One of David Bowie's most played songs in 2010 has a remarkably unusual origin - even by his standards ...

... it was the song of an unidentified homeless man who died long ago without a trace.

Bowie explained:

The version below combines the original singer with the latter-day troubadour of America’s underclass, Tom Waits.

As for the original singer, we know very little - and despite the song sounding like a hymn, the provenance of the music has also NEVER BEEN FOUND.

The idea came about when Gavin Bryars was trawling through unused tapes of a 1971 film about those living rough in London. He became drawn to a particular voice and melody which had an almost trained quality, beautifully phrased and consistently pitched:

"When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment.

I noticed, too, that the first section of the song – 13 bars in length – formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way."

Since discovering the 26 second audio sample, Bryars began working on extendeding it and improving it.

He developed a rich ensemble sound with strings and brass, weighted to the low end of the harmonic scale.

A 25-minute version was first performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in December 1972, and recorded for Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975. 

A 60-minute version followed for cassette and a 74-minute version appeared on CD in 1993 (the one with Tom Waits singing along).

Finally in April 2019, a 12-hour overnight version was performed in London's Tate Gallery!!!

~ The Song Remains the Same (Andrew Ford, Anni Heino):