David Bowie - Suffragette City Lyrics Meaning

Publish date: 2024-05-06

First off, just a few things:
1. The song was originally released in 1972 not ‘76
2. The line is ‘mellow black chick’ not ‘thighed’
3. And the song is from the ‘Ziggy Stardust’album it’s a story it’s not directly about Bowie himself

Now, what I think it means.

By this point in the album Ziggy is gone, they’ve had their fall from grace, the previous song, ‘Ziggy Stardust’ is sung from, I believe, their fans perspective after they’ve fallen, so ‘Suffragette City’ would be the same, because why would Ziggy be singing them self, after a song about them not being there anymore, the song after ‘Suffragette City’, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’, I believe is sung by Ziggy reflecting on their mistakes after they’ve returned to space.

I believe ‘Suffragette City’ is sung by ‘Henry’, who is recounting things Ziggy said to him which paints Henry in a bad light, as Ziggy would have seen him that way, at that time. So the song sounds as though Ziggy is talking about their relationship with a person or some people believe ‘Henry’ is a metaphors for drugs but I don’t think that’s what’s happening.

First, ‘Henry’, I believe Henry is a past lover of Ziggy’s, possibly a one night stand who got attached. “Henry get off the phone” is Ziggy telling Henry to hang up and leave them alone, they’ve got to “straighten their face” as they’ve just been with a woman, “mellow black chick”.

‘Suffragette City’, Ziggy loving women, but it puts their love for women in the light that it’s equal to their love for men ‘Suffragette’, women’s equality. Them saying ‘you can’t afford the ticket, back from Suffragette City’, Henry can’t compete with women and they don’t want to have a relationship with men, Henry, anymore. Henry doesn’t seem to give up tho the line “hey man, my works down the drain” could imply that Henry was still around as Ziggy was falling, he refused to leave them.

We know from Bowie himself that he was inspired by ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as you can see with the line ‘droogie don’t crash here’, which was a word in ‘Nadsat’ a slang language invented by the author of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, Anthony Burgess, droog or droogie means friend. They’re calling Henry a friends while running it in his face that they sleep with women, “there’s only room for one and here she comes, here she comes”.

So I believe ‘Suffragette City’ is about Ziggy’s relationship with Henry, told by Henry usu of Ziggy’s words and perspective.

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