Quicksand (David Bowie song)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
"Quicksand"
Song

"Quicksand" is a song written by David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory; it was recorded on 14 July 1971.[1] This ballad features multi-tracked acoustic guitars and a string arrangement by Mick Ronson. Producer Ken Scott, having recently engineered George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass, attempted to create a similarly powerful acoustic sound with this track.[2]

Lyrically the song, like much of Bowie's work at this time, was influenced by Buddhism, occultism, and Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the Overman.[3] It refers to the magical society Golden Dawn and name-checks one of its most famous members, Aleister Crowley, as well as Heinrich Himmler, Winston Churchill and Juan Pujol (codename: Garbo).[4]

Reception

NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have described it as "Bowie in his darkest and most metaphysical mood",[3] while a contemporary review in Rolling Stone remarked on its "superb singing" and "beautiful guitar motif".[5]

Other releases

  • It was released as the B-side of the single "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" in April 1974.
  • RCA included the song in the picture disc set Life Time.
  • A studio demo version of the song was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc release of Hunky Dory in 1990.

Personnel

Cover versions

Notes

  1. Kevin Cann (2010). Any Day Now - David Bowie: The London Years: 1947-1974: pp.223-224
  2. David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.115
  3. 3.0 3.1 Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.41
  4. David Sheppard (2007). "Wishful Beginnings", MOJO 60 Years of Bowie: p.24
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]

References

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

External links