Genre Glam rock, blues rock Label Mercury Records | Length 3:32 Writer(s) David Bowie | |
Released November 4, 1970 (U.S.)
April 1971 (UK) Recorded Trident and Advision Studios, London
18 April - 22 May 1970 | ||
"Black Country Rock" is a song written by David Bowie in 1970 for the album The Man Who Sold the World, which was released in November 1970 in the U.S. and April 1971 in the UK. (It was also issued as the B-side to Bowie's January 1971 "Holy Holy" single.) An upbeat blues-rock number, "Black Country Rock" has been described as a "respite" from the musical and thematical heaviness of the remainder of the album. Its style has been compared to Marc Bolan's contemporary Tyrannosaurus Rex, down to Bowie's imitative vibrato in the final verse. According to producer Tony Visconti, Bowie had the music ready by the start of the sessions but the words were a last-minute addition in the studio, the singer doing his Bolan impression "spontaneously ... because he ran out of lyrics ... we all thought it was cool, so it stayed."
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The song appeared in the soundtrack of the film The Kids Are All Right, released in 2010.