Damien Youth

WOW! As you can imagine, the religion drug was backfiring with me. Instead of taking comfort that these all-knowing entities were watching and finding favor with me, planning out my homecoming party up there behind those heavenly gates, I imagined them condemning me, stroking their beards and plotting my punishment. Punishment for what? Not for the things I did; I was really a good kid. These beings, however, could read one’s thoughts. And in the world of thoughts, I was all things. At night, lying alone, hugging my pillow, with the blankets over my head, I would try to pray away the fear. I still would lie awake all night as every sound our old house became amplified. With each crackle of the old house settling, my mind would create images of old, bearded, robed figures coming down the halls to collect me. You see, religion had induced a psychotic state within me. I had all the symptoms of schizophrenia, but then again, so did all the old prophets of my religion. Seeing things, hearing voices, over exaggerating my importance in the grand scheme of things... I needed a way out. I needed something “real” to shake me out of this madness. I needed David Bowie.



WOW! As you can imagine, the religion drug was backfiring with me. Instead of taking comfort that these all-knowing entities were watching and finding favor with me, planning out my homecoming party up there behind those heavenly gates, I imagined them condemning me, stroking their beards and plotting my punishment. Punishment for what? Not for the things I did; I was really a good kid. These beings, however, could read one’s thoughts. And in the world of thoughts, I was all things. At night, lying alone, hugging my pillow, with the blankets over my head, I would try to pray away the fear. I still would lie awake all night as every sound our old house became amplified. With each crackle of the old house settling, my mind would create images of old, bearded, robed figures coming down the halls to collect me. You see, religion had induced a psychotic state within me. I had all the symptoms of schizophrenia, but then again, so did all the old prophets of my religion. Seeing things, hearing voices, over exaggerating my importance in the grand scheme of things... I needed a way out. I needed something “real” to shake me out of this madness. I needed David Bowie.
	HUNKY DORY saved my life. After Elton John and The Beatles, I didn’t really think I would have any other major pop icon in my life. I had even owned ZIGGY STARDUST from a year or so previous, but it went quickly into a stack of records, never really getting the attention it deserved. HUNKY DORY was the first LP by Bowie that shook me up and made me a believer. I had heard "Changes" on the radio and was immediately drawn to its hook. Cool! Now I own this song. I always wondered who this was.
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