The song is a journey to him finding himself.
David Bowie was asked about the meaning of the song and he said, “I guess I wrote it because there was a part of myself that I was looking for. That song for me always exemplified kind of how you feel when you’re young, when you know that there’s a piece of yourself that you haven’t really put together yet.”
This song, originally written by David Bowie, is about a man who is shocked to meet the other version of himself or his personality he thought had been done away with.
He is able to recognize this different version because it’s probably from his past and he thought he had buried it. The writer must have mentioned ‘stairs’ to illustrate his journey upwards and away from the kind of person he originally was. When he meets this other self, it calls him his friend, but he gives him a very hostile response. He confesses that he thought this old character died a long time ago. This could mean that there was something about this former version he did not expect to survive.
In the chorus, the other version tells him that he did not die but was able to take hold of himself and survive. He adds that he’s face to face with the man who sold the world; where world here signifies his soul.
The second verse reveals how the writer tries to move on despite the encounter. Laughing and shaking hands, they part ways but the current version of himself is somewhat lost while searching. He is virtually at a crossroads trying to figure out which version of himself to show the world. Roaming around for years and years probably represents his tours and businesses. He keeps on searching for answers, trying to get himself ‘together’. He however, finds out that in pursuit of pleasing a ‘million’ people in the world, he lost his real self and died alone.
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