Black Tie White Noise (song)
"Black Tie White Noise" is the title track from David Bowie's 1993 album. Featuring guest vocals by Al B. Sure!, it was released as a second single from the album in June 1993.
The track was inspired by Bowie's stay in Los Angeles in April 1992, when the city saw race riots in reaction to the Rodney King incident. It is the epitome of its parent album's feelings towards conformity and corporations, with Benetton and the saccharine charity single "We Are the World" among the targets. Bowie would later explain that the track was concerned with the black community's own identity, and how it didn't need to be absorbed into the white community.
It is among the most jazz and soul influenced tracks on the album, highlighted by the key vocal of Al B. Sure!, although Lenny Kravitz was reportedly Bowie's first choice for the duet. Essentially a Rhythm and Blues tune, the song ultimately reinforced the feeling of Bowie's tendency as a chameleon of musical styles.
Released as the album's second single, "Black Tie White Noise" was something of a disappointment commercially, stalling at #36 in the UK, and again failing to chart in America despite a concerted promotional push. Audiences were perhaps confused by Bowie's latest departure of style and already somewhat skeptical given the breakup of Tin Machine, despite the promise that his solo career was over.
A music video for this piece was produced by Mark Romanek, featuring a montage of African-American youth playing in urban Los Angeles, while intercut with scenes of Bowie in a blue suit with his saxophone and Al B. Sure! singing. The music video attempted to capture Bowie's image behind the song: multiple ethnic groups coexisting with their own identities, and not attempting to absorb one another.
Read more about Black Tie White Noise (song): Production Credits, Other Releases, Cover Versions
Famous quotes containing the words black, tie, white and/or noise:
“I can’t really hear the audience applause when I’m on stage. I’m totally immersed in the piece. But sometimes I get a lot of it and wonder, “Now, why did they applaud here?” If it’s a white crowd, they usually applaud because they think it’s a pretty movement. If it’s a black crowd, it’s usually because they identify with the message.”
—Judith Jamison (b. 1944)
“Nations have lost their old omnipotence; the patriotic tie does not hold. Nations are getting obsolete, we go and live where we will.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“the only truth is face to face, the poem whose words become your
mouth
and dying in black and white we fight for what we love, not are”
—Frank O’Hara (1926–1966)
“I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)