“It’s absolutely heartbreaking”: Jehnny Beth on her favourite David Bowie song
Over the past two decades, Jehnny Beth has repeatedly shown herself to be among the most prolific and gifted artists on the scene. Her work with post-punk revivalists Savages, as well as her solo projects and collaborations with the likes of Gorillaz and Bobby Gillespie, form some of the finest recent moments in alternative rock, although she often goes underappreciated by the musical mainstream.
If you have ever listened to the infallible work of Jehnny Beth, you are probably aware of her deep appreciation for those who came before her. A self-professed music obsessive, Beth rarely passes up on an opportunity to heap praise on the artists who inspired her on her path towards musical greatness. From the undisputed excellence of Nina Simone to the hip-hop icon of Kendrick Lamar, Beth’s musical taste seems to be as vast and varied as her own body of work.
As is to be expected from any music aficionado, Beth holds a particular place in her heart for the incredible songwriting of Brixton’s favourite son, David Bowie. Perhaps one of the greatest songwriters of all time, there aren’t many things you can say about Bowie that haven’t already been said countless times. However, much of the discourse surrounding the rock and roll icon focuses largely on his glam rock era, the Ziggy Stardust period, which first cemented him as a musical genius. For the Pop Noire founder, however, Bowie’s later work deserves just as much praise, if not more.
Discussing her influences with The Line of Best Fit back in 2019, Beth revealed her deep appreciation for Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. The album is regularly hailed among Bowie’s finest work, released only two days before his death in January of 2016. His illness was not known by many at the time, and so the tracks on Blackstar took on another meaning after his sudden death, a kind of self-penned obituary for an artist who has done so much to inspire musicians across the world. “I remember when Bowie died, I was in L.A. at the time,” Beth shared, “it was the middle of the night at four or five am. I was listening to his music in bed, and I was crying.”
Bowie’s swan song album contains Beth’s all-time favourite Bowie track, ‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’. Curiously, though, the songwriter prefers Trent Reznor’s remix of the song to the original album mix, “It’s one of those rare occasions where the remix is better than the original,” she claimed, “I hadn’t heard it before, but a friend sent it to me, and I was blown away; it’s absolutely heart-breaking and extremely well done.”
While picking a remix of a Bowie track as your favourite work by the songwriter might cause an aneurysm within the minds of rock purists, Beth certainly doesn’t view it that way. Justifying her choice, she argued, “Trent’s collaborations with Bowie give him all the credit to be able to remix a Bowie song and make it a masterpiece, but also it’s a very high-level craft that he does, and that’s why I love it.”
Bowie himself clearly held an appreciation for the Nine Inch Nails musician, having worked with him numerous times since the 1990s, most notably on the Dissonance tour in 1995. Reznor’s remix of the Blackstar track often goes overshadowed by the tragic scenario surrounding the album’s release, but, as Beth can attest to, it is well worth a revisit.
