David Bowie Says:
There are a host of songs that I’ve recorded over the years that for one reason or another (clenched teeth) I’ve often wanted to re-record some time in the future. This track from Never Let Me Down is one of those. …
Our engineer, who had been listening to the radio, shot out of the studio and shouted: ‘There’s a whole lot of s*** going on in Russia.’
The Swiss news had picked up a Norwegian radio station that was screaming - to anyone who would listen - that huge billowing clouds were moving over from the Motherland and they weren’t rain clouds. This was the first news in Europe of the satanic Chernobyl. …
For those first few moments it felt sort of claustrophobic to know you were one of only a few witnesses to something of this magnitude.
Over the next couple of months a complicated crucible of impressions collected in my head prompted by this insanity, any one of which could have become a song. I stuck them all in Time Will Crawl. That last sentence rhymes.
Don’t Trust Wikipedia
On the Omnichord:
Scientists have recently uncovered hidden omnichord sounds deep within David Bowie’s song Heroes. There is still some debate as to which function in particular is being heard, but there is no doubt that the sonic signature is that of a late 80s omnichord. This has sparked a wild gold rush to find other Bowie tunes that may contain omnichord parts. Thus far, Space Oddity has returned no results.