42 years ago today on 11 April 1974, Bowie’s record label RCA, impatient for new material and having already rush-released ‘Rebel Rebel’ from the Diamond Dogs sessions, arbitrarily picked ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’ for single release. ‘Quicksand’ from ‘Hunky Dory’ was chosen as the B-side.
Two years old, the song was already in Bowie fans’ possession via the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album. The fact that it reached number 22 in the UK charts – Bowie’s first RCA single to miss the British Top 20 since ‘Changes’ in January 1972 – is testament to Bowie’s commercial stock at the time. Unfortunately this also gave RCA the green light to plunder his back catalogue throughout the 70’s whenever they were short of a few bob.