Songfacts®:

• This somber torch ballad is one of four new songs that David Bowie wrote for his musical, Lazarus. First performed in New York in December 2015, Lazarus was one of the last works Bowie completed before his death the following month. Bowie recorded his own versions of the quartet of tunes he had penned for the musical using the same jazz troupe, led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin, that featured on the Blackstar album.
• This song was first recorded in January 2015 for possible inclusion on Blackstar but was left off the final tracklisting. Bowie and his jazz musicians redid it a couple of months later. McClaslin recalled to Mojo:
  
  "We redid No Plan in March - there was more tinkering with the instrumentation than we did with the others, and more takes. On this version I play a bunch of flutes and some clarinet, and low-end tenor sax stuff to support Bowie's vocal. But it was really interesting how Bowie was playing with form, dropping this unusual five-bar phrase, then next time you come around to it, it's a seven-bar phrase. And this diminished triad he inverts. And it's a beautiful melody."
• The tune, sung by Sophia Anne Caruso in the play and on the cast album, came fairly early in the songwriting process for Lazarus. The Mojo interviewer commented to McCaslin that the song "feels quite Broadway." McCaslin responded:
  
  "It is a bit more like a show tune. In fact the second time we approached it he sent a new demo. First time was David and guitar; this one had an acoustic piano - which turned out to be Henry Hey - and a female singer; and she had a dramatic, musical theatre approach. Clearly this one was always going to be for the play."
• The music video was directed by the London graphic designer Tom Hingston, who previously shot the clips for Bowie's "I'd Rather Be High" and "Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)."
  
  The visual features TV screens in an electrical shop window showing images of Bowie and lyrics to the song. The name of the shop – Newton Electrical - is a nod to the main character in Lazarus, Thomas Newton. According to Time Out London, the shop is actually a laundrette on Endwell Road in Brockley, South London.
• Hingston told It's Nice That about his vision for the video:
  
  "First and foremost, the film was intended as a gift to the fans, on what would have been David's 70th birthday. For this reason, I wanted to infuse the piece with a number of knowing references, that any discerning fan would recognize and understand. So, the name of the street, the name of the shop, multiple screens, the bluebird, the rocket, and in fact the electric blue of the monitors themselves.
  
  It was really important to me that we set out to make something much more emotive than just a lyric piece. The words of the song do play a central part, of course, but it's as much about the surrounding situation and setting. There is a theme of disembodiment within the track and this sense of occupying another space, which is not of this time, indeed in places the song itself is out of time. So I wanted to create a situation which felt familiar, yet somehow out of place; a recognisable street setting, with its day-to-day rhythms and an otherworldly scene playing out within it.
  
  I also wanted to give a gentle nod back to the Lazarus stage show, which the track is taken from. I remember reading an interview a while back with the writer Enda Walsh, in which he talked about his early conversations with David around the show. They spoke about the notion of a stained glass window and how this could be used as a visual metaphor to tell a series of stories through one central image – I thought that was such a lovely point of reference. For me, the shop window and the screens form a device which allows the story to play out, yet viewed through a somewhat fractured lens.
  
  Above all, No Plan is a very beautiful song and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to create something special for it."