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"Subterraneans" is a song by David Bowie from his album Low (1977). "Subterraneans" is mostly instrumental, with brief, obscure lyrics sung near the song's end.
The final song of Low, "Subterraneans" was meant to invoke the misery of those in East Berlin during the Cold War.
"Subterraneans" was ultimately the most heavily edited song on Low, with the reversed instrument sounds, saxophone, and multilayered synthesizers from Brian Eno which float underneath a moaned vocal that is worldless until about the final ninety seconds. The synthesiser melody is identical to a motif from Edward Elgar's "Nimrod", the 9th Enigma Variation.
The piece was rumoured to be originally intended for use in the soundtrack to the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie played the lead role. Though this rumour was false, the reversed track used as the bassline in this piece was actually the only remaining intact part of the film soundtrack that Bowie used on the Low album.
The lyrics are amongst Bowie's most inaccessible, and—superficially at least—seem to make no sense. Bowie reports that during the recording of Low he was "intolerably bored" with conventional narrative rock and roll lyrics. The lyrics of "Subterraneans" seem to resemble the "cut-up" technique popularized by William S. Burroughs, which Bowie had previously used and expressed admiration for.
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