Black Screen

Album: American Dream (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • LCD Soundsystem mainman James Murphy closes the band's American Dream album with this 12-minute epic in which he recalls his friendship with his hero David Bowie.

    I had fear in the room
    So I stopped turning up
    My hands kept pushing down
    In my pockets
    I'm bad with people things
    But I should have tried more


    Murphy was approached to co-produce Blackstar, Bowie's final record. He declined, lacking confidence in his abilities, a decision he regrets now: "It takes a different kind of person than me to walk into that room and be like, I know exactly… I belong here," the LCD frontman told BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac. "I should definitely insert myself in this relationship because they just can't manage to make a record without me."
  • Been watching images
    From the station
    Earth one from satellites
    All streaming
    Feels slow at seventeen thousand miles an hour
    You could be anywhere
    On the black screen


    Murphy references Bowie's frequent use of space-related themes such as "Space Oddity" and "Starman," as well as the Black Star album title.
  • Murphy planned to borrow Leonard Cohen's services for a spoken word section on this song, before the Canadian passed away. "When I worked on the last song of the record, I said I wanted a spoken word bit done at the end", he told Crack Magazine.

    "I said it would be amazing to have Lou Reed on the end of that song but he'd died. But then I said 'I feel like I could talk to Leonard Cohen, let's call Leonard Cohen and maybe he'll do it' and then he died like three days later and I'm like… 'f--k off'. I'm not going to ask anybody else because they're just going to die."

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