Breaking Glass (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Breaking Glass (song)
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"Breaking Glass"
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
Rock/Electronic
Length
3:28
Label
RCA
BOW 1
Writer(s)
David Bowie
George Murray
Dennis Davis
Producer
Tony Visconti
David Bowie singles chronology
"Beauty and the Beast"
1978
"Breaking Glass"
1978
"Boys Keep Swinging"
1979
Low track listing
"Speed of Life"
(1)
"Breaking Glass"
(2)
"What in the World"
(3)
"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¨C1996, 2002 and 2003-2004 tours.
Contents
1 Lyrics
2 Track listing
3 Production credits
4 Live versions
5 Other releases
6 References
[edit] 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.
[edit] Track listing
"Breaking Glass" (Bowie, Davis, Murray) ¨C 3:28
"Art Decade" (Bowie) ¨C 3:10
"Ziggy Stardust" (Bowie) ¨C 3:32
[edit] Production credits
Producers:
Tony Visconti
Musicians:
David Bowie: Vocals
Adrian Belew: Guitar
Carlos Alomar: Guitar
George Murray: Bass
Dennis Davis: Drums
Sean Mayes: Piano
Roger Powell: Keyboards
[edit] Live versions
A live version recorded on the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum, April 28-29th, 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
v
d
e
David Bowie singles
1960s
1964
"Liza Jane"
1965
"I Pity the Fool"
"You've Got a Habit of Leaving"
1966
"Can't Help Thinking About Me"
"Do Anything You Say"
"I Dig Everything"
"Rubber Band"
1967
"The Laughing Gnome"
"Love You till Tuesday"
1969
"Space Oddity"
"Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola"
1970s
1970
"The Prettiest Star"
"Memory of a Free Festival"
1971
"Holy Holy"
"Moonage Daydream"
"Hang On to Yourself"
1972
"Changes"
"Starman"
"John, I'm Only Dancing"
"The Jean Genie"
"Space Oddity (re-issue)"
1973
"Drive-In Saturday"
"Time"
"Life on Mars?"
"Let's Spend the Night Together"
"Sorrow"
1974
"Rebel Rebel"
"Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"
"Diamond Dogs"
"Knock on Wood"
"Rock 'n' Roll with Me"
1975
"Young Americans"
"Fame"
"Golden Years"
1976
"TVC 15"
"Suffragette City"
"Stay"
1977
"Sound and Vision"
"Be My Wife"
"Heroes"
1978
"Beauty and the Beast"
"Breaking Glass"
1979
"Boys Keep Swinging"
"DJ"
"Yassassin"
"Look Back in Anger"
"John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)"
1980s
1980
"Alabama Song"
"Crystal Japan"
"Ashes to Ashes"
"Fashion"
1981
"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"
"Up the Hill Backwards"
"Under Pressure"
"Wild Is the Wind"
"The Drowned Girl"
1982
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"
"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"
1983
"Let's Dance"
"China Girl"
"Modern Love"
"Without You"
"White Light/White Heat"
1984
"Blue Jean"
"Tonight"
1985
"This Is Not America"
"Loving the Alien"
"Dancing in the Street"
1986
"Absolute Beginners"
"Underground"
"As the World Falls Down"
"Magic Dance"
"When the Wind Blows"
1987
"Day-In Day-Out"
"Time Will Crawl"
"Never Let Me Down"
1989
"Under the God"
"Heaven's in Here"
"Tin Machine" / "Maggie's Farm (live)"
"Prisoner of Love"
1990s
1990
"Fame '90"
1991
"You Belong in Rock n' Roll"
"Baby Universal"
"One Shot"
1992
"Real Cool World"
1993
"Jump They Say"
"Black Tie White Noise"
"Miracle Goodnight"
"The Buddha of Suburbia"
1994
"Ziggy Stardust"
1995
"The Hearts Filthy Lesson"
"Strangers When We Meet" / "The Man Who Sold the World (live)"
1996
"Hallo Spaceboy"
"Telling Lies"
1997
"Little Wonder"
"Dead Man Walking"
"Seven Years in Tibet"
"Pallas Athena"
"I'm Afraid of Americans"
"I Can't Read"
1999
"Without You I'm Nothing"
"Thursday's Child"
"The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
2000s
2000
"Survive"
"Seven"
2002
"Slow Burn"
"Everyone Says 'Hi'"
"I've Been Waiting for You"
2003
"New Killer Star"
2004
"Never Get Old"
"Rebel Never Gets Old"
2006
Arnold Layne (David Gilmour version)
2010s
2011
"Golden Years - David Bowie vs KCRW"
discography
Book:David Bowie / Part 2 Singles and songs
Category:David Bowie
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breaking_Glass_(song)&oldid=465220145"
Categories:
1978 singles
David Bowie songs
1977 songs
Songs written by David Bowie
Songs produced by Tony Visconti
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This page was last modified on 11 December 2011 at 02:15.
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