David Bowie Gave a Rolling Stones Song a Double Meaning

Two of the classic rock icons who defined the 1970s were David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. In some ways, the two couldn’t have been more different, but the “Fame” star once put his own spin on a Rolling Stones song. Bowie’s version had a little more subtext than the original.

David Bowie made The Rolling Stones’ ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ a glam rock song

The Rolling Stones were a versatile group. They released songs in numerous genres, including psychedelia, disco, country, pop, and blues. However, they are most comfortable making meat-and-potatoes rock ‘n’ roll. An example of The Rolling Stones making a basic rock song they could have written in their sleep is “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” In terms of instrumentation, the tune would have sounded old-fashioned when it came out in 1967. 

Enter Bowie. He covered the track for his classic record Aladdin Sane. The is more energetic and glamorous. Bowie did a much better job bringing out the fun in a simple song than its writers did.

David Bowie gave the song a a social subtext

Bowie’s “Let’s Spend the Night Together” is more interesting than The Rolling Stones” because of its outro. The “Let’s Dance” singer added a coda to “Let’s Spend the Night Together” where he says that the attraction between himself and his lover is divine even if society doesn’t understand it.

At the time, Bowie might have been the most famous bisexual on earth. His rewrite of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” clearly resonates with the LGBTQ community. At a time when LGBTQ people faced intense discrimination across the globe, he told them they should be happy to love who they loved.

Why The Rolling Stones censored the song for Ed Sullivan

Today, “Let’s Spend the Night Together” is primarily famous for being censored on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan insisted The Rolling Stones change the main lyric to “Let’s spend some time together.” In the 2013 book 50 Licks: Myths and Stories from Half a Century of the Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman discussed the issue. “If it was England we probably wouldn’t have bothered to go through with it,” he recalled. “But the Sullivan Show was quite important at the time, reached 60 million people or so, and it was our only shot since you had to agree not to do another big show one month before or after being on it.”

Wyman had a somewhat dim view of Sullivan. “Do you remember when The Supremes came on his show and it came time for him to make the announcement?” the rocker asked. “He said, ‘Ahnd naow, ladies and gen’lmen, for your enjoyment, the … the … the …’ and the curtains open and he says, ‘the girls.’ He had one line to say every 10 minutes, but he couldn’t handle it. Every time we were on the show he had to do four re-takes of whatever he was saying. ‘Heeeeeere’s The Rolling Stones with their new record … er … uh …’ He must have been all right at one time. Otherwise he never would have gotten the show, right?”

Thanks to the combined efforts of The Rolling Stones, Bowie, and Sullivan, “Let’s Spend the Night Together” will always have a small place in rock ‘n’ roll history.