# 'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore
**'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore** is a song by the English musician [David Bowie](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-bowie), first released on 10 November 2014 as a standalone digital download and on 17 November 2014 as the B-side of the single "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and later rerecorded for his final album, *Blackstar* (2016).[11](https://www.bowiebible.com/songs/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore/) Bowie wrote, played, and recorded the original version alone as a demo in his home studio.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist | David Bowie (1947–2016) |
| Original recording | Demo written, played, and recorded entirely by Bowie in his home studio[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) |
| Title source | Play on John Ford's *'Tis Pity She's a Whore*, first performed in 1629 at the Cockpit Theatre, London[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) |
| Bowie's description | "If Vorticists wrote Rock Music it might have sounded like this"[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) |
| *Blackstar* version | Rerecorded with Donny McCaslin's quartet for the album *Blackstar* (2016)[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review) |
| 2014 running time | 5:26[3](https://open.spotify.com/track/1dVx0bJYemse2pHSU83jji) |
## Original 2014 release
The song appeared first as a standalone digital download, available in the UK on 10 November 2014 and in the United States the following day, before its release as the B-side of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" on [Parlophone](https://www.edgepedia.org/parlophone) on 17 November 2014.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) [BBC Radio 6 Music](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-radio-6-music) gave the track its worldwide radio premiere on the Shaun Keaveny show on the morning of 10 November.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now)
Both songs were issued to support the compilation *Nothing Has Changed*, and the two appeared together again on a limited edition ten-inch single of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)".[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/blackstar-mw0002894417) • [1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) That ten-inch was the [Record Store Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/record-store-day) 2014 Black Friday release, previewing two songs from what turned out to be Bowie's final album, *Blackstar*.[5](https://www.larryjaffee.com/_files/ugd/b6bf05_06528f37d87848889035d6ebd9460d37.pdf) The single's artwork was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, continuing the *Nothing Has Changed* sleeve theme of Bowie looking into a mirror.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now)
## Title and inspiration
The title reworks *'Tis Pity She's a Whore*, a play by [John Ford](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-ford) first performed in 1629 at the Cockpit Theatre in London.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) According to the official release notes, the song "acknowledges the shocking rawness of the First World War".[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) Bowie characterized the music itself by invoking [Vorticism](https://www.edgepedia.org/vorticism), the British art movement of the 1910s: "If Vorticists wrote Rock Music it might have sounded like this".[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now)
The original recording is a rarity in Bowie's catalog in that he played all the instruments himself.[6](https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/ap-st01.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/64OTAGO_INST/storage/alma/9F/58/45/DD/C4/EC/A8/B0/DE/65/32/08/44/F8/DB/CD/bitstream_56607.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJUYRSPBSIJGGDX6A%2F20260205%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260205T041346Z&X-Amz-Expires=86399&X-Amz-Signature=ae2d9c99e64c5cac99778477bd118b91fa098ad99d353af4f1339869971f0798&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename%3D%22bitstream_56607.pdf%22%3B+filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27bitstream_56607.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf)
## The Blackstar version
For *Blackstar*, Bowie rerecorded the song with the electro-acoustic quartet of the New York-based saxophonist Donny McCaslin, whose group formed the core of the album's backing band.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review) The Guardian's first-listen review described the revamp as substantial and in the opposite direction from the reworked "Sue": the new version features "the pummelling, hugely impressive sound of McCaslin's quartet playing at full pelt".[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review) MusicRadar later characterized the album take as the "driving, art rock snarl" of the song.[7](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/david-bowie-lazarus-redux) The album version opens with a deep breath.[8](https://escholarship.org/content/qt3nh600ck/qt3nh600ck_noSplash_da63056551a9ce3ce0a6bac6543983fa.pdf)
Much of *Blackstar* was tracked at New York's Magic Shop between January and May 2015, and the album's opening run places "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" alongside "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and "Lazarus".[7](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/david-bowie-lazarus-redux) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review) The producer [Tony Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-visconti) grouped the two rerecorded 2014 songs with the title track as the album's most challenging material, telling interviewers, "This is fresh. This came from a different space."[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review) *[Blackstar](https://www.edgepedia.org/blackstar-album)* was released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday; he died of cancer two days later.[9](https://stereophile.com/content/david-bowie-donny-mccaslin-quartet-blackstar)
## Interpretation
A contemporary press notice for the companion single "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" captured the mood of the pairing, quoting [The Daily Telegraph](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-daily-telegraph)'s description of "a deeply strange sound, without a trace of nostalgia".[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now) One academic study of late style and illness in popular music describes the song as opaque in subject matter while carrying intertextual echoes.[6](https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/ap-st01.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/64OTAGO_INST/storage/alma/9F/58/45/DD/C4/EC/A8/B0/DE/65/32/08/44/F8/DB/CD/bitstream_56607.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJUYRSPBSIJGGDX6A%2F20260205%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260205T041346Z&X-Amz-Expires=86399&X-Amz-Signature=ae2d9c99e64c5cac99778477bd118b91fa098ad99d353af4f1339869971f0798&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename%3D%22bitstream_56607.pdf%22%3B+filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27bitstream_56607.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf) A review in the student paper Muse described it as a song about a revealing relationship.[10](https://dai.mun.ca/pdfs/muse/TheMusevol66issue1321January2016.pdf)
## References
1. ['Tis A Pity She Was A Whore available now, David Bowie official site (10 November 2014)](https://www.davidbowie.com/2014/2014/11/10/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore-available-now)
2. [David Bowie's Blackstar album: 'An unexpected left turn that deepens the mystery' – first-listen review, The Guardian (17 December 2015)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/18/david-bowie-blackstar-album-first-listen-review)
3. ['Tis a Pity She Was a Whore, Spotify track page](https://open.spotify.com/track/1dVx0bJYemse2pHSU83jji)
4. [David Bowie: Blackstar review, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/blackstar-mw0002894417)
5. [Record Store Day and David Bowie, Larry Jaffee](https://www.larryjaffee.com/_files/ugd/b6bf05_06528f37d87848889035d6ebd9460d37.pdf)
6. [The Song Remains the Same? Re-visiting, Re-working, University of Otago](https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/ap-st01.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/64OTAGO_INST/storage/alma/9F/58/45/DD/C4/EC/A8/B0/DE/65/32/08/44/F8/DB/CD/bitstream_56607.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJUYRSPBSIJGGDX6A%2F20260205%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260205T041346Z&X-Amz-Expires=86399&X-Amz-Signature=ae2d9c99e64c5cac99778477bd118b91fa098ad99d353af4f1339869971f0798&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename%3D%22bitstream_56607.pdf%22%3B+filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27bitstream_56607.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf)
7. ["His death was no different from his life – a work of art": remembering David Bowie's final years, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/david-bowie-lazarus-redux)
8. [Singing at Death's Door: Late Style, Disability, and the Temporality of Illness in Popular Music, UCLA dissertation, eScholarship](https://escholarship.org/content/qt3nh600ck/qt3nh600ck_noSplash_da63056551a9ce3ce0a6bac6543983fa.pdf)
9. [David Bowie & Donny McCaslin Quartet: Blackstar, Stereophile](https://stereophile.com/content/david-bowie-donny-mccaslin-quartet-blackstar)
10. ['Tis a Pity She Was a Whore, Muse (Memorial University student paper), 21 January 2016](https://dai.mun.ca/pdfs/muse/TheMusevol66issue1321January2016.pdf)
11. [’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore | The Bowie Bible, bowiebible.com](https://www.bowiebible.com/songs/tis-a-pity-she-was-a-whore/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Psychedelic and progressive rock songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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