By Keith Walsh
The third single from David Bowie’s album Earthling, the video for “Dead Man Walking’ takes its name from the 1995 film featuring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Bowie was obsessed with Hollywood (just as Hollywood was obsessed with him) and while the tune was not officially connected with the movie, the association is probably more than coincidence.

This is from Bowie’s period of experimenting with drum and bass music, and the techno synth sounds feature lots of resonant glitch, and the bizarre lead guitar tone by Reeves Gabrels is a nice touch. Mike Garson lends a hand with some tasteful piano licks, and Gail Ann Dorsey proves herself a valuable member of Bowie’s team on bass. The official video itself shows Bowie’s openness to the fun of experimentation. The entire album was made with custom drum loops and electronic trickery, a departure from the ready-made beats often employed by lesser artists.

Though obscured in the mix, the opening guitar riff is an old cliché from the mid 1960s, taught to Bowie by Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin, continuing the artist’s tradition of recycling themes and motifs. Bowie played a live acoustic version of the song on the Conan O’Brien show, which features the riff quite prominently.

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