#10 - David Bowie - Slow Burn (
Heathen - 2002), (
Video - 2002), (
Live x 1 - 2002), (
Live x 2 - 2002), (
Live x 3 - 2002), (
Live x 4 - 2002), (
Live x 5 - 2002), (
Live x 6 - 2002), (
Live x 7 - 2002), (
Live x 8 - 2002), (
Live x 9 - 2002)
Like I said, most people will be . . . Huh? What? Never heard of it. The heart wants what the heart wants, and I love this song. Bowie lived in NYC during the 9/11 attack. Slow Burn is an outgrowth of that. Like many songs, a lot is left to individual interpretation. Some feel Bowie was imagining being trapped in the the WTC just after the attacks. Others feel it is about the mood of a scared and frightened city. Some people think it has to do with the security situation post 9/11 and suddenly having to worry about everyone and everything.
But it quite certainly IS NOT a happy song. In many Bowie songs, the lyrics seem like random words and odd concepts thrown together because they were cute or rhymed. Slow Burn has pain and emotion packed into the lyrics and the performance. Like many Bowie songs, the situations and real world equivalents tend to present themselves over and over again as the years go by. "Oh, these are the days. These are the strangest of all. These are the nights. These are the darkest to fall."
Bowie performed at the Concert For New Your City a month after the 9/11 attacks. The Who also appeared, and Bowie caught up with guitarist Pete Townshend. Pete had played on a couple of tracks from Scary Monsters in 1980 (which I referenced earlier). Bowie asked Townshend if he would work with him again on another track. Bowie later sent Slow Burn as a work in progress, and Townshend sent back his work on lead guitar. Bowie and Townshend were never in the studio together on this one, as Townshend recorded his parts in London while Bowie recorded the rest of the song in NYC. To me, the blend of sound emanating from Townshend's guitar, producer Tony Visconti's work on bass, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and Bowie's vocals just fit and work so well together on the studio version. The mix is close to perfect.
I first bumped into this song by accident. Bowie played on an episode of A&E Live By Request, which was broadcast on TV and I had tuned in. I was out of my Bowie phase but figured the show would be interesting and entertaining. My wife was at work, the kids were asleep. so I figured maybe I could relive my Bowie days. He played Slow Burn that night, as the Heathen album had just been released a few days earlier. It instantly clicked and resonated with me after the powerhouse performance. Except the band was entirely different than the one on the album. Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard on guitars, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass, old timer Mike Garson on keyboards, and by that point regular tour drummer Sterling Campbell. I heard the studio version on the radio the next day . . . and it remains the only time I have ever heard it on the radio.
What happened next with this song defies description. It was the first single released off the album Heathen and was rolled out to a few countries (including the U.S.). But from jump street, Columbia Records did not want to release the song in England. Once again, a label deciding the fate of a song without even giving it a chance. Apparently, they felt Bowie was repeating himself in terms of the sound and subject matter of the song and concluded it would never sell there.
To promote the song and the album, Bowie performed it live 7 times over promotional appearnaces on TV shows over a few weeks (including visits on Letterman, Conan, and the Today Show). Then the unthinkable happened. For whatever reason, the record label bailed. They canceled the single's release in other countries and no longer wanted to promote it. Bowie had performed it live on his first two dates of the Heathen tour . . . and then it got shelved forever. It essentially got played 9 times over a few weeks and never saw the light of day again. I linked all of them, not for any reason, but just because.
The Heathen album eclipsed 1 million copies sold, hit the Top 5 on the album charts in the U.K., and climbed to #14 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. To this day, I am flumoxed over the sudden and draconian dismissal of Slow Burn. I still listen to it regularly and think it is one of Bowie's best work. But you guys can try to convince me otherwise . . .