Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT On Writing DOWN 'N' OUTZ DAVID BOWIE Tribute Goodnight Mr. Jones

Wednesday, 6th November 2019

JOE ELLIOTT On Writing DOWN 'N' OUTZ DAVID BOWIE Tribute Goodnight Mr. Jones

Down 'n' Outz 2019

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has spoken once more about the new Down 'n' Outz David Bowie tribute song Goodnight Mr. Jones.

Joe spoke to Classic Rock Magazine to promote the new Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll album.

The first album to feature all new original material written by Joe and one cover version was announced on 15th August.

Joe has discussed the song with Classic Rock Magazine along with all of the other tracks on the album.

He revealed that the song contains a drum sample from the Cybernauts version of Bowie's song Five Years by drummer Woody Woodmansey who also played on the original song.

Watch all video via the playlist including a new lyric video for the title track.

The song is a tribute to the late great David Bowie whose real name was David Jones.

Joe references hearing the news of Bowie's death in January 2016 and the impact it had on him as noted in his initial tribute posted online at the time.

A Stripped Down version of this song was released as the traditional bonus track on the Japanese SHM-CD edition of the album.

Read the full interview at the Classic Rock website linked below.

Joe w/ David Bowie 1999

Classic Rock - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Goodnight Mr. Jones

"This wasn't written until a couple years after he [David Bowie] died. I was toying with the music, and I was aware of the fact that if somebody came along and put a gun to my head and asked, 'what does it sound a bit like?', I'd say, 'well it sounds a bit like Life On Mars,' at least with the tempo.

"I wanted a few off the cuff references to previous song titles, but not too many. I remember once hearing song by Barclay James Harvest where they just literally sang every Beatles song title [Titles, from 1975's Time Honoured Ghosts], and I wanted it to be a lot more subtle than that. So I threw in a few."

"And 'Station to Station' [a line from the song] isn't just a name check of his album title. It was actually based on a photograph of Mick Rock's, where he shows you Bowie and Mick Ronson sat in a British Rail train carriage having lambchop and peas.

"It just kept building and building, and without even saying it Paul [Guerin, guitarist] just knew we had to sound like Ronson. And when we started putting the end together, I said the tempo was perfect for the Five Years [track from Ziggy Stardust] drum part.

"We own the master tapes of the Cybernauts [Bowie tribute act featuring Elliott, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and former Bowie drummer Woody Woodmansey], so we actually sampled him. So it's Woody Woodmansey doing the end part, which takes into all the right areas."

Down 'n' Outz - This Is How We Roll - CD

01 - Another Man’s War - 4:17
02 - This Is How We Roll - 3:06
03 - Goodnight Mr. Jones - 5:08
04 - Creatures - 4:37
05 - Last Man Standing - 4:29
06 - Music Box - 1:07
07 - Boys Don’t Cry - 3:55
08 - Walking to Babylon - 5:42
09 - Let It Shine - 6:03
10 - Music Box Reprise/Griff’s Lament - 0:46
11 - White Punks on Dope (The Tubes cover) - 6:22
12 - The Destruction of Hideous Objects Part 3 - 1:00
13 - Goodnight Mr. Jones (Stripped Down Version) - 5:10 - (Japanese Bonus Track)
Total Time - 46 Minutes