news
discography
songs
tours
videos
people
family tree
timeline
press releases
reviews
faq
mailing list
fanzines
site map
links
about
contact

memory of a free festival


composer
David Bowie


publisher
Copyright Control


background
David Bowie's recollections of a free festival held at Beckenham Recreation Ground on the 16th August 1969, were immoralised as Memory Of A Free Festival which closed his second album David Bowie. It was an unstructured meandering idea with the first part describing the event, and the long outro simply repeating "The sun machine is coming down and we're gonna have a party." It was also released as a single, with both parts of the song now remixed and orchestrated, clearly separated into a Part One and Part Two.

Part Two was included in the final verses of the live Pleasantly Disturbed, also a song of two distinct parts. Jim sang the Sun Machine refrain over the final bars of Pleasantly Disturbed, extending the opus further.




lyrics
The children of the summer's end,
Gathered in the dampened grass.
We played our songs and felt the London sky,
Resting on our hands.
It was God's land,
It was ragged and naive,
It was Heaven.
Touch, we touched the very soul,
Of holding each and every life.
We claimed the very source of joy ran through.
It didn't, but it seemed that way,
I kissed a lot of people that day.

Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon,
To paint that love upon a white balloon,
And fly it from the toppest top of all the tops.
That man has pushed beyond his brain,
Satori must be something just the same.

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size.
We talked with tall Venusians passing through,
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head.
And away they soared,
Climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud,
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd,
And we walked back to the road, unchained.

The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party.
The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party.
The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party.
The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party.
The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party.




live history
Life In A Day Tour: 1979