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David Bowie interprets WWI in new song

As saxophones blare, the 67-year-old stretches his voice to high pitch as he describes what, on the surface, is an account of being punched by a woman during the Great War.

One hundred years after the start of World War I, innovative rock legend David Bowie has offered an interpretation of the war’s horrors in an experimental new song.

’Tis a Pity She Was a W***e, which alludes to the controversial 17^th-century play by John Ford, starts with percussion that resembles trench gunfire before growing into a rock beat with a hazy electronic background.

As saxophones blare with growing urgency, the 67-year-old stretches his voice to high pitch as he describes what, on the surface, is an account of being punched by a woman during the Great War.

“If Vorticists wrote rock music it might have sounded like this,” Bowie said in a statement, referring to the modernist art movement that emerged in Britain during the war that engulfed Europe.

The song, available for download, will also appear as a B-side to a nearly eight-minute number entitled Sue (or In a Season of Crime), which is part of Bowie’s upcoming career-spanning collection Nothing Has Changed.

The music is the first by the glam rock pioneer since March 2013, when he released the album The Next Day to critical acclaim after a decade of silence.