Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)

"Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" is a song by English musician David Bowie released on 17 November 2014 as the lead single from the 2014 compilation album Nothing Has Changed. Co-produced by Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, the song originated after the two saw bandleader and composer Maria Schneider perform with her orchestra in May 2014. They began collaborating on Bowie's first major project since The Next Day (2013). Following workshop sessions in mid-June, the track was recorded officially at Avatar Studios in New York on 24 July 2014, with contributions from Schneider's orchestra.

"Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)"

"'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore"

17 November 2014 (2014-11-17)

24 July 2014

Avatar (New York City)

Experimental jazz

7:24

Paul Bateman
Bob Bhamra
David Bowie
Maria Schneider

David Bowie

David Bowie
Tony Visconti

Although he had experimented with jazz earlier in his career, "Sue" marked Bowie's first explorations into experimental jazz. Musically, the song contains an array of instrumentation and is driven by a brass and flute motif. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin provided the solos. Inspired by the writings of poet Robert Browning, the lyrics of "Sue" are open-ended, depicting the fall of a marriage. Premiered in October 2014, the song garnered positive reviews from music critics, but some felt its inclusion on a compilation album downplayed the track. A music video directed by Tom Hingston promoted it.

Bowie re-recorded both "Sue" and its B-side, "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" for his twenty-sixth and final studio album, Blackstar (2016). The new version features players from the original, including McCaslin, drummer Mark Guiliana and guitarist Ben Monder, along with pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem on percussion. The remake is more stripped down than the original, featuring a harder, punchier sound influenced by drum'n'bass, while Bowie's vocals are more subdued. Many critics have praised the remake as superior to the original recording.

Recording[edit]

Workshop sessions[edit]

Initial workshop sessions for "Sue" began at Euphoria Studios in Manhattan in mid-June. Schneider wanted Bowie's thoughts on the composition's direction and structure before official recording began. Along with McCaslin, Guiliana, trombonist Ryan Keberle and bassist Jay Anderson, Schneider recruited avant-jazz guitarist Ben Monder, an occasional member of her orchestra.^[1]^[4] Monder told Yahoo! Music in 2016, "I had not played with Maria for a while prior to this project ... But she said she could hear my sound for that particular track, so David met with me and Donny."^[5] Monder thought highly of Bowie: "We just had one rehearsal for the Maria Schneider session and he was very down-to-earth, very nice. He seemed to make an effort to make you feel like you weren't in the presence of a rock deity."^[5]

According to Visconti, who co-produced the track with Bowie, Schneider and the core members of her band "jammed to the bass line for several hours ... over the course of three long sessions in a rehearsal studio".^[4] Schneider told biographer Chris O'Leary that the initial workshop version of the track was "very different". She initially had the players improvise over an E major chord, but felt it was "too much", and changed it to a "B section" for Bowie, which allowed him to continue to revise the lyrics up to the final recording. The rhythms began to form and Bowie found his lyrics after a few more sessions.^[1] After the final workshop session, Bowie and Schneider met to finalise the arrangement and structure.^[4]

Final session[edit]

"Sue" was officially recorded on 24 July 2014 at Avatar Studios in New York;^[1] Bowie had intended to use the Magic Stop, the studio where he had recorded The Next Day, but it proved too small for the 17-person orchestra. Bowie handed out his lyrics to the musicians at the start of the session; the track's title was revealed on the music sheets. The song's arrangement provided the musicians with a substantial amount of freedom during the session. Guiliana later recalled: "Aside from David and Maria's overall direction, the chart I was playing from was quite minimal ... More of a guide, rather than a specific notation."^[4]

During the session, Schneider instructed the musicians to improvise around Bowie's vocals. McCaslin and Keberle contributed multiple solos throughout the session; Visconti used McCaslin for most of the final recording, with Keberle's work appearing, according to O'Leary, "in the out-of-time section after 'Suuuue...goodbye!'"^[1] According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, besides Guiliana, Monder, Anderson, Keberle and McCaslin, the remaining orchestra members who played on the recording were: Jesse Han (flute, alto flute, bass flute); David Pietro (alto flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone); Rich Perry (tenor saxophone); Scott Robinson (clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet); Tony Kadleck, Greg Gisbert, Augie Haas, Mike Rodriguez (trumpet, flugelhorn); Keith O'Quinn, Marshall Gilkes (trombone); George Flynn (bass trombone, contrabass trombone); [and] Frank Kimbrough (piano).^[4]

Liver cancer diagnosis[edit]

Based on the timeline given at the time of Bowie's death in January 2016, Bowie was diagnosed with liver cancer around the time of these recording sessions.^[6] Bowie began chemotherapy treatment for cancer,^[7] but he kept his diagnosis from his fellow musicians, who later said that they didn't know he was sick while recording with him.^[8]

Composition[edit]

Lyrics[edit]

"Sue"'s open-ended lyrics depict the fall of a marriage in eight verses. At the start, he got the job (an echo of The Next Day Extra track "The Informer"), they will get the house. However, things go awry when the narrator says that Sue is ill, the clinic called and the "X-ray's fine". Sue's motif throughout the song is the four-note phrase played by the brass and flute sections, and sung by Bowie in the first two verses. As the track continues, the narrator's accusations begin, which leads the motif to change throughout.^[1]^[4]

Eventually, the narrator accuses Sue of betrayal ("I found your note that you wrote last night / It can't be right you went with him") and murders her ("I pushed you down beneath the weeds"), kisses her corpse and says goodbye. Following her murder, the narrator finds a note that tells the whole story ("you went with that clown"). Bowie starts the last verse "Sue, I never dreamed", which was the title of the first song he ever recorded, with his first band the Kon-Rads in 1963.^[1]^[9] Pegg credits the writings of poet Robert Browning, specifically "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess", as inspiration for the lyrics.^[4]

Music[edit]

"Sue" is Bowie's first exploration into experimental jazz. Although he had experimented with jazz on Black Tie White Noise and The Buddha of Suburbia (both 1993), he used rock and R&B musicians primarily rather than true jazz musicians.^[1]^[4] Other reviewers have suggested the track has elements of jazz-pop and post-industrial music.^[10]^[11] Regarding the track, Visconti stated, "This is truly modern jazz. They don't play bebop, there's nothing traditional about them."^[4]

Over seven minutes in length, the song features an array of varied instrumentation, some of which complement Bowie's vocals while some counteract him. O'Leary describes the array of instruments as "jostling factions — instruments in loose confederations that soon break apart, moving at different tempos".^[1] The bass line played by Keberle borrows heavily from Plastic Soul's 1997 single "Brand New Heavy", which earned that song's writers, Paul Bateman and Bob Bhamra, co-writing credits on "Sue" with Bowie and Schneider. McCaslin's playing is prevalent throughout the track, often emphasising the lyrics. In the closing section, his saxophone takes center stage, with the remaining orchestra playing around him.^[1] Both Bowie and Visconti praised McCaslin's saxophone contributions, with the latter telling Mojo: "It's one of the most soulful saxophone solos David and I have ever heard ... It always made us weep, especially the end part. He's such a passionate player."^[4]

Release[edit]

BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Guy Garvey premiered "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" on 12 October 2014.^[12] According to O'Leary, reception was mixed.^[1] Parlophone released "Sue" as a 10-inch single, with the catalogue number 1ORDB2014,^[13] and as a digital download on 17 November 2014 in the United Kingdom and 28 November 2014 in the United States.^[4]^[14] "Sue" was also included on the compilation album Nothing Has Changed, released on the same day.^[15] Kory Grow of Rolling Stone praised the track as "captivating", calling it a fitting addition to Bowie's catalogue.^[10] In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis gave the track a positive review, saying it was an indication that Bowie is not afraid to continue experimenting in new genres. He felt it was more of a "statement" than a song, after the "superior but relatively straightforward rock [The Next Day]". He was, however, critical of the song's inclusion on Nothing Has Changed, writing this makes it appear as an "afterthought".^[16] Michael Rancic of Exclaim! agreed, feeling its inclusion on the compilation "downplayed' the track.^[17]

Alongside the full 7:24 version, the single included the B-side "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" and a radio edit of "Sue", with a length of 4:01. This single edit, which contains only six verses instead of eight, is accompanied by a monochrome music video directed by Tom Hingston, who previously created a short clip for The Next Day track "I'd Rather Be High".^[1]^[4]^[18] Shot in London, the video features clips of Bowie performing in a studio alongside the orchestra that were filmed during the July session by Jimmy Miller. Concurrently, lyrics are projected onto a wall while a silhouetted figure weaves in and out of lamplights on a darkened street. Pegg describes the video as "a noirish assemblage with echoes of The Third Man".^[4]

At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2016, Schneider won the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for her work on "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)".^[19]

– 1ORDB2014^[20]

Parlophone