David Bowie & Pat Metheny Group – This Is Not America
#quotefromthe80s
A little piece of you
The little piece in me
Will die (This could be a miracle)
For this is not America
#DavidBowie #PatMetheny #ThisIsNotAmerica
One of the most original clues left by David Bowie’s adventure through the 80s is undoubtedly the song This Is Not America, which was part of the film The Falcon and the Snowman, directed by the English director John Schlesinger and set in Mexico. The film tells the story of two friends played by Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn who, although separated from the events of life, reunite in a counterintelligence affair. Timothy Hutton plays the character of Chris, a lover of falconry, whose nickname is the Falcon, while the Snowman is the drug addict and drug dealer Sean in the character of Daulton.
The soundtrack of this film had been entrusted to various authors, including the great guitarist Pat Metheny, who was and certainly is a great composer, but his music is above all instrumental. And so he created an instrumental piece for the film’s soundtrack, and this song was titled Chris, as the name of the protagonist.
The production company was satisfied with the music, but thought it appropriate to add words and above all a voice, and at a some point they thought of David Bowie, and proposed him to Metheny. Pat willingly accepted, after all it was always on the music he had created, and then singing was not his ambition. However, good Pat left out a small detail: he had no idea who David Bowie was! Yes, perhaps he had heard his name, one of the many English singers, but he would never have been able to quote one of Bowie’s songs, even those who were famous in the 80s, like Let’s Dance or China Girl.
The meeting was scheduled for a few weeks later, also because Bowie had to come from Switzerland where he lived and produced his songs. Luckily Pat had the opportunity to read up on David Bowie and hear his songs, in order to realize the depth of the character and in the end he was found prepared. Among other things, not only was the voice missing, it was also lacking the words, so the best thing was to show Bowie a preliminary version of the film (the final version was not ready yet) so that he could write a suitable text.
Bowie really liked the film, and in a short time he was completely immersed in the atmosphere. After a while he proposed some titles, including a phrase that you hear in the film, with a Mexican man who just screams “This is not America!”.
Bowie returned to Switzerland with the promise that he would work on lyrics and voices, and so he did. Among other things, at a certain point he wanted to put some notes sung by a choir of voices. The interesting thing is that the three voices we hear are all by David Bowie, recorded separately and beautifully harmonized. Even the famous verse “sha-la-la-la-la” was David Bowie’s invention for a passage in the song where he couldn’t find a lyrics, but he didn’t want to leave it just in music.
The video of This is not America consists only of scenes from the film, and perhaps the peculiarity is that David Bowie himself never appears! The scenes are edited in a seemingly random manner, but the video has something disturbing about it. Maybe it’s the scenes of the hawk in flight, or the many oddities we see in the video, but it certainly leaves you quite restless. However, it made me want to see this film again and hear again this fabulous song of the White Duke, and what about you?
David Bowie and Pat Metheny on Wikipedia
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