“Loving The Alien” was the opening track from David Bowie’s 1984 album Tonight. It was released exclusively in the UK as the album’s third single, and reached #19 on the UK Singles Chart. The song examine’s Bowie’s intense dislike of organized religion. Bowie would later admit that he felt the produ...
[Intro]
[Verse 1]
Watching them come and go
The Templars and the Saracens
They're travelling the holy land
Opening telegrams
Torture comes and torture goes
Knights who'd give you anything
They bear the cross of Coeur de Lion
Salvation for the mirror blind
[Pre-Chorus]
But if you pray
All your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
[Chorus 1]
Prayers they hide the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And your prayers, they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
[Interlude]
[Verse 2]
Thinking of a different time
Palestine a modern problem
Bounty and your wealth in land
Terror in a best laid plan
Watching them come and go
Tomorrows and the yesterdays
Christians and the unbelievers
Hanging by the cross and nail
[Pre-Chorus]
But if you pray
All your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
[Chorus 1]
Prayers they hide the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And your prayers, they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
[Chorus 2]
You pray til the break of dawn
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And you’ll believe you’re loving the alien
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
[Outro]
Loving the Alien was written by David Bowie.
Loving the Alien was produced by Hugh Padgham & Derek Bramble & David Bowie.
“‘Alien’ came about because of my feeling that so much history is wrong – as is being rediscovered all the time – and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we’ve gleaned.”
—David Bowie, October 25, 1984, “Let’s Talk, A Conversation with David Bowie” (Rolling Stone Magazine (433).