Jump They Say

The song dealt with Bowie's feelings for his schizophrenic half-brother Terry Burns, who had died by suicide on 16 January 1985 when he walked in front of a train at Coulsdon South railway station, having previously been held in Cane Hill Hospital.[5][6] Lyrically, the song is loosely based on Burns and Bowie's relationship with and memories of him.[5] Musically, the influence of Nile Rodgers led to a funk-based sound, though the track was also influenced by contemporary jazz, with a solo from avant-jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie.

Released on 15 March 1993 as the lead-off single,[2] "Jump They Say" received a considerable promotional push from Bowie's new label, Savage Records (though Arista Records distributed the package in Europe). A striking video was shot by Mark Romanek, depicting Bowie as a businessman paranoid of his colleagues, who seemingly conduct experiments on him and find him a disturbing influence, forcing him to jump from the roof of the corporate building to his death. The video is heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Alphaville, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), as well as Chris Marker's film La Jetée and Orson Welles' The Trial – both from 1962. The uniformed women shown monitoring Bowie through high powered telescopes are an homage to the stewardesses in the Pan-Am space plane in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe,[4] and was praised by Entertainment Weekly after Bowie died in 2016, saying "Bowie is an excellent actor, and this video may be his best character performance in a music video."[7]

The song, while not Bowie's first release since Tin Machine, was pushed as a comeback single, and reached No. 9 in the UK charts – Bowie's only top 10 single between 1986's "Absolute Beginners" and 2013's "Where Are We Now?".[8]

Upon the release, Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Peek into Bowie's first solo album in eons is a kinetic pop/funk throwdown. That incomparable voice wafts over a barrage of jangly guitars, wriggling rhythms, and jolting horns. New collaboration with "Let's Dance" co-producer Nile Rodgers has the potential to meet with similar top 40 approval, although innovative batch of remixes is already shaping up to be a club favorite here and abroad. A most welcome return."[9] Jon Selzer from Melody Maker complimented the song as "sophisticated, mock-wayward funk, pretending it's balancing precariously over a tightrope when it's really on solid ground." He added that it's "by far the best thing he's done" since "Let's Dance".[10] Alan Jones from Music Week named it Pick of the Week, describing it as "a typical theatrically crooned throwback to his glory days", and adding, "Club-goers will glory in the Brothers In Rhythm/Leftfield mixes which drag it on to the dancefloor."[11] Parry Gettelman from Orlando Sentinel felt that jazz trumpet player Lester Bowie's brief entrance "enlivens the otherwise pastel "Jump They Say", which recurs as a remix toward the end of the album."[12] A reviewer from Philadelphia Inquirer constated that Bowie "reaffirms his commitment to arty dance-rock",[13] while Reading Evening Post complimented the song is "surprisingly good".[14] James Hamilton from the RM Dance Update noted "his droning adenoidal vocal".[15]

In an 2017 retrospective review, Quentin Harrison from Albumism noted that "that romantic energy" from Bowie's marriage to Iman "put a skip in the sonic step of some of the set's darker material", like "Jump They Say". He saw the song lyrically "engage with the personal conflicts that matter to Bowie."[16] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic remarked the "paranoid jumble" of the song, naming it one of the "moments" from the album, that "are the first in a long time to feel classically Bowie".[17]

Bowie performed the song live on the Arsenio Hall Show in May 1993, and it was performed occasionally on his Outside Tour of 1995–96.[5] A live version of the song was released on the concert album No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95) (2020).

The radio edit version has appeared on some editions of the compilations Bowie: The Singles 1969–1993 (1993), Best of Bowie (2002), Nothing Has Changed (2014), and Bowie Legacy (2016). The Leftfield 12" vocal mix was released on a UK limited release of the single "Little Wonder" in January 1997. The "JAE-E edit" (called "alternate mix") was released as a bonus track on the CD-version of Black Tie White Noise. On the bonus disc following the 10th anniversary edition of Black Tie White Noise, three remixes of "Jump They Say" appeared: "Rock Mix", "Brothers in Rhythm 12" Remix" and "Dub Oddity".

According to Chris O'Leary:[5]

• David Bowie – lead and backing vocal, saxophone
• Nile Rodgers – rhythm guitar
• Barry Campbell or John Regan – bass
• Richard Hilton, Dave Richards, Philippe Saisse, Richard Tee – keyboards
• Poogie Bell or Sterling Campbell – drums
• Lester Bowie – trumpet
• Fonzi Thornton, Tawatha Agee, Curtis King, Jr., Dennis Collins, Brenda White-King, Maryl Epps – background vocals
• Dale Schalow – programming

Technical

• David Bowie – producer
• Nile Rodgers – producer
• Jon Goldberger, Gary Tole, Andrew Grassi – engineering

• O'Leary, Chris (2019). Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie 1976–2016. London: Repeater. ISBN 978-1-91224-830-8.
• Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (Revised and Updated ed.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-78565-365-0.