"Ashes to Ashes" is a song by David Bowie, released in 1980. It made No. 1 in the UK and was the first cut from the “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” album. As well as its musical qualities, it is noted for its innovative video, directed by Bowie and David Mallet.
Interviewed in 1980, Bowie described the song as "a nursery rhyme. It's very much a 1980s nursery rhyme. I think 1980s nursery rhymes will have a lot to do with the 1880s/1890s nursery rhymes which are all rather horrid and had little boys with their ears being cut off and stuff like that...". Years later, Bowie said that with "Ashes to Ashes" he was "wrapping up the seventies really" for himself, which "seemed a good enough epitaph for it".
Melancholic and introspective, "Ashes to Ashes" featured Bowie's reinterpretation of "a guy that's been in such an early song", namely Major Tom from his first hit in 1969, "Space Oddity". Described as "containing more messages per second" than any single released in 1980, the song also included plaintive reflections on the singer's moral and artistic journey:
Musically "Ashes to Ashes" was notable for its delicate synthetic string sound, counterpointed by hard-edged funk bass, and its complex vocal layering. Its choir-like textures were created by guitarist Chuck Hammer with four multi-tracked guitar synthesizers, each playing opposing chord inversions; this was underpinned by Bowie's dead-pan, chanted background voices.
A - Ashes To Ashes (3:35)
Written by: David Bowie / Produced by: David Bowie, Tony Visconti
B - Move On (3:16)
Written by: David Bowie / Produced by: David Bowie, Tony Visconti
Release: 1980
Label: RCA Records
Catalog# PB-9575
℗ 1980
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