Desperate connections are a regular theme for David Bowie (most famously on “Heroes”, which this song precedes on the Lazarus soundtrack.) Much of his work could be summed up as a weirdo searchlight looking for other weirdos to lose it and use it.
When I Met You is about, I think a lost ecstasy. The I that he Met is in the past – “Now It’s All the Same/The sun is gone/But when I met you”
But songs don’t need to follow narrative logic. It is, instead, the most weaponized form of emotional transference man has devised. And however desperate and past tense the lyrics make the “I Met You” this song, it’s an exuberant feeling that it leaves you with. Maybe things got worse again, but at some point in my life, I Met You.
Some of the instrumentation is sinister in its drive, but the jangly acoustic guitar under it seals the deal – whatever it’s surrounded by, this is a dude singing a song. About a girl.
It’s been one year to the day since DB left us. I have no insight to offer beyond that – remembering.
