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| "Suffragette City" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by David Bowie | ||||
| from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | ||||
| B-side | "Stay" | |||
| Released |
| |||
| Recorded | 4 February 1972 | |||
| Studio | Trident, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:25 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | David Bowie | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||
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| The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars track listing | ||||
| Template:The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tracks | ||||
"Suffragette City" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was originally released as the B-side to "Starman" in April 1972 and subsequently appeared on his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It was later issued as a single in 1976 to promote the Changesonebowie compilation in the UK, with the US single edit of "Stay" as the B-side. The single failed to chart.
Recorded on 4 February 1972, towards the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions, "Suffragette City" features a piano riff heavily influenced by Little Richard, a lyrical reference to the book and film A Clockwork Orange (the word "droogie," meaning "friend") and the sing-along hook "wham bam, thank you, ma'am!".
Before recording it himself, Bowie offered it to the band Mott the Hoople if they would forgo their plan to break up. The group refused, but recorded Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" instead.
Track listing
All songs written by David Bowie.
- "Suffragette City" – 3:25
- "Stay" – 3:21
Production credits
- Producers:
- Ken Scott on "Suffragette City"
- David Bowie
- Musicians:
- David Bowie – vocals, guitar
- Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, ARP 2600 synthesizer
- Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
- Mick Woodmansey – drums
Other releases
- It was released as the B-side of the singles "Starman" in April 1972 and "Young Americans" in February 1975.
- A picture disc release appeared in the RCA Life Time picture disc set.
- It also appeared on the following compilations:
- The Best of David Bowie (Japan 1974)
- Changesonebowie (1976)
- Changesbowie (1990)
- Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 (1993)
- The Singles Collection (1993)
- RarestOneBowie (Japan 1995)
- The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 (1997)
- Best of Bowie (2002)
- It was also released in the music rhythm game Rock Band.
Live versions
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- Bowie recorded the song for the BBC radio programme "Sounds of the 70s: John Peel" on 16 May 1972, and this performance was broadcast on 23 May 1972. In 2000, this recording was released on the Bowie at the Beeb album.
- A live version recorded at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 20 October 1972, during a Ziggy Stardust Tour concert, has been released on Santa Monica '72 and Live Santa Monica '72.
- The version played at the famous concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London on 3 July 1973 was released on Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture.
- A live recording from the first leg of the Diamond Dogs Tour was released on David Live. This version was also released in the Sound + Vision box set. A live recording from the second leg of the same tour (previously available on the unofficial album A Portrait in Flesh) was released in 2017 on Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74).
- A live performance recorded on 23 March 1976 during the Isolar Tour was included on Live Nassau Coliseum '76, which was released as part of the 2010 reissues of the Station to Station album, on the 2016 collection Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976), and as a stand–alone album in 2017.
- A live version recorded in late April 1978 during the Isolar II Tour was included on the 2017 edition of Bowie's live album Stage, which was released in the box set A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), and as a stand–alone album in 2018.
- A summer 1978 performance from the same tour was released on the live album Welcome to the Blackout in 2018.
- On many live versions, the lyric "Cause you ain't got time to check it" is replaced with a repetition of the lyric: "Cause you can't afford the ticket"; the Bowie at the Beeb recording uses the lyric "Cause you can't afford to check it."
References
- Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
Notes
- "500 Greatest Albums of All Time : 35 – David Bowie, 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars'". Rolling Stone. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- Berman, Stuart (29 September 2010). "David Bowie: Station to Station (Deluxe Edition)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
- HistoryCaps (2012). Combat Rock: A History of Punk (from It's Origins to the Present). BookCaps Study Guides. p. 15—16. ISBN 9781621073154.
- Kevin Cann (2010). Any Day Now – David Bowie: The London Years: 1947–1974: p.242
- Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p. 282. ISBN 0-85112-072-5.