On 28 February 2003 Bowie performed ‘Heathen (The Rays)’ with backing from guitarist Gerry Leonard and the Scorchio Quartet, in an arrangement scored by Tony Visconti, at the Tibet House Benefit Concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He played ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘5:15 The Angels Have Gone’, ‘Heathen (The Rays)’, and ‘Look Back In Anger’. Two days later Bowie made a final appearance on the BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland. Broadcast on 5 October as David Bowie – Live and Exclusive, it featured a 10-song set: ‘Sunday’, ‘Look Back In Anger’, ‘Cactus’, ‘Survive’, ‘5:15 The Angels Have Gone’, ‘Alabama Song’, ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi”, ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘The Bewlay Brothers’, and ‘Heathen (The Rays)’. On 18 September 2002, Bowie and his band recorded a session for BBC Radio 2 at London’s Maida Vale Studios.

A live version from November 2003 at The Point in Dublin, Ireland, was included on the DVD and album A Reality Tour. The song remained a fixture of Bowie’s set throughout the Heathen Tour and A Reality Tour. The first two occasions were concerts at which he performed the Low and Heathen albums in their entirety – on 11 June 2002 at New York’s Roseland Ballroom, in a show for BowieNet subscribers, and 29 June at the Bowie-curated Meltdown Festival at London’s Festival Hall. Livewire magazine, 16 June 2002 Live performancesĭavid Bowie performed ‘Heathen (The Rays)’ 118 times between 20. We are arriving and departing all at the same time. The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We create so many circles on this straight line we’re told we’re traveling. He makes a couple of casual appearances in the Old, but only as an irritating obstacle. The devil only really appears in the New Testament. I just think of it as all dysfunctionalism of one kind of another. I don’t believe in some force outside of ourselves that creates bad things. There, I’m using that old language again. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts. On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. It’s an odd feeling, like something else is guiding you, although forcing your hand is more like it. In the distance a car was driving slowly past the reservoir and these words were just streaming out and there were tears running down my face. It was early in the morning, the sun was rising and through the windows I could see two deer grazing down below in the field. There was something so ominous and final about it. Strangely, some songs you really don’t want to write.

Allaire studios new york