Almost ten years and not a word and now he is practically everywhere. First there was one single, then there were two and then before you knew it, the very next day if you will, an album. There was even some talk of a return to live action and then, what do you know, he is being beamed right into the heart of our living rooms courtesy of an advert for the brand spanking new flagship Smartphone from those good people at Sony. Yes, Bowie is definitely back.
This time he provides the soundtrack to said ad. Well, his skeletal vocal does, on a Sound and Vision outtake from the recording sessions for the album Low. Subsequently released as the first single from that album in early ’76 (b/w A New Career in a New Town), here it is stripped back to reveal Bowie’s original vocal. It has then been specially remixed by Sonjay Prabhakar and the finished musical product harnessed to the visual talents of director Tarsem Singh (who already has some high profile television commercial credits on his résumé, including the Pepsi We Will Rock You campaign).
As the song accompanies the Sony product through the ages, and given that Low was partly recorded at the Hansa By The Wall studios, there is an interesting though possibly unintentional juxtaposition with some re-enacted footage of the dismantling of the Wall itself. Blue, blue, electric blue indeed.
