John, I'm Only Dancing (2:41)

“John, I’m Only Dancing” is a single by David Bowie, released in September 1972. The song was widely believed to be concerned with a homosexual relationship, the narrator informing his boyfriend not to worry about the girl he’s with because he’s “only dancing” with her. Bowie had been ‘out’ since an interview with Melody Maker in January 1972, and the subject matter did not affect the single’s radio airplay in the UK, where it became his first back-to-back hit, following “Starman” earlier in the year. However, the original video directed by Mick Rock, featuring androgynous dancers from Lindsay Kemp’s mime troupe, was banned by Top of the Pops.

The single was not released in America, being judged too risqué by RCA (though according to NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, “it did just great on import in Memphis, Tennessee”) and did not officially appear stateside until it was finally issued on the compilation ChangesOneBowie in 1976. While the hook (“John, I’m only dancing / She turns me on / But I’m only dancing”) has long been considered a gay tease, author Nicholas Pegg points out that the song’s narrator “could just as easily be a straight man reassuring the girl’s lover”.

Musically in a light R&B style, the track was re-recorded on 20 January 1973 during the Aladdin Sane sessions, in a slightly different arrangement featuring Ken Fordham on saxophone.