David Bowie - Drive-In Saturday

Heavily influenced by 1950s doo-wop, “Drive-In Saturday“ describes how the inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic world in the future (Bowie once said the year was 2033) have forgotten how to reproduce, and need to watch old porn films to see how it’s done. The narrative has been cited as an example of Bowie’s “futuristic nostalgia“, where the story is told from the perspective of an inhabitant of the future looking back in time. Its composition was inspired by strange lights amidst the barren landscape between Seattle, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona, as seen from a train at night on Bowie’s 1972 US tour. The music featured Bowie’s synthesizer and saxophone, while the lyrics name-checked Mick Jagger (“When people stared in Jagger’s eyes and scored“), the model Twiggy (“She’d sigh like Twig the wonder kid“), and Carl Jung (“Jung the foreman prayed at work“).
Back to Top