I’m writing about this song at the request of my friend Benjie de la Fuente, but also because my kids like it. (They have liked David Bowie since seeing Labyrinth, but now they’re getting interested in his non-Labyrinth music too.) It makes sense that this tune would seize my son’s imagination, because he likes classical piano, and this is the most classical-sounding Bowie song.
“Life On Mars?” is one of the coolest songs of all time, so it is very surprising that it shares an origin story with “My Way”, arguably the most uncool song of all time.
The songs share some chord changes in common, as demonstrated by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
So how did this come to be? In 1968, Bowie’s publisher, David Platz, heard the French song “Comme D’Habitude” by Claude François and Jacques Revaux.
Platz thought it had potential as an English-language hit, so he asked Bowie to translate the French lyrics. (Bowie had done a few other song translations for Platz.) Bowie’s lyrics were apparently not very good, though, so they were shelved. Paul Anka then bought the rights to the song and rewrote it into “My Way”. When Frank Sinatra’s recording became a hit, Bowie was fired by professional jealousy to take another crack at the idea; the liner notes to Hunky Dory say that “Life On Mars?” was “inspired by Frankie”.
Bowie’s lead guitarist Mick Ronson also wrote the string arrangement. Apparently it was one of his first; not bad! Ronson also plays the layers of recorder on the second verse. The grandiose piano part is played by Rick Wakeman – I like to imagine him wearing his cape when he recorded it.
So what are these lyrics about? I will confess to not caring very much. I think of these kinds of elliptical song lyrics as mainly being there to decorate the vocal melody. Bowie has given various ambiguous answers about their meaning, suggesting that he didn’t have any particular meaning in mind. The line “look at those cavemen go” refers to the extremely silly 1960 novelty song, “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles.
Bowie sounded great on the song when he got older and his voice got deeper and raspier.
Here’s my transcription, with the melody over block chords.
And here’s my best effort at capturing Rick Wakeman’s piano flourishes and the string arrangement.
Before we get into the harmony, let’s talk about the rhythm. The pattern of the verse melody uses some nifty syncopation, accenting the last sixteenth note of beat three and the “and” of four. Typically you’d anticipate beat three also, but Bowie doesn’t. There isn’t as much syncopation in the chorus, so it feels more rhythmically “classical”, but there are still enough anticipations to keep things in the rock world.
Anyway, you are probably reading about this song because you find the chords interesting. So let’s look at those. 12tone did a video about this tune a while back, and while I might split hairs about the naming of a few chords, Corey’s analysis is on point.
The verse starts in F major:
||: F C/E | F7/Eb D7 | Gm Gm/F | C7/E :||
This progression is a pair of line clichés: a descending chromatic bassline from F down to D, then another from G down to E. The first time, the C7 resolves back to F, with the E stepping up to the tonic as expected. The second time, the C7 resolves unexpectedly to the Ab in the prechorus (“but the film is a saddening bore”), with the E moving down to E-flat. Hip!
| Ab/Eb C+/E | Fm Gb | Db/Ab F+/A | Bbm Cb |
There is a lot to unpack in the prechorus. There’s an ascending chromatic bassline from E-flat all the way up to C-flat (skipping G on the way up.) Descending chromatic basslines are common in Western tonal harmony, because they naturally emerge from the voice leading as dominants resolve to tonics. Ascending chromatic lines are much more rare, because they fight against the voice leading of functional harmony. Bach uses ascending chromatic lines to build tension in variation 28 of the D minor Chaconne, in measure 215 of the prelude to the G minor lute suite, and in measures 122-124 in Contrapunctus XI from the Art of Fugue. Up until the last chord, Bowie’s prechorus sounds very Bach-ian.
What’s going on with the augmented chords? I hear C+ as acting like C7#5, the dominant in the key of F minor. (That’s why I labeled it C+/E rather than E+, though really they are the same thing.) The F augmented chord is acting like F7#5, the dominant chord in the key of B-flat minor. The last chord in the section is an extraordinarily weird one. You could call it a B, but I labeled it Cb because I hear it as a lowered C, not a raised B-flat. It’s acting as a Neapolitan chord both for the Bbm that precedes it and for the Bb chord that kicks off the chorus. In that sense, it’s kind of a non-diatonic “pivot chord” for the modulation to B-flat major. HIP.
Here’s the chorus:
||: Bb Eb | Gm Gb+ | F Fm | Cm Ebm :||
We get a break from chromatic movement for a measure and a half, but then it resumes. The Gb+ chord doesn’t really function the way the other augmented chords in the tune do; it’s more of a “voice-leading chord”, acting as a chromatic connector between Gm and F. You might think from the bass movement that you’re hearing the beginning of another line cliche. But the descending chromatic line doesn’t stay in the bass. Instead, the B-flat in Gm and Gb+ moves to the A in F, then to the A-flat in Fm, to the G in Cm, and finally to the G-flat in Ebm.
Next, we come to the “life on Maaaaaaars” tag in G minor:
| Gm Gm/Gb | Gm/F Gm/E |
This is a straightforward chromatic descent from G to E under a G minor triad. It’s the relative minor to B-flat, a nice bit of harmonic normalcy after all the strangeness. Finally, there’s the guitar solo, back in the original key of F major:
| F D/F# | Gm D°7/Ab | Am Bb | (2/4) Bbm |
The bassline ascends chromatically from F up to B-flat, or rather it would, except that Bowie actually voices D°7 in root position for some reason. I hear that chord as a rootless voicing of E7(b9), the dominant chord in A minor. The last measure only has two beats of Bbm with a dramatic ritardando, and that leads back around to the beginning of verse two.
I didn’t include the ending of the tune in my chart, but it’s pretty simple. The second guitar solo starts the same way as the first. However, after Gm, rather than going to D°7, it goes to Bb, to Ebm, and finally back to Bb for the grand finale.
There are lots of covers of this song in circulation. The weirdest one is by Barbra Streisand. Bowie was, shall we say, underwhelmed by her version.
The version by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is more my speed, from the soundtrack to the amazing HBO Watchmen series.
I have no idea why Brad Mehldau included “Life On Mars?” on his Beatles album, but I like his arrangement. If you want to try it yourself, the tune is much easier on guitar if you move it up a step to G or up two steps to A.
By the way, Dexter Wansel’s song “Life on Mars” is unrelated to the Bowie one, but it’s super funky and worth checking out.