David Bowie – ‘Wild Is The Wind’ promo video

Video for the single release in November 1981

‘Wild Is The Wind’, from the Station To Station album was released as a single in November 1981 to support the release of Bowie’s greatest hits package ChangesTwoBowie.

It was accompanied by David Mallet’s handsomely shot monochrome video depicting Bowie and his musicians sitting in a circle against a black backdrop, faithful to the 1976 Isolar tour’s expressionist aesthetic.

“I think what we were trying to do when we were filming this was to keep in mind the style of the fifties jazz programmes that were on American television at that time,” Bowie explained.

Miming the roles of the musicians on the video are Tony Visconti on upright bass, Andy Hamilton on saxophone, Mel Gaynor (later of Simple Minds) on drums, and Bowie’s personal assistant Coco Schwab on guitar. This, and the almost identical promo for ‘The Drowned Girl’ filmed on the same day, are the only Bowie videos to feature either Schwab or Visconti.

While the single featured the full-length album version of the song, the video removed a verse, creating an otherwise unavailable 3’30” edit.

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