All the Madmen (song)

Infobox Song
Name = All the Madmen


Artist = David Bowie
Album = The Man Who Sold the World
Released = November 4 1970 (U.S.)
April 1971 (UK)
track_no = 2
Recorded = Trident and Advision Studios, London
18 April - 22 May 1970
Genre = Hard rock
Length = 5:38
Label = Mercury Records
Writer = David Bowie
Producer = Tony Visconti
prev = "The Width of a Circle"
prev_no = 1
next = "Black Country Rock"
next_no = 3

"All the Madmen" is a song written by David Bowie in 1970 for the album "The Man Who Sold the World", released later that year in the U.S. and in April 1971 in the UK. One of a number of tracks on the album dealing with insanity, it has been described as depicting "a world so bereft of reason that the last sane men are the ones in the asylums". [Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": p.38]

Music and lyrics

The track opens with acoustic guitar and recorder, creating an atmosphere that Bowie biographer David Buckley called "childlike dementia",David Buckley (1999). "Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story": pp.99-102] before transforming into a heavy rocker featuring electric guitar by Mick Ronson, augmented by Moog synthesizer. It ends with the chant "Zane zane zane, ouvre le chien", the latter phrase literally meaning "open the dog" in French. The production also made use of varispeed vocals, which Bowie had first employed – though only for comic effect – on "The Laughing Gnome" in 1967.

Bowie has said that the song was written for and about his half brother, Terry, a schizophrenic and inmate of Cane Hill mental institution (pictured on the original U.S. cover of "The Man Who Sold the World") until his suicide in 1985.Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": p.22] The lyrics include references to lobotomy, the tranquiliser Librium and EST, or Electroshock Therapy, a controversial treatment for some types of deep depression and mental illnesses.

Release and aftermath

The second track on "The Man Who Sold the World", "All the Madmen" was released by Mercury Records in edited form as a promo single (featuring the same song on both sides) in the U.S. in December 1970, prior to Bowie's promotional tour there in early 1971. In June 1973 RCA Records, who had rereleased the song's parent album the previous year, issued "All the Madmen" as a single in Eastern Europe, backed with "Soul Love" from "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars".

Bowie performed the song live on his 1987 Glass Spider tour, though it was not included on the video release from the concerts. Along with "After All", from the same album, "All the Madmen"'s "gothic melodrama" has been cited as a significant influence on such bands as Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure and Nine Inch Nails.

Other releases

As well as its 1973 release as a single in Eastern Europe, the song appeared on the Russian compilation "Starman" in 1989.

Cover versions

* Alien Sex Fiend – "Goth Oddity - A Tribute to David Bowie". A remix called "Padded Cell mix".
* Jeannie Lewis – "Till Time Brings Change" (1980)

Notes