如何理解 David Bowie 的歌曲《The Man Who Sold the World》？

这首歌寓意是什么，鲍爷没正面给过解释，大家都是猜测的。

首先得上专辑配图：

牛仔身后是位于伦敦的

精神病院。

所以，这首歌应该与精神病患者有关，歌词中反复念叨着 "I never lost control"，实际上早就疯了。歌中，主人公想象自己变出了一个分身（让我联想到专辑封面上鲍爷男女不分的扮相）。对话可能是发生在自己和分身之间的。

主人公和自己的分身分别代表着过去和现在。为了融入世俗，他放弃了自己的本质，也就是他的分身，died a long long time ago。他过于强烈地想改变自己，最后都要 lost control 了，却发现有些人天生就是无法改变，他们只能被社会抛弃。（

：Bowie encounters the title character, but it is not clear just what the phrase means, or exactly who this man is. … The main thing that the song does is to paint — however elusively — the title character as another example of the societal outcasts who populate the album.）

维基百科上还有一段对鲍爷的采访：

Bowie commented: "I guess I wrote it because there was a part of myself that I was looking for. Maybe now that I feel more comfortable with the way that I live my life and my mental state (laughs) and my spiritual state whatever, maybe I feel there's some kind of unity now. That song for me always exemplified kind of how you feel when you're young, when you that there's a piece of yourself that you haven't really put together yet. You have this great searching, this great need to find out who you really are."

这首歌描述了一位微软公司销售业务员艰辛奋斗的历程，刻画了一个在大型IT公司里担任销售业务，身负业绩压力，痛苦不堪的小人物的形象，也表达了创作者对万恶的资本主义制度的无情控诉。

该曲经美国近代无产阶级合唱团捏丸那翻唱以后，成了一首全世界范围内无产阶级运动的圣歌。

下面我们简单看看这首歌的歌词：

We passed upon the stair,
we spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there,
he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise

在歌曲第一段里，销售员到一位客户公司拜访，虽然客户以“电梯坏了”为名不愿意见他，但见面以后就假模假式地声称“我们是朋友”。

然而我们可以从歌词中猜测到，即使这次销售员把Microsoft Word的历代发展做了详细的推介，对方仍然不为所动。

I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone,
a long long time ago
Oh no, not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With The Man Who Sold The Word

在第二段里，作者详细描述了这次和客户的沟通过程。

可以看到在经过前面的种种遭遇以后，销售员内心已经默默画圈诅咒了很多遍了（我想你早特么死了），然而职业素养还是要求他注视着对方的眼睛，保持情绪稳定。

毕竟在内心，他还是反复告诉自己：

我是一个骄傲的微软公司销售员！！！我来，就是卖Word的！！！

I laughed and shook his hand,
and made my way back home
I searched for form and land,
for years and years I roamed

这一段里我们可以看到，最后销售员没有达成合作，但是他还是友好地和对方握手告别。同时他也下定决心，自己要年复一年的，踏遍各地，完成自己的销售业绩。

听完这首歌，相信你已经对这首歌的主旨有了更加深入的了解。

以上就是这首歌《The Man Who Sold the Word》（直译“卖Word的男人”，意译“微软公司销售员”）的意思，希望能帮助到你。