"Quicksand" is a song written 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 1971 for the album Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory is the fourth album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1971. It was Bowie's first release through RCA, which would be his label for the next decade...

. This ballad features multi-tracked acoustic guitars and a string arrangement by Mick Ronson

Mick Ronson

Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...

. Producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 Ken Scott

Ken Scott

Ken Scott is an English record producer and recording engineer.-Career:Scott started at the age of 16 working in the tape library at Abbey Road Studios. He became a recording engineer working with such acts as The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Procol Harum...

, having recently engineered George Harrison

George Harrison

George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

's album All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass is a triple album by George Harrison, recorded and released in 1970. The original vinyl release featured two LPs of rock songs as well as Apple Jam, a third LP of informal jams...

, attempted to create a similarly powerful acoustic sound with this track.

Lyrically the song, like much of Bowie's work at this time, was influenced by Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

ism, and Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...

's concept of the Overman

Übermensch

The Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....

. It refers to the magical society Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...

 and name-checks one of its most famous members, Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

, as well as Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

, Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 and Juan Pujol (codename: Garbo).

Reception

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...

editors 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...

 have described it as "Bowie in his darkest and most metaphysical mood", while a contemporary review in Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

remarked on its "superb singing" and "beautiful guitar motif".

Other releases

• It was released as the B-side of the single "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
  Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
  "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" is a song by David Bowie, originally released as the closing track on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in June 1972. It detailed Ziggy’s final collapse as an old, washed-up rock star and, as such, was also the closing number of the...
  
  " in April 1974.
• RCA
  RCA Records
  RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
  
   included the song in the picture disc set Life Time.
• A demo version of the song was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc
  Rykodisc
  Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
  
   release of Hunky Dory in 1990.

Cover versions

• Dinosaur Jr. – single (1991) (Dinosaur Jr.'s version makes several changes to the lyrics)
• Seu Jorge
  Seu Jorge
  Seu Jorge is a Brazilian musician, singer/songwriter and actor. Born Jorge Mário da Silva, he was raised in a favela in the city of Belford Roxo in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro state. He is considered by his fans a renewer of Brazilian pop samba...
  
   - a Portuguese version for the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is an American comedy-drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Wes Anderson. It is Anderson's fourth feature length film, released in the U.S. on December 25, 2004...
  
   (2004)
• Seal
  Seal (musician)
  Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
  
   - live recording (MTV)
• Robert Smith
  Robert Smith (musician)
  Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
  
   - live recording (with David Bowie) (1997)
• End of Fashion
  End of Fashion
  End of Fashion are an Australian power pop band from Perth, Western Australia. The band consists of singer and guitarist Justin Burford, guitarist Rodney Aravena, bassist Simon Fasolo, and drummer Mike Hobbs. The group gained mainstream attention with their 2005 single "O Yeah", which reached...
  
   - part of Australian radio station Triple J
  Triple J
  triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
  
  's Like a Version series (2005)
• Aslan
  Aslan (rock band)
  Aslan are an Irish rock band from Dublin who formed in 1982. Comprising Christy Dignam, Joe Jewell, Billy McGuinness, Alan Downey and Rodney O'Brien, the band has released five studio albums - Feel No Shame , Goodbye Charlie Moonhead , Here Comes Lucy Jones , Waiting For This Madness To End and...
  
   - On their 2009 album, Uncase'd
• Abbeyvein - .2 Contamination: A Tribute to David Bowie (2006)
• Rainbow Arabia
  Rainbow Arabia
  Rainbow Arabia is an electronic duo based in Los Angeles, California consisting of Future Pigeon and Whisky Biscuit keyboardist Danny Preston and wife Tiffany Preston....
  
   - We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie (2010)