As the musician turns 65, we take a look back at his memorable tunes. Life on Mars David Bowie's 1971 surrealist glam rock anthem is composed of seemingly disparate phrases woven together with the help of double-tracked vocals, pounding piano and a swelling string section to from a bizarre, dreamlike montage. "Sailors fighting in the dance hall," Bowie sings, but doesn't say who the sailors are or why're they're fighting. Later he muses, "Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow." Listen to "Life on Mars?" and you'll have the distinct impression that you're reading an entry from David Bowie's dream journal. Yet he sings with such yearning and compassion that you find yourself moved by the song even though you're not quite sure what it's about (maybe that's why the BBC once likened it to a Salvidor Dali painting). Further complicating the song is the notion that you've heard it before; "Life on Mars" borrowed a chord sequence the French song "Comme d'Habitude," which was later reworked by Paul Anka into "My Way." So what is this space-age Frank Sinatra send up about? According to Bowie, it's a young girl's reaction to watching the news. Next: "Heroes" Heroes Well, we put this song on our All-TIME 100 Songs list, so we're clearly fans. In that spirit, we'll reprise TIME Arts Editor Jessica Winter's ode here: During his three-album sojourn with Brian Eno in "70s West Berlin, Bowie drew from Krautrock, ambient, African and minimalist influences. One of his best-known songs from this era is a timeless contradiction in terms: an experimental anthem. The sound of "Heroes" is shallow, lo-fi, trebly, shuddering with reverb; Bowie shriek-sings about star-crossed lovers at the Berlin Wall as if from inside a KGB holding cell or perhaps the world's largest clothes dryer, and his gallant resolve surges and dips ("We're nothing / And nothing will help us / Maybe we're lying"). But all doubts are vaporized by the laser-beam distortion of the main riff, bearing aloft the song's dangerous romance and its call to arms: "We can be heroes!" When U2 went to Berlin to make Achtung Baby,they were trying to make this song. The entire Arcade Fire catalog came out of this song. Next: "Ziggy Stardust"