Black Country Rock

Infobox Song
Name = Black Country Rock


Artist = David Bowie
Album = The Man Who Sold the World
Released = November 4 1970 (U.S.)
April 1971 (UK)
track_no = 3
Recorded = Trident and Advision Studios, London
18 April - 22 May 1970
Genre = Blues-rock
Length = 3:32
Label = Mercury Records
Writer = David Bowie
Producer = Tony Visconti
prev = "All the Madmen"
prev_no = 2
next = "After All"
next_no = 4

"Black Country Rock" is a song written by David Bowie in 1970 for the album "The Man Who Sold the World", released in November 1970 in the U.S. and April 1971 in the UK. An upbeat blues-rock number, it has been described as a "respite" from the musical and thematical heaviness of the remainder of the album. [Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": pp.36-38] Its style has been compared to Marc Bolan's contemporary Tyrannosaurus Rex, down to Bowie's imitative vibrato in the final verse. [David Sheppard (2007). "Wishful Beginnings", "MOJO 60 Years of Bowie": p.27] According to producer Tony Visconti, Bowie had the music ready by the start of the sessions but the words were a last-minute addition in the studio, the singer doing his Bolan impression "spontaneously ... because he ran out of lyrics ... we all thought it was cool, so it stayed."Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": p.39]

Other releases

*B-side of the single "Holy Holy" in 1971.
*B-side of the Portuguese release of the single "Life on Mars?" in 1973.
*The Japanese compilation "Best of David Bowie" in 1974.
*The Russian compilation "Starman" in 1989.
*The "Sound and Vision" box set in 1989.

Cover versions

*T. Tex Edwards and the Swingin' Cornflake Killers - "Only Bowie" (1995) and "Up Against the Floor" (1998).

Notes