You Feel So Lonely You Could Die

Album: The Next Day (2013)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This melodramatic soul-drenched waltz-time piano ballad finds Bowie singing a kiss off to a would-be suicide, whose depression appears to have been brought on by the loneliness of a city. "I can see you as a corpse, hanging from a beam... Oh, see if I care, Oh please make it soon," he croons.
  • The song title is taken from a lyric from Elvis Presley's first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel". Bowie shares his birthday, January 8th, with The King.
  • Critics have compared the tune's mournful tone to that of "Five Years" and the song concludes with the drum pattern of the Ziggy Stardust track.

Comments: 1

  • Mark Devey from EnglandThis song is David Bowie pleading with David Jones to carry on after his heart attack, or leave without a sound without an end. It's one of his most beautiful & personal songs.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.

Black Sabbath

Black SabbathFact or Fiction

Dwarfs on stage with an oversize Stonehenge set? Dabbling in Satanism? Find out which Spinal Tap-moments were true for Black Sabbath.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.

Tony Joe White

Tony Joe WhiteSongwriter Interviews

The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's Songs

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's SongsSong Writing

"London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" are just a few examples of shockingly morbid children's songs.