Loving the Alien
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"Loving the Alien" is a song written and recorded by
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 ...
. It was the opening track to his sixteenth studio album ''
Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
''. One of two tracks on the album written solely by Bowie, an edited version of the song was released as a single in May 1985, nine months after the release of lead single " Blue Jean" and eight months after the release of the album. "Loving the Alien" peaked at No. 19 in the
UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
. "Loving the Alien" inspired the title of Christopher Sandford's 1997 biography of Bowie and the 2018 Bowie box set release, ''
Loving the Alien (1983–1988) ''Loving the Alien (1983–1988)'' is a box set by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 12 October 2018. A follow-up to the compilations ''Five Years (1969–1973)'', ''Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)'', and ''A New Career in a ...
''.


Background

One of two tracks on the album written solely by Bowie, as a
demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
the song was simply called "1". The singer said the track "...came about because of my feeling that so much history is wrong – as is being rediscovered all the time – and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we've gleaned." He recorded a demo of the song in
Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...
, Switzerland prior to recording the song for the album. Bowie later said that the production on the song undid the power of the lyric, saying he preferred the demo version, and in a separate interview lamented "You should hear 'Loving the Alien' on demo. It's wonderful on demo. I promise you! (laughs). But on the album, it's ... not as wonderful."


Promotion

A music video was co-directed by Bowie with David Mallet. The original video included a short shot of Bowie with a nosebleed; this original version was only released on the 1987 video single "
Day-In Day-Out "Day-In Day-Out" is a song recorded by English singer David Bowie, serving as the opening track for his seventeenth studio album, '' Never Let Me Down'' (1987). It was issued as a single on 23 March 1987 ahead of the record's release. The reco ...
", and all subsequent releases of the video have the nosebleed scene edited out. A single version of the song was released as a single in May 1985, nine months after the release of lead single " Blue Jean" and eight months after the release of the album.


Critical reception

Bowie's biographer David Buckley called it "the only track on the album with the gravitas of much of his earlier work". Yo Zushi of the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' described the song as a "seven-minute masterpiece". While critical of much of Bowie's 1980s output in his appraisal of '' Best of Bowie'' in 2002,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reviewer Chris Jones stated: "Loving the Alien does have a strange distant beauty to it. Like watching a ballet through a telescope."


Live performances

Bowie performed "Loving the Alien" every night of his 1987
Glass Spider Tour The Glass Spider Tour was a 1987 worldwide concert tour by English musician David Bowie, launched in support of his album '' Never Let Me Down'' and named for that album's track "Glass Spider". It began in May 1987 and was preceded by a two-wee ...
, released on home video as ''
Glass Spider ''Glass Spider'' is a concert film by English singer David Bowie. The release was sourced from eight shows during the first two weeks of November 1987 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia during the last month of the Glass Spider Tour ...
'' in 1988. On the
A Reality Tour A Reality Tour was a worldwide concert tour by David Bowie in support of the ''Reality'' album. The tour began on 7 October 2003 at the Forum Copenhagen, Denmark, continuing through Europe, North America, Asia, including a return to New Zealan ...
in 2003 and 2004, he again performed the song, but this time as a stripped-down version with only Bowie on vocals and
Gerry Leonard Gerry Leonard is an Irish lead guitarist and solo artist, known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie. He has lived and worked in Dublin, Copenhagen, and Manhattan. Hinterland From Clontarf in Dublin, Le ...
on guitar. Bowie said that the latter arrangement was "perhaps the way it should have always been done." A live performance from this tour, recorded in November 2003, was included on both a
concert video A concert film, or concert movie, is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by either a musician or a stand-up comedian. Early history Th ...
(2004) and
live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
(2010).


Other releases

The song "Loving the Alien" appears on several Bowie compilation albums, including '' Bowie: The Singles 1969–1993'' (1993), some versions of '' Best of Bowie'' (2002), '' Sound + Vision'' (2003 and 2014 reissues), '' The Platinum Collection'' (2005), ''
The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 ''The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987'' is a compilation album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The CD was originally released by EMI as part of '' The Platinum Collection'' in 2005/2006. The 2007 release is part of EMI's two-disc ''Sigh ...
'' (2007), '' iSelect'' (2008), and ''
Nothing Has Changed ''Nothing Has Changed'' (stylised as ''Nothing has changed.'') is a compilation album by English musician David Bowie. It was released on 18 November 2014 through Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings in ...
'' (3-CD version) (2014). The original album version, most of its remixes and b-sides all appear on the 2018 box set ''
Loving the Alien (1983–1988) ''Loving the Alien (1983–1988)'' is a box set by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 12 October 2018. A follow-up to the compilations ''Five Years (1969–1973)'', ''Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)'', and ''A New Career in a ...
''. The original uncensored video for "Loving the Alien" appears on the "
Day-In Day-Out "Day-In Day-Out" is a song recorded by English singer David Bowie, serving as the opening track for his seventeenth studio album, '' Never Let Me Down'' (1987). It was issued as a single on 23 March 1987 ahead of the record's release. The reco ...
" video EP (1987), and the censored version appears on DVD releases of ''
Bowie – The Video Collection ''Bowie – The Video Collection'' is a video album by David Bowie, released in 1993. It included most official music videos made by Bowie between 1972 and 1990. Release and reception This video collection was released as a tie-in to the audio ...
'' (1993), '' Best of Bowie'' (2002) and ''
The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 ''The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987'' is a compilation album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The CD was originally released by EMI as part of '' The Platinum Collection'' in 2005/2006. The 2007 release is part of EMI's two-disc ''Sigh ...
'' (2007). In 2002, Dutch-American producer
the Scumfrog The Scumfrog (Jesse Houk) (born October 3, 1971) is a Dutch-American DJ/remixer/ producer/artist, mostly known for his underground flavored remixes of artists like Kylie Minogue, Missy Elliott, New Order, and Annie Lennox and his collaborations ...
made a club mix of the song and released it as a single together with the original video of the song. The Scumfrog version of "Loving the Alien" reached #41 in the UK that year.
Steve Strange Stephen John Harrington (28 May 1959 – 12 February 2015), known professionally as Steve Strange, was a Welsh singer. From the late 1970s he was a nightclub host and promoter. He became famous as the leader of the new wave synth-pop group ...
covered this song with his band Visage for the posthumous album ''
Demons to Diamonds ''Demons to Diamonds'' is a fixed shooter for the Atari 2600 produced by Atari, Inc. and released in 1982. It was programmed by Nick Turner with graphics designed by Alan Murphy. Nick Turner previously ported ''Super Breakout'' to the 2600. The ...
'' in 2015. It was remixed the next year on the album '' Darkness to Diamond''.


Track listing


7": EMI America / EA 195 / EAP 195 (UK)

# "Loving the Alien" (Re-mixed version) – 4:43 # "Don't Look Down" (Re-mixed version) – 4:04


12": EMI America SEAV-7860 / 12EA 195 / 12EAP 195 (UK)

# "Loving the Alien" (Extended Dance Mix) – 7:27 # "Don't Look Down" (Extended Dance Mix) – 4:50 # "Loving the Alien" (Extended Dub Mix) – 7:14 * Re-mixed by Steve Thompson and
Michael Barbiero Michael Francis Barbiero (born June 25, 1949)Infidel Biography
. Infidel Records. Retri ...
.


Download: EMI / iEA 195 (UK)

# "Loving the Alien" (Re-mixed version) – 4:43 # "Don't Look Down" (Re-mixed version) – 4:04 # "Loving the Alien" (Extended Dance Mix) – 7:27 # "Loving the Alien" (Extended Dub Mix) – 7:14 # "Don't Look Down" (Extended Dance Mix) – 4:50 * Released in 2007


Personnel

*
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 ...
 –
vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*
Carlos Alomar Carlos Alomar (born 7 May 1951) is a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican guitarist. He is best known for his work with David Bowie from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, having played on more Bowie albums than any musician other than pianist Mike Garso ...
 –
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
* Derek Bramble –
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
;
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
*
Omar Hakim Omar Hakim (born February 12, 1959) is an American jazz, jazz fusion and pop music drummer, producer, arranger and composer. He has worked with Weather Report, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Sting, Madonna, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry, Journey, Kate B ...
 –
drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
*
Carmine Rojas Carmine Rojas (February 14, 1953) is an American bass guitarist, musical director and composer. His musical styles include rock, R&B/funk, and jazz. Music career Early years, as sideman Born in Brooklyn, Rojas toured the world with David Bowie ...
 – bass guitar * Guy St Onge –
marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
* Sam Figueroa –
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
;Production team * David Bowie – producer * Derek Bramble – producer *
Hugh Padgham Hugh Charles Padgham (born 15 February 1955) is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 1 ...
 – producer


Chart performance


Cover versions

"Loving the Alien" has been covered by several other artists. These include: *
Iva Davies Ivor Arthur Davies, AM (born 22 May 1955), known professionally as Iva Davies, is an Australian singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Davies' music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in t ...
& Icehouse – '' The Berlin Tapes'' (1995), also included on ''Diamond Gods: Interpretations of Bowie'' (2001) * Visage – ''
Demons to Diamonds ''Demons to Diamonds'' is a fixed shooter for the Atari 2600 produced by Atari, Inc. and released in 1982. It was programmed by Nick Turner with graphics designed by Alan Murphy. Nick Turner previously ported ''Super Breakout'' to the 2600. The ...
'' (2015) *
Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...
Band – '' Frampton Forgets the Words'' (2021)


References

* ''A Reality Tour'', 2004 * Pegg, Nicholas, ''The Complete David Bowie'', Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000,


External links


"Life Beyond Mars" on Discogs
{{authority control 1984 songs 1985 singles David Bowie songs EMI America Records singles Song recordings produced by David Bowie Song recordings produced by Hugh Padgham Songs critical of religion Songs written by David Bowie Music videos directed by David Bowie