21. David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things

A Prophetic Hymn of Change and Evolution

Artwork by me: Enrique Seemann

In early 1971, David Bowie wasn’t yet a rock star—not in the way the world would soon know him. He had spent years shifting between folk, theatrical pop, and experimental sounds, trying to find a voice that resonated beyond a single hit.

At the time, he was living in Haddon Hall, a grand but crumbling Victorian mansion in Beckenham, South London. He shared the space with his wife, Angie, and a rotating cast of friends and fellow artists. The house was a place of eccentricity and reinvention—walls covered in drawings, costumes strewn across furniture, a piano placed right in the center of it all.

That piano would become the birthplace of Hunky Dory, the album where Bowie would finally begin to shape the artist he was meant to be. And one of its most intriguing songs, "Oh! You Pretty Things," was among the first glimpses of his obsession with transformation, evolution, and the generational shifts he saw coming.

A Song That Wasn’t Meant for Him—At First

One of the most unexpected twists in the story of "Oh! You Pretty Things" is that Bowie didn't originally release it himself. Instead, he gave it away.

At the time, Peter Noone, the former frontman of Herman’s Hermits, was launching a solo career. He was looking for a song that would give him credibility beyond his bubblegum pop past. Bowie—still an unknown figure to most—had recently started working with producer Mickie Most, who was also overseeing Noone’s career.

Most saw an opportunity: Bowie had songs, and Noone had an audience. Noone later recalled that he barely understood the song’s meaning when Bowie handed it to him. He found the melody catchy and the lyrics intriguing but admitted that its philosophical depth—references to Nietzsche, evolution, and the rise of a "Homo Superior"—was lost on him.

Bowie, however, didn’t seem to mind. He was playing the long game. Let Noone make it a hit first—he would come back for it later.

And that’s exactly what happened. In April 1971, Peter Noone’s version of "Oh! You Pretty Things" was released, with Bowie playing piano on the track and singing backing vocals. The song climbed to #12 on the UK charts, giving Bowie something he hadn’t had in years: a proven commercial success.

A Song That Came Like a Vision

Bowie often said his songwriting was spontaneous, sometimes waking up with whole songs in his head. Whether ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ came that way is a mystery, but it has this hypnotic quality that makes it feel like it came from one of those instinctive creative bursts.

The song has a strange quality to it—both urgent and dreamlike, as if Bowie had tapped into something just beyond the reach of conscious thought. He often spoke about his fascination with transformation and the ever-changing nature of identity. Whether intentional or instinctive, his songwriting frequently captured themes of change, destruction, and rebirth, almost as if he was channeling a vision of something bigger than himself.

Some say this was one of the first moments when Bowie truly became Bowie—not just an artist, but a vessel for something larger, something prophetic.

A Deceptively Simple Sound

Unlike the rich orchestration found in other Hunky Dory tracks, "Oh! You Pretty Things" is built around a lone piano and Bowie's voice, giving it the feel of an old-fashioned cabaret song—except for the fact that it’s predicting the end of the world as we know it.

The song lacks drums entirely, which adds to its floating, hypnotic effect.

The piano on “Oh! You Pretty Things” was actually played by Bowie himself, unlike other Hunky Dory tracks where Rick Wakeman—a virtuoso keyboardist who would soon join Yes—contributed. Wakeman did play on songs like “Life on Mars?” and “Changes,” adding his signature classical touch to the album.

The highlight of the song is the chorus, where Bowie’s voice soars dramatically on the phrase ‘Homo Superior,’ almost as if he’s declaring the arrival of the next evolutionary step himself.

What Is the Song Really About?

The lyrics paint a picture of a world undergoing a radical, almost apocalyptic change. Bowie opens with an ominous observation:

"Look out my window, what do I see?

A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me."

It sounds biblical, almost like an intervention from a higher power—or something else.

Then comes the warning:

"Oh, you pretty things, don’t you know you’re driving your mamas and papas insane?"

Bowie suggests that a new generation is rising, one that will replace the old. The "pretty things" of the title aren’t just youthful rebels—they are the precursors of something greater, something inevitable.

My Personal Thoughts