"Seven Years in Tibet" is a song and

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

by English musician

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

and

Reeves Gabrels Reeves Gabrels (born June 4, 1956) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. A member and guitarist of British band the Cure since 2012, Gabrels worked with David Bowie from 1987 to 1999, and was a member of the band Tin Machine. ...

from the 1997 album, '' Earthling''. In some territories, a version of the song sung by Bowie in Mandarin Chinese was released as "A Fleeting Moment".

Song development

"Seven Years in Tibet" was recorded between August and November 1996 during the ''Earthling'' studio sessions. It started out as a

instrumental called "Brussels", which Bowie was not impressed with, but eventually Gabrels convinced Bowie to keep. The song's working title was "Biscuit Lady" and its opening lines were from a hoax Internet article in which a woman, wounded by an exploding biscuit container, thinks the biscuit dough on her head are her brains leaking out of her skull. Eventually, the song became a song about a "young Tibetan monk who's just been shot" after Bowie read some of the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

's lectures. Bowie chose the name of the song after reading the book ''

Seven Years in Tibet ''Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During and After'' (1952; german: Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama; 1954 in English) is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer and Nazi SS sergeant Heinrich ...

'' (1952), and, although a movie of the same name that was also based on the book was also released in 1997, it had no relation to Bowie's song. Bowie recorded a version of the song sung in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

, with lyrics translated by

Lin Xi Albert Leung (born 7 December 1961, ) is a lyricist and writer based in Hong Kong. Education Leung attended all-boy secondary schools at Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College and La Salle College. He received a bachelor of arts in translation from th ...

and released with the name "A Fleeting Moment" in some territories.

Critical reception

A reviewer from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' rated the song three out of five, writing, "This roaring, industrialised grunger, already a

mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

-language number one in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, sounds like an out-take from the '' Scary Monster'' years. But for all its gruff raucousness, it may be a little too one-dimensional." The magazine's Alan Jones commented, "Having donated Planet Of Dreams to the ''Long Live

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

'' album project, David Bowie continues to promote the cause of the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

n nation currently under the rule of China with his new single (...). A dense and fairly dark piece of brooding intensity, it takes no musical references from its lyrical inspiration and explodes occasionally with metallic guitars akimbo before stumping back into sulky periods. It takes a little getting used to, but ultimately emerges as one of his more compelling recent pieces." Alan Jackson from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' said that here, " drum 'n' bass David goes all mystical on us."

Chart performance

"Seven Years in Tibet" peaked at number 61 in the UK, and was the last number one song in Hong Kong before the Chinese takeover in June of 1997.

Live versions

At Bowie's 50th Birthday Bash concert in January 1997, Bowie performed this song together with Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. A July 1997 performance at the

Phoenix Festival The Phoenix Festival was set up by John Vincent Power of the Mean Fiddler Music Group in 1993 as an alternative to the established Glastonbury and Reading Festivals. It was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon and was one of t ...

was released in 2021 on '' Look at the Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97)''. Bowie played the song at GQ Awards in New York City on 15 October 1997, a performance which was later released on the live album '' LiveAndWell.com'' in 2000.

Other releases

The "Mandarin version" appeared on the bonus disc of the ''Digibook Expanded Edition'' of '' Earthling'' from 2004. In Hong Kong it was also released on a separate bonus disc that followed the release of ''Earthling'' in 1997.

Track listing

All lyrics written by

, except "Seven Years in Tibet (Mandarin version)" by

.
All music composed by David Bowie and

, except "Pallas Athena (live)" by David Bowie.

7-inch single: RCA / 74321 51254 7 (UK)

# "Seven Years in Tibet (edit)" – 4:01 # "Seven Years in Tibet (Mandarin version)" – 3:58

RCA / 74321 51255 2 (UK)

# "Seven Years in Tibet (edit)" – 4:01 # "Seven Years in Tibet (Mandarin version)" – 3:58 # " Pallas Athena (live)" – 8:18 * Also available as limited edition digipak (RCA / 74321 51254 2)

Production credits

* Producers: ** David Bowie **

Mark Plati Mark Plati is a New York–based musician, record producer, and songwriter, best known for his work in the 1990s with David Bowie. Plati also has worked with Spookey Ruben, The Cure, Duncan Sheik, Hooverphonic, Robbie Williams, Joe McIntyre, D ...

(co-producer) **

(co-producer) * Musicians: ** David Bowievocals, guitar, saxophone,

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

s, keyboards **

programming, synthesizers, real and

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

guitars, vocals **

programming,

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

s, samples, keyboards **

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she is perhaps best known for her lengthy residency in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016. Asid ...

bass guitar, vocals **

Zachary Alford Zachary "Zack" Alford is a professional drummer, known for his work with the B-52's, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Tomoyasu Hotei. Alford was brought in by Danny Kortchmar to drum on Billy Joel's ''River of Dreams'' album. Alford contrib ...

drum loops In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...

, acoustic drums,

electronic percussion Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

Mike Garson Michael David Garson (born July 29, 1945) is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight and The Smashing Pumpkins. Early career Garson went to Lafayette High School in Brookly ...

keyboards, piano

Charts

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Years In Tibet (Song) David Bowie songs 1997 singles Songs written by David Bowie Song recordings produced by David Bowie