Bring Me the Disco King

"Bring Me the Disco King" is a song written by David Bowie in the early 1990s. It was first recorded for Black Tie White Noise in 1993 and then for Earthling in 1997, but never made it to the final release of these albums. Nile Rodgers, who produced Black Tie White Noise with Bowie, would remember he wrote it as "a spoof on the whole disco thing from the seventies, one hundred and twenty bpm, very funny. But it just sounded too trite."

In 2003, "Bring Me the Disco King" was recorded for the third time and then released on the album Reality. For this ultimate recording, he hoped to get it right. According to Bowie himself, "I stripped it down completely and just had Mike Garson playing piano. We did it at half the tempo as the original, and now it works brilliant. This poor little orphan Annie thing seems to have a home now." The track also features Matt Chamberlain on the drums.

Rejecting the raucous guitar-led assault of Reality's title track and the other songs, "Bring Me the Disco King" has a rhythm that often resembles samba, tango and mostly jazz, and according to Nicholas Pegg, "Initially seems incongruous, but its stately presence succeeds in binding the album together". In fact, literally the song is similar to the concept of the whole album, with David Bowie reflecting on the past of his career and looking at his old age and his imminent death. As James E. Perone wrote, "The vague references suggest a look back at a lifetime of wasted moments. [...] The somewhat tired-sounding approach Bowie takes on the song works perfectly within the context of the album's focus on aging."

David Bowie

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known as David Bowie (/ˈboʊ.i/), was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, painter, and actor. He was a figure in popular music for over five decades, and was considered by critics and musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft significantly impacted popular music. During his lifetime, he sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, and released eleven number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Disco King

"Disco King" was the first single by Australian rock group Spencer Tracy, released on Embryo Records in January, 2003.

"Disco King" earned a lot of airplay for Spencer Tracy, with the Triple M network adding "Disco King" to official rotation in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, NOVA Sydney & Melbourne running the track in the high rotation Buzz bin for two consecutive weeks and NOVA 937 in Perth giving solid airplay over a six-week period. The video clip to Disco King also received rotation on Channel V, MTV and Rage. The song created interest in the band from Interscope Records in the USA.

Track listing

All tracks written by Lee Jones unless otherwise noted.

References

John Frusciante

John Anthony Frusciante (ⁱ/fruːˈʃɑːnteɪ/; born March 5, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, from 1988 until 1992, and again from 1998 until 2009. He recorded five studio albums with them.

Frusciante has an active solo career, having released eleven solo albums and five EPs; his recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to new wave and electronica. In 2015, Frusciante released his debut acid house album under his alias, Trickfinger. He has also recorded with numerous other artists, including The Mars Volta, for whom he was a studio guitarist (and occasional live performer) from 2002 until 2008; Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally, with whom he released two albums as Ataxia; and various collaborations with both Klinghoffer and Omar Rodríguez-López.

Danny Lohner

Daniel Patrick "Danny" Lohner (born December 13, 1970), frequently known as Renholdër, is an American rock musician who plays bass guitar, electric guitar, and keyboards. He worked with Trent Reznor on numerous occasions, both with Nine Inch Nails and on the now defunct Tapeworm project. He has also played for Killing Joke, Methods of Mayhem, and in the past was one of the founding members of industrial-thrash outlet Skrew, as well as one of the members of the Texas thrash metal band Angkor Wat.

Music

Nine Inch Nails

In 1994, Trent Reznor brought Lohner into Nine Inch Nails to play guitar, bass, and keyboards for the band live. Lohner stayed on with the band throughout the touring cycle to The Downward Spiral, both the recording and touring behind The Fragile, the live album/DVD And All That Could Have Been, and the recording of the Still EP. Lohner left Nine Inch Nails on good terms to focus on production work as Trent Reznor began working on the Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth. Lohner was featured on many NIN remixes during this time, and was featured on the Nine Inch Nails recordings of "Big Man With A Gun", "Somewhat Damaged", "Even Deeper", "The Great Below", various songs from Still as well as playing various instruments on every song on And All That Could Have Been. He was a guest performer with the NIN live band during their Wave Goodbye Tour in 2009.