the Visitor

"Bowie had been lined up to record an all-new score for The Man Who Fell to Earth, but this had fallen apart owing to various business wranglings as well as doubts on the part of the director and other executives about the early demo tracks Bowie laid down. The score was ultimately provided by John Philips, formerly of The Mamas and Papas.  But the tentative direction pursued for the abortive Bowie soundtrack – “slow and spacey cues with synth, Rhodes and cello” and “a couple of weirder, atonal cues using synths and percussion,” according to Paul Buckmaster, who worked on the sessions – would blossom with Low...

"These four anguished atmospheres on Side 2  are a tantalizing glimpse of what the score to The Man Who Fell to Earth could have been. (Bowie sent Low to Roeg with a note saying, “This is what I wanted to do for you.”) You could even imagine this music as the album in the movie that we never get to hear, made by alien Thomas Jerome Newton’s alter-ego, The Visitor. Certainly there are precious few terrestrial precedents for the genre Bowie invents here."  

David Bowie is The Man Who Fell To Earth – Epilogue - What Happened to The Visitor? – 2017 from Nacho's Productions on Vimeo.


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