When I Met You

Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: 3 January; 5 May 2015
Producers: David Bowie, Tony Visconti

Released: 21 October 2016

Available on:
No Plan EP
Lazarus soundtrack

Personnel

‘When I Met You’ was written by David Bowie for the musical Lazarus. It was first released on the play’s soundtrack album, and later on the No Plan EP.

The song appears towards the end of Lazarus, during a scene in which Thomas Jerome Newton looks back on events in his life. It was sung by Michael C Hall and Krystina Alabado on the original cast recording.

He had a Zoom recorder, a multitrack four-track recorder, except it’s all digital. He would record stuff on that and he had a drum machine and he would play guitar, not great, and it was sort of charming. Some of those demos, in spite of the fact that they were slapped together quickly, had a real finesse to them that I loved, especially ‘When I Met You’.

The demo that he sent me of that was so raw, and there was this strummy guitar that was kind of badly played and mid-rangey and I thought it was so perfect for the song that I went on to include it in the Lazarus arrangement and instruct the second guitarist to play like that. Thinner and not completely in time, just because it needed to have that weird space in Lazarus.

Bowie’s version was recorded during the Blackstar sessions. The backing track was taped at New York’s Magic Shop studio on 3 January 2015, and Bowie’s vocals at Human Worldwide on 5 May.

The No Plan EP was released on 21 October 2016, as a digital download and on compact disc and vinyl. ‘When I Met You’ was the last of four songs on the EP.