Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Panic in Detroit

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Released
  
April 13, 1973

Label
  
RCA

Producer(s)
  
Ken Scott, David Bowie

Length
  
4:25

Writer(s)
  
David Bowie

Recorded
  
Trident Studios, London January 1973

"Panic in Detroit" is a song written by English singer David Bowie for the album Aladdin Sane in 1973. Bowie based it on friend Iggy Pop's descriptions of revolutionaries he had known in Michigan. It is also interpreted as being written about the 1967 Detroit riots. Rolling Stone magazine called the track "a paranoid descendant of the Motor City's earlier masterpiece, Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run"".

Contents

Musically "Panic in Detroit" has been described as a "Salsa variation on the Bo Diddley beat", and features prominent conga drums and female backing vocals. The lyrics namecheck Che Guevara and are also said to contain references to John Sinclair of the White Panther Party.

Bowie played the song live on tour in 1973, 1974, 1976, 1990, 1997 and 2003-4.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine printed its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Mick Ronson was ranked at #64, and "Panic in Detroit" as his "essential recording".

Personnel

  • David Bowie – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
  • Mick Ronson – electric guitars
  • Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
  • Woody Woodmansey – drums
  • Aynsley Dunbar – percussion
  • Linda Lewis – backing vocals
  • Warren Peace – backing vocals

    • Live versions

  • A live version recorded on 14 July 1974 was released as the B-side of the single "Knock on Wood" in 1974. The same version was released as the B-side of the US-only single "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" in the same year. It also appeared on the compilation album Rare in 1983, on the 2005 re-issue of David Live, and on Re:Call 2, part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976) compilation released in 2016.
  • A live performance recorded on 23 March 1976 was released on Live Nassau Coliseum '76, part of the 2010 reissues of Station to Station.

    • Other releases

  • It was released as the B-side of the Japan release of the single "Time" in April 1973.
  • It was released as picture discs in both the RCA Life Time picture disc set and the Fashion Picture Disc Set.
  • It also appeared in the Sound + Vision box set (1989) and on Best of Bowie (US/Canada edition 2002).
  • A new version of the song recorded in late 1979 was issued for the first time as a bonus track on the 1992 Rykodisc CD release of Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). This version was recorded for the Kenny Everett's New Year's Eve Show that would feature the debut of Bowie's 1979 rerecording of "Space Oddity", but "Panic in Detroit" was not broadcast. The same recording appeared on the bonus disc of the Heathen Limited Edition double CD, labelled an "outtake from a 1979 recording".

    • References

    Panic in Detroit Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA