Breaking Glass (song)
| "Breaking Glass" | ||||||||||
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| Single by David Bowie | ||||||||||
| from the album Stage | ||||||||||
| B-side |
Art Decade Ziggy Stardust | |||||||||
| Released | November 1978 | |||||||||
| Format | 7" single | |||||||||
| Recorded | Either Philadelphia 28/29 April; Providence 5 May or Boston 6 May 1978 | |||||||||
| Genre | Art rock | |||||||||
| Length |
1:52 (Low version) 3:28 (Stage version) | |||||||||
| Label |
RCA BOW 1 | |||||||||
| Writer(s) |
David Bowie George Murray Dennis Davis | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Tony Visconti | |||||||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Breaking Glass" is a song by the English singer/songwriter David Bowie. It was co-written by Bowie, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis. Originally a track on Bowie's 1977 album Low; a reworked version was a regular on the singer's 1978 tour and a live version was used as the lead track on a 7" EP to promote Bowie's second live album, Stage in 1978. The EP reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1978.
In the US, the track "Star" was chosen as the lead track for the live EP (with "What in the World" and "Breaking Glass" as B-sides), but failed to chart, while in Japan "Blackout" was released to promote Stage.
"Breaking Glass" has been performed on subsequent Bowie tours in 1978, 1983, 1995–1996, 2002 and 2003-2004 tours.
Lyrics
The original song was uncompromising even by Low's standards. The fractured lyric is, like several songs written during Bowie's stay in Berlin, introspective of his dark, drug-filled period living in America in 1975-1976. Its lyrics, when written out, look potentially more like a paragraph than a song, and when separated into phrases, the song has a disjointed feeling. The song is also curiously short, not spanning two minutes and only going through one verse.
The lines "Don't look at the carpet; I drew something awful on it" refer to Bowie's practice of drawing the Tree of Life on the floor during that period, as he was interested in Aleister Crowley and Qabbala at the time.
Track listing
- "Breaking Glass" (Bowie, Davis, Murray) – 3:28
- "Art Decade" (Bowie) – 3:10
- "Ziggy Stardust" (Bowie) – 3:32
Production credits
- Producers:
- Musicians:
- David Bowie: Vocals
- Carlos Alomar: Guitar
- George Murray: Bass
- Dennis Davis: Drums
- Ricky Gardener: Rhythm Guitar
- Brian Eno: Mini Moog
Live versions
- A live version recorded on the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum, 28–29 April 1978, was released on the live album Stage and on the above mentioned single. This live version was also released as the B-side of the single "Star" in 1978.
Other releases
- It appeared on the following compilations:
- Chameleon (Holland 1979)
- Best of Bowie (1980)
- Sound and Vision box set (1989)
- The Best of 1974/1979 (1998)
- It was released as a picture disc in the RCA Life Time picture disc set.
References
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
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