Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity", released in 1969, was his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Bowie's single "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure" (a 1981 collaboration with Queen). He achieved massive commercial success in the 1980s starting with Let's Dance (1983). Between 1988 and 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine before resuming his solo career in 1993. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with The Next Day. He remained musically active until his death from liver cancer at his home in New York City. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016).
During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In the UK, he was awarded ten platinum, eleven gold and eight silver album certifications, and released 11 number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest artists in history. As of 2022, Bowie was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie
Studio albums
David Bowie (1967)
David Bowie/Space Oddity (1969)
The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
Hunky Dory (1971)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
Aladdin Sane (1973)
Pin Ups (1973)
Diamond Dogs (1974)
Young Americans (1975)
Station to Station (1976)
Low (1977)
"Heroes" (1977)
Lodger (1979)
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
Let's Dance (1983)
Tonight (1984)
Never Let Me Down (1987)
Black Tie White Noise (1993)
The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
Outside (1995)
Earthling (1997)
Hours (1999)
Heathen (2002)
Reality (2003)
The Next Day (2013)
Blackstar (2016)
I Pray Ole
David Bowie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With a word sincere
How do you make it through the night
I hope to God you're still here
I pray ole
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through
I pray
I pray
It's a God eat God world
It's a dog's tomorrow
And the song and wind
Brings nothing but sorrow
Oh ho oh ho, oh ho oh ho, oh ho oh ho
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through
Can you make, can you make it through, can you make it
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
The lyrics of "I Pray Ole" by David Bowie are open to interpretation, but one possible interpretation is that the singer is saying goodbye to someone, perhaps for the night or for a longer period of time, and expressing hope that the person makes it through whatever challenges or difficulties they may face. The use of "ole" at the end of the title and throughout the lyrics could be a reference to the French word "au revoir," which means "goodbye until we meet again," or it could be a reference to the Spanish word "olé," which has various interpretations but is often used to express admiration or approval.
The repeated question, "Can you make it through," adds an urgent tone to the song and emphasizes the uncertainty and fragility of life. The line "It's a God eat God world" could be interpreted as a commentary on the chaos and violence of the world, where the powerful devour the weak, or it could be a reference to the concept of "survival of the fittest" in evolutionary theory. The final lines, sung with a chorus of voices, reinforce the theme of sorrow and the difficulty of making it through life's challenges.
Overall, "I Pray Ole" is a somber and introspective song that invites reflection on the challenges of life and the importance of hope and resilience.
Line by Line Meaning
Let's say goodbye till tomorrow
Let's part ways until we meet again tomorrow
With a word sincere
With a genuine and heartfelt word
How do you make it through the night
How do you survive the darkness of the night
I hope to God you're still here
I desperately wish for you to still be present and alive
I pray ole
I am praying for you to be safe and well
Can you make, can you make it through
Do you have the strength to endure and overcome
It's a God eat God world
The world is a harsh and unforgiving place
It's a dog's tomorrow
The future is uncertain and unpredictable
And the song and wind
The music and the breeze
Brings nothing but sorrow
Only brings sadness and despair
Ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
No discernable meaning
Contributed by Natalie K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Quagtwo
Honestly one of Bowie's catchiest songs. I think this sounds especially awesome when you play right after V-2 Schneider
Mark Szawlowski
Or Speed of Life
Someone
A Bowie song I haven't heard yet from one of my favorite albums. I will cherish these next few minutes.
Soslanman 1
Многие недооценивают Lodger, но по-моему это лучший альбом в Берлинской трилогии
KlausBahnhof
@Soslanman 1 Absolutely.
🌸Carina🌸
Thanks for uploading all the songs from Lodger! 💗
MechanicalAnimal 1
Great song!!! should have just been on the album in the first place and should be included on any re-issue in the future!
dhowellbassist
Sorry. This was not recorded during the Eno sessions. Late 80’s , early 90’s to improve rykodisc sales of box sets.
VinchVolt
@dhowellbassist Well, that's only half the story. The initial vestiges of it started in the Lodger sessions, but it remained a demo until being fleshed out in the late '80s for inclusion on the Rykodisc reissues, as was the case with most of the other bonus tracks included on their CDs (when they weren't simply using preexisting rarities like non-album singles); the only wholly new bonus track was a 1988 re-recording of "Look Back in Anger" made as an experiment in moving Bowie out of the pop rock sound he had leaned into.
It wasn't really made for "box sets" either; it was for a series of reissues of individual albums, done after Bowie regained the rights to his 1969-1980 albums in 1988. Bowie was openly dissatisfied with the variable quality of RCA Records' earlier CD releases, which were done without his approval (and by at least one engineer's admission were rushed jobs), and saw Rykodisc as a way to mitigate that (ironically, the best-quality RCA CDs are nowadays considered better than Ryko's remasters, but that's besides the point).
The one box set that did come out from the Rykodisc campaign was Sound + Vision in 1989 as an inaugural release; while it also had its share of previously unreleased tracks, they were different from the bonus tracks included on individual albums. Ryko did release a Sound + Vision-themed storage box for collectors to house the full series of album reissues, but they didn't put out any actual box sets after that first 1989 release.
Fredrick Burlakoff
This is an incredibly good song, highly underrated.