“Breaking Glass” was originally a track on Bowie’s 1977 album Low, a reworked version of the song was a regular on the singer’s 1978 tour. A live version from that tour was used as the lead track on a 7″ EP to promote Bowie’s second live album, Stage in 1978. The EP reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1978.
In the US, the track “Star” was chosen as the lead track for the live EP (with “What in the World” and “Breaking Glass” as B-sides), but failed to chart, while in Japan “Blackout” was released to promote Stage.
“Breaking Glass” has been performed on subsequent Bowie tours in 1978, 1983, 1995–1996, 2002 and 2003-2004 tours.
Lyrics
The original song was uncompromising even by Low’s standards. The fractured lyric is, like several songs written during Bowie’s stay in Berlin, introspective of his dark, drug-filled period living in America in 1975-1976. Its lyrics, when written out, look potentially more like a paragraph than a song, and when separated into phrases, the song has a disjointed feeling. The song is also curiously short, not spanning two minutes and only going through one verse.
The lines “Don’t look at the carpet; I drew something awful on it” refer to Bowie’s practice of drawing the Tree of Life on the floor during that period, as he was interested in Aleister Crowley and Qabbala at the time.
Track listing
“Breaking Glass” (David Bowie, Dennis Davis, George Murray) – 3:28
“Art Decade” (Bowie) – 3:10
“Ziggy Stardust” (Bowie) – 3:32
Production credits
Producers:
Tony Visconti
Musicians:
David Bowie: Vocals
Carlos Alomar: Lead Guitar
Ricky Gardiner: Rhythm Guitar
George Murray: Bass
Dennis Davis: Drums
Brian Eno: Mini Moog
Live versions
A spring 1978 live version recorded on the Heroes tour was released on Stage and on the above-mentioned single. This live version was also released as the B-side of the single “Star” in 1978.
A live performance filmed on 12 September 1983 was included on Serious Moonlight (1983 film).
A November 2003 live version recorded on the A Reality Tour was released on the A Reality Tour album, in 2010.
Other releases
The song appeared on the following compilations:
Chameleon (Holland 1979) (studio version)
The Best of Bowie (1980) (1978 live version)
Sound + Vision box set (1989) (1978 live version)
The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 (1998) (studio version)
The Platinum Collection (2005/2006) (studio version)
It was released as a picture disc in the RCA Life Time picture disc set.
