David Bowie – I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)
The Next Day album track gets a psychedelic makeover at the last gasp of The Year Of Bowie.
DAVID BOWIE’S MASTERFUL EXERCISE in absence has been one of the events of 2013. Indeed, in the current issue of MOJO Dorian Lynskey tackles the subject of the current vogue for artists to drip-feed music into the marketplace and to use the latest social media tools to re-create a sense of mystique. If Bowie’s ability to turn silence into a virtue has been significant, then it has not meant a lack of activity. The man has clearly enjoyed unveiling elements of The Next Day album campaign at his own well-managed pace.
I’d Rather Be High has previously been used on a Louis Vuitton ad but is transformed on this new version into a piece of modern psychedelia, its romantic, Proustian themes of times past mirrored in the images that accompany the tune.
I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix) is released on a special white vinyl 12-inch which itself is a work of some splendour, and is housed in a unique die-cut sleeve designed by Bowie collaborator and all-round Adbuster, Jonathan Barnbrook.
Watching the video, we wondered whether we should start a Facebook campaign to get the track to Number One this Christmas. And then we realized that was so 2009…