Black Tie White Noise (1993)
Black Tie White Noise is the title track from David Bowie's 1993 album of the same name. Featuring guest vocals by Al B. Sure!, it was released as a second single from the album in June 1993.[1]
Contents
Key Lyrics
We reach out over race and hold each other's hands
Then die in the flames singing "We Shall Overcome"
What's going on?
There'll be some blood no doubt about it
But we'll come thru, don't doubt it
I look into your eyes and I know you won't kill me
I look into your eyes and I know you won't kill me
You won't kill me
You won't kill me, no
But I look into your eyes and I wonder sometimes
Background
The track was inspired by Bowie's stay in Los Angeles in April 1992, when the city saw race riots in reaction to the Rodney King incident. It is the epitome of its parent album's feelings towards conformity and corporations, with Benetton and the saccharine charity single "We Are the World" among the targets. Bowie would later explain that the track was concerned with the black community's own identity, and how it didn't need to be absorbed into the white community.[2]
Reception
Reference
- ↑ Black Tie White Noise. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
- ↑ "Bowie's Wedding Album" by David Wild, Rolling Stone magazine, 21 January 1993, page 14
