Worst Line in a Bowie Song

The entirety of "'87 and Cry."

"It couldn't be done without dogs" is a nice intriguing/meaningless line that could have found a home elsewhere.

xp I dunno, I watched that episode and there was Bowie composing ON THE SPOT, conjuring those words out of fat air.

New York's in love
With the way she talks (t-t-talks, t-t-talks)
And the way she walks
New York's in love
Goo goo goo goo goo goo

The problem with a bad Bowie lyric is that it kinda has a way of poisoning the well

I hated "we can never be rid of these stars" so much it handicapped my appreciation of The Next Day. Bowie's appeal is built so much on knowingness that when he gets overblown in a witless way, you feel more embarrassed for him than you would for most singer/songwriters.

There are worse lines in that album

The entirety of "Boss of Me."

Yes I am a fan of BTWN and Buddha

It is kind of incredible that a lyricist like Bowie can turn out just the most surprising and wonderful lyrics one moment and then offer up some lukewarm vomit the next

Upthread somebody cited “I gazed a gazely stare” as a bad lyric and this is a wrong opinion; that line is the finest lyric that Kurt Cobain ever had the privilege of singing

Yes it's wonderful

So is the entirety of "Station to Station.:?"

I mean “it’s not the side effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking that it must be love” is one of the best lines in pop music

The thing I like about “gazely” is how effective a word substitute it is for “lazy”— instead of using a literal adjective to convey the sociopathic narrator’s sense of impassivity at “gazing at all the millions there”, Bowie uses a redundant (and invented) adjective to adroitly convey just how impassive and uncaring the narrator really is. Bowie hit the jackpot with that entire lyric

“The Width Of A Circle”‘a lyric didn’t appeal to me when I was younger— the “hooking up with a dude = hellfire” thesis was not-great-Bob. I’ve come to really appreciate that song now as a bridge between Bowie’s Flower Power pastiche and the surrealism to come. “He laughed and cried and quipped “Khalil Gibran”” would’ve been a “bad Bowie lyric” at one point but now I think it’s kinda awesome

The entirety of "Love You Til Tuesday", but specifically:

Who's that hiding in the apple tree, clinging to a branch
Don't be afraid it's only me, hoping for a little romance
If you lie beneath my shade, I'll keep you nice and cool

It's not so much the lyrics, more that Bowie is trying to sound like Peter Noone but coming across as a massive creep instead.