Hear Me Out: David Bowie, '’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore'

“’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore,” David Bowie’s newly released single off the upcoming retrospective “Nothing Has Changed,” blends classic rock music and modernism with flair typical of the iconic art rocker. Built on a skeleton of anxious synth beats and irregular, high-pitched piano notes, the song emerges as a weirdly compelling jumble of sound: it isn’t catchy, but it attracts in its strange patterns and contrasts. Bowie’s vocals, too, add an element of interest. Soft, emotional, and muted, heard as if through a wall, they follow a surprisingly simple melody quite at odds with the surrounding instrumental cacophony.

The point of it all, according to Bowie, has to do with abstract painting and World War I. “If Vorticists wrote Rock Music, it might have sounded like this,” he explains on his Facebook page. The Vorticists practiced in 20th-century Britain, working in bold color, quasi-cubist shapes, and semi-representational forms. It’s an odd comparison to make, but it’s also an apt one: “’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” does seem explosive, straddling the line between the direct and abstract.

The lyrics in particular evince this balancing act. “’Tis a pity she was a whore / ’tis my curse, I suppose,” Bowie sings. “That was patrol / that was patrol / this is the war.” The words, while spoken in familiar phrases, describe a somewhat metaphorical situation.

A hint for how to interpret them might lie in another of Bowie’s remarks about the track. “The song acknowledges the shocking rawness of the First World War,” Bowie writes on Facebook. Indeed, gunshots can be heard in the first part of the song, along with a beat that seems like a marching rhythm.

“’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” has some high intellectual aims, and though it certainly won’t end up stuck in anyone’s head anytime soon, Bowie enthusiasts will have a good time trying to unravel its mysteries.

“Nothing Has Changed,” David Bowie’s latest compilation album, came out Nov. 17 via Parlophone.