Suffragette City

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Suffragette City”
“Suffragette City” cover
Single by David Bowie
from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
B-side “Stay”
Released 9 July 1976
Format 7" single
Recorded Trident Studios, London, January 1972
Genre Glam rock
Length 3:25
Label RCA Records
2726
Producer David Bowie, Ken Scott
David Bowie singles chronology
“TVC 15”
1976		 “Suffragette City”
1976		 “Sound and Vision”
1977
Alternate cover
Alternate cover

“Suffragette City” is a single by David Bowie.

Originally recorded towards the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions, “Suffragette City” is a trademark piece of early 1970s Bowie glam, with a piano riff heavily influenced by Little Richard, a lyrical reference to A Clockwork Orange (the word “droogie”) and the sing-a-long hook "Wham bam thank you ma'am!” the song had become a fixture of Bowie’s live shows, and one of his best known album cuts.

The song is about how a man would rather have sexual encounters with women than help his friends. The word "suffragette" is often seen as a pejorative term from its origins in the early twentieth century, separate from the more positive, all-encompassing term “suffragist”. In the song, this usage could reflect the narrator's attitudes towards women as purely sexual and without any other significant value.

In 1976, it was issued as a single to promote the ChangesOneBowie compilation in the UK, with the US single edit of “Stay” on the B-side. The single failed to chart.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. “Suffragette City” (Bowie) – 3:25
  2. “Stay” (Bowie) – 3:21

[edit] Production credits

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

  • Before recording it himself, Bowie offered it to the band Mott the Hoople if they would forego their plan of breaking up. The group refused, but recorded Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" instead.
  • British indie band Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine sampled the line "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!" in their song "Surfin' USM".
  • It is featured as one of the staple songs in the video game "Rock Band" and was also used in one of the trailers for the game.
  • Steve Marriott originally sung "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!" in The Small Faces' song "Wham Bam Thank You Mam" in the 60s and throughout his career
  • The song was the background for the closing credits on Ben Stillers 2007 movie The Heartbreak Kid.
  • The song is one of the featured theme songs in the video game, Driver: Parallel Lines.
  • The song was played on Rock Star: Supernova By Storm Large with Dave Navarro on guitar
  • In the Sandman graphic novel Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman, "Suffragette City" is the name of a strip club that is destroyed by the goddess Ishtar as a demonstration of the true power of sex and lust.
  • The song was used as background music in the trailer for the film The Long Kiss Goodnight.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Bowie's own style of saxophone playing couldn't produce the raunchy effect he wanted for the song, so an ARP synthesizer was used instead, imitating a saxophone sound.[citation needed]
  • Although there is a distinct break between the two songs, "Suffragette City" often receives airplay paired with "Ziggy Stardust", the song immediately preceding it on the album.[citation needed]
  • The full list of chords for Suffragette City is--not in this order--A, B, C, D, E, F and G--all major and all natural.
  • "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" was a song by jazz artist Charles Mingus on his 61' LP "Oh Yeah"

[edit] Other releases

[edit] Live versions

  • Bowie recorded the song for the BBC radio program "Sounds of the 70s: John Peel", and this was broadcast May 23rd, 1972. In 2000 this recording was released on the Bowie at the Beeb album.
  • A live version recorded at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 20 October 1972 was released on Santa Monica '72.
  • The version played at the famous concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, July 3 1973 was released on Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture.
  • A recording from the 1974 tour was released on David Live. This version was also released in the Sound and Vision box set. Another live recording from the 1974 tour was released on the semi-legal A Portrait in Flesh.

[edit] Cover versions

[edit] References

  • Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
v • d • e
David Bowie
Studio albums
With Tin Machine
Live albums
Soundtracks
Compilations
Concert videos
Promotional films
and compilations
Tours
Related articles