David Bowie

I've always wondered about why Phish would write a song about Davie
Bowie, but last night in Cincinnati I saw them play it and this idea
came to me:

I'm in a band that will write a song or two the way that Phish does and
while we're jamming on something that is unfinished, we'll just throw in
random words in place of what will eventually be the final lyrics.  We
know the rhythm and melody of the vocals, but not the actual words. 
This has led to repeated choruses of things like "Darth Vadar" being
sung, even though the song has nothing to do with Darth Vadar, the words
just fit with the music.  The song "David Bowie" seems to be an example
of this.  Considering there are no other lyrics in the song besides the
repeated choruses of "David Bowie" and "UB40," and both of those are the
same rythmically, it would make sense that Phish was jamming on this
song and using those as "working" lyrics and they just stuck.  Many of
their songs seem to evolve lyrically, just as they do musically and I
view "David Bowie" as a work in progress that just ended up staying that
way.

I think that the band wrote this in a kind of mocking way to comment
on the aging of David Bowie, using the convenient band name "UB40". I
think you can also read between the lines to see that Phish was using
a derogatory tone in the song to make a statement of criticism about
the shallow music (e.g., "Let's Dance") that Bowie was putting out in
the early-to-mid '80's. Bowie himself recently admitted that the music
he released at that time was purely a way to sell records and make
money rather than an artistic means of expression (which his music
prior to and since have served as). How old was Bowie when this song
was written?? You judge for yourself..
Brent Fraim