"The Hearts Filthy Lesson" is a song by David Bowie, from his 1995 album Outside, and issued as a single ahead of the album. It showcased Bowie's new, industrial-influenced sound. The lack of an apostrophe in the title is deliberate. Lyrically, the single connects with the rest of the album, with Bowie offering a lament to "tyrannical futurist" Ramona A. Stone, a theme continued in subsequent songs. The song is also meant to confront Bowie's own perceptions about the ritual creation and degradation of art.
Critical reception to the song was generally tepid, though it would be re-evaluated by many critics when heard in the context of the Outside soon afterwards. Considering its defiantly noncommercial sound, the song did well to reach UK #35, also breaking Bowie's US chart drought (which stretched back to "Never Let Me Down" in 1987) by briefly peaking at US #92.
An immediate favourite at Bowie's live concerts, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" had its cult status sealed when it was featured over the closing titles of David Fincher's 1995 film Seven, a film which mirrored the video's grimy visuals.
The single contained an "Alt. Mix" remixed by Trent Reznor and Dave Ogilvie with Chris Vrenna.
Read more about The Hearts Filthy Lesson: Video, Track Listing, Production Credits, Live Versions, Other Releases
Famous quotes containing the words hearts, filthy and/or lesson:
“My Christian friends, in bonds of love, whose hearts in sweetest union join,
Your friendship’s like a drawing band, yet we must take the parting hand.
Your company’s sweet, your union dear; Your words delightful to my ear,
Yet when I see that we must part, You draw like cords around my heart.”
—John Blain (18th century)
“What images are these
That turn dull-eyed away,
Or shift Time’s filthy load,
Straighten aged knees,
Hesitate or stay?
What heads shake or nod?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The lesson which these observations convey is, be, and not seem. Let us acquiesce. Let us take our bloated nothingness out of the path of the divine circuits. Let us unlearn our wisdom of the world. Let us lie low in the lord’s power, and learn that truth alone makes rich and great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)