Rebel Rebel
by David Bowie
- 125
- BPM
- A major
- Key
- 11B
- Camelot
- 64
- Danceability
- 21
- Acousticness
David Bowie began "Rebel Rebel" alone at Trident Studios in London in the week after Christmas 1973, on what turned out to be his last known visit to the studio he had used since 1968. He finished it in January 1974 at Ludolph Studios in the Netherlands.
At the session he told bassist Herbie Flowers and guest guitarist Alan Parker that he wanted it to sound like the Stones, and picked up Parker's black Les Paul to play them the riff. Parker finished it before the rest of the backing track was cut. He later said Bowie came up with the riff to annoy Mick Jagger, and he was upset to find himself uncredited. Flowers remembered that Bowie played the riff to Parker and Parker made sure it was good enough to record. Mick Ronson was absent, and Bowie played guitar on almost all of Diamond Dogs.
The song was planned in late 1973 for an aborted Ziggy Stardust musical. RCA released it on February 15, 1974 as the lead single from Diamond Dogs, with "Queen Bitch" on the B-side. It reached number five in the UK and number 64 in the US. A shorter US mix with extra percussion came out in May, was soon withdrawn, and was replaced by the UK version.
Rebel Rebel runs at 125 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.92 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 480 ms. It is in A major, Camelot 11B, which shares its notes with F# minor and mixes cleanly with D major and E major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.