We All Go Through

Written by: David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels
Recorded: 1998-1999
Producers: David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels

Released: 20 September 1999

Available on:
Re:Call 5

Personnel

David Bowie: vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
Reeves Gabrels: guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
Mark Plati: bass guitar
Mike Levesque: drums

‘We All Go Through’ was a bonus track on the Japanese edition of David Bowie’s ‘hours…’ album, and a b-side of the ‘Thursday’s Child’ single.

The song originated as a home demo recorded by Reeves Gabrels in New York’s East Village.

Neither was ‘We All Go Through’ on the album as originally released, because to my surprise David decided it sounded too much like a George Harrison song. It was, though, included on a Japan-only release and laster, on a re-release of ‘hours…’ with bonus tracks. That song came to me in a dream in my NYC apartment. I climbed out of bed and sketched it out in the gray light of sunrise in my bathrobe, headphones on, playing a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar. By the time I left home that morning, most of the guitar and synth tracks were done. I carried them to the studio on a drive under my arm.

Initially, Gabrels intended to use the song on his 1999 solo album Ulysses (Della Notte), before it became a collaboration with Bowie.

Because the album was taking a decidedly more introspective turn, it meant that I needed to approach the guitar playing in a different way in order to wrap around the vocals and support the mood of the song in the solos. As co-writer and co-producer I had to be extra careful that the guitar player in me was responding to the lyric content of the songs. The music for ‘We All Go Through’, ‘Survive’ and ‘The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell’ came from songs that I had started for my solo record.

The track also appeared in the computer game Omikron: The Nomad Soul, which featured a number of tracks by Bowie and Gabrels. The game was developed by software company Quantic Dream, and released by Eidos Interactive in October 1999.

‘We All Go Through’ was one of the songs on Re:Call 5, a compilation of his non-album singles, single versions, remixes and b-sides included in the 2021 box set Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001).