"Sons of the Silent Age" 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 1977 for the album "Heroes". According to Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, it was the only song on the album composed prior to the recording sessions, all others being improvised in the Hansa by the Wall

Hansa Tonstudio

Das Hansa Tonstudio is a recording studio located on Köthener Strasse in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany. Amongst English-performing musical acts it used to be known as 'Hansa Studio By the Wall', 'Hansa by the Wall', or 'The Great Hall by the Wall' in reference to the fact that it was...

 studio. Bowie himself indicated that Sons of the Silent Age could at one stage have been the title for album, rather than "Heroes".

Biographer David Buckley remarked on the song's "doomy sax-driven verses set incongruously aside cheesy choruses". The lyrics have been interpreted as a third-person revisitation of the themes of psychotic withdrawal explored on Bowie’s previous album Low ("Pacing their rooms just like a cell’s dimensions"), as well as referencing the characters from his 1970 song "The Supermen

The Supermen

"The Supermen" is a song written by David Bowie in 1970 and released as the closing track on the album The Man Who Sold the World. It was one of a number of pieces on the album inspired by the works of literary figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and H. P...

" ("They never die they just go to sleep one day"). 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...

 speculated that the line "platforms, blank looks, no books" alluded to the Nazi regime.

Other releases

• Bowie performed this song live during his 1987 Glass Spider Tour
  Glass Spider Tour
  In 1987, David Bowie embarked on The Glass Spider Tour in support of the album Never Let Me Down alongside famed guitarist Peter Frampton. The tour was named after the album track "Glass Spider." The concert tour was the most ambitious by Bowie up to that date, surpassing the Serious Moonlight Tour...
  
   and it appears as a live track on the Glass Spider
  Glass Spider
  Glass Spider is a video album by David Bowie, recorded during the 1987 Glass Spider Tour at Sydney Entertainment Centre.-Release details:...
  
   live album and video
• It appeared in the Sound and Vision box set (1989)

Cover versions

• Philip Glass
  Philip Glass
  Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
  
   – "Heroes" Symphony (1996)
• Danny Michel
  Danny Michel
  Danny Michel is a singer-songwriter from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.- Biography :Danny Michel was born in 1970 next to the "Smiles n' Chuckles" chocolate factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada...
  
  – Loving the Alien: Danny Michel Sings the Songs of David Bowie (2004)
• Blaine L. Reininger – Broken Fingers (1982)