This is the title track of the 24th studio album by David Bowie, which was recorded in secret with producer Tony Visconti over a two-year period. Visconti told The Ottawa Citizen that during breaks from the studio, he would walk the streets of New York listening to music from The Next Day. "I was walking around New York with my headphones on," he recalled, "looking at all the people with Bowie T-shirts on - they are ubiquitous here - thinking, 'Boy, if you only knew what I'm listening to at the moment.'"
Long-term Bowie Collaborator Tony Visconti has known the British musician since 1967 and has worked on numerous classics with him including his Berlin trilogy.
According to Visconti, Bowie was reading historical books during the recording of The Next Day and this is one of a couple of tracks that were inspired by medieval events. The producer told NME that this song is, "about the taking down of some kind of historical tyrant, someone in antiquity that I think was killed by a mob. It's quite graphic what they do in the lyrics."
Visconti told Billboard magazine: "The title track is one of the gorier songs. It's kind of like a Hammer Horror film lyric to it, pretty gory. But I think David's very multi-level; 'The Next Day' could also mean this is the new day or this is a new album, this is a new me. But I'm speculating."
The Next Day was Bowie's ninth #1 on the UK album chart, and his first chart-topper since Black Tie White Noise in 1993.
The song's music video was directed by photographer Floria Sigismondi and created by Bowie as a companion piece to the song's lyric. The religious-themed clip features the singer dressed as an apostle while British actor Gary Oldman plays a priest and French actress Marion Catillard a prostitute who suffers a particularly messy case of stigmata. Bowie and Oldman previously worked together on the 1996 biopic Basquiat. The pair also provided vocals on the 1995 track "You've Been Around" on Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels's solo album The Sacred Squall of Now.
The video's mixture of religious imagery and horror elements triggered criticisms from various Christian organizations. William Anthony Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, wrote on the organization's website: "The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women."
He went on to question whether Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery.
The Next Day album sleeve was created by the British designer Jonathan Bambrook, who also fashioned the packaging for Heathen and Reality. It obscures Bowie's 1977 LP Heroes cover with a white square. He explained to NME: "It's about the spirit of rock music, which is 'of the moment.' The new LP is contemplative and the Heroes cover matched this mood."
Gary Oldman admitted to the Daily Mail's Event Magazine that he wasn't paid for his role in the video and that he agreed because he has been friends with Bowie for years. "Dave just shot me an email, out of the blue, saying, 'Do you want to come and play a priest for a day?'" he recalled. "It was all done for a sandwich and a bottle of pop. We actually shot it in a place that's about 10 minutes from my house. There was no money in it."
Asked what he made of the controversy surrounding the clip's religious content, Oldman added: "People can make what they want of it, that's the point of a video like that. He's an artist, he makes you think."
