#11 Best David Bowie Songs- China Girl

That's right! Not only did I nix my 1978 movies idea, my delusions of grandeur forced me to do my first top 10 list! [If you're reading this now, it's 11] Actually, it was not my delusions, but rather that there are so many great Bowie songs that I found it hard to choose just 5. From 1982's rather disappointing album Let's Dance, it was one of a barrage of three excellent songs at the beginning of the album, followed by lukewarm commercially-driven Chic-inspired dance offerings. Also on that album was a sterilized, absolutely terrible remake of his amazing soundtrack song Cat People, which to this day makes me about puke whenever I hear the remake.

So, anyway, the Grooveshark listen widget is at the bottom of the post. I should have thought of this earlier. After all, Grooveshark pwns. So, as you are scrolling down and clicking play, listen to the pseudo-Asian slide guitar intro (reminiscent of I Think I'm Turning Japanese) segueing into a danceable drum-driven Asian-influenced but obviously an 80's miracle, sung with wonderful theatrical paranoia by Bowie and tight, semisynthetic harmonies behind. This song was co-written with The Stooges' famously druggy Iggy Pop, while Iggy and Bowie were in Berlin recovering from their drug addictions. This, not the Asian love interest with acrylic fingernails pictured above and in the video, is the real subject of the song. China White, as I learned on Songfacts/in health class (really), is slang for heroin. In this light, that same danceable ditty with cryptic, paranoid-yet-simple lyrics becomes a harrowing portrait of a hopeless addict. "I'm a mess without my China Girl," stutters Bowie. "Wake up in the morning, where's my little China Girl?" That kind of drug personification, like in The Beatles' "Got To Get You Into My Life," has always been a little creepy for me, and probably lots of other people. Bowie knows this better than Iggy did on his 1977 recording of the same song (from The Idiot), and the paranoid vocals exemplify this and make the effect sadder.

The instrumental track features a very lightly distorted, smooth-sounding, almost jazzy guitar, as well as a not-terrible drum machine (I think) and a constant eerie synthesizer to match the eerie vocals. The melody is good too, buoyed by a danceable, groovy bass (lol), as this comes out of the same writing period as the amazing Heroes album, which may have been his best effort ever. (HINT, HINT, cough.)