Absolute Beginners (David Bowie song)

Bowie was good friends with the film's director, Julien Temple (who had worked with him in 1984 on the Jazzin' for Blue Jean short film). Bowie agreed to Temple's request to write music for the film if he could also play the part of Vendice Partners.

It was recorded at Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley's Westside Studios, London. The sessions were completed rapidly, but the song was delayed due to the problems with completing the film. Virgin wanted the release to tie in with the film's opening. The song featured Rick Wakeman on piano, who had previously performed on Bowie's "Space Oddity" single and Hunky Dory album. Shortly after the sessions wrapped, Mick Jagger flew in to record the charity cover of "Dancing in the Street" with Bowie, which used many of the same musicians. Bowie recorded the lead vocal of "Absolute Beginners" at Westside Studios in August.[2]

AllMusic described "Absolute Beginners" as "the gem of his post-Let's Dance '80s output, a big, breathtaking ballad allowing him to indulge the Sinatra croon that's driven many of his best performances".[3] It was chosen by Jeremy Allen in The Guardian as one of Bowie's "ten of the best" songs.[4] Biographer Paul Trynka described "Absolute Beginners" as "Bowie's last great composition of the 1980s",[5] while rock critic Chris O'Leary described it as "gorgeous and valedictory," with "one of the great Bowie melodies" in its refrain.[6] Mojo chose the song as number 61 in its countdown of Bowie's 100 greatest songs.[7] Don Weller's saxophone solo has been described by musicOMH as "perhaps the best" saxophone solo in a Bowie song. They characterised it as "the sound of one man trying to violently expel his innards through the bell of his instrument" and "one of the most heartbreaking things put to record".[8]

All tracks are written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Julien Temple shot the music video, which echoed the 1950s style of the movie. The video was a homage to an old British advert for Strand cigarettes. The ill-fated advertising tagline "You're never alone with a Strand" is quoted by Partners in the film. The video also uses footage from the film.

In 2016, Entertainment Weekly chose it as one of Bowie's 20 best music videos. They stated the video "does a far better job of expressing the noirish romanticism" of MacInnes' novel than the film did and also praised the "great dance-fighting scene at the end".[9]

• Producers:
  • Alan Winstanley
  • Clive Langer
• Musicians:
  • David Bowie – vocals
  • Rick Wakeman – piano
  • Kevin Armstrong – guitar
  • Matthew Seligman – bass
  • Neil Conti – drums
  • Luís Jardim – percussion
  • Mac Gollehon – trumpet
  • John Thirkell – trumpet
  • Don Weller, Gary Barnacle, Paul "Shilts" Weimar, Willie Garnett, Andy MacKintosh, Gordon Murphy – saxophones
  • Steve Nieve – keyboards
  • Janet Armstrong – backing vocals

Gil Evans sings the refrain of the song in the film.

• The song was performed live during David Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider Tour and released on Glass Spider (1988/2007).
• Bowie's 25 June 2000 performance of the song at the Glastonbury Festival was released in 2018 on Glastonbury 2000.
• A live version recorded at BBC Radio Theatre, London, on 27 June 2000 was released on the bonus disc accompanying the first release of Bowie at the Beeb in 2000.
• It was performed live on several occasions on the 2002 Heathen Tour as a duet with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey; usually the song would end with Bowie and Dorsey dancing. Mark Plati would play bass while she sang.

• In 1995, the full-length version appeared as a bonus track on the Virgin Records rerelease of the album Tonight.
• The 5:36 single version has appeared on the following compilations:
  • Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 (1993)
  • The Singles Collection (1993)
  • ChangesTwoBowie (1998 reissue)
  • Best of Bowie (2002) (most editions)
  • The Platinum Collection (2005)
  • The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007)
  • Nothing Has Changed (2014) (3-CD and vinyl editions)
• A 4:46 edit, released to promote the single in 1986, was included on the 1-CD and 2-CD editions of Nothing Has Changed and the 2-CD version of Bowie Legacy (2016).

Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics