“Be My Wife” subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion. Rooted in Bowie’s collapsing marriage, the song is a take on the common “heartbreak song” punctuated by a ragtime piano and plodding, minor-key guitars.

The single release of the song was promoted with a music video, the first “proper” one Bowie made since that for “Life on Mars” 6 years prior (videos between these two were pieced together from preexisting performance footage). The video ends up acting as a sequel to its predecessor, similarly depicting Bowie performing in makeup against a solid white backdrop. However, Bowie’s appearance is much more conservative than his glam rock getup from the 1971 video, and his acting is anguished to match the far bleaker tone of the 1977 track.