"The Secret Life of Arabia" 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...

, 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,...

 and Carlos Alomar

Carlos Alomar

Carlos Alomar is an American guitarist, composer and arranger best known for his work with David Bowie, having played on more Bowie albums than any other musician...

 in 1977 for the album "Heroes". It was the final track on the original vinyl album, following the instrumental "Neuköln

Neuköln

"Neuköln" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 for the album "Heroes." It was the last of three consecutive instrumentals on side two of the original vinyl album, following "Sense of Doubt" and "Moss Garden."...

". Like Bowie's 1971 song "Life on Mars?

Life on Mars?

"Life on Mars?" is a song by David Bowie first released in 1971 on the album Hunky Dory. The song—which BBC Radio 2 later called "a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dalí painting"—featured guest piano work by keyboardist Rick Wakeman. When released as a single in 1973,...

", it evoked a world where film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and reality become merged and confused.

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...

 described the song as "like seeing 'The Sheik

The Sheik (film)

The Sheik is a 1921 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, and Adolphe Menjou...

' on acid and laughing quietly to yourself. Bowie's vocal is genuinely humorous." 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...

 considered it an "unjustly overlooked" piece, remarking on Bowie's "outrageous extremes of bass and falsetto". However for biographer David Buckley, "The Secret Life of Arabia" was "a great song, but its position on the album spoils the dramatic effect... the last note of 'Neuköln' really ought to have been the last sound on the album..."

Cover versions

• Nina Hagen
  Nina Hagen
  Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
  
   – Live recording from the NunSexMonkRock tour.
• Billy Mackenzie
  Billy Mackenzie
  William MacArthur "Billy" Mackenzie was a Scottish singer, with a distinctive falsetto voice best known as a member of The Associates.- Biography :...
  
   – On the British Electric Foundation
  B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation)
  B.E.F. are a band/production company formed by former Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh who later became Heaven 17 .-History:Ware and Marsh's first release as B.E.F...
  
  album Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One (1982) and on David Bowie Songbook.