Cracked Actor (song)
| "Cracked Actor" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song by David Bowie | |
| from the album Aladdin Sane | |
| Released | 13 April 1973 |
| Recorded | January 1973 |
| Studio | Trident, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:56 |
| Label | RCA |
| Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
| Producer(s) | Ken Scott, David Bowie |
"Cracked Actor" is a song written by English musician David Bowie, originally released on the album Aladdin Sane in April 1973. The track was also issued as a single in Eastern Europe by RCA Records in June that year.
Background
With the release of his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and his performance of "Starman" on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in early July 1972, David Bowie was launched to stardom.[3] To support the album, Bowie embarked on the Ziggy Stardust Tour in both the UK and the US.[4][5] He composed most of the tracks for the follow-up record on the road during the US tour in late 1972.[6] Because of this, many of the tracks were influenced by America, and his perceptions of the country.[7]
"Cracked Actor" was written during Bowie's week-long stay in Los Angeles, California, in October 1972.[a][10] In Los Angeles, Bowie and an entourage of 46 people stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel.[8]
Music and lyrics
One of the album's hard rockers, the song is about an aging Hollywood star in an encounter with a prostitute, the chorus including various allusions to sex and drugs:[11]
- Crack, baby, crack, show me you're real
- Smack, baby, smack, is that all that you feel
- Suck, baby, suck, give me your head
- Before you start professing that you're knocking me dead
Rolling Stone suggested that Bowie's goal was "to strip the subject of his validity, as he has done with the rocker, as a step towards a re-definition of these roles and his own inhabiting of them".[12] However NME writers Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray considered that the song "reveals little else except that Bowie's capabilities with a mouth-harp are decidedly limited".[13]
Release and aftermath
"Cracked Actor" was released on 13 April 1973 on Bowie's sixth studio album Aladdin Sane, sequenced as the fifth track—the final on side one of the original LP[14]—between "Panic in Detroit" and "Time".[15] Each track was ascribed a location on the album label to indicate where it was written or took its inspiration; "Cracked Actor" was ascribed to Los Angeles, California.[14][16] Following its release on Aladdin Sane, "Cracked Actor" was issued as Bowie's first single for the Russian market, backed with "John, I'm Only Dancing". The timing was supposedly to cash in on publicity emanating from his trip through Eastern Europe on the Trans-Siberian Railway in April–May 1973, shortly before his final Ziggy Stardust tour in the UK.
"Cracked Actor" became a centrepiece of Bowie's 1974 North American tour when he would perform the song wearing sunglasses and holding a skull (à la Hamlet), which he would then proceed to French kiss.[17] The track also gave its name to Alan Yentob's documentary of the tour. In 1983 Bowie revived the song and the sunglasses-and-skull routine for his Serious Moonlight Tour.[11]
Personnel
According to Kevin Cann and Chris O'Leary:[14][18]
- David Bowie – lead vocal, harmonica
- Mick Ronson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
- Woody Woodmansey – drums, tambourine
Production
Live versions
- A live version recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 3 July 1973 was released on Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture.[19]
- A live version from the first leg of the 1974 tour was released on David Live.[20] A live recording from the second leg of the same tour was released in 2017 on Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74).[21]
- A concert performance recorded on 12 September 1983 was included on the live album Serious Moonlight (Live '83), which was part of the 2018 box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988) and was released separately the following year. The filmed performance appears on the concert video Serious Moonlight (1984).
- The song was performed live at the BBC Radio Theatre, Portland Place, London on 27 June 2000. This recording appeared on the limited edition bonus disk of Bowie at the Beeb.[11]
Other releases
- The track appeared on the Sound + Vision box set (1989).
Notes
- ^ Bowie performed two concerts in Santa Monica on 20 and 21 October; the first performance was recorded and later released as the bootleg Santa Monica '72,[8] which received an official release as Live Santa Monica '72 in 2008.[9]
References
- ^ Doggett 2012, p. 174.
- ^ Swanson, Dave (10 May 2014). "10 Underrated Glam Rock Stompers Worth Getting All Dolled Up For". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ Pegg 2016, p. 347.
- ^ Cann 2010, p. 268.
- ^ Pegg 2016, pp. 361–362.
- ^ Buckley 2005, p. 157.
- ^ Pegg 2016, p. 362.
- ^ a b Pegg 2016, p. 547.
- ^ Thornton, Anthony (1 July 2008). "David Bowie – 'Live: Santa Monica '72' review". NME. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^ Trynka 2011, p. 208.
- ^ a b c Pegg 2016, p. 66.
- ^ Ben Gerson (19 July 1973). "Aladdin Sane". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 October 2007.
- ^ Carr & Murray 1981, p. 54.
- ^ a b c Cann 2010, p. 292.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Aladdin Sane – David Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
- ^ Spitz 2009, pp. 214–215.
- ^ Steve Malins (2007). "My Set Is Amazing...", MOJO 60 Years of Bowie: p.47
- ^ O'Leary 2015, chap. 6.
- ^ Joe, Viglione. "Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "David Live – David Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^ Randle, Chris (29 June 2017). "David Bowie – Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) Album Review". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
Sources
- Cann, Kevin (2010). Any Day Now – David Bowie: The London Years: 1947–1974. Croyden, Surrey: Adelita. ISBN 978-0-95520-177-6.
- Carr, Roy; Murray, Charles Shaar (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record. London: Eel Pie Publishing. ISBN 978-0-38077-966-6.
- Doggett, Peter (2012). The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-202466-4.
- O'Leary, Chris (2015). Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from '64 to '76. Winchester: Zero Books. ISBN 978-1-78099-244-0.
- Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (Revised and Updated ed.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-78565-365-0.
- Spitz, Marc (2009). Bowie: A Biography. New York City: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-71699-6.
