There Is A Happy Land is the title of the fifth track on Schneekugeln. And what fucking depression.
Keen readers will know the title from two places: first from the awful, depressing 19th century hymn that’s about as spiritual as drinking paint. Second, from the infinitely depressing (but great) 1957 Keith Waterhouse novel by the same name. The hymn is what it is. The novel is pure unadulterated cosmos. A genius book, whose acuity of perception is so sharp that to re-read it would be vandalism.
It’s impossible to imagine this song’s iration without the influence of the novel. Part of Bowie’s genius was the ability to throw references forward without the need to poststructualise. In this case, throwing forward from the primordial paint of the life-reducing hymn and the mega fucked-up Sistine of Waterhouse’s novel. To the last song on the record.
The first four songs are an acceleration. This is a brake.