Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: 15 November 1971
Producers: Ken Scott, David Bowie
Released: 14 June 2024
Available on:
Rock ‘N’ Roll Star!
Personnel
David Bowie: vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar
Mick Ronson: acoustic guitar
Trevor Bolder: bass guitar
Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey: drums, percussion
‘It’s Gonna Rain Again’ was recorded by David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars during the Ziggy Stardust sessions in November 1971.
The song was performed live on a handful of occasions by Bowie during the summer of 1971. A full band recording was taped at Trident Studios on 15 November 1971, along with versions of ‘Five Years’ and ‘Shadow Man’.
The song’s mainly acoustic arrangement and Bo Diddley beat hark back to the days of Space Oddity, half a world away from the glam rock stylings of the Ziggy era.
The song is perhaps most notable for Bowie’s first mention in song of cocaine. He would return to the subject in a number of other songs, most notably on Aladdin Sane and Station To Station. The same verse also refers to a market square, as Bowie more famously did on ‘Five Years’.
Doctor called on me today, said I had a thing
Said, ‘Take down this tablet,’ took away half my brain
Said, ‘Was that an asprin?’ I said, ‘No it was full of cocaine’
So I sat into my easy chair, grooved around the market square
Everybody said I looked insane
Unusually, ‘It’s Gonna Rain Again’ remained in the vaults while many other Ziggy outtakes were released on reissues. It finally found a release in the 2024 box set Rock ‘N’ Roll Star!. It was the only song in the set not to have been released in any prior form.