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All the Young Dudes

"All the Young Dudes"
Alltheyoungdudes sing.jpg
Single by Mott the Hoople
from the album All the Young Dudes
B-side "One of the Boys"
Released 28 July 1972
Format 7" single
Recorded May 1972
Genre Glam rock
Length (3:32) (LP Version)
(4:25) (Non-fadeout Version)
Label Columbia
Writer(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) David Bowie
Mott the Hoople singles chronology
"Downtown"
(1971)
"All the Young Dudes"
(1972)
"One of the Boys"
(1972)

"All the Young Dudes" is a song written by David Bowie, originally recorded and released as a single by Mott the Hoople in 1972. In 2004, Rolling Stone rated "All the Young Dudes" No. 253 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and on its 2010 update was ranked at number 256. It is also one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Regarded as one of glam rock's anthems, the song originated after Bowie came into contact with Mott the Hoople's bassist Peter Watts and learned that the band was ready to split due to continued lack of commercial success. When the band rejected his first offer of a composition, "Suffragette City" (from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars), Bowie wrote "All the Young Dudes" in short order especially for them, allegedly sitting cross-legged on the floor of a room in Regent Street, London, in front of the band's lead singer, Ian Hunter.

With its dirge-like music, youth suicide references and calls to an imaginary audience, the song bore similarities to Bowie's own "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", the final track from Ziggy Stardust. Described as being to glam rock what "All You Need Is Love" was to the hippie era, the lyrics name-checked contemporary star T. Rex and contained references to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have described the track as "one of that rare breed: rock songs which hymn the solidarity of the disaffected without distress or sentimentality".


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