When I Met You

Album: Lazarus (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This clattering rock track is one of four new tunes that David Bowie wrote for his musical, Lazarus. The song is a touching ode to having a life turned around by a special person. American jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin who played on the track told Mojo:

    "My general sense was that it kind of harked back to older Bowie - Tim Lefebvre (who played bass) might of said Lodger. Also, the acoustic guitar made me think of a kind of African highlife thing.

    Listening back to the demo of this, and reading his e-mails again, it's emotional. He had a beautiful way of describing things. 'The structure of When I Met You is sound but now we need to mess with it so we hear it from another angle. Put in a couple of passages in the corner (In darkness) and throw a small pen-light beam on the rest -like a PI scouting a motel room.' He's never saying something like, 'Can I have a bass drum on two or four? It's more these kind of images. If you read that to four different drummers you'd get four different responses. He would do that a lot, say these poetic things that were also an invitation for you to think, So, how do I realize that."

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