Bowie lyric query...

[Pauro 76]

Putting this to the public vote. David Bowie 'Changes'... does the lyric go, 'turn and face the strain' or 'turn and face the strange'? Thanks!

[Ozymandias]

always thought it was strain....nearly certain

[stann]

Strain doesn't really make much sense though. "Turn and face the strange" does, specially in the context of the Changes of the title.

My vote would be for 'strange' anyway.

[Pauro 76]

Wondering can someone put this up as a poll. I'm going for 'strange' as it matches the lyrics. 'Facing the strange' kinda makes sense, whereas 'strain' doesnt... a friend of mine is adamant it's 'strain'...

[stann]

Actually, having just listened to it, it doesn't really sound like strain either.
Think your friend is acting the giddy goat. :D

[pineapple stu]

The internet favours "strain", but it's far from decisive.

(And by that, I mean it's 2-1 on the sites I googled...)

[endabob1]

I'd vote strain

[stann]

Ye can vote for it all ye like, doesn't change the fact that the lyric is 'strange'. :p

For three reasons mainly:
strain doesn't make any sense, strange does;
there are cultural references, like an episode of a TV show called 'Turn and face the strange' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_and_Face_the_Strange); and
when you listen to the song, he's singing 'strange', not 'strain'.
Probably the clincher for me, that last one. :D

[endabob1]

Touche, all I know when it's on in my car all I can hear is strain :p

[gaiscíoch]

And you sir are bang on....


Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time

[endabob1]

who to believe...

http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/songs/dblyrics.htm#changes

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/david+bowie/changes_20036790.html

[Pauro 76]

http://www.lyrics007.com/David%20Bowie%20Lyrics/Changes%20Lyrics.html

This one has 'turn and face the strange'.... Confused.com!

Also a mate has just emailed...

"turn and face the strange" = 51,600 results on google
"turn and face the strain" = 9,660.

[Calcio Jack]

Strain doesn't really make much sense though. "Turn and face the strange" does, specially in the context of the Changes of the title.

My vote would be for 'strange' anyway.

Always thought it was 'strain' which also for me makes perfect sense as in making a change can sometimes be difficult...thus he's saying change ain't easy so you have to face down the 'strain' as in the effort of doing it.

[Pauro 76]

Therapy? had a lyric in their song 'Turn', turn and face the strange... not quite sure if they directly lifted that line or changed it themselves...

[stann]

It's a homage alright, another one of the cultural references mentioned above.

You could make a case for 'turn and face the strain' Calcio Jack (although wouldn't that be more likely to be 'take the strain'?), but it's a very strained phrase in itself. Very forced. Very un-Bowie-like.
'Turn and face the strange' makes much more sense to me, as in embrace the new, the changes he's signing about, changes Bowie himself went through a lot: styles, image, sexuality, gnome-fancying, you name it. You can't embrace something without facing it! To me that's much more likely, a more elegant phrasing, and much more succinct...

...plus the fact that it's what he's singing! :D

[SkStu]

im going with my own version which is that youre all wrong and the lyric is actually

"time to face the change"

i dont care that im wrong cos i know im right.

[Bluebeard]

It isn'#t easy to tell if you are listening to it being played on a wonkly tape player in another room, but otherwise, obviously "Turn and face the Strange". The clue is, as Stan has pointed out, in the words he is singing.

If people need further proof I'll check when I get home - when he had all the albums remastered for a CD re-release about ten or twelve years ago, lyrics sheets were included in all, whether there had previously been one or not, so it will be on Hunky Dory.


'Turn and face the strange' makes much more sense to me, as in embrace the new, the changes he's signing about, changes Bowie himself went through a lot: styles, image, sexuality, gnome-fancying, you name it. You can't embrace something without facing it! To me that's much more likely, a more elegant phrasing, and much more succinct...


Funny because it's true (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWoT9elA-oY&feature=related).

[Sheridan]

FFS. Are we going to have a thread on whether he's singing "We can be hedgerows?"

[tiktok]

It's strange, and I can prove it............

[Pauro 76]

It's strange, and I can prove it............

Definitive answer. ;)