Look Back in Anger (song)

"Look Back in Anger"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Lodger
Released	20 August 1979 (US)
Format	7" single
Recorded	Mountain Studios, Montreux, September 1978; The Record Plant, New York City, March 1979
Genre	Rock
Length	3:08
Label	RCA Records PB 11724 (US)
Producer(s)	David Bowie Tony Visconti
David Bowie singles chronology
"Yassassin" (1979) "Look Back in Anger" (1979) "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)" (1979)
Lodger track listing "DJ" (6) "Look Back in Anger" (7) "Boys Keep Swinging" (8)

"Look Back in Anger" is a song written by David Bowie and Brian Eno for the album Lodger (1979). It concerns "a tatty 'Angel of Death'",^[1] and features a guitar solo by Carlos Alomar.

RCA Records was unsure if America was ready for the sexual androgyny of "Boys Keep Swinging",^[2] the lead-off single from Lodger in most territories, and "Look Back in Anger" was issued instead.^[3] The B-side was another track from Lodger called "Repetition", a story of domestic violence. The single failed to chart.

"Look Back in Anger" has a mixed reputation among Bowie commentators. NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have described it as "probably the low point" of the album,^[1] while Nicholas Pegg considers it "one of Lodger's dramatic highlights".^[3]

Beyond the shared title, the song has nothing to do with the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger.

Bowie performed the song on his 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour (it is the opening number on the Serious Moonlight film) and reworked it in the mid-1990s as a heavy rock song for the Outside and Earthling tours.

Track listing

1. "Look Back in Anger" (David Bowie, Brian Eno) – 3:08
2. "Repetition" (Bowie) – 2:59

Production credits

• Producers:
  • Tony Visconti
  • David Bowie
• Musicians:
  • David Bowie: Vocals, Guitar
  • Dennis Davis: Drums
  • George Murray: Bass
  • Carlos Alomar: Guitar
  • Sean Mayes: Piano
  • Brian Eno: Synthesizer, Horse trumpet, Eroica horn
  • Tony Visconti: Backing vocals

Music video

David Mallet directed a music video for the song, featuring Bowie in an artist's studio. The scenario was based on the conclusion of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, as a self-portrait of the protagonist grows more handsome while he himself physically decays.^[4]

Other releases

• It appeared on the following compilations:
  • Chameleon (Australia/New Zealand 1979)
  • Christiane F. soundtrack (1981)
  • Golden Years (1983)
  • Sound + Vision (1989)
  • The Singles Collection (1993)
  • The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 (1998)
  • The Platinum Collection (2005/2006)
• In 1988 Bowie recorded a "new, brutal version of the song" with Reeves Gabrels on guitar and Erdal Kizilcay on bass and drums; it was the first arrangement Bowie and Gabrels collaborated on, taking place shortly before the formation of the band Tin Machine.^[5] The recording was issued as a bonus track on the Rykodisc CD release of Lodger in 1991.

Cover versions

• Kaligare - .2 Contamination: A Tribute to David Bowie (2006)
• Swans of Avon - The Dark Side of David Bowie: A Tribute to David Bowie (1997)
• Tender Fury - Thoughts of Yesterday (1992)

Notes

1. Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.106
2. Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.43
3. Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.131
4. David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.355
5. David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.449-450

External links