (in '78). It's Bowie's opus!

The greatest song ever written.

OK this is a truly fantastic song and better than anything in the hit parade for the past 10 years but reading all the comments below.............. what utter bollocks. The lyrics mean absolutely nothing. More than likely an early example of Bowie "mash up" lyrics cited. The words are great but they are utter nonsensical. RIP Dave, see you soon mate. x

We let him fill are needs now his as gone

Allahu Ekber yehuuuuuu

best song of bowie your a god and dying god we killed you i love you askim amini yeriiim

I lived in the Greatest times on Earth but we are at the end

Thankfully there are many others who appreciated David's talent the way I did.

Masterpiece

Might send this as prayer to Ireland and Britain to help with soft/hard boarder insanity. Same with our crazy American president and his border. Yikes! 2000 years . . .2000 years.