Editing I'm Afraid of Americans (section)

==Writing and recording==
"I'm Afraid of Americans" was written by Bowie and [[Brian Eno]] and originally recorded during the sessions for Bowie's 1995 album ''[[Outside (David Bowie album)|Outside]]''. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, recording took place in late 1994 at [[Mountain Studios]] in [[Montreux]], Switzerland and the early weeks of 1995 at the Hit Factory in New York City.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}} Titled "Dummy", it featured different lyrics, such as "I'm afraid of the ''animals''" instead of "''Americans''".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=128–129}} Eno recalled in 2016: "I remember [David] recording 'I'm Afraid of Americans' and saying, after one of the early takes, 'No, [the 'Dummy' character's] got to be more self-doubting than that.'"{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}} This version was intended for release on the soundtrack for the 1995 film ''[[Johnny Mnemonic (film)|Johnny Mnemonic]]'' but was instead released on the [[Showgirls (soundtrack)|soundtrack]] for the 1995 film ''[[Showgirls]]''.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=128–129}}

During the sessions for Bowie's next album ''[[Earthling (David Bowie album)|Earthling]]'' (1997), he decided to remake the song with his current band—guitarist [[Reeves Gabrels]], pianist [[Mike Garson]], bassist [[Gail Ann Dorsey]] and drummer [[Zack Alford]].{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}} Bowie stated: "That was something that Eno and I put together, and I just didn't feel it fit ''Outside'', so it didn't go on it. It just got left behind. So then we took just the embryo of it, and restructured it with this band."<ref name="Fi">{{cite magazine|title=David Bowie: The FI Interview|first=J. D.|last=Considine|magazine=Fi|date=October 1997|pages=36–41}}</ref> Recording for the remake took place between August{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}} and October 1996{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=430–433}} at Looking Glass Studios in New York City with engineer [[Mark Plati]], who had extensive experience there.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=441–455}} Plati and Gabrels were credited as co-producers while Bowie himself mostly self-produced.<ref name="rollingstone review">{{Cite magazine |last=Kemp |first=Mark |title=Review: ''Earthling – David Bowie'' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/earthling-194354/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=20 February 1997 |access-date=21 November 2021 |author-link=Mark Kemp |archive-date=2 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602221137/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/earthling-194354/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Regarding the remake, Plati explained: "We pulled things off several different reels to make this new composite. It was quite a clean-up job, not the most enjoyable."{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}} Bowie revised the lyrics, changing "Dummy" to "Johnny", and transposed verses while the band provided additional overdubs. Gabrels stated that he added [[Distortion (music)|fuzz boxes]] "until I ran out".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 10}}