Nothing Has Changed was the name of David Bowie’s career-spanning 2014 compilation. It was also, on the face of it, a misnomer of a title for something which covered, in reverse chronological order, five decades of music across three CDs, and which, however it was sequenced, made clear that there had been plenty of changes for the man who’d so urgently sung of them on his 1971 album, Hunky Dory. Then again, perhaps it was right: restless creativity is the thread that unifies all of Bowie’s work. And, as the collection’s opening song, Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime), made clear, that wasn’t about to change at all.
Resurrecting the murder ballad, reigniting his love of jazz and reinventing himself yet again, with Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime), Bowie delivered a killer statement of intent…
Listen to the best of David Bowie here.
The backstory: “We got together and fooled around with ideas”
A mere six months before the release of Nothing Has Changed, Bowie and his long-term producer, Tony Visconti, settled into Birdland, the legendary jazz hangout in New York City, to watch a performance by the Maria Schneider Orchestra. Unbeknown to the Minnesota-born bandleader and composer, Bowie had long wanted to work with her, and, after being “totally floored by the beauty and power” of her band’s performance that night in May, he and Visconti sought to make that happen.
Busy with her own projects, Schneider initially wasn’t sure she had the time to commit to helping Bowie with his work, but after listening to an untitled demo for what would become Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) she imagined herself “doing something” with the piece. Subsequent meetings would reveal just what that something could be.
- Best David Bowie Songs: 50 Tracks That Rewrote The Rock Rulebook
- Turn And Face The Strange: 10 David Bowie Facts You Need To Know
- David Bowie Album Covers: All 28 Studio Album Artworks Ranked
“We got together several times and fooled around with ideas,” Schneider told the MinnPost. “I would work on some things, and he would, and then we’d share them, and he would say ‘I love that’ or ‘No, I don’t like that.’” While the pair found their way towards an arrangement for the song, Bowie kept his ideas for lyrics close to his chest. He wanted it to be “dark”, he told Schneider. But when pressed on what the song was about, he laughed the question off: “I don’t know. Maybe vampires?”
The original version: “As much a statement as a song”
By the time Schneider’s orchestra assembled at Avatar Studios, on 24 July, to record the song, the bandleader had invited guitarist Ben Monder, one of her regular collaborators, into the fold, while Bowie had pulled in saxophonist Donny McCaslin and drummer Mark Guiliana. Schneider had tipped Bowie off about McCaslin’s small combo a month earlier, and, after ducking into the intimate 55 Bar to catch the group in action, he’d become, Visconti later recalled, “totally convinced that he wanted to work with them”.
Receiving lyric sheets for the first time since rehearsals began, the group finally learned the title of Bowie’s new song: Sue. And there was plenty more to discover during the recording session, at the start of which the musicians were also handed what Guiliana described as “quite minimal” charts that provided “more of a guide, rather than a specific notation” for their performances. With Bowie and Schneider directing the session, the ensemble was encouraged to improvise around Bowie’s vocals, channelling the mindset of a narrator who spirals from elation (“Sue, I got the job/We’ll buy the house/… Sue, the clinic called/The x-ray’s fine”) to blind rage, pushing his lover “down beneath the weeds” after discovering that she was pregnant with the child of a rival – “that clown”.
As the session progressed and the cacophony swirled, the group edged towards their own brink. “There’s the free section with the drums going,” Schneider told Uncut magazine. “I’m conducting out of time, then all of a sudden it had to get in time – in with the drums. It was scary for me but we got it done.” Snatches of this high-wire act were filmed for use in the song’s promo video; also incorporating moody black-and-white footage shot on a dank London set, the clip brought a film-noir aesthetic to Bowie’s tale of cold-blooded murder.
