'I'll Give You Eyes of Blue' Print

Oh, little China girl Oh, little China girl I couldn't escape this feeling with my China girl I feel a wreck without my little China girl I hear her heart beating, loud as thunder Saw these stars crashing I'm a mess without my little China girl Wake up in the morning, where's my little China girl? I hear her heart is beating, loud as thunder I saw these stars crashing down I'm feeling tragic like I'm Marlon Brando When I look at my China girl And I could pretend that nothing really meant too much When I look at my China girl I stumble into town Just like a sacred cow Visions of swastikas in my head Plans for everyone It's in the white of my eyes My little China girl You shouldn't mess with me I'll ruin everything you are You know I'll give you television I'll give you eyes of blue I'll give you a man who wants to rule the world And when I get excited My little China girl says "Oh, baby, just you shut your mouth" She says, "Ssh" She says "Ssh" She says She says And when I get excited My little China girl says "Oh, baby, just you shut your mouth" And when I get excited My little China girl says "Oh, baby, just you shut your mouth" She says, "Ssh" She says Oh, little China girl Oh, little China girl Oh, little China girl Oh, little China girl ‘China Girl’ by David Bowie Songwriters: James Osterberg & David Jones "China Girl" is a song written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie during their years in Berlin, first appearing on Pop's debut solo album The Idiot (1977). The song became more widely known when it was re-recorded by Bowie, who released it as the second single from his most commercially successful album, Let's Dance (1983). The UK single release of Bowie's version reached No. 2 for one week on 14 June 1983, while the US release reached No. 10. Paul Trynka, the author of the David Bowie biography, Starman, explains the song was inspired by Iggy Pop's infatuation with Kuelan Nguyen, a Vietnamese woman, as a metaphor for his Stooges career. Production-wise, the original recording that appeared on The Idiot is raw and unpolished compared to Bowie's hit remake in 1983. Nile Rodgers, the producer of David Bowie's 1983 version of the song, offered his own interpretation of the lyrics: "I figured China Girl was about doing drugs ... because China is China White which is heroin, girl is cocaine. I thought it was a song about speedballing. I thought, in the drug community in New York, coke is girl, and heroin is boy. So then I proceeded to do this arrangement which was ultra pop. Because I thought that, being David Bowie, he would appreciate the irony of doing something so pop about something so taboo. And what was really cool was that he said 'I love that!’." The Idiot is the debut studio album by American musician Iggy Pop, released on March 18, 1977, by RCA Records. After the break-up of his band the Stooges in 1974, Pop struggled with drug addiction. Although attempts to get sober proved unsuccessful, by 1976, he was ready to break free of his addiction. Pop accepted an invitation to join his friend David Bowie on his Isolar Tour. At the end of the tour, Pop agreed to join Bowie, also struggling with drug addiction, in moving to Europe to rid themselves of their addictions. The two settled into the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, where Bowie agreed to produce an album. Described by Pop as "a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk", The Idiot marks a departure from the proto-punk of the Stooges. Recording for it began at the château in June 1976 and continued into July. Further sessions took place at Musicland Studios in Munich in August. Bowie composed most of the music and contributed a major portion of the instrumentation. Pop wrote most of the lyrics in response to the music Bowie was creating. The album's title was taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name, while Erich Heckel's painting Roquairol inspired its artwork. After the album was completed, Bowie began recording his next album Low, which features a sound similar to The Idiot. Released before The Idiot in January 1977, the commercial success of Low compelled RCA Records to release the aforementioned two months later. Upon its release, the album received divided, albeit largely positive reviews from music critics, with many drawing comparisons to Pop's earlier work. It peaked at numbers 72 and 30 in the US and the UK, respectively. It was accompanied by the release of two singles, "Sister Midnight" and "China Girl", in February and May 1977, respectively; Bowie later issued his own version of "China Girl" as a single in 1983. Pop supported The Idiot with a tour in March and April 1977, with Bowie as his keyboardist. Afterwards, the two collaborated again on Pop's second studio album, Lust for Life (1977). Retrospectively, The Idiot has continued to be received positively and regarded by fans as one of Pop's best works. However, because Bowie largely created it, fans do not generally consider the album as being representative of Pop's output. It is considered having influenced post-punk, industrial, and gothic acts, including Joy Division. Let's Dance is the 15th studio album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 14 April 1983 by EMI America Records. After the release of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980), Bowie began a period of numerous musical collaborations and film appearances. During this time, he also left RCA Records due to dissatisfaction. After signing with EMI America in late 1982, Bowie decided he wanted a fresh start, and chose Nile Rodgers of the rock/disco band Chic to co-produce his next record. The album was recorded in December 1982 at the Power Station in New York City. The sessions featured an entirely new personnel, including then-unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar. For the first time ever, Bowie played no instruments on the album, solely contributing vocals. Musically, Let's Dance has been described as a post-disco record, with elements of dance-rock, dance-popand new wave. It contains three cover songs: Iggy Pop's "China Girl", which Bowie and Pop recorded together for Pop's The Idiot (1977); Metro's "Criminal World"; and a reworking of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", originally recorded by Bowie and Giorgio Moroder in 1982 for the film of the same name. Let's Dance was released to massive commercial success, reaching number one in numerous countries, and turned Bowie into a major superstar; it remains Bowie's best-selling album. The record's four singles, including the title track, were all commercially successful as well. However, the album received mixed reviews from music critics whose opinions on the artistic content varied. The title track and "China Girl" were supported by music videos that received heavy airplay on MTV. It was supported by the Serious Moonlight Tour, which featured the return of guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick. Despite the massive success of the album, Let's Dance began a period of low creativity for Bowie. He felt that he had to pander his music to his new acquired audience, which led his follow-up albums, Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987), to be critically dismissed. He would later reflect poorly on the period that began with Let's Dance, referring to it as his "Phil Collins years". The album was remastered in 2018 and included in the box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988). James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American musician, singer, lyricist, record producer and actor. Designated the "Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who were formed in 1967 and have disbanded and reunited multiple times since. Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll, the Stooges sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which often involved acts of self-mutilation by Pop. He had a long collaborative and personal friendship with David Bowie over the course of his career, beginning with the Stooges' album Raw Power in 1973. With both musicians having relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions, Pop began his solo career by collaborating with Bowie on the 1977 albums The Idiot and Lust for Life with Pop usually contributing the lyrics. Throughout his career, he is well known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, poetic lyrics and distinctive voice. He was one of the first performers to do a stage-dive and popularized the activity. Pop, who traditionally (but not exclusively) performs bare-chested, also performed such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass and exposing himself to the crowd. Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career, including garage rock, punk rock, hard rock, heavy metal, art rock, new wave, jazz, blues, and electronic. Though his popularity has fluctuated through the years, many of Pop's songs have become well known, including "Search and Destroy" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by the Stooges, and his solo hits "Lust for Life", "The Passenger" and "Real Wild Child (Wild One)". In 1990, he recorded his first and only Top 40 U.S. hit, "Candy", a duet with B-52's singer Kate Pierson. Pop's song "China Girl" became more widely known when it was re-recorded by co-writer Bowie, who released it as the second single from his most commercially successful album, Let's Dance (1983). Bowie re-recorded and performed many of Pop's songs throughout his career. Although Pop has had limited commercial success, he has remained both a culture icon and a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres. The Stooges' album Raw Power has proved an influence on artists such as Sex Pistols, the Smiths, and Nirvana. His solo album The Idiot has been cited as a major influence on a number of post-punk, electronic and industrial artists including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Joy Division, and was described by Siouxsie Sioux as a "re-affirmation that our suspicions were true: the man is a genius.” He was inducted as part of the Stooges into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In January 2020, Pop received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊi/, UK also /ˈbəʊi/ BOH-ee), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, with his music and stagecraft having a significant impact on popular music. During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In the UK, he was awarded ten platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, and released eleven number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone placed him among its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and named him the "Greatest Rock Star Ever" following his death in 2016. Born in Brixton, South London, Bowie developed an interest in music as a child. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity", released in 1969, was his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Bowie's single "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth, directed by Nicolas Roeg, and released Station to Station. In 1977, he further confounded expectations with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure", a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance; its title track topped both UK and US charts. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with The Next Day. He remained musically active until his death from liver cancer at his home in New York City, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016). Blackstar won British Album of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards and five Grammy Awards at the 2017 Grammy Awards. Source: Wikipedia