In writing about Nicolas Roeg yesterday, I mentioned the different rockers who had starred in his films: Mick Jagger, Art Garfunkel and David Bowie. It has always struck me that Bowie's appearance in Roeg's 1976 film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie's first starring role, was a very important moment in his career. First, he used photos from the film on the covers of two of his greatest albums: Station to Station (1976) and Low (1977). Second, from that point forward his stage personas were related somehow to the concept of the alien (as opposed to earlier, marginally more human ones like Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke). Third, his lyrics became increasingly influenced by a cinematic type of story-telling - in that the listeners were given images with little or no connective tissue and asked to figure out the narrative and themes for themselves.
Let's look at the lyrics to "Always Crashing in the Same Car" from Low:

Every chance,
every chance that I take
I take it on the road
Those kilometres and the red lights
I was always looking left and right
Oh, but I'm always crashing
in the same car

Jasmine, I saw you peeping
As I pushed my foot down to the floor
I was going round and round the hotel garage
Must have been touching close to 94
Oh, but I'm always crashing
in the same car

Musically, it's an unusual track because the most human sounding instrument is Dennis Davis' drumming, which fits in with a setting that is halfway between dream and reality. (Incidentally, this sound was clearly an influence on Radiohead - cf. "15 Step", for example.) Of course, the title tells us right away that we are in a world of recurring dreams, but ironically the first statement has a realistic ring to it ("Every chance/ Every chance that I take/ I take it on the road") in the sense that an automobile, like going to a movie, can free an individual from having to behave in a socially acceptable manner. For this protagonist, it seems like the only such outlet. The rest of the song gives us more, but not all, of the story, and listeners are free to supply their own endings and interpretations. Another musical aspect worthy of note: the way Bowie sings at some points with the beat and at others against it. Here's the way I hear it (today, anyway). I'll use regular type for parts sung with the beat, and italics for the parts sung against it:

Every chance,
every chance that I take
I take it on the road
Those kilometres and the red lights
I was always looking left and right
Oh, but I'm always crashing
in the same car

Jasmine, I saw you peeping
As I pushed my foot down to the floor
I was going round and round the hotel garage
Must have been touching close to 94
Oh, but I'm always crashing
in the same car

There's much more to being a great vocalist than having a "good voice". More on this (and Bowie) to come.