Day 215 | Dead Man Walking

Like the Earthling album as a whole, I was initially put off by this song because the techno dance music style is a departure from anything Bowie did before, but in time I have come to appreciate it and the whole album as solid and vibrant. I don’t think it is actually about anything. I read that Bowie started writing it as an homage to Susan Sarandon, who co-starred with Bowie in The Hunger and starred on her own in the movie Dead Man Walking. The ultimate product has nothing directly to do with the actress or the movie (oddly, the Earthling album has another song, Seven Years in Tibet, that shares a name but nothing else with another movie). I think what Bowie ended up doing is latching on to this phrase, “like a dead man walking,” and built a song around it, employing lyrics as an excuse to sing. It works. The video clip shows Bowie performing live with a lot of energy, and although he would release much more great music, most of his subsequent output would be more restrained. Album: Earthling