David Bowie - Changes - Lyrics Meaning

According to a review in Rolling Stone magazine, this track "...could be construed as a young man's attempt to reckon how he'll react when it's his time to be on the maligned side of the generation schism."

Bowie himself has said, "the track started out as a parody of a nightclub song, a kind of throwaway," and it didn't sell particularly well at the time of its release in 1972.

The lyrics, `Strange fascination, fascinating me, changes are taking the pace I'm going through,' are thought to relate to Bowie's frequent reinventions of himself and his music but his sexual orientation was also frequently up for debate in his early career.

A couple of lines focus on children and changes in their world which prompted the authors of one book about Bowie to speculate that the lyrics were touting, "modern kids as a new race."

It has since become a real favourite with fans and Bowie comments, "...it turned into this monster that nobody would stop asking for at concerts."

Lyrics from the track featured in the opening of The Breakfast Club, the 1985 film, and a version, with somewhat different lyrics, appeared in an episode of the Simpsons in 2000 with Homer doing the singing!