I’ll Take You There

Written by: David Bowie, Gerry Leonard
Recorded: 12 September 2011; 2, 5, 14 March 2012
Producers: David Bowie, Tony Visconti
Engineers: Mario McNulty, Tony Visconti

Released: 4 November 2013

Available on:
The Next Day (Deluxe Edition)
The Next Day Extra

Personnel

David Bowie: vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards
Gerry Leonard, David Torn, Tony Visconti: guitar
Gail Ann Dorsey: bass guitar, vocals
Zachary Alford: drums
Alex Alexander: percussion
Janice Pendarvis: vocals

‘I’ll Take You There’ was, with ‘Boss Of Me’, one of two songs on David Bowie’s album The Next Day co-credited to Gerry Leonard.

In the summer of 2011, Bowie visited Leonard at the guitarist’s home in Woodstock, New York. They recorded demos together, and wrote new songs, including ‘I’ll Take You There’ and ‘Boss Of Me’. They were Bowie’s only co-credits on the album, apart from ‘How Does The Grass Grow?’, the chorus of which contained elements of The Shadows’ 1960 hit ‘Apache’.

In the studio

The backing track for ‘I’ll Take You There’ was recorded at New York’s Magic Shop studio on 12 September 2011, with Zachary Alford on drums and Heathen alumnus Tony Levin on bass guitar. ‘God Bless The Girl’ was laid down on the same day.

Gerry Leonard was brought back to the Magic Shop in March 2012 for more guitar overdubs.

He would disappear for a few months and then call up Tony Visconti to book another couple of weeks. I went back in March of 2012 for a couple of days to do more guitar over drums…

When I went back in 2012 they played me some partially mixed stuff. I’m always the one who fears the worst, but at that point I realized it was actually going to happen. Before that I was thinking, “Maybe he’s going to scrap it, or maybe he’s going down to Zimbabwe and make a record with people down there.”

On 2 March David Bowie added vocals to ‘You Feel So Lonely You Could Die’, ‘Like A Rocket Man’, and part of ‘I’ll Take You There’. The latter song had additional vocals recorded on 5 and 14 March.

The release

Twenty-nine songs were recorded for The Next Day. Fourteen were released on the standard version of the album, with three others – ‘So She’, ‘Plan’, and ‘I’ll Take You There’ – issued on the deluxe edition. ‘God Bless The Girl’ was included on the Japanese release.

The vinyl edition was a double-disc set. Initially announced for release on 25 March 2013, but delayed to 1 April, it contained the additional songs ‘So She’, ‘Plan’ and ‘I’ll Take You There’, as well as a CD copy of the album.

The Next Day Extra was released on 4 November 2013. The box set contained two CDs and a DVD. The first CD was of the standard album, while the second disc contained the additional tracks ‘Atomica’, ‘Plan’, ‘The Informer’, ‘Like A Rocket Man’, ‘Born In A UFO’, ‘I’ll Take You There’, ‘God Bless The Girl’, and ‘So She’, as well as two remixes: ‘Love Is Lost’ (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA) and ‘I’d Rather Be High’ (Venetian Mix).

A digital EP was also released to coincide with the box set. This consisted of seven songs from the second CD, excluding ‘Plan’, ‘I’ll Take You There’, and ‘So She’.