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Dead Man Walking

Lyrics by David Bowie.  Music by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels.

 

He swivels his head
Tears his eyes from the screen
As his past puts him back in Atlantic City

There's not even a demon in Heaven or Hell
Is it all just human disguise?
As I walk down the aisle

CHORUS
  Background vocals
    [Gone gone gone spinning slack through reality]
    [Dance my way falling up through the years]
    [Till I swivel back round when I fly fly fly]
    [Losing breath from the water when I'm gone gone gone]

  And I'm gone gone gone
  Now I'm older than movies
  Let me dance away
  Now I'm wiser than dreams
  Let me fly fly fly
  While I'm touching tomorrow
  And I know who's there
  When silhouettes fall

And I'm gone
Like I'm dancing on angels
And I'm gone through a crack in the past

Like a dead man walking
Like a dead man walking

Three old men dancing under the lamplight
Shaking their sex and their bones
And the boys that we were
An alien nation in therapy
Sliding naked and new
Like a bad tempered child 
On a rain slicked street

CHORUS

And I'm gone

And I'm gone, like I'm dancing on angels
And I'm gone, through the crack in the past

Like a dead man walking
Like a dead man walking
Like a dead man
Like a dead man walking

And I'm gone gone gone
Let me dance dance dance
And I'm gone gone gone
Let me dance dance dance


And I'm gone, like I'm dancing on angels
And I'm gone, through a crack in the past
And I'm gone, like I'm dancing on angels
And I'm gone, through a crack in the past

Like a dead man walking
Like a dead man walking
Like a dead man
Like a dead man walking

ad lib...

 

As ever Captain Recycle is at it again.  David reused the riff from 'The Supermen' for this song, a riff that was originally given to him by Jimmy Page.   He discusses it during a live performance at 99x 3rd Anniversary show at Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA, USA on 8 April 1997 (Oh! You Pretty Thing, Seven Months In America and The Unreleased Stuff).