Sense of Doubt

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“Sense of Doubt”
Song by David Bowie
Album "Heroes"
Released October 14, 1977
Recorded Hansa Studio by the Wall, West Berlin
July-August 1977
Genre Electronic, Ambient
Length 3:57
Label RCA Records
Writer David Bowie
Producer David Bowie, Tony Visconti
"Heroes" track listing
"V-2 Schneider"
(6)
Sense of Doubt
(7)
"Moss Garden"
(8)


"Sense of Doubt" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie in 1977 for the album "Heroes". It was the first of three instrumentals on Side Two of the original vinyl album that segued into one another, preceding "Moss Garden" and "Neuköln".

Cited as "portentous" and "thoroughly foreboding",[1][2] "Sense of Doubt" is one of the darker tracks of the album, with a descending four-note piano motif juxtaposed with "an eerie synth line like a scrap of sound from a silent expressionist-era soundtrack".[1] Brian Eno suggested that the contrasting themes were the result of he and Bowie each following an Oblique Strategies card to guide them in the track's overdubbing, Eno's directing him to "make everything as similar as possible" and Bowie's to "emphasize differences".[3]

"Sense of Doubt" was performed on the Italian TV programme L’Altra Domenica in 1977 and throughout the "Heroes" tour in 1978.[4]

Contents

[edit] Live versions

  • A version recorded on the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum in April 1978 was released on the live album Stage.

[edit] Other releases

[edit] Cover versions

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.324
  2. ^ a b Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.92-94
  3. ^ NME interview (1977) cited at Bowie: Golden Years. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
  4. ^ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.183