"Blackout" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 in 1977 for the album "Heroes". Author Nicholas Pegg

Nicholas Pegg

Nicholas Pegg is a British actor, director and writer.A graduate of the University of Exeter, Pegg trained at the Guildford School of Acting. His acting work in the theatre includes productions for Nottingham Playhouse, Scottish Opera, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Plymouth...

 described the track as "typical of the darkly exhilarating sonic schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

 of the "Heroes" album”, while biographer David Buckley remarked on "a backing verging on industrial

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

".

Regarding its lyrics and subject matter, Bowie himself has claimed that "Blackout did indeed refer to power cuts

Power outage

A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...

". However NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

s Roy Carr

Roy Carr

Roy Carr is an English music journalist. He joined the New Musical Express in the late 1960s and has edited NME, VOX and Melody Maker magazines...

 and Charles Shaar Murray

Charles Shaar Murray

Charles Shaar Murray is an English music journalist. His first experience in journalism came 1970 when he was asked to contribute to the satirical magazine Oz...

 considered it to have "overtones of Bowie's personal blackout in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 (where he collapsed and was rushed to hospital)", noting the line "Get me to the doctor’s" and an atmosphere of "disorientation, fragmentation, panic". Nicholas Pegg surmised that, by the same token, the line "Someone's back in town, the chips are down" may have referred to his wife Angie

Angela Bowie

Angela Bowie is an American cover girl, model, actress and musician. She is the former wife of English musician David Bowie and mother of film director Duncan Jones.-Early life:...

, who had just arrived in Berlin around the same time.

Live versions

A live version recorded during the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum in April 1978 was released on the album Stage. This version was also released as a single by RCA in Japan in November 1978, backed with "Soul Love

Soul Love

"Soul Love" is a song written by David Bowie in for the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars .-Live versions:* A version recorded at the Philadelphia Spectrum, in April 1978, was released on Stage...

" from the same series of concerts.