The Bewlay Brothers

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The Bewlay Brothers is a ballad by David Bowie from his 1971 album Hunky Dory. It was recorded on 30 July 1971 at Trident Studios in London and released on 17 December 1971 by RCA. The track runs 5 minutes and 29 seconds and is usually described as folk rock or psychedelic folk. It was one of the last songs finished for Hunky Dory and is known for its dense, dreamlike lyrics.

Bowie has offered several explanations for the song. He has said the lyrics are hard to interpret and later suggested it touches on his feelings about his half-brother Terry Burns, who had schizophrenia, as well as about himself or a double version of himself. In 2008 he explained that the word “Bewlay” came from the House of Bewlay, a tobacconist, which he used as a pseudonym. He described the song as having “layers of ghosts” and a palimpsest-like feel.

The ending features Bowie's voice slowed and sped (varispeed) to create an eerie effect, a detail critics have noted as more sinister than his earlier track “The Laughing Gnome.” The song is considered a deep, puzzling choice in Bowie's catalog and was the final track recorded for Hunky Dory.

In later years it gained attention from critics and fans, and it appeared in Rolling Stone's Readers' Poll of Bowie's deep cuts as a top, obscure favorite. Bowie rarely performed it live; the first known performance was on BBC Radio 2 in 2002, when he introduced it as something audiences might not know. The Bewlay Brothers has been covered live by Elbow and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, and John Howard released it as a single. A version also appeared on Replicants' 1995 self-titled album of covers, and the track features on the Bitter Lake soundtrack (2015).