David Bowie: "Valentine's Day"

Bowie's first album in a decade, "The Next Day," is a remarkably dark collection.  It's splayed with blood at times, on songs like the title track, the haunting"How Does the Grass Grow", and "Valentine's Day".

"Valentine's Day" is particularly chilling given the recent events in Newtown, Connecticut.  Although there are obvious differences in the circumstances of his rampage, Adam Lanza could have been the boy the narrator is hearing fantasize about death and destruction in "Valentine's Day"...  "It's in his tiny face.. it's in his scrawny hand... it's in his icy heart...."

 

 

It's a brilliant song.  It begins like a moderate pop-rock song with an opening couplet that might fit into a typical love song.  Then it turns abruptly dark, and we realize we're not talking about puppy love here.   Valentine is a character fantasizing about shooting up his classmates.  It's a harrowing song, especially at the ambiguous ending ("It's happening today!! Valentine, Valentine!!")  We as the listener cannot know if Valentine is merely fantasizing to someone, or if this portends the start of violence, or perhaps the narrator - to whom Valentine is presumably confiding his plans - will step in and stop the situation.  I can picture a video where Valentine is walking towards school as if on a normal day, seeing the classmates around him, the camera cuts to Valentine's face, and then fade to black.  We don't know what happens.  Listen to the harrowing vocals in those last few lines, the drama and almost panic that Bowie conjures in those lines. 

 

Also notable in the song is the almost retro, old-school rock feel.  The sing-song "sha-la-la-la" backing vocals - the incongruity of innocence and beauty and the ice-cold alienation of a sociopath.   And the further realization that you never know who Valentine might be.  For every act of violence that comes to fruition, how many are stewing in someone's mind?

 

A stunning moment on an album that's loaded with them. 

  

 

Valentine told me who's to go

Feelings he's treasured most of all
The teachers and the football star
It's in his tiny face
It's in his scrawny hand
Valentine told me so
He's got something to say
It's Valentine's Day

The rhythm of the crowd
Teddy and Judy down
Valentine sees it all
He's got something to say
It's Valentine's Day

Valentine told me how he'd feel
If all the world were under his heels
Or stumbling through the mall
It's in his tiny face
It's in his scrawny hand
Valentine knows it all
He's got something to say
It's Valentine's Day

Valentine, Valentine
Valentine, Valentine

It's in his scrawny hand
It's in his icy heart
It's happening today
Valentine, Valentine

It's in his scrawny hand
It's in his icy heart
It's happening today
Valentine, Valentine