Sons of the Silent Age

Song infobox
Name = Sons of the Silent Age
Artist = David Bowie
Album = "Heroes"
Released = October 14 1977
track_no = 4
Recorded = Hansa Studio by the Wall, West Berlin
July-August 1977
Genre = Krautrock
Length = 3:15
Label = RCA Records
Writer = David Bowie
Producer = David Bowie, Tony Visconti
prev = ""Heroes""
prev_no = 3
next = "Blackout"
next_no = 5

"Sons of the Silent Age" is a song written by David Bowie in 1977 for the album ""Heroes"". According to Brian Eno, it was the only song on the album composed prior to the recording sessions, all others being improvised in the Hansa by the Wall studio. Bowie himself indicated that "Sons of the Silent Ages" could at one stage have been the title for album, rather than "Heroes". [ [http://members.ol.com.au/rgriffin/GoldenYears/Heroes.html "NME" interviews (1977) cited at Bowie: Golden Years] . Retrieved 20 May 2007.]

Biographer David Buckley remarked on the song's "doomy sax-driven verses set incongruously aside cheesy choruses".David Buckley (1999). "Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story": p.321] The lyrics have been interpreted as a third-person revisitation of the themes of psychotic withdrawal explored on Bowie’s previous album "Low" ("Pacing their rooms just like a cell’s dimensions"), as well as referencing the characters from his 1970 song "The Supermen" ("They never die they just go to sleep one day").Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": p.92] Author Nicholas Pegg speculated that the line "platforms, blank looks, no books" alluded to the Nazi regime.Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": p.195]

Other releases

* It appeared in the "Sound and Vision" box set (1989)

Cover versions

* Philip Glass – "Heroes" Symphony" (1996)
* Danny Michel - "Loving the Alien: Danny Michel Sings the Songs of David Bowie" (2004)

Notes