bowie heathen tour

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‘Heathen’: How David Bowie “Arrived At Being Instead Of Becoming”

David Bowie’s first album of the 21st century, ‘Heathen’ found the rock god on rare form and inspired by his surroundings.

With Heathen , David Bowie ’s 22nd studio album, released in the summer of 2002, there was a sense that, after decades of shape-shifting and agenda-setting, the mercurial musician had finally settled into his skin, resulting in a self-assured, quietly experimental set of mature rock songs.

Bowie confirmed as much in an interview with The Observer . “I feel like exactly what I am, which is 55 going on 56, and it seems to be a pretty cool age to be,” he said. “I’ve experienced a lot and have a sense of who I am that maybe I didn’t have a few years ago… It’s been a kind of cyclical, almost elliptical, journey at times but I feel like I’ve finally arrived at being instead of becoming… I recognise life and most of its experiences, and I’m quite comfortable with the idea of the finality of it. But it doesn’t stop me trying to continually resolve it: resolve my questions about it.”

Listen to Heathen here .

“there will be some huge challenges”.

There had definitely been a shifting of priorities in the period leading up to Heathen ’s release. In August 2000, Bowie had become a father for the second time, and caring for his infant daughter became his main focus in the early part of the 2000s . He’d also spent some time looking back at his career while working on Toy, a collection of re-recordings of some of his earliest material with producer Tony Visconti , his right-hand man during his 70s purple patch.

The album never saw the light of day, but the sessions rekindled Bowie and Visconti’s working relationship while also giving rise to three new songs – Slip Away (then called Uncle Floyd), Afraid and Your Turn To Drive, providing the creative spark for Heathen .

Bowie clearly relished working with his old producer, as he revealed in a BowieNet webchat on 16 August 2000, ahead of the Heathen sessions: “What Tony and I always found to be one of our major strengths is the ability to free each other up from getting into a rut. So no doubt there will be some huge challenges, but also some pretty joyous occasions. In short, really looking forward to this.”

“I was literally crying when I was writing”

After demo sessions held across Visconti’s home studio and Looking Glass Studios in Manhattan, New York City, in the summer of 2001, Bowie and Visconti were ready to begin Heathen in earnest. Following a recommendation from guitarist David Torn ( Madonna , k.d. lang , Tori Amos ), the pair settled on Allaire Studios, a new complex nestled among the mountains of upstate New York.

The beauty and remoteness of the location made a big impression on Bowie, as he told Interview magazine in June 2002. “It’s stark, and it has a Spartan quality about it. In this instance, the retreat atmosphere honed my thoughts… I don’t know what happened up there, but something clicked for me as a writer. I’ve written in the mountains before, but never with such gravitas.” He elaborated on this with The Daily Beast, revealing, “I’m in there working at six in the morning, just playing the synthesiser, the piano, and working on what we’re going to do that day – and I’m looking out at the deer and I don’t believe this is happening to me, the serenity and the majesty of it. How beautiful the world is… I reflected with such intensity and it came over me like a wave. It really did. Some mornings I was literally crying when I was writing a song.”

“We had a great day, a much-needed day”

A routine emerged, with Visconti and drummer Matt Chamberlain (Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, Randy Newman) joining Bowie in the studio mid-morning to work on the material. They recorded 19 backing tracks in two weeks, before additional musicians were drafted in to flesh out the songs, among them David Torn, Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess and The Scorchio Quartet.

Towards the end of the Allaire sessions, however, the events of 9/11 shocked the world and Heathen went on hold. Writing on his blog, Visconti reflected on how returning to work became a healing process for all involved: “After a few days we called for The Scorchio Quartet to see if they felt like recording. We had very little left to do. Of course, it was the best thing to do, to try doing something to make life seem normal again. They braved all the checkpoints out of the city, crammed into violist Martha Mooke’s car and arrived a little shaken but anxious to make music.”

Visconti had already written scores for the orchestra, and he and Bowie asked the string players to play through guitar amps. “It all worked so well,” Visconti recalled. “We had a great day, a much-needed day.” By 15 September, everyone “packed up and went back to our respective homes, to take a break” before reconvening at Looking Glass Studios for overdubs, where another old 70s cohort, Earl Slick – who had appeared on the Young Americans and Station To Station albums – recorded parts for Everyone Says ‘Hi’. More guest turns came from Dave Grohl (helping to turn Neil Young ’s I’ve Been Waiting For You into a doomy glam stomper) and Pete Townshend (delivering a coruscating solo on Slow Burn).

“I’ve used a thematic device since the 60s”

The end result was one of Bowie’s most rewarding late-period albums. The stark beauty of Allaire informed both the slow-moving, Scott Walker-like opener, Sunday, and the majestic closing track, Heathen (The Rays), but – perhaps inevitably – the album’s lyrics were taken by many to be about 9/11. Bowie later refuted this, claiming they’d been written before the terrorist attacks; though he admitted they seemed uncannily prescient in the aftermath, he pointed out that much of Heathen dealt with subject matter he’d been wrestling with his entire career. “I always write about the same things. I just approach them differently each time, I think,” he told Interview .

“The subject matter is… I’ve got a thematic device, really, that I’ve used ever since the 60s, which is basically the isolation of the human and how he stands in relationship to his universe, and how he struggles to find some connection with that,” Bowie continued. This is borne out on the grandiose gloom of Slip Away, Slow Burn, I Would Be Your Slave and 5:15 The Angels Have Gone.

“I’m on top of my game at the moment”

There were also signs that fatherhood had impacted on his writing – not least on one of Heathen ’s stand-outs, the breezy motorik-pop of A Better Future, on which he petitions a nameless higher power for a world without “pain and sorrow”, asking for “sunny smiles” for his children. His way with a cover version hadn’t deserted him, either. Heathen finds Bowie enjoying himself on a suitably spiky version of Pixies’ Cactus while giving The Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship the souped-up Earthling treatment.

Confirming that Bowie was on great form, Heathen reached No.5 in the UK and No.14 in the US, earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and launched a successful world tour. “All you can do as an artist is do what you can at the time that you’re doing it,” he told Interview . “With Heathen I just feel… I’m pretty much on top of my game at the moment. I think the work that I’m writing at the moment is exceptionally good, and I’m hoping that I’m going to continue like this, in which case I’m going to have an exciting future.”

Find out where Heathen ranks in our run-down of all 28 David Bowie album covers.

• David Bowie
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Heathen Tour

The David Bowie Heathen Tour (36 Shows) was a 2002 concert tour in support of the album, Heathen, and was also notable for the performances of all songs from the 1977 Low album.

Tour by David Bowie Start date 11 June 2002 End date 23 October 2002 Legs 4 Shows 36

The Tour band • David Bowie – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica • Earl Slick  – lead guitar • Mark Plati  – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals • Gail Ann Dorsey – bass guitar, rhythm guitar, clarinet, vocals • Sterling Campbell  – drums, percussion • Mike Garson  – keyboards, piano • Catherine Russell  – keyboards percussion backing vocals

Date – City – Country – Venue

Warm-up show 11 June 2002 New York City, New York ,US ,Roseland Ballroom

Europe 29 June 2002 London,UK,Royal Festival Hall – Meltdown Festival 1 July 2002 Paris,France,Paris Olympia 3 July 2002 Kristiansand,Norway,Quart Festival 5 July 2002 Horsens,Denmark,Horsens Ny Teater 7 July 2002 Ostend,Belgium,Seat Beach Rock Festival –  Hippodrome Wellington 10 July 2002 Manchester,UK,Move Festival –   Old Trafford Cricket Ground 12 July 2002 Cologne,Germany,E-Werk Festival 14 July 2002 Nîmes,France,Les Arenes de Nîmes 15 July 2002 Lucca,Italy,Summer Festival 18 July 2002 Montreux,Switzerland,Auditorium Stravinski

North America Festivals 28 July 2002 Bristow, Virginia,United States,Nissan Pavilion 30 July 2002 Camden, New Jersey,Tweeter Center at the Waterfront 31 July 2002 Holmdel, New Jersey,PNC Bank Arts Center 02 august 2002 Wantagh, NY,Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theater 03 august 2002 Mansfield, Massachusetts,Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts 05 august 2002 Toronto, Ontario,Canada,Molson Amphitheater 06 august 2002 Detroit, Michigan ,US ,DTE Energy Music Center 08 august 2002 Tinley Park, Illinois,Tweeter Center 10 august 2002 Denver, Colorado,Pepsi Center 13 august 2002 Irvine, California,Verizon Wireless Amphitheater 14 august 2002 Mountain View, California,Shoreline Amphitheatre 16 august 2002 George, Washington,The Gorge Amphitheatre

Europe 22 september 2002 Berlin ,Germany ,Max-Schmeling-Halle 24 september 2002 Paris ,France ,Le Zénith 25 september 2002 Paris ,France ,Le Zenith 27 september 2002 Bonn,Germany,Museumsmeile 29 september 2002 Munich ,Germany Olympiahalle 02 October 2002 London ,England ,Carling Apollo Hammersmith

North America 11 October 2002 Staten Island, NY,The Music Hall at Snug Harbour 12 October 2002 Brooklyn, New York,St. Anne’s Warehouse 16 October 2002 Queens, NY,Colden Center at Queens College 17 October 2002 The Bronx, New York,Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe 20 October 2002 Manhattan, New York,Beacon Theater 21 October 2002 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,Tower Theater 23 October 2002 Boston, Massachusetts,Orpheum Theatre

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Is there a DVD for the Berlin concert? September 22 3002.

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David Bowie live in Berlin in 2002

Selected tracks from the Berlin leg of the Heathen tour, recorded at Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin, Germany on 22 September 2002.

Track Listing

• 03:24 – Slip Away
• 10:19 – I’m Afraid Of Americans
• 15:50 – 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
• 21:16 – I’m Waiting For You
• 26:40 – “Heroes”
• 32:44 – Heathen
• 39:15 – Rebel, Rebel
• 43:10 – Survive
• 48:14 – Alabama Song
• 52:28 – Afraid
• 56:24 – Everyone Says ‘Hi’
• 1:00:01 – Hallo Spaceboy
• David Bowie's Songs Young Americans
• David Bowie's Songs Wild Is The Wind
• David Bowie's Songs Ashes To Ashes
• David Bowie News David Bowie photographed by Stefan Almers
• David Bowie News The story behind Lodger’s cover artwork
• David Bowie's Songs Absolute Beginners
• David Bowie Interviews When Bowie met Warhol, as told by Tony Zanetta
• David Bowie Films Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
• David Bowie Performances David Bowie live in Berlin in 2002
• David Bowie's Songs Boys Keep Swinging

Mike Garson performs Aladdin Sane

Cracked Actor album gets full release

Two new David Bowie picture discs to be released

The HD Projects: Volume 1 with Sterling Campbell

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• September 22, 2002 Setlist

David Bowie Setlist at Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin, Germany

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• Life on Mars? Play Video
• Ashes to Ashes Play Video
• Cactus ( Pixies  cover) Play Video
• Look Back in Anger Play Video
• China Girl ( Iggy Pop  cover) Play Video
• Slip Away Play Video
• Fame Play Video
• I'm Afraid of Americans Play Video
• 5:15 The Angels Have Gone Play Video
• I've Been Waiting for You ( Neil Young  cover) Play Video
• "Heroes" Play Video
• Heathen (The Rays) Play Video
• 'Low' album almost in its entirety but out of order
• Warszawa Play Video
• Speed of Life Play Video
• Breaking Glass Play Video
• What in the World Play Video
• Sound and Vision Play Video
• Art Decade Play Video
• Always Crashing in the Same Car Play Video
• Be My Wife Play Video
• A New Career in a New Town Play Video
• Subterraneans Play Video
• Rebel Rebel Play Video
• Moonage Daydream Play Video
• Survive Play Video
• Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) ( Kurt Weill  cover) Play Video
• Afraid Play Video
• Everyone Says 'Hi' Play Video
• Hallo Spaceboy Play Video
• Let's Dance Play Video
• Ziggy Stardust Play Video

Edits and Comments

26 activities (last edit by petefloyd , 26 Jan 2021, 06:15 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• A New Career in a New Town
• Always Crashing in the Same Car
• Breaking Glass
• Sound and Vision
• Speed of Life
• Subterraneans
• What in the World
• 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
• Everyone Says 'Hi'
• Heathen (The Rays)
• Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) by Kurt Weill
• Cactus by Pixies
• China Girl by Iggy Pop
• I've Been Waiting for You by Neil Young
• Moonage Daydream
• Ziggy Stardust
• "Heroes"
• Hallo Spaceboy
• Rebel Rebel
• I'm Afraid of Americans
• Life on Mars?
• Let's Dance
• Look Back in Anger
• Ashes to Ashes

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David bowie gig timeline.

• Sep 18 2002 Maida Vale Studios London, England Add time Add time
• Sep 21 2002 BBC Radio 1 Studios London, England Add time Add time
• Sep 22 2002 Max-Schmeling-Halle This Setlist Berlin, Germany Add time Add time
• Sep 22 2002 Unknown Venue Paris, France Add time Add time
• Sep 24 2002 Le Zénith Paris, France Add time Add time
• Sep 25 2002 Le Zénith Paris, France Add time Add time

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Why a Memphis artist is creating a 10-foot-tall David Bowie statue to put in Overton Park

Deep within a Memphis studio and gallery, beneath a large suspended globe of the moon, artist Mike McCarthy's lifelong rock 'n' roll obsessions, his extravagant creative impulses and his never-say-die resolve have coalesced as a striking physical presence: a 10-foot-tall statue of David Bowie, constructed (so far) out of steel, spray foam, housing insulation, poster board, pool noodles and papier-mâché.

"It makes a wonderful 'Moonage Daydream' setting," said McCarthy, linking the hovering moon to the title of the third track on Bowie's landmark 1972 album, "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," which introduced the rock star-as-extraterrestrial persona that remained the British singer's most indelible alter ego until the time of his death, 44 years later, in 2016.

" Freak out in a moonage daydream, yeah ," Bowie sang. McCarthy, 61, hopes to bring the freak-out to Memphis in a very public and — eventually — tourism-boosting way.

First, he is hosting a "Glam Rock Picnic" from noon-5 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at Off the Wall Arts at 360 Walnut St., where the statue is under construction.

Because of the heat, the event mostly will be indoors, making it "a picnic of the mind," McCarthy said. But it also will be a picnic of the hands: Attendees will be given hunks of clay to add to the oversized and under-construction Bowie, which ultimately — McCarthy hopes — will be cast in bronze and topped with four motorized and rotating Bowie faces: an "Aladdin Sane Weather Vane," representing four of the singer's stage personae, including Ziggy Stardust; Aladdin Sane, from the 1973 album of the same name; the piratically eye-patched Halloween Jack, introduced during the 1974 "Diamond Dogs" tour; and "Tokyo Pop," named for the iconic vinyl outfit that is the statue's chief inspiration.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Second and more important, McCarthy wants to place the statue in Overton Park, to commemorate the day — Feb. 26, 1973 — when Bowie brought his "screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo" (to quote another "Ziggy Stardust" lyric) to the park's Memphis Academy of Art (later known as the Memphis College of Art), at the invitation of teacher and artist Dolph Smith.

"What is there about Memphis that affected Bowie?" McCarthy asked.

As the so-called birthplace of rock 'n' roll and the home of the blues and of Elvis (who shared his Jan. 8 birthday with Bowie), "Memphis was an inter-generational hub that influenced artists all over the world," he answered. "I think we still have that."

'Outrageously cool'

The statue, McCarthy said, is an argument against “Memphis negativity." It's "an outrageously cool thing to show off a moment of time and space — outer space — when Bowie was really at the zenith of his career. It's a moment in our history, even if it's just the time a space alien visited a school the day after he played a concert in Ellis Auditorium, wearing crazy Japanese clothes."

Of course, however influenced by Sun and Stax, Bowie wasn't a Memphis artist per se (but "what is glam rock but outer-space rockabilly?" McCarthy asked). Nevertheless, McCarthy thinks the statue could spur the launch of a Memphis music trail of sculptures honoring significant artists. "A statue is more profound than a historical marker," he said.

The city already boasts Downtown statues of Elvis, Little Milton, Bobby "Blue" Bland and W.C. Handy; McCarthy boosted the statue population himself in 2019, when he turned the Man in Black into a Man in Bronze, unveiling his lifesize sculpture of Johnny Cash outside Galloway United Methodist Church in Cooper-Young, where the future country superstar and his band, the "Tennessee Two," played their first public concert in 1954.

The statue was erected with the assistance of several organizations (including the Cooper-Young Business Association), and McCarthy hopes similar coalitions could help him dot the city with sculptures of Aretha Franklin, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas and others.

Such an effort would be in the future. For now, McCarthy and his small army of collaborators — "I call them 'The Spiders from Memphis,'" he said, inevitably — are working to turn the artist's quixotic vision into a startling reality.

A designer, artist, comic-book creator, music video director and filmmaker, McCarthy has devoted his remuneratively dubious not-quite-a-career to turning lifelong passions into public spectacles. He is best-known for his several decades worth of low-cost Memphis-made feature films , including "Teenage Tupelo," "The Sore Losers" and "Damselvis, Daughter of Helvis," to name a few.

Readymade cult films, these idiosyncratic movies expose McCarthy's obsessions with Elvis, Bowie, punk rock, horror comics, nudie pinups and other pop-culture tremors. His statues intersect with these themes in a way that is more easily accessible to mainstream audiences. Tourists take selfies with the Cash sculpture, and they certainly would pose with Bowie, too.

MEMPHIS MUSIC: From Elvis to B.B. King, take a Memphis music history tour with stops at these statues

Like Bowie's music, which merged the basic rhythms of rock 'n' roll with intellectual and cerebral concepts borrowed from science fiction and the avant-garde, McCarthy's Bowie statue mixes simple, old-school techniques (papier-mâché) with high-tech innovation (a 3D printer).

Long fascinated with Bowie's College of Art visit (McCarthy taught a Bowie-inspired film class at the college in 2008), McCarthy began plotting his Bowie sculpture in earnest many months ago.

The statue is based on the futuristic "Tokyo Pop" bodysuit created for the singer in 1973 for the "Aladdin Sane" tour by Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto (who died in 2020). The striped suit is notable for pantlegs that billow out like half-moons.

First, McCarthy sculpted a tabletop model of the statue in clay, with a four-faced, weather vane-style head, to suggest the shifting nature of Bowie's musical identities.

To expand this model into a larger-than-life sculpture required a strong foundation. Geordan Lugar, of the Lugar Bronze Foundry in Arlington, which cast the bronze Cash statue, and Memphis artist Yvonne Bobo, who specializes in large-scale metal sculptures, fashioned an A-shaped frame, metal arm rods and other pieces for the Bowie interior. In addition, Bobo engineered the weather vane mechanism. (Bobo owns Off the Wall Arts, and is letting McCarthy use space within her warehouse-like studio/gallery for his project. "We try to be an incubator for artists," she said, noting that Christopher Reyes' first "exploratorium " was at the gallery.)

Next, spray foam, housing insulation and swimming pool flotation toys (mostly, "noodles") were added to the simple steel skeleton, to make up the bulk of the Bowie anatomy. In a painstaking "wallpapering" process, these materials are wrapped in poster board and covered with papier-mâché by such volunteer artists as Kasey Dees and Drew Whitmire. "The papier-mâché layer becomes, in essence, the skin," said artist Jana Wilson, another active contributor, who often found herself perched atop a ladder, to reach the Bowie shoulders and chest.

Meanwhile, artist Terance Brown, used his 3D printer to "print" a copy of Bowie's actual face, as taken from a life mask of the singer that was cast by the makeup effects crew working on Bowie's 1976 film, "The Man Who Fell to Earth."

Enlarged by the 3D printer from 7 inches to 18 inches to match the monumental scale of the sculpture, the Bowie facial replica was employed by artist Colleen Couch as the basis for her own contributions to the statue: the four Bowie faces of the weather vane, each in handmade cotton-based paper, created on machines originally owned by her ex-father-in-law, Dolph Smith (now 90, and a possible "picnic" attendee, if his health allows).

"It's kind of like a relay," said Brown, 52, referring to the way the artists involved in the project handed off various duties to each other.

Sunday, "Glam Rock Picnic" attendees will become part of the relay, adding clay (600 pounds will be needed) to the big Golem of a Bowie, which McCarthy ultimately will sculpt into a semi-realistic if stylized likeness of the singer. Eventually, molds of the sculpture will be made, so that the likeness can be cast in bronze at the Foundry, and then transported to its permanent home, wherever that may be. (The Memphis College of Art closed in 2020; the building currently is being renovated to be the new home of the Metal Museum. Officials there said they could not comment at this time on the statue.)

McCarthy estimates the cost of the Bowie bronze will be close to $40,000. Patrons such as longtime investment expert Frank Smith and his wife, Linda, are contributing to the effort, but McCarthy will need to raise more funds and find more sponsors before the statue can be completed.

"It's classic Mike McCarthy," said Couch, 47. "He never does anything simple or by the book."

Nevertheless, McCarthy's collaborators said they won't be surprised if the Bowie statue finds an appropriate home.

“Mike has this sort of great vision, he finds the connections between everything,” said Bobo, 53, who noted that Bowie “happens to be the only famous person I’ve ever met and talked to.” (It was in 1990, when she visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. “There was David Bowie, in the medieval section. I was an art major. We talked about egg tempera.")

Couch suggested that working with McCarthy is enough to make one's head spin, even when one's face isn't attached to a motorized weather vane.

"It's just this renegade effort, to bring these wild ideas that are in his head into the world," she said. "It's fascinating to watch, but it's even more fascinating and fun to be a part of it."

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'Glam Rock Picnic'

A fundraiser and "sculpture party" to support artist Mike McCarthy's "Aladdin Sane Weather Vane" statue.

Noon-5 p.m. Sunday, June 30, Off the Wall Arts, 360 Walnut St.

Admission: $10. Kids 12 and under admitted free.

Each attendee will be provided with clay to add to the still-under-construction 10-foot David Bowie statue.

"Art market" with vendors selling rock 'n' roll merchandise; face-painting by The Prettiest Star; Eat at Eric's food truck; "Bowie bar" beverages; music by DJ Kitschy Kat, plus live music by Timothy Prudhomme and other artists.

• David Bowie songs

Released: 10 June 2002

Available on: Heathen A Reality Tour

‘Sunday’ is the opening song on David Bowie’s Heathen album.

Strangely enough, you don’t always write what you want to write. ‘Sunday’ and ‘Heathen’ were two pieces I didn’t want to write, but this place was just dragging the lyrics out of me. I would get up very early in the morning, about six, and work in the studio before anybody else got there, assembling what I wanted to do as that day’s work. And often the lyrics would come as I was sort of putting the music together. It was absolutely terrific. And the words to ‘Sunday’ were tumbling out, the song came out almost written as I was playing it through, and there were two deer grazing down in the grounds below and there was a car passing very slowly on the other side of the reservoir. This was very early in the morning, and there was something so still and primal about what I was looking at outside that there were tears just running down my face as I was writing this thing. It was just extraordinary.

The atmospheric ‘Sunday’ was built up from layers of sound in the studio by Bowie, producer Tony Visconti and the other musicians.

‘Sunday’ is absolutely stunning. It took a long time to make and every time we added a layer of sound from either us or a visiting musician, the song grew to be more and more of an emotional experience. I think Heathen was a very spiritual album. David wrote some great lyrics, wore his heart on his sleeve for that album. This is all my assumption. He rarely “explains” his lyrics to me. But I have to make something of them so I can help to create his musical settings. Sometimes he would specifically tell me his meaning, to keep the recording focussed.

Visconti joined Bowie for recording the vocals. On tracks such as ‘Sunday’ and ‘I Would Be Your Slave’ , the producer revived the microphone technique he had deployed on “Heroes” in Berlin in 1977.

Recording his vocals was a joy. I set up the “Heroes” mic technique, capturing David’s vocals from three microphones that only switch on when he sings loud enough. As Allaire has a very big room, the reverberation was wonderful! Soon after a lead vocal was completed (usually just two takes) David would often want to sing his back ups with me immediately afterwards. One of my passions is singing in a counter-tenor voice, or falsetto. My name, when I sing falsetto, is Shirley, because I copied the voice of Shirley in Shirley and Lee (‘Let The Good Times Roll’). On ‘Sunday’ I got to sing in my newly acquired throat singing technique. That buzzy synth sound in the instrumental passage is actually me singing overtones.

The producer also praised David Torn’s glitchy guitar work on the song.

Torn is one of the most versatile guitarists I’ve ever worked with. His rig is scary; he’s got gadgets plugged into gadgets plugged into more gadgets! His guitars are all hot rods! He has recorded entire film scores with his guitar work. We recorded more than enough of his playing and then spent many days and nights editing the best bits. Torn took some of his recorded files home and did more magic to his loop stuff with his computer rig, the guitar sounds on ‘Sunday’ in particular.

The apocalyptic lyrics, which mention fear, fire, rising up through clouds, and the repeated refrain “everything has changed”, led some to speculate that the song was inspired by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Not so, according to Visconti, who said “only a few lines [on Heathen ] were amended after September 11.”

The release

In addition to the standard 12-song album, Heathen was initially also released as a two-CD digipak set, with a bonus disc containing four tracks: remixes of ‘Sunday’ and ‘A Better Future’ by Moby and Air respectively; the Toy version of the 1969 song ‘Conversation Piece’ ; and a 1979 studio re-recording of ‘Panic In Detroit’ .

‘Sunday’ (Tony Visconti Mix) was also included on one of the European CD singles of ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” , as well as the Canadian ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ single.

The real heavy hitters on that album, like ‘Sunday’ and the track ‘Heathen’, marked a new departure in his writing. It was super-deep, very complex, very lyrical, almost like prose or something. It was very evocative. I thought it was really powerful. I loved that side of David. I love the hit songs, but I love it when he gets super deep and takes us on more of a journey. I love the record. I thought it was very moody and somewhat introspective but thoughtful. ‘Heathen’ and ‘Sunday’ were real operatic kind of works. It was very strong.

Live performances

David Bowie performed ‘Sunday’ throughout the Heathen Tour in 2002. Its first outing was on the tour’s opening night, at New York’s Roseland Ballroom on 11 June.

On 18 September 2002 Bowie performed a set at London’s Maida Vale Studios for BBC radio. ‘Sunday’ was the opening song in the set, which was first broadcast on 5 October.

The song was also frequently performed during A Reality Tour in 2003-4. A live recording from Dublin can be heard on A Reality Tour and seen on the DVD of the same name.

Bowie’s final performance of ‘Sunday’ took place on 30 May 2004 at the Borgata Events Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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